March 8th Update

I apologize that it has been so long since I sent out an update. I didn’t realize so much time had gone by.  Some have asked if I fell off the face of the earth and I think others were hoping I fell off the face of the earth (:  I assure you we are alive and well.  I hope to get everybody updated on some great blessings in the coming weeks. 

I will be leaving Nakuru tomorrow to begin another trip to Burundi/DR Congo.  This will be my third trip this year and it seems that each time it gets better and better.  The church in Uvira has taken great steps of maturity and I love every opportunity that I have to be with them.  Their love for God and joy in serving Him is rejuvenating to be around.

The highlight of this trip and honestly probably one of the greatest blessings thus far since coming to Africa fourteen years ago will be the church in Uvira calling a Congolese man to be their assistant pastor.  Brother Musunga (soon to be Pastor Musunga) was the first convert to be baptized.  He was brought to the Lord out of the wicked religion of Islam.  Since his salvation he has seen a number of his family members saved.  He and his wife have grown tremendously over these last three years.  He has been a great student in the Bible College, was called to preach and now will become the first of what we hope will be many that get saved, baptized, trained and enter the harvest field.

To see this happening is truly what missions is all about.  To see the Grace Bible Baptist Church, a church we organized in 1999 out of my sending church, the Cleveland Baptist Church, mature to the place that they are now sending missionaries to other lands, starting churches, seeing people trained and then watching the whole cycle repeat itself brings joy that I cannot describe.

All the praise, glory and honour belong to God but humanly speaking, Pastor Justus Oloo, Pastor Mike Njoroge and Pastor Isaac Mungai deserve recognition for the labour of love amongst the Congolese people.  They have sacrificed huge amounts of time away from their church, homes and country to see the Word of God go forth in Congo and Burundi.  They truly are great men who I have the privilege of serving with side by side.  God has made us into a team, something that I desired to see happen and it is a joy to call them friends and fellow servants of Christ!

On a closing note we are leaving for furlough on April 23^rd.  We will be in the states until October.  Our oldest daughter Charity, will be getting married in June and Amanda and Timothy will be attending Heartland Baptist Bible College in the fall.  We still have a good number of open dates from mid June through early October.  We would love the opportunity to report to more of our supporting churches and also if possible present the work to some new churches.  If you would be interested in having us come please email me at rawtokenya@gmail.com

Thank you very much for your prayers. 

His for Kenya,
And the Regions Beyond,

Robert Mickey Jr. and family

January prayer letter

Dear Praying Friends,                                                         January 2012

GRACE TO THE REGIONS BEYOND

Our most recent ministry, Grace To The Regions Beyond, continues to bear much fruit.  This ministry has been started to help the national believer reach into areas of the world that are very difficult or nearly impossible for a Western missionary to reach.  We have partnered with our church in Kenya, the Grace Bible Baptist Church, to coordinate, train, provide accountability, and work alongside trained, mature, and worthy nationals who endeavor to do the work of a missionary in the Regions Beyond.  We have seen two churches and two bible institutes started in the DR CONGO, and one church and one bible institute started in Burundi.  Most recently we have begun training a man to go to Southern Sudan.  Southern Sudan is the newest country in the world and is also one of the most war torn and dangerous countries in the world.  God has called Peter Kosgei to go to this needy land.  Peter is a graduate of our bible college and has been a pastor here in Kenya for five years.   Please pray for Peter as over the next year we will be giving him the additional training he needs in order to prepare him to go to this needy land.

RIFT VALLEY BAPTIST COLLEGE

We just finished one of our better college sessions.  It was exciting to see some new students enrolled along with many returning students. In total we had 103 students.  We continue to see much fruit spread throughout Kenya from the Bible College.  We have now trained over 40 men who are pastors somewhere in Kenya.

MISSIONS CONFERENCE

From our first day of ministering in the Grace Bible Baptist Church we endeavored to see a strong missions program started.  We were told by many in both words and actions that it was not possible for the poor people of Africa to give like we were expecting.  There have been many ups and downs along the way but we have learned over these last 13 years that the principles of giving to missions are the same world wide.  This last year the GBBC gave over 300,000 Kenya Shillings to missions and this year they have committed to give over 320,000 KS.  I believe that it is because of their giving that God has entrusted them to begin reaching into the Regions Beyond.

FURLOUGH

We are scheduling furlough meetings for May– September 2012.  We mentioned in our last letter that if you would like us to come to your church to contact us at rawtokenya@gmail.com .  We have heard from some but not many.  If possible we would love to report to your church all that God has been doing in Kenya and the Regions Beyond.   We can also be reached at 254.733.600.798.  We hope to hear from you.       

                 

His for Kenya

And the Regions Beyond,

 

Robert Mickey Jr. and Family

CONGO TRIP - A FRUITFUL SUNDAY MORNING

Philippians 4:17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.

Sunday morning was one of those days that I would like to box up and bring back out during times of discouragement.  The blessings of serving God were so great that we had to sit back in amazement at how good God has been to us.  I had the privilege of speaking at our church in Burundi, the Grace Bible Baptist Church of Bujumbura. The building was full, people were baptized and three received Christ.  While I was preaching, Brother David Awili one of our deacons and Bible College graduates was preaching at the Bible Baptist Church, Uvira Congo.  During the invitation two accepted Christ.  At the same time Pastor Matthew Mogire, one of our Bible College graduates was preaching at our newest church plant in Kenya, the Neema Bible Baptist Church and two men received Christ and two others were baptized.  At the same time Pastor Isaac Mungai, one of our Bible College graduates was preaching at the Grace Bible Baptist Church in Nakuru, and one man received Christ and another was baptized. 

What a day it was – four churches in three different countries seeing people saved and baptized. What a joy it is to be part of the Grace Bible Baptist Church and allow God to use us to reach into the REGIONS BEYOND!

To all our financial supporters and prayer warriors - Sunday morning was a day where fruit was truly abounding to your account. 

IMPORTANT - PRAYER NEEDED

We will be leaving early Saturday morning for a very important trip to DR Congo.  I will be traveling with my oldest son Timothy who will on the conclusion of my portion of the trip remain behind in Congo with Pastor Oloo.  They will then return to Kenya by bus a week later.  Timothy will have the opportunity to preach one Sunday morning at our church in Uvira, DRC along with many other ministry related responsibilities.  What an honour, joy and privilege it is to serve the Lord with my son.  God has called him to be a missionary and he decided long ago that he was not going to wait until after graduating from Bible College to begin serving the Lord.  He has gained a wealth of experience and has begun putting that experience to use.  God has burdened him for the Congolese people and he is doing his best to reach them. 

The main purpose of our trip is to travel about seven hours south of Uvira into the Baraka region to meet with the church that has been started in Sebele.  We will be spending a few days with them preaching, teaching and laying the final preparations to opening up a branch of our bible college in that area.  It is difficult to put into words the tremendous need and opportunity that has presented itself to us in this area of Congo.  The last time we were in this area we saw Satan put up an enormous fight.  This is the area where we were harassed at night by the police and early the next morning as we were leaving they pulled us off of our vehicle and "arrested" us, accusing us of being political spies and not preachers.  The day after we left the village of Sebele the rebels came out of the forest, attacked the village, killing many and sending the rest into hiding.

As a matter of fact we desperately need your prayers as we have already seen Satan do his best to keep us from making this trip.  Last week when applying for our VISA at the embassy we were unexpectedly DENIED a VISA for DR Congo.  During the last two years we have monthly applied for at least two VISAS for our men and have never been turned down.  We were told that because of a directive from the government some VISA issuing policies had been changed.  Until we could meet the new requirement which basically was an officially stamped letter from a certain government office in Congo, we would not be given a VISA.  During our initial trips into Congo we took the time to visit all the government offices, explain who we were, what we were doing, answering questions AND collecting papers.  Well it just so happened that one of the officials we visited and one of the papers we collected and filed away is what they were looking for.  Earlier this week the restriction on issuing us a VISA was lifted.  Halleluiah, thank you Jesus!

Early Monday morning around 2 am my phone rang.  When I answered the phone a voice on the other end told me to listen to his instructions carefully.  He said he was outside our gate with a gang of men and they wanted me to open the gate to let them in.  If I obeyed they would only take our money and things, but if I refused they would use their guns and KILL us one by one.  I quickly got the attention of my wife to press our silent alarm that would bring a security team to our house.  I knew it would take them a few minutes to arrive so while waiting for them I tried to stall the one who was on the phone.  We did not know that our buttons to call the security were not working.  Over the course of the next 45 minutes we received three different phone calls with the same threats, trying to get us to open our gate "or else".  We finally succeeded in alerting security and they showed up at our house.  They parked their vehicle at our gate the rest of the night just in case whoever was calling decided to come and make good on their threats.  A report was filed with the police but we do not know if anything will come of it.

With this serious security threat taking place just a few days before my scheduled departure it required some quick decisions in order to increase our security so that I can be sure my family will be safe while I am gone.  We had to do a complete "overview" of our security needs and make the necessary adjustments, so that my families safety would not be an issue.  I will not go into detail in a public posting like this our security arrangements but they are such that I believe with confidence that if anyone tried something they would not succeed.  However I ask that you seriously keep this a matter of prayer while I am gone.  God has given Wendy the strength she needs to handle herself in these situations and she is confident of our security arrangements and the rightness that this trip goes forward as planned.

I realize that we cannot nor should not blame every difficulty we have on Satan.  However I am quite sure that Satan is trying to hinder this trip.  The fact that we are going to begin training people in an area that he has controlled is not something that he will allow to happen without a fight.

I ask all of our friends, supporters and prayer partners to make this trip a matter of prayer.  We leave early Saturday morning.  I will be returning to Kenya one week later and Timothy will be returning two weeks later.

Thank you in advance for your prayers,

Bro. Mickey and family

A NEW NATION IS BORN

On July 9th, South Sudan officially became the 54th African nation and the 193rd nation of the world.  South Sudan has been in an almost constant state of war between the mostly Muslim north during the last decade and has seen almost two million killed in the conflict.  It has been a long struggle but independence has been achieved.  South Sudan becomes a new nation

We have many South Sudanese refugees in Kenya and have the privilege of having fifteen attend our Christian School.  Most of these fifteen have been saved and we are hopeful that the others will soon accept Christ.  These Sudanese children have lived through and seen things that are beyond description.  Because of the unimaginable atrocities that they have experienced gaining their trust and confidence is an effort that only comes through time and God's help.

South Sudan is open to the preaching of the gospel and to missionaries and mission work.  The many false religions of the world have begun to spread their poison in this new country.  How I wish we had a man that was ready and willing to be sent to this great needy area.  I can't help but think of Ezekiel 22:30 - "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."    Where is that man who will make the sacrifice to go to this dangerous but ripe land?  

Some of our South Sudanese students

The Grace Bible Baptist Church has a prayer that God would allow them to be part of going/sending/supporting someone to the Regions Beyond of South Sudan.  Will you be that one?  We are praying - will you pray?

ALL NIGHT PRAYER MEETING

James 5:16 ...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

The Grace Bible Baptist Church has a tremendous need at this time and we desire to know the mind of God concerning it.  With our human reasoning it does not seem that there is anything WE can do with our own hands that will bring an answer to this need.

However.... there is God.

God has taught us over and over again that He will take care of us.  We have seen God provide miracle after miracle and make what seems impossible possible. We need God to do it again.

Last Friday we had the first of three all night prayer meetings.  The people of the church met together at 9:00 pm and we prayed till daybreak.  What a blessing to see the young and old come together in prayer asking God to meet a great need.

Over the next three months we will meet monthly for an all night prayer meeting along with the people taking one day a week and spending it in fasting and prayer.

Would you please join us in asking God to meet this special UNSPOKEN prayer request of the Grace Bible Baptist Church. 

FASTEST GROWING IN ALL AFRICA

There are 54 countries on the continent of Africa consisting of thousands of towns.  Africa has the highest birth/growth rate in the entire world and has the second highest population of any continent with over 1 billion people.  Anybody who has visited an African town or city will attest to the fact that there are people everywhere.  Recently the U.N. released a report naming Nakuru as the fasting growing town/city in all of Africa. The growth rate is an astounding 13 percent per year. 

See   News article  and youtube video .   

A few months after arriving in Kenya in January 1998 God began to direct us to the town of Nakuru.  We knew that there were a lot of people in Nakuru and that there was a great need but little did we realize that in just a short time God would begin sending people to Nakuru from all over country.   The growth has been steady but in the last few years it has rapidly increased.

What does this growth rate mean for us?  One of the most noticeable changes is the increased COST of LIVING.  Rents have increased dramatically and the price of land has quadrupled in the last couple of years.  Whereas before many things were cheap compared to the capital city of Nairobi, now things are comparably as expensive. 

However the biggest change is a greater OPPORTUNITY.  Literally there are people, people everywhere.  Although the number of Baptist churches have increased in Nakuru since 1998 from one to seven the burden and workload to reach all the people is greater than ever.  The amount of lost souls in line walking towards an eternity in hell is increasing greatly by the day, literally increasing faster than anywhere in all of Africa.

In the thirteen years we have lived in Nakuru we have seen for various reasons seven missionary families come and go. Certainly some of them God moved on to other ministries but one thing is sure - the opportunity to minister in this place has grown greater than ever.  I have lain awake at night thinking about all the opportunity we have in this city to reach those around us and what could be done with more labourers.    

Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

I am praying - could the Lord possibly be sending you?

Nakuru from the air

Nakuru fastest growing in Africa