Ryder Journal
 

 

December 2005

Merry Christmas

We celebrate because: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of Grace and Truth. John 1:14

 30 days and counting!  People ask if we are packing. Well, no not yet, but we have handed over our responsibilities at Elmbrook Church, cleaned out our offices and handed in our keys. We are officially unemployed! But still very busy. Here’s our to do list:

  • Doctor appointments and update vaccinations.
  • Clean the basement so there is somewhere to pack things away to
  • Visit family in Missouri over Christmas (oh, and shop for gifts first!)
  • Complete paperwork for United World Mission
  • Jan: Write Statement of Faith paper required for Bethel Seminary Masters graduation
  • Jan: complete theology class and start the one remaining course in the program
  • Tim: Major repairs to the  leaking bathroom shower (see handyman photo)
  • Spend time with friends and family and have fun with Katie

Get this letter out to you!    We are also sending out our first email. So if you want to get monthly email updates and you don’t hear from us, it probably means we don’t have your correct address. Just send us an email at Jan@timryder.net    and we’ll get you on the list.

Financial Update:

We are rejoicing at how quickly God has brought together a    wonderful team of generous    financial supporters. We now have commitments for over 95% of our monthly support and 90% of our outgoing needs. The Children’s Ministry leaders gave Jan a   beautiful new laptop (used to make this letter). And Nairobi Chapel has agreed to provide 40,000 Kenya shillings ($544) a month toward our housing cost, which will be a HUGE help. We were able to book tickets for: Sunday, Jan 15th, overnight to London and then  another overnight to Nairobi arriving at 6:30 AM Tuesday Jan 17th.

Prayer Requests:

  • Praise God for His amazing love and blessings.

  • Pray for our adjustment, finding a place to live, a car to buy and setting up house.

  • Pray for Katie and her roommates (no more house repairs needed for a while).

  • Pray for God’s blessing as we begin our ministries at Nairobi Chapel.

 

October 2005

In mid September the Senior Pastor of Mamlaka Hill Chapel in Nairobi (where Jan will be working) Charles Ng’ang’a, his wife Margaret, Associate Pastor Janet Mutinda and her husband Tim, visited Elmbrook Church for a few days between conferences they’d come to attend in the US. It was great to have time with them and get to know each other better. Charles and Janet shared their vision for the Mamlaka Hill Chapel, including dreams for outreach to children at two nearby schools. It was fun to show them around Elmbrook and introduce them to many of you.

In a recent email we received exciting news about each of the five new churches born out of Nairobi Chapel in August. All are doing well, though facing big   challenges. N’gong Road Chapel (where Tim will be serving) has constructed an impressive tent on rented  property near their future church site on N’gong Road. Over 1300 people came to the first  service on Oct 2nd. It was a very colorful and evangelistic service. Twenty-five people gave their lives to Christ.

This month we have been completing our pre-field training for United World Mission by taking courses in team building and interpersonal communication skills, hoping to be ready to leave soon.

We were very grateful that Charles, Maggie, Janet and Tim were able to meet Jan’s parents who were visiting from Missouri the same weekend they were here. After an evening of prayer and blessing (see photos) Jan’s Mom told them, “When people ask me how I feel about Jan and Tim going back to Kenya, I    usually say I feel good, but after meeting you, and hearing your vision, now I am going to tell them I feel ‘very good’ about them coming to be with you”.

Financial Update


It has been exciting to get our first financial reports from United World Mission and learn about those who have given toward our outgoing expenses and committed themselves to praying for us and supporting us monthly. Thank you. We are  humbled and encouraged. We have received pledges of about 2/3 of our monthly needs and about 1/2 of our outgoing expenses. In order to be ready to go to Kenya in January we are planning to turn over our         responsibilities at Elmbrook   December 1st and begin our missionary support at that time. We are so grateful for everyone who is helping us on this journey.

Prayer Requests:

Praise God for good plans in place to cover our responsibilities at Elmbrook, at least in the interim while they continue to look for long term replacements. We are confident that our ministries will be well cared for.

Praise God for Gwen coming to live in our house with Katie and Elaina. Pray for these three to have a happy household when we go back to Kenya.

Praise God for GREAT progress on our support. We are over half way there. Please keep praying!

 

 

August 2005

In March I watched a group of African fishermen prepare their nets, load them in their boat, lift it up, and then start carrying it toward the sea. I could tell it was really heavy. Everything in me wanted to run across the sand and offer to help. Maybe they would let me put my should under the boat too. Maybe they would give me a hand into to boat and take me out to sea with them. Maybe I would get to learn how they watch the ocean for signs of fish. Maybe I could help row the boat or even help to throw out the nets.

We feel like that is the invitation we have had from Nairobi Chapel, one of Elmbrook’s partner churches, and our church home during our years living in Nairobi. They have the exciting vision of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and helping people mature in the faith so that they can see 300 new churches planted and established by the year 2020. And they are on their way to that goal. But as the next big step forward they are intentionally dividing their big church into five congregations and moving out to four new locations spreading out across Nairobi. When we were with them in   October we asked if our coming to work along side them might be helpful and they said, “Yes, come!” 

In Acts 16:9 we read about a vision the Apostle Paul had of a man in Macedonia asking him to “come over and help us”. It had not been Paul’s plan, but he recognized it as the call of God, and his obedience changed the course of the history. We don’t imagine that our response to this “call” will have the same effect, but we are excited about the chance to put our shoulders  under the great task of seeing  Kenyans trained and equipped to reach out with the Good News of Christ’s love across the city of Nairobi, throughout Kenya, and out to countries across Africa and around the world.

Jan has been asked to lead the team at one location and help Bea Muiru, Nairobi Chapel’s  Children’s Pastor to train and lead children’s ministry teams for all the churches. Tim will be working with Oscar Muiru and the team at Nairobi Chapel—Ngong Road, train, equip and encourage leaders.

Although it is very difficult to think about leaving behind our   daughter, our friends, our home and the very exciting ministries God has allowed us to be part of at Elmbrook, God seems to have opened this way for us, and we want to respond in faith to His call. Would you help us?

We are asking God to raise up a team to “go with us” in prayer and to financially support us. We have also joined with United World Mission, an ministry with a shared passion for facilitating church planting movements. They are excited about supporting us in the partnership between Elmbrook and Nairobi Chapel. To learn more about UWM please check out their website at www.uwm.org.