Jambo From the McDonald Family!
The Swahili word for “tea” is chai, so when you order chai tea in America, you are saying “tea tea.” Kenyans drink a lot of tea and hardly ever drink coffee. In fact, Kenya is the world’s largest exporter of tea! Tea provides income and employment to 600,000 households and 150,000 workers at tea estates. Over 60% of Kenyan tea is grown by smallholders. Smallholders and small estates bring picked leaves to local factories for processing into black tea. At the factories, the tea is withered, sifted, fermented, dried, sorted into different grades, and then bagged for delivery to warehouses near the Port of Mombasa on Kenya’s coast. Tea that is purchased at auction or sold directly by estates is exported to processing facilities, where it is blended with teas from around the world. Although you will not see it on the label, Kenyan black tea is included in many tea brands, such as Lipton.
Here on deputation, we are having a great summer keeping busy with meetings. On our off days, we have been helping churches with landscaping, janitorial projects, residential cleaning, power-washing, soul winning, visitation, and street preaching. Annabelle, our four-year-old, has started singing for churches, something she loves doing.
In July, we had our annual missionary Candidate School. It was a blessing to fellowship with fellow missionaries and receive further training for the ministry. We spent the last few months in Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. We are now making our way to Virginia.
Since June, we have partnered with three more supporting churches! We are humbled that God would use us to reach the lost and train the needy. Some days the deputation struggle is real. It’s by God’s grace that we continue in His service.
Prayer Requests
• Please pray for our family’s health, as deputation has caused an overall decline for all.
• Pray for safety as we travel. We see many accidents along our travels and are grateful for God’s protection.
• Pray for missionaries to be called to the field. We are praying that two more families will join us in Kenya.
• Please pray for these Kenyan pastors. Pastor Solomon, a Kenyan national, is in need of funds to complete his church building. Pastor Kennedy is pastoring in the slums of Nairobi, hundreds of miles away from his family. These pastors are just two of dozens of pastor we plan on assisting in Kenya. Many of these pastors are in desperate need of training in church growth and doctrinal teaching.
Thank you for your continued prayer and support.
The McDonald Family