The church in Korr has 3 church plants in process. All three need Rendille men to come, interested in hearing God’s word. Women and children come, which is good, but we are praying for the heads of the homes to see the importance of knowing Jesus. Pray for these three new baby churches:
a. One in Namarei – it has an evangelist named Joel. He loves God and needs prayer as he leads the services each week
b. One in Nagaan – has people from Korr who go each Sunday to preach – but there is no one who visits and pastors during the week.
c. One in Dubsahai – this group has an appointed evangelist. Many come, but mainly children.

Bible translation continues, with the team currently working on preparing Revelation 1 to 5 for the consultant checking session in June. From 23 May to 3 June, I will be working with the two translators via Skype. There is a lot of work to be done on problem passages and key Biblical terms that need checking. From 6 to 17 June, we have the checking session with the Bible translation consultant. Please pray for accuracy and clarity, and for the Lord’s blessing as we discuss His Word.

From one missionary: The church in Korr lost its senior pastor, Jamhuri, this past January. The church has elders and a pastor keeping things going, but we need a good replacement for Jamhuri. The local area will be deciding who should be the replacement and we are praying for a strong godly man.

From another missionary: The Korr AIC church is not totally without leadership since they still have the assistant pastor, David Gargule and a strong group of elders who help guide the church. Having said that, it is clear that the church feels the loss and absence of Pastor James Kholbakha very deeply. The Area Church Council is due to discuss the appointment of a person to fill this post very soon. Pray for the Lord’s guidance to the right man.

The Rendille church, AIC Korr, has schools under its jurisdiction. These are training students from nursery through high school – about 800+ students in total. There are several requests regarding these schools:
a. Many students are not saved. We have students from various unreached tribes in northern Kenya. We also have Muslim students, traditionalists, Roman Catholics, and nominal Christians. We are praying for the salvation of all who come.
b. We are also praying for truly committed teachers who see their teaching as a ministry for God and not just a job. We long to see Christian schools that make a difference.

The Islamic Academy concept met with considerable resistance from the Korr community. The Muslims in turn blamed the Christians for inciting the community, so it has brought some friction. Please pray that the local church will see this as an opportunity for loving outreach.

One item for prayer for the Rendille is the push of Islam. Quite some time ago the Muslims declared in an open meeting that they were going to push to see Islam rooted in Rendille. Their only problem place was Korr due to the strong church there and the Christian schools. There has been a further push to build a madrassa (Islamic school) in Korr which promises free schooling right up to university. Up to now, the move has met with resistance from the community.

The central Rendille ceremony is called Soorriyo, where four times a year an animal without blemish is slaughtered in front of the hut. When we translated Romans 12 some of the believers came to understand that the sacrifice the Lord wants is ourselves, given to him in living surrender. This truth needs to spread further, that we can see believers entering in to this spiritual worship.

We praise God for a particularly fruitful time of checking the Rendille translation, despite the fact that Nick, the missionary translator, is now completely deaf. For two weeks we worked via Skype, connecting Nick in South Africa with the translation consultant and the two Rendille translators in Nairobi, Kenya. Tom, Joshua, Laban, and Nick were able to complete the last two chapters of Ephesians and the whole book of James. This consultant checking session was followed up by cross-checks to ensure Key Biblical Terms are consistently used across the New Testament. Please pray for the remaining book to be completed, the revision of Revelation. Please pray the New Testament can be completed by the end of 2016 so that typesetting and printing can take place in 2017.

We are in a consultant checking session for the next two weeks. The checking of Ephesians 5-6 went very well and we have completed the book of James. Pray for Joshua and Laban, the Rendille translators and Tom the SIL consultant. We are hoping to have the majority of the work on the New Testament completed by the end of the year. Then follows typesetting and printing, with a possible dedication happening late in 2017 or early 2018. There is a lot of “clean up” work to do over the New Testament but the only large portion to be revised still is the book of Revelation.

The big recent happening in Korr was the death of Pastor Jamhuri Kholbakha, who was the senior pastor of the Korr AIC church. Jamhuri died of pneumonia and TB, leaving a wife and four children. He was the assistant bishop for Marsabit Area Church Council and many expected him to become bishop one day. He was highly respected, a truly humble and godly man. There are more trained pastors in Korr who will be stepping up to the challenge of church leadership, but Jamhuri will be greatly missed. Pray for the Rendille believers to grow and deepen in their commitment and obedience to Christ as they grieve the loss of their pastor.

1. Pray for the transition of the project, especially for the AIC church leadership in Korr.
2. That the work on completing the translation of the Rendille New Testament by end 2017 will go well.
3. That the church will continue to grow. The Messenger players with the translated Gospel of Luke on them are having a very big impact on the nomadic community.