July 31, 2002

Dear praying friends,

Greetings from Tanzania, East Africa. I am now in language school for Swahili in the town of Morogoro, a three hour drive from the capital city of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam. I have already met several different people from all nationalities and several continents. It has been exciting to hear about the various ministries represented and how they will use the language of Swahili after our four month course here in Tanzania.

Please pray for me that I will be able to learn the language quickly and converse with the people of Kenya. The course that I am enrolled in will be very intense, as I will be covering 60 different lessons of Swahili in just four months. Please also pray for my health during my stay in Morogoro. Morogoro has a high rate of malaria, and it is important to stay healthy for the duration of the course, so you will not miss the classes that are being offered. Please pray not only for my health, but for the health of all the missionaries involved in this class. It is crucial training, and I want to make sure that I make the most of my studies here in Tanzania.

It is difficult to leave my ministry in Kitale for four months, but I have been blessed to have faithful men that will take over my ministries while I am away. I have a good friend in our church named Victor who will be leading the evangelism/discipleship ministry in my absence. Please pray for Victor, that God would help him in this time and that we would continue to see souls saved and discipled in the Word of God. We are presently discipling 14 new believers, so he has many challenges in the days ahead. Please also pray for Evans, another good friend in our church. Evans has agreed to assist in the school ministry that I have lead over the past few months. Please pray that God would give him wisdom and that the kids would continue to learn not only from their textbooks, but also the Word of God.

In closing, I would ask you to pray for a special project that I have been praying about with the prison ministry. Before I left for Tanzania, I received a permit from the government which allows me to minister to the prisoners in Kitale main prison. The opportunities there are great, as there are over 1,000 prisoners. I would like to do a special project on Christmas for the prisoners which would involve giving them a special gift pack, composed of some basic toiletries and copies of the books of John and Romans in Swahili. Also, some information about our church and the services that we offer would be provided to the prisoners. I think this would be an excellent way not only to show the prisoners that we care, but also to get them the Word of God and begin to develop a relationship with them. The amount that I need to raise would be $1,500.00 and the deadline for the gifts would be November 1st. If you would like to give before this date, I could go ahead and begin the process of purchasing the items for the prisoners. If you are interested, please email me at: naterad@yahoo.com or naterad@nbi.ispkenya.com and designate the amount that you are willing to assist.

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. I always love to hear from you and will do my best to respond to your questions and letters. God bless you.

Sincerely,

Nathan Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa 30200

Ephesians 2:8,9

Nathan and some men of the Samburu Tribe