We are fine here and trying to keep out of the rain which is still coming most afternoons. This has been a really wet “short rainy season” and people are now concerned that if the rain continues like this, the ripening corn cobs will not dry properly.
It’s Monday and I’m looking forward (can you believe this?) to our regular Monday lunch of boiled potatoes and beans. The potatoes (“Irish potatoes” as they call them here) are really tasty and are cooked in water with a little oil, onion and tomato. The beans are just normal beans but are delicious with a dollop of chilli sauce. (Terry maintains that chilli sauce makes anything edible here!)
We have a nice wee house here and we don’t mind sharing it with others. However, apart from the bees in the chimney, a few of which find their way out each morning and commit suicide trying to get out of the (permanently shut) back door, the other creatures we have found sharing the house have been a bit of a problem. On Monday evening Hilda noticed a little pile of earth on the floor in the hallway, and on close inspection found termites coming up through a tiny hole in the concrete floor. The night guards confirmed that they were indeed termites and we also found more evidence of their presence outside. In fact there was a large frog sitting beside a termite hole just waiting for more of them to emerge. Where there are frogs there are also snakes, the next link up the food chain, and Leonard’s torchlight then found a nearby baby black mamba, which he quickly dispatched with his hatchet. Life here is never dull! Today a fundi (expert) was brought in to dig round the house and spray insecticide, so hopefully we have seen the beginning of the end of the termites.
While we were out of the house this evening, waiting till the insecticide fumes drifted away, I joined some of the Home kids in a classroom doing “prep”. Some were revising for tomorrow’s Standard 7 maths exam, some were reading books or today’s newspaper, but six of them were gathered round a table reading the Bible and discussing its meaning. Encouraging!
On the other hand, a young man who recently became a Christian and seemed to be turning his life around has gone against the godly advice a church leader offered him and has got married. Arranged marriages are no longer the norm here, but this young man’s sister apparently found a suitable girl for him and he went off to meet her last weekend. The next we knew, he had brought her back to his house and they had “married”. While Western ways of courtship and marriage are not necessarily good either, the church here has a lot to do to help people to apply biblical principles to relationships and many other aspects of life.
Hilda and Dorine are starting a group for young mothers and the first meeting is Thursday morning. Hilda will be giving some basic health education and the first topic is “water”; Dorine will do a very short Bible lesson . The purpose of this group is to support young mothers who are struggling and to outreach into the community. We’ll let you know how it goes.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
bizarre?
Kenya is a place of bizarre experiences.
• The preacher on Sunday is wearing a Somerfield fleece jacket. No-one thinks there is anything unusual about this.
• The Standard 8 children are sitting their primary school leaving exams – this is taken extremely seriously and as well as an invigilator from another school we also have a policeman on site (actually he looks more like a soldier, complete with semi-automatic rifle) to ensure that there is no cheating!
• We came back from Oyugis in a shared taxi the other day. The taxi waits until it is filled with passengers, then the driver gets in – how is he going to drive when there is another man sitting in the driver’s seat? Not a problem – he just squeezes over. There are 4 adults in the front of the Toyota estate car, 4 in the back, and another 5 in the boot, not to mention babies and luggage!
As I said, this week our Standard 8 pupils are sitting their KCPE exams which will determine if they can go on to high school and potentially university. Last Thursday, in preparation, all the standard 8 pupils from the area met in one of the local schools for a “day of prayer” for the exams! Then here on Friday all the school gathered together, one of the teachers spoke on the David & Goliath story (the exams are their “Goliath”!) and we prayed for their success. It was something we couldn’t imagine happening in the UK! In church on Sunday they were again prayed for. So if they don’t do well it won’t be due to a lack of prayer.
Our main work continues to be to support the church leaders in developing and implementing a vision for the church. We seem to have an open door at the moment for leading them into new ideas. We have a lot of respect for them as we see how strong their faith is, and their love for God. Some of them have come through very difficult circumstances, and all of them struggle to a greater or lesser extent to feed and care for their families.
I have been out in the community also with Dorine. We visited a 19 year old who first came to the Hope & Kindness gate last week with her 17 month old son. The child has really bad Kwashiorkor (wet malnutrition) due to lack of protein. The mother was given a supply of food, vitamins, de-worming tablets, iron syrup and an antibiotic for his infected sores. We will keep a close eye on him. She had stopped breast feeding early because she had become pregnant with his sister, who is now one month old. She gave birth, all by herself, in her mud house! Her husband keeps leaving to get a job in a nearby town and disappears for months and does not provide for them.
I have recently met another 19 year old, who has twins as a result of rape - they are very malnourished.
Seeing these two young mothers has made Dorine and I decide not to wait until next year to start a Young Mothers Group but to start next Thursday. Neither of these girls have support from families. They don’t attend church but both have been responsive to what we have shared with them, and one of them just cried when Dorine prayed with her yesterday.
We have a church leaders meeting on Sunday afternoon so we will seek their approval first – but I’m sure there won’t be a problem. We plan to do some basic health education and will have some spiritual content also. Maybe I’ll just play with the children!
With the leaders this Sunday we will sort out dates for the first Encounter weekend, which will just be for a few English speakers, including Dorine and Kennedy. Hope it’s not too hard going with just the two of us taking it! We are going away this Friday for the day to start working on it.
We have been invited to the wedding of one of the teachers on 3rd December so will be interesting to see how things are done here. It is only the better-off here who have a wedding. Most girls just go and live with their husband when a cow or two are handed over as a dowry. Often even this does not happen and the husband can still be owing the cows many years later!
• The preacher on Sunday is wearing a Somerfield fleece jacket. No-one thinks there is anything unusual about this.
• The Standard 8 children are sitting their primary school leaving exams – this is taken extremely seriously and as well as an invigilator from another school we also have a policeman on site (actually he looks more like a soldier, complete with semi-automatic rifle) to ensure that there is no cheating!
• We came back from Oyugis in a shared taxi the other day. The taxi waits until it is filled with passengers, then the driver gets in – how is he going to drive when there is another man sitting in the driver’s seat? Not a problem – he just squeezes over. There are 4 adults in the front of the Toyota estate car, 4 in the back, and another 5 in the boot, not to mention babies and luggage!
As I said, this week our Standard 8 pupils are sitting their KCPE exams which will determine if they can go on to high school and potentially university. Last Thursday, in preparation, all the standard 8 pupils from the area met in one of the local schools for a “day of prayer” for the exams! Then here on Friday all the school gathered together, one of the teachers spoke on the David & Goliath story (the exams are their “Goliath”!) and we prayed for their success. It was something we couldn’t imagine happening in the UK! In church on Sunday they were again prayed for. So if they don’t do well it won’t be due to a lack of prayer.
Our main work continues to be to support the church leaders in developing and implementing a vision for the church. We seem to have an open door at the moment for leading them into new ideas. We have a lot of respect for them as we see how strong their faith is, and their love for God. Some of them have come through very difficult circumstances, and all of them struggle to a greater or lesser extent to feed and care for their families.
I have been out in the community also with Dorine. We visited a 19 year old who first came to the Hope & Kindness gate last week with her 17 month old son. The child has really bad Kwashiorkor (wet malnutrition) due to lack of protein. The mother was given a supply of food, vitamins, de-worming tablets, iron syrup and an antibiotic for his infected sores. We will keep a close eye on him. She had stopped breast feeding early because she had become pregnant with his sister, who is now one month old. She gave birth, all by herself, in her mud house! Her husband keeps leaving to get a job in a nearby town and disappears for months and does not provide for them.
I have recently met another 19 year old, who has twins as a result of rape - they are very malnourished.
Seeing these two young mothers has made Dorine and I decide not to wait until next year to start a Young Mothers Group but to start next Thursday. Neither of these girls have support from families. They don’t attend church but both have been responsive to what we have shared with them, and one of them just cried when Dorine prayed with her yesterday.
We have a church leaders meeting on Sunday afternoon so we will seek their approval first – but I’m sure there won’t be a problem. We plan to do some basic health education and will have some spiritual content also. Maybe I’ll just play with the children!
With the leaders this Sunday we will sort out dates for the first Encounter weekend, which will just be for a few English speakers, including Dorine and Kennedy. Hope it’s not too hard going with just the two of us taking it! We are going away this Friday for the day to start working on it.
We have been invited to the wedding of one of the teachers on 3rd December so will be interesting to see how things are done here. It is only the better-off here who have a wedding. Most girls just go and live with their husband when a cow or two are handed over as a dowry. Often even this does not happen and the husband can still be owing the cows many years later!
Sunday, 23 October 2011
together
One late afternoon we had gone with three of the children from the Home to visit an elderly grandmother, and the sky darkened just as we arrived at her house (the usual mud walls and floor and tin roof variety). We managed to have a brief conversation with her before the skies opened and the rain came pouring down. She quickly organised her four- and six-year-old orphaned granddaughters who live with her to run out with all their basins and containers to catch the rainwater from the roof. They returned and we all sat, unable to verbally communicate because of the noise on the tin roof. We could only smile and wait for half an hour for the rain to stop. We seemed to share together in a way that speech would have spoiled. Even the chickens that followed the girls in seemed to sense the moment and sat down on the floor between us until one got hungry and began to peck the ants off the floor!
The crops had been watered again and no one would complain about the mud that followed. A neighbour rushed to assist me as I was leaving and got a firm hold of my arm and did not let go until we had reached the end of the muddy path!
The chickens joining us there were preferable to the swarm of bees that decided to join me in our house while Ian was out in the community. They had been living in the supposedly blocked off chimney! However three of the guys who work here came to my aid with Doom (an appropriate name for an effective insect eradicator) and they were soon exterminated!
Last Monday we went with Terry and some of the staff to a seminar in Kisumu, held by the charity Teach a Man to Fish. This organisation aims to help rural schools like ours which are dependent on outside funding become more self-sufficient, and in the process teach children skills in agriculture and business which will enable them to support themselves when they leave school. It was an interesting and useful day, especially hearing how other people are tackling this.
We continue to work with the church leaders and have set up another “away day” with them next Wednesday. We have been able to set up part-time paid roles for two of them – Kennedy will be working particularly in preparing and leading programmes of preaching and teaching, while Dorine will have more responsibility in pastoral care. We are looking forward to working more closely with both of them over the coming months. Kennedy has already started a preaching series which will introduce the biblical themes that underpin Farming God’s Way.
The schoolchildren, led by Duncan who is enjoying his additional role as “farm manager”, have already got the first crop of maize and beans growing well on the Farming God’s Way demonstration plots. There has been a lot of rain recently and this has really helped. We hope to see the concept being taught to church members as well and help them put it into practice in the next growing season starting in January. We believe it has the potential to change people’s attitudes and greatly improve what they can achieve on their very small farms.
We hope you enjoy our blog but you can read much more about what’s happening here by following Terry’s blog at http://terryathopeandkindness.blogspot.com/
The crops had been watered again and no one would complain about the mud that followed. A neighbour rushed to assist me as I was leaving and got a firm hold of my arm and did not let go until we had reached the end of the muddy path!
The chickens joining us there were preferable to the swarm of bees that decided to join me in our house while Ian was out in the community. They had been living in the supposedly blocked off chimney! However three of the guys who work here came to my aid with Doom (an appropriate name for an effective insect eradicator) and they were soon exterminated!
Last Monday we went with Terry and some of the staff to a seminar in Kisumu, held by the charity Teach a Man to Fish. This organisation aims to help rural schools like ours which are dependent on outside funding become more self-sufficient, and in the process teach children skills in agriculture and business which will enable them to support themselves when they leave school. It was an interesting and useful day, especially hearing how other people are tackling this.
We continue to work with the church leaders and have set up another “away day” with them next Wednesday. We have been able to set up part-time paid roles for two of them – Kennedy will be working particularly in preparing and leading programmes of preaching and teaching, while Dorine will have more responsibility in pastoral care. We are looking forward to working more closely with both of them over the coming months. Kennedy has already started a preaching series which will introduce the biblical themes that underpin Farming God’s Way.
The schoolchildren, led by Duncan who is enjoying his additional role as “farm manager”, have already got the first crop of maize and beans growing well on the Farming God’s Way demonstration plots. There has been a lot of rain recently and this has really helped. We hope to see the concept being taught to church members as well and help them put it into practice in the next growing season starting in January. We believe it has the potential to change people’s attitudes and greatly improve what they can achieve on their very small farms.
We hope you enjoy our blog but you can read much more about what’s happening here by following Terry’s blog at http://terryathopeandkindness.blogspot.com/
Saturday, 8 October 2011
rain
Hi. We are well. We are now into the short rainy season, although we had a lot of rain since August so the contrast hasn’t been too marked yet. On Thursday we had a particularly heavy thunderstorm – with huge hailstones – in late afternoon. People here have planted their second crops for this year and the maize is growing up strongly.
Last week we had a trip to Kisumu and Nairobi. In Kisumu we renewed our visas and applied for registration as “aliens” – visions of little green men? In Nairobi we met up with Terry and two of the leaders of Elim Kenya who helped us in the process of applying for work permits. Hopefully these will get approved soon, which will allow us to stay in Kenya and work as “missionaries” for 2 years before they need renewed. We enjoyed our trip, doing some shopping, staying in guest houses and getting some meat in our diet again! Nairobi is getting increasingly busy, and the traffic jams get worse!
Back here we are continuing our work with the church leaders. We are planning an “Encounter” weekend for them, based on those done in Paisley Elim. We think the first one will need to be just for a few English speakers, some of whom could then help us with the next Encounter. Running the event over a weekend may not be suitable so it will probably be run over two days in two successive weeks. This weekend Ian is speaking in church on Sunday. Today we were at a special church meeting held at the home of a man who got into some trouble, was in jail for 2 months (it could have been 10 years if he had been found guilty of assault) and has subsequently come back to God and to church and turned his life around.
Some things are frustrating here, like inefficiencies, erratic internet connection, and the length of time it can take to achieve some things. And Hilda’s very slow progress in learning Dholuo! But on the other hand there are lots of encouragements, so we have lots of hope for the future. Health is such a major issue for people here. Recently we visited a young man who is HIV+ and who had been very ill the last time we saw him – his father had lost hope for him. But this week he was so much better we didn’t even recognise him!
We’ve established that people can get onto the national health insurance scheme if they make contributions of KSh160 a month (just over £1). This will basically pay for any hospital costs, but not surgery or out-patient costs. Even this amount will be beyond the means of many people, so we are looking to see if we can set up sponsorship of people to get this insurance provided.
We’ve just finished reading “When Helping Hurts” for the second time together. It’s by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and we would recommend it to anybody interested in working with the poor either in the developing world or at home. We’re now reading “The Purpose-Driven Church” by Rick Warren and finding it really useful for our situation here.
Last week we had a trip to Kisumu and Nairobi. In Kisumu we renewed our visas and applied for registration as “aliens” – visions of little green men? In Nairobi we met up with Terry and two of the leaders of Elim Kenya who helped us in the process of applying for work permits. Hopefully these will get approved soon, which will allow us to stay in Kenya and work as “missionaries” for 2 years before they need renewed. We enjoyed our trip, doing some shopping, staying in guest houses and getting some meat in our diet again! Nairobi is getting increasingly busy, and the traffic jams get worse!
Back here we are continuing our work with the church leaders. We are planning an “Encounter” weekend for them, based on those done in Paisley Elim. We think the first one will need to be just for a few English speakers, some of whom could then help us with the next Encounter. Running the event over a weekend may not be suitable so it will probably be run over two days in two successive weeks. This weekend Ian is speaking in church on Sunday. Today we were at a special church meeting held at the home of a man who got into some trouble, was in jail for 2 months (it could have been 10 years if he had been found guilty of assault) and has subsequently come back to God and to church and turned his life around.
Some things are frustrating here, like inefficiencies, erratic internet connection, and the length of time it can take to achieve some things. And Hilda’s very slow progress in learning Dholuo! But on the other hand there are lots of encouragements, so we have lots of hope for the future. Health is such a major issue for people here. Recently we visited a young man who is HIV+ and who had been very ill the last time we saw him – his father had lost hope for him. But this week he was so much better we didn’t even recognise him!
We’ve established that people can get onto the national health insurance scheme if they make contributions of KSh160 a month (just over £1). This will basically pay for any hospital costs, but not surgery or out-patient costs. Even this amount will be beyond the means of many people, so we are looking to see if we can set up sponsorship of people to get this insurance provided.
We’ve just finished reading “When Helping Hurts” for the second time together. It’s by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and we would recommend it to anybody interested in working with the poor either in the developing world or at home. We’re now reading “The Purpose-Driven Church” by Rick Warren and finding it really useful for our situation here.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
more focused
Sorry, we have not got lost. We have been out of touch for a few days with no network connection. We are actually very well and getting busier. Our weather here is typically hot in the middle of the day and some rain in the evening. By next month the midday sun will be directly overhead as we are almost on the Equator. We’re generally enjoying the diet here which is mostly potatoes, beans, maize, kale, eggs and the tiny fish, but we supplement it with our own breakfast cereals, coffee, fruit juice and occasional treats – we even had some Cadbury’s chocolate recently!
We are becoming more focused in our role with the church leaders and have spent 3 days meeting with Doreen and Kennedy, with another day lined up meeting with them individually - it has been very useful for us, learning more about the culture, local beliefs and the church. We have also had the added benefit of getting to know them better and have real respect for both of them.
Today we had an ‘away day’ in Oyugis with all 6 church leaders (Kennedy is now on the leadership team so it’s no longer all women!) to seek God for vision and the way forward for the church. The day didn’t go exactly according to our agenda but was really useful. We think the leaders have done really well over the last year with limited resources.
Ian and Kennedy are encouraged with Men’s group – meeting on Saturday afternoons. I can’t imagine any men at home choosing to meet at that time, especially the football addicts! The men seem keen to participate and some are asking deep questions.
Many of the church members can read in Dholuo but don’t have Bibles, so we have been able to buy some at a discount for about £4.50 each with funds from our home church in Paisley.
Ian has been driving the elderly Land Rover occasionally but he had his most challenging drive last week coming back from Oyugis when the skies went black and the rain became torrential. The volume of water rapidly obscures the holes and ruts in the road that are better avoided. However, we got home safely before it got dark.
The older children have been involved in the first attempt at “Farming God’s Way” – preparing the land, measuring it out accurately, digging holes, adding fertiliser, planting maize and bean seeds and covering it with mulch. Already the shoots are beginning to appear through the ground and now the regular task of weeding has started.
The construction work has now started on the new block of four classrooms on the land we have just agreed to buy at the bottom of the site. Also, now that we have got Planning and the other permissions, the contractor has just started on the visitor centre which he will build at the same time. Ian is “project managing” the contract and liaising with the contractor, so another challenge there – things here are generally done with much less paperwork and red tape than in the UK.
We had a visit last week from an Englishman who is involved with a school for deaf children not too far from here. It was a bit like a visit from Santa – a small round man with a white beard bearing gifts (sorry, Martin) - he brought a Kenya flag, magazines, some SU material for the school and 100 copies of the “Book of Hope” in Swahili for the children. All these are much appreciated.
“How others see us”......read the report on their visit to Hope and Kindness by the two young men travelling by Land Rover from London to South Africa – see http://realwaydown.blogspot.com/
We are becoming more focused in our role with the church leaders and have spent 3 days meeting with Doreen and Kennedy, with another day lined up meeting with them individually - it has been very useful for us, learning more about the culture, local beliefs and the church. We have also had the added benefit of getting to know them better and have real respect for both of them.
Today we had an ‘away day’ in Oyugis with all 6 church leaders (Kennedy is now on the leadership team so it’s no longer all women!) to seek God for vision and the way forward for the church. The day didn’t go exactly according to our agenda but was really useful. We think the leaders have done really well over the last year with limited resources.
Ian and Kennedy are encouraged with Men’s group – meeting on Saturday afternoons. I can’t imagine any men at home choosing to meet at that time, especially the football addicts! The men seem keen to participate and some are asking deep questions.
Many of the church members can read in Dholuo but don’t have Bibles, so we have been able to buy some at a discount for about £4.50 each with funds from our home church in Paisley.
Ian has been driving the elderly Land Rover occasionally but he had his most challenging drive last week coming back from Oyugis when the skies went black and the rain became torrential. The volume of water rapidly obscures the holes and ruts in the road that are better avoided. However, we got home safely before it got dark.
The older children have been involved in the first attempt at “Farming God’s Way” – preparing the land, measuring it out accurately, digging holes, adding fertiliser, planting maize and bean seeds and covering it with mulch. Already the shoots are beginning to appear through the ground and now the regular task of weeding has started.
The construction work has now started on the new block of four classrooms on the land we have just agreed to buy at the bottom of the site. Also, now that we have got Planning and the other permissions, the contractor has just started on the visitor centre which he will build at the same time. Ian is “project managing” the contract and liaising with the contractor, so another challenge there – things here are generally done with much less paperwork and red tape than in the UK.
We had a visit last week from an Englishman who is involved with a school for deaf children not too far from here. It was a bit like a visit from Santa – a small round man with a white beard bearing gifts (sorry, Martin) - he brought a Kenya flag, magazines, some SU material for the school and 100 copies of the “Book of Hope” in Swahili for the children. All these are much appreciated.
“How others see us”......read the report on their visit to Hope and Kindness by the two young men travelling by Land Rover from London to South Africa – see http://realwaydown.blogspot.com/
more focused
Sorry, we have not got lost. We have been out of touch for a few days with no network connection. We are actually very well and getting busier. Our weather here is typically hot in the middle of the day and some rain in the evening. By next month the midday sun will be directly overhead as we are almost on the Equator. We’re generally enjoying the diet here which is mostly potatoes, beans, maize, kale, eggs and the tiny fish, but we supplement it with our own breakfast cereals, coffee, fruit juice and occasional treats – we even had some Cadbury’s chocolate recently!
We are becoming more focused in our role with the church leaders and have spent 3 days meeting with Doreen and Kennedy, with another day lined up meeting with them individually - it has been very useful for us, learning more about the culture, local beliefs and the church. We have also had the added benefit of getting to know them better and have real respect for both of them.
Today we had an ‘away day’ in Oyugis with all 6 church leaders (Kennedy is now on the leadership team so it’s no longer all women!) to seek God for vision and the way forward for the church. The day didn’t go exactly according to our agenda but was really useful. We think the leaders have done really well over the last year with limited resources.
Ian and Kennedy are encouraged with Men’s group – meeting on Saturday afternoons. I can’t imagine any men at home choosing to meet at that time, especially the football addicts! The men seem keen to participate and some are asking deep questions.
Many of the church members can read in Dholuo but don’t have Bibles, so we have been able to buy some at a discount for about £4.50 each with funds from our home church in Paisley.
Ian has been driving the elderly Land Rover occasionally but he had his most challenging drive last week coming back from Oyugis when the skies went black and the rain became torrential. The volume of water rapidly obscures the holes and ruts in the road that are better avoided. However, we got home safely before it got dark.
The older children have been involved in the first attempt at “Farming God’s Way” – preparing the land, measuring it out accurately, digging holes, adding fertiliser, planting maize and bean seeds and covering it with mulch. Already the shoots are beginning to appear through the ground and now the regular task of weeding has started.
The construction work has now started on the new block of four classrooms on the land we have just agreed to buy at the bottom of the site. Also, now that we have got Planning and the other permissions, the contractor has just started on the visitor centre which he will build at the same time. Ian is “project managing” the contract and liaising with the contractor, so another challenge there – things here are generally done with much less paperwork and red tape than in the UK.
We had a visit last week from an Englishman who is involved with a school for deaf children not too far from here. It was a bit like a visit from Santa – a small round man with a white beard bearing gifts (sorry, Martin) - he brought a Kenya flag, magazines, some SU material for the school and 100 copies of the “Book of Hope” in Swahili for the children. All these are much appreciated.
“How others see us”......read the report on their visit to Hope and Kindness by the two young men travelling by Land Rover from London to South Africa – see http://realwaydown.blogspot.com/
We are becoming more focused in our role with the church leaders and have spent 3 days meeting with Doreen and Kennedy, with another day lined up meeting with them individually - it has been very useful for us, learning more about the culture, local beliefs and the church. We have also had the added benefit of getting to know them better and have real respect for both of them.
Today we had an ‘away day’ in Oyugis with all 6 church leaders (Kennedy is now on the leadership team so it’s no longer all women!) to seek God for vision and the way forward for the church. The day didn’t go exactly according to our agenda but was really useful. We think the leaders have done really well over the last year with limited resources.
Ian and Kennedy are encouraged with Men’s group – meeting on Saturday afternoons. I can’t imagine any men at home choosing to meet at that time, especially the football addicts! The men seem keen to participate and some are asking deep questions.
Many of the church members can read in Dholuo but don’t have Bibles, so we have been able to buy some at a discount for about £4.50 each with funds from our home church in Paisley.
Ian has been driving the elderly Land Rover occasionally but he had his most challenging drive last week coming back from Oyugis when the skies went black and the rain became torrential. The volume of water rapidly obscures the holes and ruts in the road that are better avoided. However, we got home safely before it got dark.
The older children have been involved in the first attempt at “Farming God’s Way” – preparing the land, measuring it out accurately, digging holes, adding fertiliser, planting maize and bean seeds and covering it with mulch. Already the shoots are beginning to appear through the ground and now the regular task of weeding has started.
The construction work has now started on the new block of four classrooms on the land we have just agreed to buy at the bottom of the site. Also, now that we have got Planning and the other permissions, the contractor has just started on the visitor centre which he will build at the same time. Ian is “project managing” the contract and liaising with the contractor, so another challenge there – things here are generally done with much less paperwork and red tape than in the UK.
We had a visit last week from an Englishman who is involved with a school for deaf children not too far from here. It was a bit like a visit from Santa – a small round man with a white beard bearing gifts (sorry, Martin) - he brought a Kenya flag, magazines, some SU material for the school and 100 copies of the “Book of Hope” in Swahili for the children. All these are much appreciated.
“How others see us”......read the report on their visit to Hope and Kindness by the two young men travelling by Land Rover from London to South Africa – see http://realwaydown.blogspot.com/
more focused
Sorry, we have not got lost. We have been out of touch for a few days with no network connection. We are actually very well and getting busier. Our weather here is typically hot in the middle of the day and some rain in the evening. By next month the midday sun will be directly overhead as we are almost on the Equator. We’re generally enjoying the diet here which is mostly potatoes, beans, maize, kale, eggs and the tiny fish, but we supplement it with our own breakfast cereals, coffee, fruit juice and occasional treats – we even had some Cadbury’s chocolate recently!
We are becoming more focused in our role with the church leaders and have spent 3 days meeting with Doreen and Kennedy, with another day lined up meeting with them individually - it has been very useful for us, learning more about the culture, local beliefs and the church. We have also had the added benefit of getting to know them better and have real respect for both of them.
Today we had an ‘away day’ in Oyugis with all 6 church leaders (Kennedy is now on the leadership team so it’s no longer all women!) to seek God for vision and the way forward for the church. The day didn’t go exactly according to our agenda but was really useful. We think the leaders have done really well over the last year with limited resources.
Ian and Kennedy are encouraged with Men’s group – meeting on Saturday afternoons. I can’t imagine any men at home choosing to meet at that time, especially the football addicts! The men seem keen to participate and some are asking deep questions.
Many of the church members can read in Dholuo but don’t have Bibles, so we have been able to buy some at a discount for about £4.50 each with funds from our home church in Paisley.
Ian has been driving the elderly Land Rover occasionally but he had his most challenging drive last week coming back from Oyugis when the skies went black and the rain became torrential. The volume of water rapidly obscures the holes and ruts in the road that are better avoided. However, we got home safely before it got dark.
The older children have been involved in the first attempt at “Farming God’s Way” – preparing the land, measuring it out accurately, digging holes, adding fertiliser, planting maize and bean seeds and covering it with mulch. Already the shoots are beginning to appear through the ground and now the regular task of weeding has started.
The construction work has now started on the new block of four classrooms on the land we have just agreed to buy at the bottom of the site. Also, now that we have got Planning and the other permissions, the contractor has just started on the visitor centre which he will build at the same time. Ian is “project managing” the contract and liaising with the contractor, so another challenge there – things here are generally done with much less paperwork and red tape than in the UK.
We had a visit last week from an Englishman who is involved with a school for deaf children not too far from here. It was a bit like a visit from Santa – a small round man with a white beard bearing gifts (sorry, Martin) - he brought a Kenya flag, magazines, some SU material for the school and 100 copies of the “Book of Hope” in Swahili for the children. All these are much appreciated.
“How others see us”......read the report on their visit to Hope and Kindness by the two young men travelling by Land Rover from London to South Africa – see http://realwaydown.blogspot.com/
We are becoming more focused in our role with the church leaders and have spent 3 days meeting with Doreen and Kennedy, with another day lined up meeting with them individually - it has been very useful for us, learning more about the culture, local beliefs and the church. We have also had the added benefit of getting to know them better and have real respect for both of them.
Today we had an ‘away day’ in Oyugis with all 6 church leaders (Kennedy is now on the leadership team so it’s no longer all women!) to seek God for vision and the way forward for the church. The day didn’t go exactly according to our agenda but was really useful. We think the leaders have done really well over the last year with limited resources.
Ian and Kennedy are encouraged with Men’s group – meeting on Saturday afternoons. I can’t imagine any men at home choosing to meet at that time, especially the football addicts! The men seem keen to participate and some are asking deep questions.
Many of the church members can read in Dholuo but don’t have Bibles, so we have been able to buy some at a discount for about £4.50 each with funds from our home church in Paisley.
Ian has been driving the elderly Land Rover occasionally but he had his most challenging drive last week coming back from Oyugis when the skies went black and the rain became torrential. The volume of water rapidly obscures the holes and ruts in the road that are better avoided. However, we got home safely before it got dark.
The older children have been involved in the first attempt at “Farming God’s Way” – preparing the land, measuring it out accurately, digging holes, adding fertiliser, planting maize and bean seeds and covering it with mulch. Already the shoots are beginning to appear through the ground and now the regular task of weeding has started.
The construction work has now started on the new block of four classrooms on the land we have just agreed to buy at the bottom of the site. Also, now that we have got Planning and the other permissions, the contractor has just started on the visitor centre which he will build at the same time. Ian is “project managing” the contract and liaising with the contractor, so another challenge there – things here are generally done with much less paperwork and red tape than in the UK.
We had a visit last week from an Englishman who is involved with a school for deaf children not too far from here. It was a bit like a visit from Santa – a small round man with a white beard bearing gifts (sorry, Martin) - he brought a Kenya flag, magazines, some SU material for the school and 100 copies of the “Book of Hope” in Swahili for the children. All these are much appreciated.
“How others see us”......read the report on their visit to Hope and Kindness by the two young men travelling by Land Rover from London to South Africa – see http://realwaydown.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)