Thursday, July 31, 2008

Commissioning Evangelists

Yesterday we held a big ceremony at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi to commission recent college graduates and "officers" for Church Army Africa. The newly commissioned will serve throughout East Africa in a variety of missions and ministry contexts, helping to reach out to those on the margins of society, especially the poor and neglected. We've been working hard the past few weeks to prepare for the commissioning event. The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya was among one of the individuals to be commissioned. Here's a few photos:









The newly commissioned evangelists and presiding clergy







Lucy responds to unexpected questions from BBC reporters






Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi reads the acceptance speech I worked on.

To celebrate and relax after the ceremony, our office went out for dinner at the very nice Carnivore Restaurant (a place where you can sample crocodile and ostrich meat). I don't recommend the crocodile. Here's a couple pics:


Thursday, July 17, 2008

Education in Gatina

Here's a short video of Imani Development Centre, a private primary school just down the road from Light and Power Centre. It caters to the poorest of the poor, mostly to orphans and children of single mothers (many of whom are affected by HIV/AIDS). The school has about 125 students and is run by a friend who is a local pastor and works alongside his family in Gatina. The Wafula family had a heart to reach out to needy children in the neighborhood who roamed around during the day because their parents could not afford any of the other schools. For the full day school, the school charges less than $5/month, which includes rice for lunch every day. Only 40% of the families can afford to pay. The school currently does not have any donors, but is run strictly off of the very very limited tuition fees that it can collect (imagine a budget of less than $250 USD/month to run a primary school for 125 students). The learning conditions are very difficult. Check out the video and learn a bit more about Gatina and the efforts of Pastor Moses Wafula.




Dancing to the Beat

In late June we held a special program at Light and Power, featuring traditional African drumming and dancing, poem recitals, songs, games, and more. Here's a few photos from the event:

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Out of Africa

During the men's team's visit to Kenya we enjoyed a rare treat on a secluded private game reserve. The Dyer family from Britian, settled in the Nanyuki area in 1912 and own over 30,000 acres near the Aberdare Forest. They stay near Ngarendare village, where we were serving, and invited our team for an afternoon drive on their reserve. Here's a few of the animals we encountered.



Broken hammers in a village

Eight guys from The Falls Church joined me recently for trip full of fun and service. We spent about a week working in the remote village of Ngarendare. This is the site of one of our projects with Planting Faith Ministries. We've been working with a group of 60 farmers who are growing some spiny looking flowers. During the TFC Team's visit we built a large "grading shed" for the flowers as well as a cooling shed (made out of chicken wire and charcoal).

Jack pounds crossbeams into the rock hard blue gum posts.
Our driver, Muriuki, inspects the posts.
Kenan installs tin roofing as others support the makeshift ladder.
Our chicken wire framed cooling shed (just before we added the charcoal)
Celebrating with our farmer friends in the new grading shed.