We launch a new Training Programme
This was my sixteenth visit to Kenya; I went to launch a Leadership Training Programme. During the next two years, every two months, for three days, we will train leaders in theology and practice. Many trainees will be local people who have received no training. We hope that this programme will have a profound effect on those who attend, giving them new perspective and ethos. Plus ease some of the problems that can ensue from having untrained leaders. Long term, this will benefit the church
and the wider Kenyan community.

Jackie’s Vital Input
I was accompanied by Jackie Oliver from Generation Church base in Ewell Surry and Executive Director of ‘Through the Roof’ a charity supplying wheel-chairs worldwide; one of the distribution centres is in Kenya. Together we delivered the first three days of the training programme. Jackie lectured over 40 students on the Theology of Disability Showing how God treated people with disabilities, such as Moses, from Scripture, using lectures, workshops, discussions and videos. The generator rebelled and refused to operate the projector, so the PowerPoint presentation was not used. I used a similar roll-out on the subject of
Servant Leadership.

What have we done so far?
We have been working in Kenya for sixteen years alongside our partner Sammy Nawali. To date, along with the help of many others from the UK and the USA, we have been able to assist in funding the following:
• Orphanage - mainly boys, girls are placed in safe homes
• Garage - giving space for vocational training for street boys and orphans
• School - currently teaching 130 pupils and growing
• Church building - the congregation continues to grow
• Sure 24 - twice weekly feeding programme

What now?

We are still faced with many challenges; the ongoing school building work; implementation of a clean water programme, we hope to have a bore-hole installed in November 2009; food for the orphanage and the school, each child receives a midday meal, often this is the only meal they get. My passion is to set standards that others can follow, and that our investment will have a much broader impact.

New Road

The country continues to improve. Our route is along the road from Nairobi to Nakuru, it used to take 3–4 hours due to pot-holes. A Kenyan pot-hole is something to behold, some of them are like driving down one side of a mountain and up another. The road is now completely resurfaced and pot-hole free! It reduced the travel time by half and instead of concentrating on holes in the road we were able to take in the views of the fabulous rift valley.

Ongoing Challenges

There are still issues regarding IDPs, Internally Displaced People as they are euphemistically known. Many remain in camps, afraid to return to their original homes due to the violence they have experienced. I visited an orphanage in Molo, Western Kenya, the results of violence was obvious; destroyed homes, deserted streets, parched land and withered maze. Maze is the Kenyan staple diet and as we viewed the devastation Sammy said, “The rains have been reducing for the last five years, looking at the brown fields makes my stomach turn over, lean times lie ahead.”
In the orphanages we visited, we were saddened to find that the staff did not know where the children were from, all trace of their relatives were lost.

One Saturday Jackie’s hotel room was burgled, so we spent a morning at the Police Station, whilst Jackie completed the paperwork, I browsed the notices peppering the walls. Many were from the Red Cross aimed at IDPs who are desperately searching for their missing relatives.
Chickens and Goats

I continue to be encouraged by the progress of the various projects, especially the ‘Sure 24’ feeding programme. Friends in the USA have provided funding which has been used to purchase chickens, goats and even cows. I met five of the goats and one of the cows who has been christened ‘Reverend’! These animals are vital in providing milk for the children.
I saw a few chickens scratching at the bare earth, but Sammy informed me they were “…just visiting…” They need further funding in order to purchase some more hens, the first batch died of chicken flu.” I hasten to confirm that this should not be confused with bird flu. Sammy explained the demise of the chickens was bitter sweet; no possibility of eggs, but every time a hen died, it provided a hearty chicken supper for the children. The boys were always delighted when the head of a chicken began to droop, they knew it was flu and they knew that in the evening their tummies would be full.
Molo orphanage has three chickens; I was keen to know how many eggs they produced each day. After Sammy stopped laughing he said “They need food and water before they can do that, they can just about keep body and soul together on what they manage to scavenge.”
Water is vital to the survival of these projects; the bore hole must get installed as soon as possible.

And finally…

I hope this update gives you a flavour of what we are doing in Kenya. If you would like to sponsor one of the children in the orphanage or school, come with us next year to visit Kenya, or buy and chicken or a goat, then please get in touch.

Come and support the irrepressible Russ Jones as he globetrots back from Germany for this one.

Friday 7th August @ Passing Clouds, Dalston Kingsland. 8-2am

Camp’s almost here - only 21 days (or 504 hours, or 30,240 minutes). If you haven’t told Jo you’re coming please tell her before you go to sleep tonight. Lots and and lots of good stuff planned… Simon Cowell awaits.

Hello church,

In January we would like to take the whole church away for a weekend of prayer praise and looking into what God has for us in 2010 and what he did for us in 2009.

January is a cold month so I was envisaging a warm opened fire place with a pool table grounds to walk in, beds that are soft gorgeous rooms or space big enough for us all to meet in.

My Problem

All the places that are suitable for the above are pricey so I was trying to work out how we could do it bearing in mind its the first skint month after Jesusmas

The idea

apparently this is a way that Pauline remembers the Jamaican church using to help get the stuff they needed
its called a Jamaican hand.

20 people all commit to pledging £10 a month for six months. The result being £1200.

The cheek of it!!!

Are there 16 people out there who would be willing to come in on the scheme and we would use the money to pay for or subsidies the whole church going away!! I already have 4 who are up for it.

We would like to start on the 1st of August so could you contact me or Gareth relatively soon.

text or phone on 07976556692.

Yours as ever Jo

Lynn Green is at Rainbow this month talking on Muslims, pass the message on!

Rae raised on Saturday £35.39 for School building through selling  jewelery and accepting donations.

Thanks Rae

Sri Lanka is having an Anti-Conversion Bill coming in this month.  Please pray, protest and add your support anyway you can.  Check this link.  groundview

Hello all, Saggs podcast is here and you can download the first podcast courtesy of nottingham christian centre (Simon’s old church) and you can also download this months calendar.  Enjoy and GROW!!!  

 

www.rainbownews.org/slagg

Here are 3 videos from Sunday 14 th Decembr on Adrian’s speak.  Good Talk.  Quality in video not all that but were working on getting a new camera. Part 1

 Part 2 

Part 3 �

hi everyone, the following is just something i, clive, felt God was saying to me, this is something that is challenging me and it seemed right to pass it on. sometimes in a storm we tend to live more by what seems reasonable than by faith. this is just a challenge to keep looking in the right direction.

A TIME TO CHANGE OUR THINKING?

Something has begun to happen in the world that is threatening some of the things we trust in. A storm has started that is affecting every nation on earth and no-one really knows how long it will last.
It struck me again recently when i read about the disciples in the storm with Jesus, that 4 of the disciples were fishermen. They were the experts , they knew what they were doing. Jesus was the one they trusted in, they had left everything to follow Him, but it was like they didn’t need to look to him in this field. This was their field. They knew what they were doing. I can imagine them reassuring the other disciples ‘ hey its ok guys don’t look so worried, we’re just gonna adjust the sail - we can ride this one out.’ But as the storm went on and the waves got bigger they too began to fear for their lives. Finally they turned to their sleeping friend in the back of the boat and woke Him. He immediately rebuked the storm and the wind and the waves died down. And the disciples said, ‘ Who is this who commands even the wind and the waves?’
First of all i can think of at least 4 or 5 times when Jesus surprised the fishermen, (James, John, Peter and Andrew) , with His intervention in their field of expertise. Twice instructing them to let down their nets for a big catch after they had caught nothing and twice in storms. (Also Jesus instructed Peter to go and look for a denarius in a fish’s mouth!)
After this storm they asked of Jesus ‘Who is this?’ Jesus had been with them day and night for quite a while, He was their close friend and they knew He had power from God, but here in the storm they saw something they had not seen before. They began to see more of who Jesus was. They began to trust less in themselves and more in Him.
Was it good for them to go through the storm? It didn’t feel like it at the time but it was very good. There is no greater treasure than a fuller revelation of Jesus. The word of God has power but we don’t just digest these things about Him by reading them on a printed page. We discover the reality of Him by walking through real life with Him and experiencing Him for ourselves. We must ‘ taste and see that the Lord is good.’ Maybe that is an encouragement the next time we go through a crisis. If we walk through it with Him we can find more of Him. As David said ‘ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.’
The point i am making about the present financial crisis,is that we in the west have our own way of looking at money and we feel very sure of it and our approach to it. And that we in the church absorb much of that same thinking. Sometimes, especially in difficult times our approach to money can be more western than biblical. The things the world is trusting in are being shaken to the core and everyone who shares in its approach to money will feel the force of that shaking. It’s not my purpose here to tell you what i believe the bible says, but to encourage everyone to go back to the bible and listen to what Jesus particularly says about money and our attitude to it for ourselves. LET’S LOOK FOR JESUS IN THE STORM.

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