Kwaheri Kenya

1st September 2013

The last two weeks have passed so very quickly and thanks to the gracious support of our hosts, Silas and Rahab, we have learned so much about Kenya, about its people, and about ourselves.

So it is only fitting that we have spent our last day in Kenya with our amazingly hospitable hosts; back again at their lively church, and then at home with them for a family meal around their big dining table.

It is an example of their open hearted character that “family” included us, a brother, a nephew, a missionary friend, his children, and our driver!

Born free

29th – 31st August 2013

After an intense few days helping out in the various ministries of Silas and Rahab, it was good to have time to chat things over together while we had a bit of a safari experience in the famous Masai Mara game park.

The journey to the park was another lesson in how varied the Kenya landscape and climate is. We left the lush green fields of Thomson’s Falls very early as the heavy dew lay on the ground and the morning mist still filled the valleys of the rolling country. Within an hour we had plunged down into hot scrubland. Then we were quickly into beautiful parkland where savannah had been transformed into rolling wheat fields picturesquely dotted with acacia trees in a scene I knew my farmer friends back in Suffolk would adore.

When washing feet saves lives

28 August 2013

Today, Wednesday, we were privileged to journey with Simon, Lucy, Silas, Rahab and their teams an hour further north to where the paved roads of Kenya finally finish and any travel – especially in the rainy season – becomes a real adventure.

We were off to a marginalised village of Turkana and Sanburu people living in those wood and mud round houses surrounded by thick thorn fences – the very archetypal African scene to westerners brought up on a diet of public service broadcaster documentaries and National Geographic magazines.

We had been forewarned of the challenges that would face us but, as ever, the full sensory experience still came as a shock.

Equatorial Kenya

26th August 2013

Monday was an early start as Ruth, Silas, Rahab and I drove “up country” to visit the ministry of Simon Mwaura in northern Kenya from his base in Nyahururu.

Downtown Nairobi was quickly left behind as we climbed north past the grim slums that ring Nairobi and on into surprisingly misty rolling green pine forests very reminiscent of a cool Scottish hillside. Imperceptibly we had climbed up to 8,000 feet as we turned a steep corner to be faced with the famous Rift Valley.

Unfortunately Kenya wanted to continue masquerading as the highlands of Scotland and the “Internationally Recommended View Point” looked more like a view of the Cuillins of Skye on a bad day!

A sweet Nairobi Sunday

25th August 2013

Our first Sunday in Kenya started much as our Sundays in England, with church. We had the privilege of attending Kilelesha Covenant Community Church (K3C) which is the suburban home church of our hosts Silas and Rahab. Both the well designed building, the smartly dressed, multi-generation congregation, and the well designed multi-media presentations, would not have been out of place in any major city in the UK and the US.

It was a special youth service and the excellent multi-lingual music ministry of the young praise band, the energy of the guest rap artist, and the culture of clapping God in praise, might have raised a few eyebrows in quiet rural Suffolk. However the clear bible teaching, the obvious love of the church for it’s youth and children, and the church’s dynamic focus on reaching out to make disciples, all made Ruth and I feel very at home. Even the report back from the teenagers about their summer camp showed the same breathless enthusiasm and energy of our own young people.