Here we are back in Nakuru again. This time just a week full of meetings with our local partners Paul Titus and Jonah Tito.
There is great sadness here with the devastating news of the dam burst which took many lives. The rain is ceaseless, torrential as if determined to do damage. Last night in Miti Mingi village Martha reported, ‘We experienced the Mother of all rains!’. We feel sad when we look at places where contractors have valiantly tried to lay road foundations, retaining walls etc……. all washed away. Paul and Jonah have been coming to us for the meetings, they travel on small motor bikes…… the Mother in me is not happy when they go off in the dark and the rain, negotiating unmadeup roads and unlit areas. We ask Father to put angels around the bikes!
Yesterday we managed to get into Olrongai village for church. Ironical to think when we were there in February it was drought, water in such short supply, adutlts and children thirsty and hungry. We had to access the little wriggly tin church from the back track…….. fine except that you have to climb down a rocky, muddy path! I managed it with help from John and Jonah, getting back up was much easier. It is always a pleasure to preach in this church, so many faces that we know and love, we have seen so much transformation in this place. Once again we were struck by the dire need for more water harvesting facilities.
We still need £4000.00 to say GO to the bore hole contractor on our land in Miti Mingi, once we can say that beautiful word it will only take two days to drill it. Then we have to start raising money to buy the pump, we are looking at solar power as a way to run the pump, long term this will be a cheaper option. If you can help us please donate, no donation is too small. http://www.pottersheart.org for details on how to donate. If someone came now and saw the floods and the green land, it would be hard to picture the long, long months of drought, but they are real!
It is exciting to look ahead to the day when the doors of the Training centre are open, just this morning we were talking to a young lady desperate to train to become a nurse, her family have nothing, and she cannot see a way to achieve her dream. The training centre will provide free, or heavily subsidised education to many like her, everyone has potential waiting to be released, and the right to be educated.
Education is not meant to be available only to people with money……. I’m on the soapbox again. Justice is a Kingdom principal!! At the moment the truth is this, it costs parents in Miti Mingi 1000 Kenyan Shillings (£8.00) each child for one term in Primary School. It costs then 5000 Kenyan Shillings (£40) each child for one term in Secndary Education. The biggest majority of parents are surviving on less than £1.00 per day.
Their income is only selling the maize they grow, if they sell the maize to pay school costs they starve……… as a parent what would you do? Suffice it to say many children grow into youth and adulthood with little or no education. Caught in a poverty trap. The centre we plan to build will lift many out of this trap, we are believing it will happen.
Still today we are waiting for the rain clouds to part, wherever we are in the world we all need to see the Son ( no it’s not a spelling mistake!)
Love Linden & John x