Every little brings a smile!

Its that time again... we are off to Kenya on Monday 9th October. We have a lovely team with a nurse, a teacher and a builder, and lots of work to do!

We are thankful that we now have regular email contact with our partners in Kenya, this means that we are able to hear stories about the progress of the students. One group of very young students are from Gathima Primary School, they come from an extremely poor area, where the Mums & Dads have a real struggle to be able to afford to send them to school. We've been able to help them a little through the generosity of Th Word Christian Bookshop in Bedford and the Redway School in Milton Keynes.

Gathima Headteacher, "Thank you for these books, we are so thankful, now we pray the children will be able to make the grade."

Most families are living on less than £1.00 per day, these books are £7.00 each book!

Thank you Redway School, Milton Keynes for the red sweatshirts you donated to the school. They were lots but not enough for every child, so the children made the decision who was in most need of a sweatshirt, even giving one to a teacher in need.

The last twice we have visited there has been a little boy who proudly wears all that is left of his precious red jumper, the ribbing round the neck!

One of our training streams is Business Development, particularly apt when working in villages with 98% unemployment. Most adults have never had any education or training, and even if they had it would still be very difficult to find a job. This is why starting a small business is often the only way forward.

All of the Christian ladies and young girls in this area wear headscarves. So one lady who attended our training courses decided to set up a pre-loved scarf business. She had a rough wooden table made, with a wooden rack above it, just what you need for displaying scarves.

Thank you to everyone that has given scarves for us to take out to her, a whole suitcase full of stock!

Last time we visited, Eunice the lady in the white top, decided that I was going to try on a scarf from her stock. As you can see it caused much hilarity...... John was not at all sure it suited me!

Fortunately they do suit the ladies in Miti Mingi and business is going well.

In our last blog I talked about the land we now have to build a training centre on, on this trip it will cost us £1000.00 to put fence and post round the land, and build a wriggly tin shelter in which to safely store supplies. Since we were last there we have had the geographical survey done to find out how deep we need to drill for the bore hole on the land. Its a chicken and egg situation because it will be much harder to start building without the water, so we have had to say that we need to raise the money, £12000 for the bore hole first. The water is much needed in this area, we will be able to sell it at a very low price to the local people, this will bring in enough income to make the Training Centre a self sustaining project.

The survey being done on the land in Miti Mingi. The drilling needs to go down 240 metres.

As you can see this picture is taken in the rainy season but don't be fooled there are months of drought when nothing grows, and people walk two hours or more to collect water.

Please pray for us as we travel, and do the best we can to make a difference in this place. x