News for End of February 2006

Dear Friends,

If I had a soap-box . The media here in Kenya is constantly reporting appeals by angel-like (in their own view) foreigners who are calling for Kenyans not to be corrupt. Foreign ambassadors seem to be heading up this activity. When is the West going to realise that it is they who can be CAUSING corruption in Kenya? Pray for many powerful foreigners through-out Sub-Saharan Africa to use wisdom in their interactions with local people.

'Family Life' is to be the title of seminars that we are planning to hold under the umbrellas of Siaya and Yala Theological Centres, in Siaya and Yala in the school holidays in April. The former is to be for 3 mornings, and the latter for 5 mornings in a row. Pray for us in preparing for these seminars on important and culturally sensitive issues.

The verdict of my examiners in my PhD Viva today (24.02.06) has been that I need to make some revisions and then re-submit my thesis. They are giving me a maximum of a year in which to do this.

Please pray for wisdom to know how to respond to this. Many parts of my thesis that the examiners seemed to find unacceptable are those over which I have agonized long and hard. Some of the suggestions for changes that they have made are those that I have in the past refused to make on principle.
Do
I now bend my principles for the sake of the examiners, or stick by my guns and loose my chance of getting the legitimation that a PhD would provide?

I explained my view that my thesis must encourage inquisitiveness and not give simple answers to Western people about the life and culture of Africans. Too many simple answers seem clearly to me to result in inappropriate overconfidence on the part of the West. My examiners insisted that the case that I make must have objective foundations.

I will almost certainly have a go at addressing the examiners concerns. I don't believe in giving up quickly. Yet, I am concerned .

Best wishes,

Jim