NEWS MID JUNE 2014

Dear Friends,

An intriguing revolution seems to be happening in rural Kenya! A few years ago I was an early-innovator. An electricity pole was erected alongside my house. I refused to have mains power connected (it is dangerous, expensive, unreliable, etc.). Then I put aside my paraffin storm-lanterns, and invested in battery-powered led torches, that I hung from my ceiling to give light to kitchen, study, and sitting areas. For the last three years, I have instead used solar-powered lighting, small led lamps suspended from the ceiling connected to their own small solar panels that I have put onto the roof.

The digital revolution now happening, is of the nature of connected solar lighting systems, worth around £110, sold by hire purchase, connected through the mobile phone network. Customers pay a deposite of around £20 for a system that only works if they pay 35p daily over their mobile phones. After a year, the lamps are theirs. In some cases at least, repair is done via the airwaves from Nairobi! As well as led lighting, a radio and phone charging system may well be included. To my understanding, the batteries used are lithium ion batteries. As a result, paraffin lighting is beginning to become rare. Some other people are even joining me in declaring that the future in Kenya is not in mains electricity, but in remote digitally controlled household-level solar powered lithium ion rechargeable led lamps!

Pray for a class I am to hold teaching the Luo language to some missionaries in Kisumu for two days.

Give thanks for the prowess of one of the lads at home, who’se school football team he plays in has done so well as to reach county-level inter-school competitions!

I am amazed how now for 50 weeks God has every week given me a message to share with the staff of the hospital here at Maseno on Tuesday mornings. Every week he provides a word, and it is a privilege to be able to share it with an attentive audience of an early morning.

Best wishes,

Jim