NEWS FOR END OF JULY 2009

Dear Friends,

Home issues have kept me somewhat occupied. One child threw a rock at a small boy going to the toilet in a maize field, and hit him on the head. The grandmother (understandably) went crazy on seeing her grandson's head covered in blood. Fortunately the wound was stitched, hopefully no lasting damage was done, and all Jim has to do is to pay the hospital bill! Another lad 'ran away' a few weeks ago. I am hearing that he is beginning to regret his haste, a classic 'teenage' case, so hope that he will soon come back home.

Although we had not planned any ministry to students of Yala and Siaya Theological Centres, a Tanzanian colleague came to do just that, so we are improvising some plans and I am leaving him visiting students and generally encouraging folks as I head to the UK for my brother's wedding in a few days .

KIST graduation went well on 25th July. The guest-speaker having been German, meant that I was the translator into Kiswahili.

Pray for the plans that I am making to spend time in UK / USA in 2010 to encourage 'vulnerable mission'. I am still very much looking for opportunities to share with mission bodies on this topic. It can be frustrating at this end not to have made more progress in encouraging people to engage in mission in a 'vulnerable' way. I continue to spend time writing to this end. I am grateful to Angela Merridale for her typing up of the handwritten pieces that I keep sending to her!

Jim