NEWS MID OCTOBER 2016

Dear Friends,

1st to 2nd October I took two children from home (aged 18 and 19) with me to attend a mission event at a nearby Anglican church (less than two hours away if I had cycled) whose Vicar is a good friend and was once our teacher in Yala Theological Centre. Being beyond the border of the Luo, the event was especially challenging to us as the dominant language was often Luyia, unrelated to Luo.

We had little clue as to what was going to happen. Within half hour of arriving, we were split into three small groups and went door to door visiting all the homes in the vicinity of the church. Other visitors joined us, led by locals, to share with the people regarding concerns we met at those homes. This was a challenging and productive time which, including the previous two days, apparently resulted in 44 people coming to salvation. Perhaps most amazing to me, was the 150 people, with an average age of perhaps 17, who spent the whole of Saturday night in the church. I was the lazy old man who backed out at 1.30am. The others had no option, as there were no beds for them anyway. Worship and praise was sufficiently lively, but also communicated extremely meaningfully, by young people to the other young people. I gather that in my hours of sleep in the early-hours a good number of people were delivered from demons. The following day’s Sunday service (which had already been preceded by a youth service) was as lively probably as any I’d ever experienced in an Anglican church. An additional bonus for us was getting soaked and plastered by mud on our way home as a result of a thunderstorm.

A professor at a seminary in Holland recently contacted me for copies of some of my books, which seem to be right on target for a conference they are to hold in Cameroon next month. That’s just one example of how networking I am engaging in with scholars on issues pertaining to mission in Africa, especially vulnerable mission related concerns, are getting traction. More details of the conference here.

About two weeks ago my ‘landlord’ began building himself a large house for himself. This is just a couple of hundred yards from my home. This means most days we have gangs of 20 or so men working in the vicinity, plus numerous trucks carrying building materials along the new road outside of my house. The coming of the road has rather transformed our living circumstances! A thief smashed some windows and reached in to steal from my girls’ sleeping house, perhaps an opportunist from the building site, a few nights ago. Please pray for peace, for the children not to be frightened. (The thief did not get anything of significant value.).

Jim