As
most of you know by now, I visited Kenya from 15th to 30th
May as part of my ongoing training. There were 21 of us altogether,
including Bishop John and his wife Lydia Gladwin who were leading us. I
am grateful to everyone in the Epping Team churches, particularly St
John’s, who contributed pens, pencils and notebooks, for the schools
that we visited. Your generosity exceeded my luggage
allowance, so I shared your contributions among the group!
The Diocese of Chelmsford is linked to the four dioceses in Kenya that
have grown from the Diocese of Mount Kenya East. The link was
established in 1978 and was inaugurated with an official diocesan
group visit in 1979. Of the approximate 31 million population, 73% are
Christian, 6% are Muslim and 20% are ‘traditional religions’. A third
of the population live in cities, and more than half survive on less
than $2 a day.
Part of the purpose of our visit was to take new books to St Andrew’s
College of Theology and Development in Kabare, to add to the library
provided by the Chelmsford Diocese. (This was the focus of the
Bishop’s Lent Appeal this year.)
We
split into three groups to visit churches, projects and peoples
in these four companion link dioceses, which are located around Mount
Kenya: Embu, Mbeere, Kirinyaga and Meru.
I
thought it would be good to share with you our itinerary to give you
an idea of the range of things we got up to. The people of Kenya are going
through a particularly tough time at the moment, largely due to lack
of rain. Under normal circumstances this time of our visit should be
the end of the rainy season.
Once I have had all my photographs developed and have had time to come
down to earth again, I shall be organising a time when I can show
these to you and reflect on the trip.
Please pray for rain and for the people of Kenya in general, where
life expectancy at birth is only 46 or 47 years.
Thank you,
Carol
