I was reading in a book the other day about Experiment Farm, in 1789 the governor of Australia granted six and a half acres of land to ex-convict James Ruse for an experiment to see how long it would take a man to be able to support himself. He was given the land along with two pigs and six hens and was fed and clothed by the public store. 15 months later he had successfully become self sufficient, no longer needing assistance with food or clothing and was granted a further 30 acres of land.
The farm was called Experiment Farm because no European had farmed the land before and they had no idea what they were doing, according to my book the successful farm was renamed Model Farm as others began to follow Ruse onto the land to farm.
The story reminded me a lot of the Turning Point farm which is basically a big experiment, we don't know what we are doing, we don't know anyone who has attempted a similar project to learn from, the mamas didn't know how to farm the land in that area. In two years it has come a long way but still we're wrestling with how to do it right.
We spent the morning today praying about what the next step at the farm may be, trying to align our plans with God's dream for these mums. If we stay obedient to the God who knows everything then maybe one day our experiment will become a model for more people to run out of their prisons of poverty and into wide open spaces. I think God's got it covered.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Thursday, 22 October 2009
continuing
I should give an update on Aggrey. Things aren't as peachy as they seemed when I wrote my last blog. Candy is still with the aunt upcountry, we can't know how she is doing as the aunt won't communicate with Aggrey. He is pursuing a court case but lack of funds slow that down.
The latest thoughts he is having is that he probably isn't in a great position to look after Candy himself at this time so he is focusing on starting up a business that will be able to support them both further down the line. For now he is searching for an organisation that offers capital and ongoing support and advice to set up a small business. Turning Point is an option although it means starting smaller than he would like. He has some other options that he is looking into.
Things are still a real struggle for him, he finds it hard to concentrate and make good decisions about the business as his mind is always with Candy. We are continuing to pray for strength and wisdom for him and for change in his situation.
The latest thoughts he is having is that he probably isn't in a great position to look after Candy himself at this time so he is focusing on starting up a business that will be able to support them both further down the line. For now he is searching for an organisation that offers capital and ongoing support and advice to set up a small business. Turning Point is an option although it means starting smaller than he would like. He has some other options that he is looking into.
Things are still a real struggle for him, he finds it hard to concentrate and make good decisions about the business as his mind is always with Candy. We are continuing to pray for strength and wisdom for him and for change in his situation.
Friday, 11 September 2009
Too late
Too late, you can't pray God has already sorted it out! Well nearly, the church has agreed to fund Candy's school fees for a term, Aggrey has found a school and he hopes to enrol her next week.
The cheif is demanding a bit of money for the work he has done, a bribe basically. So please pray that these bits and pieces get sorted out without too much beef and Candy can get off to school soon. Pray for her too as all this moving around is probably quite unsettling and scary.
Anyway things seem to be going a good way.
The cheif is demanding a bit of money for the work he has done, a bribe basically. So please pray that these bits and pieces get sorted out without too much beef and Candy can get off to school soon. Pray for her too as all this moving around is probably quite unsettling and scary.
Anyway things seem to be going a good way.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Pray for
My friend Aggrey says he would really appreciate prayer at the moment, he is in a super difficult situation. Let me try to explain…
When Aggrey’s wife died a few years ago he was given joint custody over their daughter Candy along with his sister-in-law. Candy is now five and was very excited about travelling upcountry with her aunt who she has stayed with for last few years. Candy is a little legend she gives such big high 5s she has to take a run up, I have a photo of her on my phone all tangled and twisted up in our hammock, very cute.
Anyway, later it became apparent that the aunt had actually moved to the rural area without telling Aggrey, basically stealing Candy. Aggrey is totally ripped up about it, he travelled to try and get Candy back but they didn’t allow him to take her.
He has approached the courts to try to revoke the joint custody but in Kenya that’s going to be a long and costly process with potential corruption involved. Aggrey is exploring every possible solution as he is desperate to get her back; he even considered marrying the aunt in order to get closer to Candy (in Kenyan culture that’s not as crazy as it may sound in the UK)
The situation is developing daily and Aggrey is constantly trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, he is doing an admirable job of keeping his head and striving to respond in a godly way to everything. The aunt is adamant that she will not bring Candy back to Nairobi. I spoke to her on the phone earlier and she just said a flat no with no good reason.
Aggrey has contacted the chief in that area upcountry and he has become a mediator between Aggrey and the family upcountry who all seem to want to keep Candy there. In the latest round of negotiations the aunt agreed to sending Candy to a boarding school. Aggrey is very pleased with that possibility as he feels Candy is not being cared for properly by the aunt, when he saw her she was thin and unhappy.
God has been working in awesome ways in Aggrey’s life recently, opening doors out of the deep poverty he fell into, restoring his hope and he fully believes that God can work in this lady to change her mind or to open some way for him to send Candy to a boarding school. Please stand with us in prayer for Candy, the aunt, family and chief and for Aggrey.
When Aggrey’s wife died a few years ago he was given joint custody over their daughter Candy along with his sister-in-law. Candy is now five and was very excited about travelling upcountry with her aunt who she has stayed with for last few years. Candy is a little legend she gives such big high 5s she has to take a run up, I have a photo of her on my phone all tangled and twisted up in our hammock, very cute.
Anyway, later it became apparent that the aunt had actually moved to the rural area without telling Aggrey, basically stealing Candy. Aggrey is totally ripped up about it, he travelled to try and get Candy back but they didn’t allow him to take her.
He has approached the courts to try to revoke the joint custody but in Kenya that’s going to be a long and costly process with potential corruption involved. Aggrey is exploring every possible solution as he is desperate to get her back; he even considered marrying the aunt in order to get closer to Candy (in Kenyan culture that’s not as crazy as it may sound in the UK)
The situation is developing daily and Aggrey is constantly trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, he is doing an admirable job of keeping his head and striving to respond in a godly way to everything. The aunt is adamant that she will not bring Candy back to Nairobi. I spoke to her on the phone earlier and she just said a flat no with no good reason.
Aggrey has contacted the chief in that area upcountry and he has become a mediator between Aggrey and the family upcountry who all seem to want to keep Candy there. In the latest round of negotiations the aunt agreed to sending Candy to a boarding school. Aggrey is very pleased with that possibility as he feels Candy is not being cared for properly by the aunt, when he saw her she was thin and unhappy.
God has been working in awesome ways in Aggrey’s life recently, opening doors out of the deep poverty he fell into, restoring his hope and he fully believes that God can work in this lady to change her mind or to open some way for him to send Candy to a boarding school. Please stand with us in prayer for Candy, the aunt, family and chief and for Aggrey.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Backstreet boys, meat flaps and the legend of banamel fire
For the last three weeks the Graceworks team from Christ Church, that’s my church at home, have been out working super hard running the summer camps and cracking me up. Before we headed up to the boarding school in Kiserian we spent a couple of days in Kibera playing with the kids at both projects.
The day in Kianda was especially cool as on the way we bumped into a kid called Umoyo. I met him a while ago walking through Kibera, we had a little chat and I tried to invite him to the project but my Swahili was not sufficient to do a good job of directing him. Since then I was praying that he would find the project as he is about 12 and seems to just walk around all day in his grubby clothes feeling hungry and he is a bit of a dude, greeting loads of people along the way with the most confusing handshakes.
So with the team we met him again on our way to the kianda project and he was well up for coming with us. Turns out he does actually know the project, Mary has seen him several times but he never wants to come in. He seems like a lone ranger, not wanting to be told what to do. He hung around outside for a bit watching through the church window as we joined the kids for songs and memory verses, then he came in and started leading the kids in some more songs! He stuck around for the whole morning and had an awesome time, he was so excited in all the circle games. Hopefully he will come back again after the holidays.
Then was the camps, I think the title nicely summarises the essence of this years camps, if you were there at least. Anyway, we took all the school kids from the mashimoni project to a boarding school upcountry for drama, games, bible teaching on Daniel, sports and swimming and everyone had an awesome time. It was the first time mama millie and Godwill had experienced camp but Godwill had an awesome impact on the kids and the UK team, his testimony and his heart are very cool. Mama millie came extremely close to winning in the second week with blue team but it was stolen from her at the last minute by Moses and the green team.
The UK team were amazing, they worked hard and were so good at getting alongside the kids, getting to know each one in their teams and caring for them. These are the kids who are at school all week so they don’t see the TP staff very often like the kids who come to the project each day so the school kids don’t get as much of the individual care and attention. That is part of what makes camps so significant to the kids. In the second week the UK team decided to split up the girls and guys and chat together about whats hard for them. I think the team understood the concern that the Kenyan staff have for the kids that they have such an awesome opportunity as part of Turning Point to go to school and get somewhere but it is so easy to make one wrong decision that wrecks all of that. The UK team shared about the stuff they struggle with which I think the kids really appreciated, it broke down some of the ideas they have that all white people are rich and have perfect and easy lives. The Kenyan staff thought it was awesome.
I really enjoyed getting to hang out with more of the school kids as I hardly ever see them during term time, it was cool to know more Swahili and understand a bit more of what was going on! And it was a great time to enjoy being with the Kenyan staff, they are so cool, although I do have beef with Margaret because I lent her my hat on the first day and I still haven’t got it back, she thinks she looks like a rapper in it.
The day in Kianda was especially cool as on the way we bumped into a kid called Umoyo. I met him a while ago walking through Kibera, we had a little chat and I tried to invite him to the project but my Swahili was not sufficient to do a good job of directing him. Since then I was praying that he would find the project as he is about 12 and seems to just walk around all day in his grubby clothes feeling hungry and he is a bit of a dude, greeting loads of people along the way with the most confusing handshakes.
So with the team we met him again on our way to the kianda project and he was well up for coming with us. Turns out he does actually know the project, Mary has seen him several times but he never wants to come in. He seems like a lone ranger, not wanting to be told what to do. He hung around outside for a bit watching through the church window as we joined the kids for songs and memory verses, then he came in and started leading the kids in some more songs! He stuck around for the whole morning and had an awesome time, he was so excited in all the circle games. Hopefully he will come back again after the holidays.
Then was the camps, I think the title nicely summarises the essence of this years camps, if you were there at least. Anyway, we took all the school kids from the mashimoni project to a boarding school upcountry for drama, games, bible teaching on Daniel, sports and swimming and everyone had an awesome time. It was the first time mama millie and Godwill had experienced camp but Godwill had an awesome impact on the kids and the UK team, his testimony and his heart are very cool. Mama millie came extremely close to winning in the second week with blue team but it was stolen from her at the last minute by Moses and the green team.
The UK team were amazing, they worked hard and were so good at getting alongside the kids, getting to know each one in their teams and caring for them. These are the kids who are at school all week so they don’t see the TP staff very often like the kids who come to the project each day so the school kids don’t get as much of the individual care and attention. That is part of what makes camps so significant to the kids. In the second week the UK team decided to split up the girls and guys and chat together about whats hard for them. I think the team understood the concern that the Kenyan staff have for the kids that they have such an awesome opportunity as part of Turning Point to go to school and get somewhere but it is so easy to make one wrong decision that wrecks all of that. The UK team shared about the stuff they struggle with which I think the kids really appreciated, it broke down some of the ideas they have that all white people are rich and have perfect and easy lives. The Kenyan staff thought it was awesome.
I really enjoyed getting to hang out with more of the school kids as I hardly ever see them during term time, it was cool to know more Swahili and understand a bit more of what was going on! And it was a great time to enjoy being with the Kenyan staff, they are so cool, although I do have beef with Margaret because I lent her my hat on the first day and I still haven’t got it back, she thinks she looks like a rapper in it.
Sunday, 19 July 2009
five little ngombe
It’s a bit of a strange time in Kenya at the moment, lots of people are travelling during school holidays, so the usuals aren’t all around but its summer project season so there are teams with matching t-shirts everywhere. Nairobi is ever changing with people coming and going, one of my housemates is moving out to babysit some cats which is fairly rubbish, cats don’t know how lucky they are. Bruce who I have been doing prayer walks with is getting ready to leave so I’ll be praying alone for the last couple of weeks before camps.
I’ve been surviving without Jo and Jon around, everything is continuing fine. I think! We are preparing for the team to come and run the holiday camp up in Kiserian, I’m very excited to see them all. After that the project closes down for the rest of the school break so I get a holiday! Flippin cannot wait.
So this Thursday will be the last session we do up at the farm for a while, I think it’s a good time for us to take a break as the last couple of weeks have not been so encouraging, certain characters are very against building a community at the farm. They are convinced they are staying at the farm for 2 years then TP will buy them each a piece of land for them to farm on their own which is completely untrue but they don’t want to bother trying to build a community as their two years at the farm is nearly over, they believe they will be leaving soon. It seems there isn’t much point trying to continue with community building until those issues are dealt with, which will have to be in September when the Parsons are back.
Other than all that I’ve had some exciting times over the last couple of weeks: taking a photojournalist round Kibera to interview some the TP kids, I’m now the proud owner of a Kenyan diving license, went to a friend’s graduation ceremony which lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes outside in the sun but had an immense performance by a maasai choir, and a cow nearly ran into the side of my car yesterday on my way to band practice. TIA.
So please pray for the preparation for the team coming and for the time while they are here, pray for all the kids getting excited for camp. Please keep praying for the mums that God will do something, I don’t know what! And please pray that God would guide me and keep growing me into someone He can use.
I’ve been surviving without Jo and Jon around, everything is continuing fine. I think! We are preparing for the team to come and run the holiday camp up in Kiserian, I’m very excited to see them all. After that the project closes down for the rest of the school break so I get a holiday! Flippin cannot wait.
So this Thursday will be the last session we do up at the farm for a while, I think it’s a good time for us to take a break as the last couple of weeks have not been so encouraging, certain characters are very against building a community at the farm. They are convinced they are staying at the farm for 2 years then TP will buy them each a piece of land for them to farm on their own which is completely untrue but they don’t want to bother trying to build a community as their two years at the farm is nearly over, they believe they will be leaving soon. It seems there isn’t much point trying to continue with community building until those issues are dealt with, which will have to be in September when the Parsons are back.
Other than all that I’ve had some exciting times over the last couple of weeks: taking a photojournalist round Kibera to interview some the TP kids, I’m now the proud owner of a Kenyan diving license, went to a friend’s graduation ceremony which lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes outside in the sun but had an immense performance by a maasai choir, and a cow nearly ran into the side of my car yesterday on my way to band practice. TIA.
So please pray for the preparation for the team coming and for the time while they are here, pray for all the kids getting excited for camp. Please keep praying for the mums that God will do something, I don’t know what! And please pray that God would guide me and keep growing me into someone He can use.
Monday, 29 June 2009
Love each other
Returned to the farm last thursday for our weekly visit, we did a prayer walk and supervised a new playground being put in so the kids now have swings, a see-saw and a very steep looking slide, I haven’t tried them yet. We took blankets up for the mamas which they were extremely pleased with, they were a gift from someone in the UK.
We have been continuing to talk about how to build community at the farm, I learnt last week that in Kibera if you have beef with your neighbour you just move house, you don’t deal with it, you run away and carry all your resentment and bad feeling with you. A lot of things make much more sense now I know this. We said last week that although that’s how it is in Kibera and that may be how they have always functioned that’s not how it works everywhere and they can choose to do things differently.
This week we pressed the pause button, and lakukarachad the sessions for a bit to evaluate, thought I had better check that the mamas were actually up for it and didn’t just see it as a waste of time. They were very up for continuing, I guess it’s a nice change from digging!
I asked if they had noticed any change since we started talking about this stuff, Grace said they have started to forget about the past and look to the future, Rose said they have started choosing to forgive each other, Wahu said they no longer let small issues become big problems but choose to forget them instead, and Zipporah said the other day she needed some sugar and asked another mama for help and the other mama shared with her, they never used to do that apparently.
So that is flippin encouraging! Slowly slowly they are starting to change.
Since they are getting on so well now I had to make them play snap as a way to cause a fight this week so we could talk about conflict resolution in a not too heated way. They loved it, next week they really want to play football so we shall, there will be no ref so they will have to resolve any conflicts amongst themselves, hopefully employing some of the stuff we talked about this week.
In other news… Jo and Jon have abandoned me and gone to the UK for the summer, please pray for them as they tour about telling people about Turning Point.
We have been continuing to talk about how to build community at the farm, I learnt last week that in Kibera if you have beef with your neighbour you just move house, you don’t deal with it, you run away and carry all your resentment and bad feeling with you. A lot of things make much more sense now I know this. We said last week that although that’s how it is in Kibera and that may be how they have always functioned that’s not how it works everywhere and they can choose to do things differently.
This week we pressed the pause button, and lakukarachad the sessions for a bit to evaluate, thought I had better check that the mamas were actually up for it and didn’t just see it as a waste of time. They were very up for continuing, I guess it’s a nice change from digging!
I asked if they had noticed any change since we started talking about this stuff, Grace said they have started to forget about the past and look to the future, Rose said they have started choosing to forgive each other, Wahu said they no longer let small issues become big problems but choose to forget them instead, and Zipporah said the other day she needed some sugar and asked another mama for help and the other mama shared with her, they never used to do that apparently.
So that is flippin encouraging! Slowly slowly they are starting to change.
Since they are getting on so well now I had to make them play snap as a way to cause a fight this week so we could talk about conflict resolution in a not too heated way. They loved it, next week they really want to play football so we shall, there will be no ref so they will have to resolve any conflicts amongst themselves, hopefully employing some of the stuff we talked about this week.
In other news… Jo and Jon have abandoned me and gone to the UK for the summer, please pray for them as they tour about telling people about Turning Point.
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