Update - October 13

Greetings from Kenya!

I am trying to be a more regular blogger. Here are the latest developments with us.

Work with Planting Faith is going well – and very, very busy. We have several things on the horizon and several important meetings this week. With God’s help, I will be writing more about some of these things later.

Horace left today for a busy two days of travel. First, he heads to Ngare Ndare to check on the butternut squash and the group there. Tomorrow, he will be in Kerugoya for a meeting with farmers and CCS officers about details of the sunflower processing machine. After that, he heads to a rescheduled meeting with the Bishop in Thika. He tried to have the meeting last week, but Bishop Githiga had to meet with Kofi Annan instead….ok, that’s a good reason.

Kofi Annan was in town because Kenya has reached some deadlines in dealing with the post election violence perpetrators from December 2007. They had until September 30 to set up a local tribunal to bring them to justice, but it failed twice in Parliament. So now, it will be up to the International Criminal Court at the Hague. That prosecutor is due to arrive in Kenya soon to set up details of how this will happen. The plan is that the major players will be prosecuted by the ICC and others involved should be tried locally, but I guess we will all have to wait for official announcements. Kenya has pledged to support the process, and we pray that, whatever the outcome, the lasting result will be peace and reconciliation among the people of this country. So, stay tuned for more news in this area.

In other Planting Faith News, we are beginning a pilot project in Murang’a which has a slightly different approach to financing projects than our other work. We pray that this will be successful, and we are optimistic as we approach it. Please check out the Rhodes’ blog http://allrhodesleadtokenya.blogspot.com for more details and information about this.

We continue to need and pray for rain. We have had some nice showers, but we cannot say the rainy season has begun quite yet. I can truly say that rain hitting the roof is such a wonderful sound. We keep hearing that an El Nino weather pattern will be coming and causing abnormally increased rainfall. This will bring the blessing of filling rivers and dams across the country, but it can also bring landslides, flooding and disease. We pray that all are prepared if this does occur and that the people in rural areas are protected.

Family life moves right along at a brisk pace. Mary Shea and I had a great trip for Cultural Field Studies (CFS) with her seventh grade class. CFS is a great program at Rosslyn Academy that takes each class (from grade 5 – 12) on a 3 to 5 day experience somewhere in Kenya. For Mary Shea’s trip, we went to Elsamere – the home of Joy Adamson of Born Free fame. It was a great time for the kids. We had awesome teaching on Environmental Stewardship, a service time of fellowship at a local school and great devotions on what God is calling each of us to do in the world with others and with our surroundings. Unfortunately, we returned with an uninvited guest as we both contracted a bacterial infection somewhere along the way. Thankfully, we were treated Saturday by competent doctors – even though Saturday was a National Holiday here – and we are both now recovering. I continue to be thankful that we can receive good medical care here – especially for these type illnesses.

Meanwhile, Horace, Jr. , who usually participates in all three sports season each year, has been experiencing substantial knee pain for quite a while. We sought treatment and were told it was growing pains, but we have become increasingly worried that the normal pain relievers did not seem to work. So, we got a second opinion on Friday. They are running multiple tests to determine the nature of the problem. The good news is that the doctor is talking in terms of rest and physiotherapy to alleviate the problem and not surgery of any kind. We will know more after some of the test results. The bad news is that he is out of sports for the next 4 weeks. We pray that we can get some answers and start him on a treatment course for relief as well as get him back into all the sports he loves.

In other news….the Tiptons are moving! We have loved the house where we have lived for the last 3 ½ years, but there have been many changes in our area. The latest blow was the beginning of construction of a Nakumatt in the once wooded lot next door – think Walmart as your neighbor. The construction noise has seemed to grow louder each day. So, we will be moving to the tea area of Tigoni next month. We are looking forward to the move and where we are going. We will even get the chance to have a real garden again like we did at our house in Thika.

So, as you can see, we are not lacking for activity. Please join us in prayer for our work and our family. We do seem to be in a lot of transition in many areas, and that is always a source of stress. However, we rest in the knowledge that God is firmly in control of all situations.

Thank you for your messages of encouragement and your prayers. May your week be truly blessed in all you do.

Anne (for all the Tiptons)