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| Bishop Joseph and his wife Lillian |
A few weeks back now Katy and I were able to meet with our new boss, Bishop Joseph Mgomi, who is the newly enthroned Bishop of Ruaha. We were also pleased to meet with his wife Lillian, with whom we were able to practise our basic Kiswahili. It was an opportune time to see them while they were staying with St John’s Church, Egham for a couple of nights after a Bishops’ training conference in Canterbury.
Bishop Joseph was very positive about the work of Neema Crafts and is excited about the prospect of having many new guests to the Diocese through the new Neema Guest House. He was also keen for visitors to go on Safari in the nearby Ruaha National Park.
It is a tough time for the Diocese as poor rains over the last few seasons have crippled the agricultural productivity in the region. This has meant that the mostly rural parishioners are having to survive on very little. Please pray for the region in the coming months and years that it would begin to see the regular rainfall that it used to.
Church Circus
Church Circus
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| Outside Broome Church, Norfolk |
This month, Katy and I have visited St Mary’s church, Ealing; St Andrews Church, Chinnor; St Mary’s Church Sydenham; St James’ Church, Chipping Campden and St Michael’s Church, Broome (Norfolk).
We have been so blessed by the warm welcome received at each of these churches and really appreciate all of the encouragement folk have been through buying from the Neema stall and committing to pray for the work of the project.
We have been so blessed by the warm welcome received at each of these churches and really appreciate all of the encouragement folk have been through buying from the Neema stall and committing to pray for the work of the project.
We also spoke at the Putnoe Beaver-scout colony this Friday where my sister is known as ‘Eagle’. The beavers were most interested in the concept of paper made from elephant poo and discovering that the Lion King names were real Swahili words: E.g: Simba (Lion), Pumba (Warthog) and Rafiki (friend).
Tools for Tanzania
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| The Brick Hill Baptist Team and another container |
I spent a couple of days this week driving around country with my brother-in-law and his ex-Parcel Force van. We were picking up the many and various woodworking tools, generously donated by folk from our link churches. We now have enough good quality tools to set-up a quite a decent workshop at Neema.
Another great answer to prayer this week was discovering ‘Operation Tanzania,’ an initiative run by volunteers from the Brick Hill Baptist Church in Bedford. This church send out a shipping container to Tanzania every 10 months, stuffed with useful supplies from medical equipment through to tools and toys.
I was amazed when I first contacted the project that they immediately agreed to send out all of our equipment directly to Iringa, for very little payment. They are even storing the equipment for me while I gather up the rest of what is needed, Praise the Lord!
