A crazy July

July was a very full month. There was our annual conference – a wonderful time on the coast of Kenya, with some great times of Bible teaching and singing, together with good friends, good food and moonlit strolls on the beach with the sound of the surf pounding in your ears. Then it was back to Mbeya, where we took in a couple of friends to stay for a week until their new house was ready. I can’t begin to tell you the nightmare it is trying to get good housing here and getting it all in shape for habitation – handymen are the same all over the world it seems, not turning up when the say they will, and here the quality of work is not quite what you’d hope for either. Who ever heard of having things straight? If a window frame can be crooked, let’s do it!!
Anyhow (put that in just for you, Matt!), Matt & Liz Wisbey are great friends, so I loved having them to stay, and though they’re now ensconced in their new home they still aren’t far away – just a couple of minutes up the road. (If you want to meet them too, check out their blog, which includes a cool link to a Google Earth map of where we live and our trip to work each day: www.wisbeys.blogspot.com/).

Out for a picnic with the Wisbeys

So, conference, friends and, of course, work. Most of my working life is spent in the office, but that doesn’t make very exciting writing. However, last week I headed out to one of the language areas that we work in, together with some colleagues, to hold a seminar. God really helped me out in making the seminar go really well, to His glory. So here I am holding forth in Swahili (spot the glasses).

And yes, it is as cold as it looks! But the views round about were beautiful.

The two hour journey there is not quite so pleasant, the roads are thick with dust as it’s the dry season, dust that gets in every crook and cranny of your car and body. When we arrived, they didn’t quite follow the Biblical tradition of washing our feet, but they did heat up water for us to wash our hands and faces and refresh ourselves after the dirty journey!