New Beginnings

The newest cohort within Iftin began this Tuesday with twenty-four new students joining the English as a Second Language program.

For most of the Somali women in this class, it is the first time they have ever been to school. Education had simply never been an option for them before. It is both an exciting and daunting challenge they face: Each woman will need to acquire the most basic of learning skills from reading and printing the alphabet to discovering a whole new way of thinking. One of our students from last summer described her experience of entering the classes as "having my mind scrubbed" and having "new channels opened up inside of me". She told us that, as her teachers, we were turning dials in her head like a radio so that she could hear new music that was previously beyond her reach. We've been amazed at the poetic way that our students think and speak. As an oral culture, Somalis have relied on story, poetry, and proverbs to pass along tradition and national identity for over a millennia. Naturally, Somali is a language and culture full of metaphor and rich idioms. We thank God for the new and beautiful wonders we encounter among these women.

First day of school for the newest members of Iftin.
In Prayer:

Please hold our colleagues Tim and Diane Bannister in prayer, as Tim has returned to Canada for the funeral of his father who died suddenly this past week.

We also continue to pray for the Carline family as Paul's father is in the last stages of his battle with cancer.

We are looking forward to sharing time next week with a group of twelve Canadian pastors who are in Kenya on a tour focused on "The Missional Church". We will be taking the group to see the Eastleigh Community Centre on Monday and we'll be walking with them in Mathare Valley to visit a project there with our team mate A. Aaron will continue on with them for the final two nights of their stay for a brief conference in Limuru. Please pray for the safety of this group as they travel throughout Kenya.

We are also thrilled to have some friends from Midland Baptist Church, New Brunswick, coming later next week. Rev. Alden Crain, pastor of Midland Baptist, had served in Kenya prior to his call to New Brunswick. He is returning with our friend Micheal Waddell (as well as another friend of Alden's from New Brunswick) for the official opening of an African Brotherhood Church in Uganda that Alden had helped to establish. They will also be involved in a teaching time with ABC pastors. We pray for their safe journey and for this joyful time within the African Brotherhood Church.