Focus on the Ramallah Friends School

News and appeal for support!

Dear Friends and Supporters,

As I reflect on my work at the Ramallah Friends School during the past 2 years, I can’t seem to suppress the excitement of what lies ahead of me and the RFS team, in terms of plans for further achievement. Notwithstanding the fact that this year marked the centennial graduation at FBS, the school has achieved much this year both in terms of program and infrastructure development. To name a few: we were successful in activating the global network of Alumni and received their gracious and substantial financial and moral support; our seniors received acceptances with full scholarships at top US universities the likes of Harvard, Stanford and MIT; we succeeded in raising over $1 million dollars of grant funds to further develop the buildings and grounds of the both FBS and FGS campuses. Most impressive is that we were able to achieve all that in the midst of an ailing political and humanitarian situation in Palestine. While the political and economic impact of the Israeli military occupation is significantly reported on by international media (although not always accurately or fairly), the psychological impact on the mass population whether rich or poor, old or young, Moslem or Christian deserves more attention from all. The recent article below by Prof. Fouad Moughrabi says it all and his gracious mention on the Ramallah Friends School being the ‘envy of many American High Schools’ is most flattering.

While these achievements are a credit to all of us working at the Friends School, my work as Director of the School and FUM Representative for Palestine remains vital in keeping the Quaker testimonies alive at the school while looking-out for its brighter future – financially and also in terms of improving the quality of education provided. Much of the successful fundraising for RFS this year, has been directed towards the School’s general, financial aid and building funds. These contributions will always be sought after as the school still aches from severe financial hardship especially at the time of severe economic recession where parents find themselves unable to meet the tuition fee demands. To date our deficit remains quite high.

Having said all that, I am writing this time around to appeal to all of you for support to my personal ministry account which is held at Friends United Meeting and has found itself in the red ($16,000) at the close of this financial year. Many of the traditional and long standing supporters of FUM and their Field Staff missions have understandably found many other worthy causes to donate to this past year, including the hurricane Katrina humanitarian effort, etc… This left many of the Field Staff accounts in deficit. I thank you in advance for keeping FUM and my account in your prayers and plans for your future donations and remember that any amounts is appreciated and makes a difference. By securing enough funds to pay for my salary and expenses, we can all rest assured that FUM will be able to continue its mission of serving this great community and prolong this over century-old Quaker legacy in Palestine.

Our school newsletter, in case you have not received a hard copy, could be found on our website www.palfriends.org. The newsletter includes informative articles, some written by our teachers, students and administrators. Please check with us regularly for an update of our news. In addition, our student’s e-magazine, found at www.lifebehindthewall.com, will provide you a window into the minds and hearts of our teenaged students. Look out for more versions next Fall.

Your tax-deductible donations in support of my ministry account could be sent to FUM at the following address: Global Ministries, Friends United Meeting , 101 Quaker Hill Dr., Richmond, IN 47374-1926. Checks should be made payable to the Friends United Meeting referencing ‘Joyce Ajlouny Ministry Account’ in the memo section of the check.

If you wish to donate to the general or financial aid funds of the School, your check could also be mailed to FUM at the address above, but should be made out to ‘Ramallah Friends School’. Alternatively, complete donation information could be found on our website using this link www.palfriends.org/donate.php.

Wishing you all a wonderful and peaceful summer.

Joyce Ajlouny
Director Ramallah Friends School

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From Palestine: Generation After Generation
By Fouad Moughrabi June 22, 2006

A chance encounter with the well known Palestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi at the offices of the Qattan Foundation in Ramallah says it all: "No, one should not get depressed about the current situation," says Khleifi. "In fact, this is the best time for us to work seriously on the Palestinian as a human being."
There is indeed quite a lot to be depressed about. The political situation in general appears hopeless. Palestinian factions are busy fighting each other while Israel pursues its own criminal designs with the complicit approval of the international community. The level of poverty has increased very sharply and many children are now beginning to show the effects of malnutrition. Many teachers and civil servants have not received their salaries since March 2006 and the stresses and strains on the Palestinian economy are beginning to show. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Palestinian society has been subjected to a fierce attack by the Israelis since September 2000, an attack that is totally incommensurate with the possible threat that Palestinians may ever pose to Israel's security. And more recently, stiff sanctions have been imposed following the democratic elections that resulted in an unexpected win for Hamas. The Palestinian political system has clearly failed and the Palestinian national project that began in the 1950s, so poorly managed and so utterly corrupt, has now come to naught. A self destructive struggle is under way between a beleaguered and bankrupt government run by Hamas and a bunch of incompetents run by Mahmoud Abbas and his largely discredited Fatah movement. And yet, Palestinian society does not collapse despite the absence of a system of law and order.

What do Palestinians draw upon from their own society and their history in order to survive these incredible assaults against their identity and their existence on their own land? Where do they find the strength, absent a competent leadership, to persist in their refusal to surrender to the diktats of their conquerors?
Recalling the internal dynamics of the first Palestinian Intifada that began in 1988 may give us a hint as to the fundamental reasons why Palestinian society can withstand repeated assaults. These include, among other things: the emergence of a community of creative resistance; the high level of volunteerism; widespread manifestations of high levels of social solidarity; and the emergence at the grassroots level of competent leadership that engaged in democratic decision-making.

Much of this spirit of creative resistance was derailed when the PLO returned following the Oslo Agreements, an event that comes close to a second Nakba for the Palestinian people. Instead of trying to build the foundations of a possible state, the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, proceeded to squander some 1.2 billion dollars in aid, siphoning most of the money into private coffers and failing to build even one viable institution. What we now witness are the dying moments of the Palestinian national movement and the end of an inglorious era in contemporary Palestinian history.

And yet, ironically, it is deep within the recesses of Palestinian society that one detects signs of hope. Many villagers come together and those who receive income contribute funds to help others who are in need. Self help, an important mainstay of Palestinian society during the days of the British Mandate, has now been resumed and new forms of social solidarity are being created bypassing the silly factional identities that had divided people in earlier times.

On May 28, 2006 I attended the one hundredth graduation ceremony of the private Quaker Friends Boys School in Ramallah, Palestine. Eighty two students were graduating on that day with sixty two receiving their international baccalaureate, eleven students matriculating in the arts section and nine students in the science track. Nadeem Rabaia gave the valedictorian speech in flawless English. He tells me that he will be attending Harvard University in the Fall on a full scholarship. One other student has been accepted at MIT while another will be going to Stanford University and yet another will be attending Cornell University also on full scholarship. Others will be attending the following institutions: University of Texas at Austin, Ohio State University, Butler University, McGill University in Canada, Simmons College, University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, Guilford College in North Carolina, Earlham College in Ohio, Bern University in Switzerland, the American University in Beirut, the American University in Cairo and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

What is remarkable about these young men and women is that they have spent the last five years of their school life under incredibly horrible conditions: the reentry of the Israeli army into their towns, with high levels of killing and destruction, a daily cycle of violence that saw many youth of their age die as a result of Israeli gunfire, weeks on end of being locked in under curfew, severe restrictions on freedom of movement that meant having to brave one checkpoint after another, often under horrendous conditions. It is difficult to imagine the conditions under which these students, their families and their teachers had to live. And yet, here they are- a wonderfully cheerful group, happy to be graduating, proud of their achievement and committed to excellence. Any American high school would be quite envious of what the Friends Boys School has achieved.

To mark its centennial, the school paraded a number of distinguished alumni who included the following: Hanan Ashrawi who also gave the keynote commencement address, Zuhdi Hashweh who graduated in 1929, Maher Masri who graduated in 1964 and who served at one point as Minister of Economic Affairs, and a number of others who have distinguished themselves in their various fields. Each generation lit a candle and passed it on to the next. A simple ceremony that tells a big story.

Fouad Moughrabi is a Professor and head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Director of the Qattan Center for Educational Research and Development in Ramallah, Palestine.

( This article was published on several news websites and blogs, including http://electronicintifada.net )

Kaimosi Connection 22, May 2006

KAIMOSI CONNECTION 22
May 2006
Traveling in the Ministry

News from the Nugent Rehard family
FUM Field Staff in East Africa
Based at Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, Kenya
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Dear Friends,

Greetings to you from Kaimosi! Let me begin by thanking you for your prayers, support, and encouragement . . . without it, we could not be here. If you are extremely observant, you might notice that KAIMOSI CONNECTION 21 has never appeared. It has--it’s on our blog (www.kaimosicnxn.blogspot.com). It’s some personal reflections about things that are hard. I never sent it out to the whole list because it became clear that this one was more important.

We are all doing well. Mary Kay is working hard in medical school, and is now in her first week of a three-week service project at a rural health center. I talked to her today as her group’s huge commercial bus had slid off the muddy murram road into a ditch, and they were trying to dig and push it out. I’m sure she’ll talk about it in the next “Eldoret Express.” At FTC we are delighted that we have signed a contract with our builder to begin construction of the meetinghouse. As of this writing, he is scheduled to take possession of the site tomorrow. Please pray that construction goes smoothly.

Traveling in the Ministry: an old Quaker idea. I’m not sure whether our visits among Friends to describe our work and encourage support really count as traveling in the ministry, but I try to approach it that way, because certainly the Friends among whom I visit minister to me, and perhaps they, too, feel blessed by what they see and hear.

We’re doing it again, but changing things a bit. I originally planned to come in March and April, but because of the leadership transition at FUM Mary Kay and I thought it best to postpone deputation. Though they have made no decisions about strategy, the General Board of FUM has been concerned that all ministry accounts, including ours, are in the hole most of the time, and the constituency has expressed concern about the expense of annual visits. Other mission organizations have a pattern of longer visits every 3 or so years, so we are trying an experiment. I will be in the US from early July till early January, an entire semester, trying to raise enough funds in cash and pledges to pull us through a year. Emma and Eliza will come with me. Mary Kay, most unfortunately, doesn’t have a break from school until late November. Emma will return to Kenya in late August so that she can pick up her school work at Turi: exams are two years away, and there’s lots to cover! Eliza will stay with my parents in the US, attending a school near them. Having home-schooled before we came to Kenya, she has never attended an American school. We thought this would be a good opportunity. I will take a desperately-needed rest at my parents’ place during July, and will attend yearly meetings in August, as well as visiting some friends and taking care of some FUM business and doing a little deputation travel. After Emma leave, deputation travel begins in earnest.

My plan is to block out weeks in Indiana, North Carolina, and Iowa, and to visit Friends’ meetings in each area on Sundays and perhaps a few evening gatherings. I also hope to make briefer visits to Kansas and Whittier. I plan to do intensive personal visiting with supporters in each place. If your meeting would like to host an evening or Saturday gathering or would like me to come to speak on a Sunday, please let me know. Otherwise, I will be contacting supporters and churches in each area. In order to cut down on expenses, I will try to stay in Friends’ homes wherever I am able. If you think you could endure my presence as a guest for a few days, please let me know--I will be very grateful and try not to track mud on the carpet! A very generous Friend in Indiana has arranged for me to use her automobile during my deputation, for which I am deeply thankful.

My goal will be to raise, in cash and pledges, $50,000 plus my deputation costs. My hope is that the regular giving will continue but that will provide a solid foundation. Of course, during the time I am in the US, it will be important for regular giving to continue! What all this adds up to is that pledges are crucial! FUM does not at the moment have a way of tracking pledges, so during my travels I will be asking Friends simply to write us an e-mail informing us of their giving intentions. These will be carefully stored and tallied up, and a record given to FUM’s central office.

This strategy may be risky: FUM has never tried it, at least not in recent memory. It success will depend upon the Friends whom I visit and those who have been the backbone of our support. It will also depend upon drawing new support from Friends who are not yet involved. Mary Kay and I are grateful for all the ways in which Friends support us; we hope that you can also help us draw in new supporters.

I’m sorry to spend the newsletter talking about money--I’d much rather share the joys and woes and rewards of working at FTC! But this period of deputation will be crucial, and difficult, for our whole family. We are not looking forward to being separated for so long. If all goes as planned, Emma and Mary Kay will come to the US for Christmas with my family and some time with Mary Kay’s family as well—she has just two weeks of holiday! Then we’ll all return home to Kenya together.

Please pray with us about this time, and do please write. We’d love to hear from you.

We can’t name everyone, but we continue to be grateful for Friends who send theology books, Bibles new and used, hymnals, and similar materials for the FTC library and bookshop. Thank you for your generosity!

Meantime, please continue with your wonderful support. This is a difficult month--after two fee payments to Turi and a few other things, we are about $16,000 in the red as of the beginning of May. The children’s tuition account is about $10,600 in deficit, and our ministry account (salary and expenses) is about $5,600 in deficit. We will be very, very grateful for any help you can provide toward alleviating this.

Finally, let me close with a blessing from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, of all things, based on a passage from Philippians. We often use it at FTC:

“May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus.”


With love from all of us,


Patrick.



P.S. We have recently updated our e-mail list. You may be receiving this newsletter for the first time. If you do not want to receive it, please just reply with a note to that effect. If you would like to see back issues, please consult www.kaimosicnxn.blogspot.com.

Outbreak at Friends Hospital Kaimosi

Part of our job in Kenya is to respond to situations as they arise. This is my story of a recent dysentery outbreak at Friends Hospital Kaimosi, involving me most actively for two days on March 16 and 17. People's health and even lives were endangered, and I found myself and others suddenly in a position to make a difference to these lives in ways I could not have anticipated.

On March 16 at 5:33 AM I received a text message on my mobile phone from the hospital administrator Gabriel saying that a bloody diarrheal outbreak was swamping the resources of Kaimosi Hospital. This hospital was once was the pride of Western Kenya with large and excellent staff, state-of-the art facilitates, and a fine nursing school. People would come from surrounding countries for treatment. In recent years the staff has dwindled, the facilities have decayed, and they hadn't had a doctor on the staff for some time. Most people in the densely-populated, immediate area would rather travel 20 kilometers at some personal expense to the government district hospital in Mbale rather than receive care at the Friends Hospital in Kaimosi. The hospital with 140 beds -- and ward space enough for many more -- was averaging around 20 patients and was paying only partial salaries each month. On January 27 of this year, Friends United Meeting took over the governance of the hospital for the purpose of bringing it back to better serve the needs of the surrounding area. A new board of governors was appointed consisting mostly of high-power Kenyan professional medical people. I was chosen to be as FUM's representative on the boards. FUM doesn't have much money at this time to use for this purpose. We are starting to fund-raise in the U.S. and the U.K., especially for infrastructure like replacing the leaky, asbestos shingle roof. But mostly we are counting on the Kenyan Quaker medical professionals to turn around the hospital through better management.

But on the morning of March 16 the hospital was in trouble. And I, as the board representative from the governing institution, was being called for help. They had admitted 41 school children and college students since the previous week, 19 of them on the previous day. The daily admissions were rising alarmingly. Outbreaks of dysentery in Kenya are not expected to be this large, and the hospital was not equipped to handle the patients coming in. The press from the two national daily newspapers "The Nation" and "The Standard" had visited the school on the 15th, along with a camera crew from the national Kenya Television Network. The district and provincial medical authorities had visited the hospital and provided some emergency medical supplies, but more was needed. Gabriel asked the government officials if they could help with food to feed the patients, dishes and utensils to serve it, linens and blankets to put on the beds (many beds were being shared by two patients.) They said the government couldn't provide this kind of assistance; Gabriel should look to the hospital's sponsor, the Religious Society of Friends, for help. So now on the morning of March 16 Gabriel was calling me for help. What could I do? I didn't have money or resources just lying around, waiting to be used.

At 8:15 AM I talked with a Kaimosi Hospital Board member and trauma surgeon who, like me, was dropping off her two children at school. She warned me that the danger of severe dehydration can be worst at night, when it is harder for the nurses to monitor each patient, and the nurses themselves may not be at the height of their numbers or concentration. That is most likely when patents from such an outbreak may die. Even without the outbreak the hospital was short on nursing staff because some of the better nurses left for government hospital jobs where they would be better paid, and at least paid regularly.

The doctor said that she had in her possession a carton of surplus Cyproflaxin that the U.S. Embassy was giving away from their stockpiles since it was nearing its expiry date. She also suggested that I arrange to have the CDC (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control) in Kisumu test the stool samples to help determine the cause and best treatments. She made phone contact with CDC to introduce me and start making arrangements. She asked the outbreak coordinator how often they had seen an outbreak of this size. The answer was "never." She also phoned the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu (the best-off hospital in the area) to ask for help with supplies and nursing assistance.

I saw in the Daily Nation newspaper that day a picture under the banner "Outbreak", with the caption "Kaimosi Mission hospital matron [head of nursing] Carolyn Chepleting attends to Mr. John Mbugua of Kaimosi Teachers Training College in Vihiga District. Mr. Mbugua was one of 38 students who were admitted to the hospital after an outbreak of dysentery." I was told there were also reports that day in the Standard newspaper and on Kenya Television Network.

I arranged to have a friend take that day by public transportation (a "matatu" minivan) the Cypro to Kaimosi and return with stool samples. (Eden and John Muhanji were both out of town so I was single parenting and staffing the office myself.) In the early evening I drove the samples to CDC near Kisumu.

Later that evening Eden was back at home and I was at a social event at which were many business owners from our small city of Kisumu. At 11:07 PM I received another text message on my phone from Gabriel thanking God that so far nobody had died, and saying that it was only by the grace of God that he made it through the day. He also emphasized the urgent need for food and bedding supplies. Many beds were now being shared by three patients. I showed the message to a friend who stood up and got everyone's attention, and then read the message from my phone out to the crowd. Then he asked who could help. One business owner said he would donate sheeting material. Another two offered 90 blankets. Others donated chlorine for treating the water, detergent for washing the linens, and money for buying food, dishes and utensils.

On the morning of March 17 as Eden was heading to Uganda for the East Africa regional meeting of the Quaker Peace Network, I arranged for our sons Isaiah and Jesse to stay with friends for the day. My Kisumu businessman friend and I rounded up the donated supplies, and I stopped at the supermarket for dishes, utensils and some food staples. Then we stopped at Aga Khan hospital where I met with the CEO. The hospital donated intravenous fluids and IV kits, syringes, needles, and the services of three nurses. With the nurses in the truck with me, and supplies in the back and strapped to the roof, we headed for Kaimosi. As I arrived, another truck was unloading emergency supplies from CHAK, the Christian Health Association of Kenya. One main purpose of CHAK is to purchase medicines and other medical supplies in bulk so the mission-established hospitals in Kenya can get better prices. But in this case CHAK was donating IV fluids and other supplies to help with the outbreak.

I left Kaimosi Hospital that afternoon with some more stool samples, and delivered them to CDC that evening before returning home. On subsequent days I returned to the lab to collect and distribute the results.

On March 17 alone there were 55 dysentery admissions, bringing the total admissions to 118 since the start of the outbreak. But discharges also started to increase, with 29 patients discharged that day. The next day the discharges (53) were outweighing new admissions (29), so the patient population was finally going down. I saw a follow-up story in the Daily Nation that day, and I heard that there was other press coverage also.

In the following days admissions dwindled off and then stopped, and all patients recovered and were discharged. To our relief there were no deaths. Thank God.

I've now returned to more mundane -- if no less challenging -- tasks such as trying to make a payroll budget that we can actually meet each month, working on other ways to generate income for the hospital such as opening the pharmacy to the public, and continuing to work with the hospital leadership to improve operations. In providing assistance, our goal is to bring the hospital to a capacity where it can sustain itself without constant reliance on outside aid. But we need help and prayers to get there. Please pray for us, and help financially if you are able. Donations for improving the hospital may be sent to Friends United Meeting, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond IN 47374 earmarked for "Kaimosi Hospital." On-line credit card donations at www.fum.org are also welcome.

Blessings,
James Grace

What Quakers Believe: Easy Essays

Patrick Nugent, principal at Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, Kenya, is writing a series of pamphlets on Quaker theology. Each of these will appear first in draft form on a new Web-log, quaker-easy-essays.blogspot.com. They are intended for an African audience, but Friends elsewhere may also enjoy them.

The point of these essays is to explain traditional Quaker theology and practice, using biblical arguments and plain language. The Quakerism they describe is the Quakerism of early Friends, re-presented and re-argued for modern Friends. Please enjoy these essays, and respond freely. The essays posted on the Web-log are drafts, so your comments will help sharpen and clarify them before they are printed. Please comment generously!

Kaimosi Connection 21, APRIL 2006

KAIMOSI CONNECTION 21
APRIL 2006

Things That Are Broken

News from the Nugent Rehard family FUM
Field Staff in East Africa
Based at Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, Kenya

Greetings to you from Kaimosi! Heavy on my mind this month have been some of the difficult things about serving here. Mary Kay has ably written about both our personal and professional lives in previous editions. I've been more concerned with representing FTC well, and have written very little about the depths and difficulties of this experience. So this month, I just want to share some personal reflections. This letter may be a little longer than usual, a little more reflective. I hope it reveals a different side of our life than we usually cover in the Kaimosi Connection.

Working in international service in a poor, "developing" country that doesn’t seem to be developing never ceases to be a wrenching experience. As we feel more at home, we also feel more jarred by the realities of living in a broken economy (a broken world, really). We keep catching ourselves succumbing to an illusion, that as we become more settled here, life will become somehow normal. But it cannot be normal: we have neighbors who are hungry, a high national rate of crime in rural areas as well as in the city, a political system which shoots itself in the foot just when it seems to be on a rising tide. The paper never ceases to bring stories of the violent abuse of women and children that make our hair stand on end. I have come to the conclusion that poverty is an economic system, not a problem faced by individuals and groups. Everybody who lives in that system has a place that keeps it working--not just the poor, but also the rich who help to develop the economy and the ones who exploit it; the missionaries; the NGO workers; the high-level bureaucrats and low-level traffic police, whether honest or corrupt; the churches and civic organizations. The universal thing is that despite people’s best intentions, we all end up, despite ourselves, feeding the poverty system. Jesus told us, "The poor you will always have with you."

That bit of wisdom is far deeper than I ever imagined. It is all a sobering reminder that Christians have traditionally believed that the world is not, in fact, persistently pleasant and prosperous, but fallen, broken--more profoundly than our individual fallenness and brokenness. The comfort that I can take is that we are called to bear the gospel, "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom 1:16), the love of God that can seep through and around all the barriers we put in its way and touch even the rottenest or most abandoned heart. I have to keep reminding myself that my job is not to develop a college, uplift education, reduce poverty, or reform the church, though I hope to make a small contribution to each of these. My job is to be driven by the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:4) and to share that love in ways that can transform people, myself first and foremost. Christ taught and urged us to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, but never promised us victory over hunger and thirst, only that he would be incarnately present in the hungry or thirsty person to whom we offer some portion of what we have. Nor did he promise that the response would be a pleasant or gratifying one, nor that it would fix the underlying economic problems!

A teacher at Emma's school is leaving so that she may concentrate full-time on the project for street children which she and her husband have been building up for some time. The stories she tells about how these children end up on the street, and what happens to them there, tear at my heart, as do my own brief encounters with street children. But her dedication reminds me of Jesus' promise that he will be with us always, and at times that may be the only comfort of working amid poverty and suffering! When I consider the challenges she faces, I find myself humbled and grateful that that poverty is usually at one remove from me--I am grateful for a comfortable and exciting job, with wonderful colleagues and students, in a healthy institution. I told somebody the other day, with perfect honesty, that I wake up nearly every day thanking God for my job--not because it is a duty to be thankful, but because it comes naturally. I love the work. And I am continually blessed and sometimes deeply moved by my colleagues and friends, even when I feel despairing about people farther afield.

But the work does put me in touch with the painful side of Kenyan life. As I write this, the students are preparing for their month-long half-term break. They will go home to help their families with planting and to collect the last fee payment of the year. This is always painful, because many students find that their home churches or sponsors are not faithful to keep their promises, or find themselves unable to because of unexpected demands on their time. It is difficult and sometimes humiliating for the students to go around seeking support from friends, relatives, and church members. I sincerely wish that local churches would accept the burden and responsibility of educating their pastors, and I preach this message whenever I can. Some churches take up the responsibility with enthusiasm, but others are all promises and no action. This is discouraging to the students, and discouraging to me when I must send them back home. Yet our board and faculty have been crystal clear with me that our students and their churches do need to take responsibility for their education, and that my administrative decisions should not be governed by my pity. On the other hand, our students are blessed here--the fees at FTC are less than half those of our nearest competitor, and half of those fees are paid in the form of work-study scholarships made possible by the John Sarrin Scholarship fund. I deliberately don’t raise funds for scholarships because of this--though when extra scholarship money comes, there's always a use for it. Next month I'll tell you the story of some extraordinary students who have been helped by extra scholarship money, not to ask for more but simply because these students are extraordinary.

As I write this, I'm sitting at Mary Kay's desk in our little office at home. This reminds me of her absence, as she studies in Eldoret. It is a wonderful opportunity for her to pursue a long-held dream, and to prepare for a ministry of healing here in Kenya, but I do miss her. We are again blessed because we can spend our weekends together, and I can go up to see her one or two nights per week. In some ways, absence does make the heart grow fonder, and living at a distance has helped us appreciate and love one another much more! And as I sit at this desk, I am looking at the two photographs of our daughters, dressed in their smart red uniforms. Emma’s face radiates the natural warmth that has always been her gift. Eliza's radiates the charisma and humour that are her gifts. (She is very photogenic, as is Emma, but she is also a first-class ham, so her photograph has a special electricity to it!) Being apart from them day to day is very difficult. Some nights as I go to bed, I find it nearly unbearable. I ask God, how could it be that you have called us to work which has separated us from our children? How can that be right? How can it be good? But "all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Rom 8:28).

This is not a pious platitude, but a profound and humbling truth which can only be discovered by experience. We, or anybody who feels themselves called by God and his purpose, wherever they find themselves in life, will find all kinds of things that don’t seem to work together for good. I think of my own parents and their lifelong struggle to be faithful, active, devoted members of their own church, only to find themselves rejected or humiliated or frustrated at the most surprising of times, and despite their faithfulness. (This, by the way, is exactly what Jesus promised!) The reminder that things work together for good forces us to appreciate the ways in which the difficulties that come from following Jesus often produce unanticipated blessings.
I look at Emma and Eliza in their school and see how very happy both of them are, how they are flourishing in a way that would have been inaccessible in Kaimosi or even in Richmond. Emma went with a group of fellow students for a retreat on Sunday, and called us afterward positively glowing about it. She told us that she and her friends experienced real forgiveness and reconciliation, from both God and one another, and that for the first time in her life she felt the power of the Holy Spirit moving and present in that group, as they prayed and shared together, worked through conflicts, and offered each other love and forgiveness. Eliza has faced some problems in "chemistry" with a couple of teachers, but as we have worked them out, the school has helped find solutions (or time and maturity have worked their effects!) and the difficulties have blossomed into blessings.

A favorite prayer of mine includes the line: "You have given all to me, now I return it." Am I supposed to return my children to God? Is this what it looks like? Surrendering my "control" over them to somebody else?

Perhaps it would be better public relations not to share these thoughts with you. But then again, the distance between public relations and truth is often a vast one. The readers of Kaimosi Connection have been faithful supporters, dear friends, and devoted partners in prayer. I hope that being faithful and truthful about some of my thoughts is a suitable return for your generosity. I don’t want to do the missionary martyr act: let me repeat that I love my work here, our children love their school, Mary Kay is learning immensely from her studies, and we all have the confidence that we are where God wants us to be. But, like you, we live in the REAL world where our blessings are often mixed, and life is more complex than PR, and God meets us at our "growing edges."

Allow me to leave you with the full text of my favorite prayer, which pulls me through difficult moments yet expresses my awe and gratitude at the wonderful moments. It was written by a sixteenth-century Christian named Ignatius Loyola, who dedicated his life to doing, at every moment, what God seemed to be leading him to do, and to do it in the simplest and most direct way he could, sharing the life of the people around him.

Take, Lord, receive
All my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, my entire will.

Take, Lord, receive,
All I have and possess.
You have given all to me--now I return it.

Take, Lord, receive,
All is yours now.
Dispose of it
Wholly according to your will.

Give me only your love, and your grace.
These are enough for me.


In love,

Patrick Nugent.