HIPPO FROM KENYA
A Christian Living Article from All-Creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

True Christian living requires us to live according to Kingdom standards which bring Heaven to earth.

FROM Neville 5th. October 2006 [email protected]

Dear friends

Greetings again from Kenya!

UPDATE ON LILLY Lilly, the pregnant 15 year old taken in from the Juvenile Detention Centre by the East African Mission, had her baby while Judy the midwife was still on her way in a taxi! Pamela Mia (Mia means 100 in Kiswahili and she is the 100th child at the Mission) was delivered by May and Sylvia with help over a mobile phone from Judy struggling to get there in time. Anyway all was successful apart from the fact that a visit to hospital was necessary afterwards to assist the removal of the placenta. That was a bit traumatic for all, as the hospital is grim. Understatement. Mother and baby are doing fine however. The bad news is that blood tests show that Lilly has been infected with HIV by her father. As if she hadn't enough to cope with.

NAKURU BABY ORPHANAGE The baby orphanage run by Mission in Action is just a stone's throw from where we live. At least it is at present but by December they hope to move to their new purpose-built orphanage out in the country about 15 km away, which is nearing completion, where it will be a fairly close neighbour of EAMO. The new house stands in 10 acres of ground, about half of which will be taken up by the campus and the rest used for growing food. In fact HIPPO is shortly going to finance the trickle irrigation system for 4 acres of vegetable gardens. The land has maize on it at present and the work will begin as soon as harvesting is complete - quite soon now we hope as we want everything up and running before the dry season begins in earnest. MIA now has 20 little children and is constantly pressed to take more. They will do so once they have moved out of the present rented house to the new location. They also have a shop there which is already trading, selling cheap commodities to the local people who are all poor. It is the only shop for miles around so is very welcome and convenient for the people there. They are also able to get clean water from the borehole instead of walking 2 miles to the muddy stream. Ivan Budulica (a first generation Australian whose parents emigrated from Croatia) has offered the use of the shop to Pax Africa for distributing free food to the destitute families on its register - or at least to the ones that are able to collect from there. Potentially this could reduce some of the pressure on Mark, so we intend to give it a try to see if it works.

HIPPOPOTAMUS LEAFLET I recently had a letter from a church minister in Sedbergh expressing interest in what our leaflet said but highly critical of its 'reader unfriendliness' - too much information, lack of pictures etc. "The church Elders sort of gave up when they went bleary eyed when they turned the page", she said, assuring me that the criticism was advanced "in a supportive spirit". I was always conscious that I had attempted to get too much into 3 pages of A5 but found it hard to know what to leave out. If anybody has presentational skills that they could volunteer for designing or redesigning publicity material for us we will be very grateful. Clearly these church leaders did eventually struggle through it for the minister also said, somewhat contradictorily, "Unfortunately we are unable to support HIPPO this year but having sat and read your leaflet hope we maybe able to do so in the future as it sounds good common sense."

Also, a positive view about the leaflet was expressed in an email I had from a gentleman two days later. He wrote: "Hi. I picked up your info leaflet from an old church in Norfolk near Fritton Lake. Very special place there actually. I felt there was some sort of peaceful atmosphere of goodness there.Your leaflet was the only one there and I felt a bit guilty about taking it but it was of major interest to me.I agree with everything you are saying in the leaflet. I have thought this kind of thing myself but you have really expressed it very well, best I've seen actually. I really like the Bible references you have used, particularly with Joseph ie that he got the Egyptians to store grains etc and NOT breed more animals. I thought that was very clever to make that point. Well done."

Our thanks go to the supporters who planted these two leaflets and of course all the others that have gone out. To be frank I am just grateful when our literature provokes a response at all. For the most part it appears to fall on deaf ears, but I know reactions can be long delayed, and we have faith!

Don Gwillim of CVAUK has kindly agreed to include this leaflet in the Veg4Lent distribution to churches in the new year, but if anyone who hasn't yet done so can use a few in their own locality please let us know, especially if you can print them off if we email one to you . With the annual 'send an animal' Xmas circus now getting under way there is a great need to get the truth across - the truth that providing more animals to the poor is bad for them and their neighbours as well as for the animals.

CHURCH NOTICES A recipient of our previous note from Kenya emailed us to say "A suggestion that perhaps all your supporters can write on the back of any envelopes, whether sent to friends, tax man or vat man your mantra LIVE SIMPLY THAT OTHERS MAY SIMPLY LIVE ! Very effective but simple philosophy."

I must say we find the contrast between the affluence and wastefulness 'back home' and the daily struggle for existence by so many in other parts of the world, including this one, disturbing. There are well-off and selfish people here too of course, as in all impoverished countries, though they are a small minority here compared to the great mass of very poor people. Anyway the message is a universal one, applicable to all of us. I would be more than happy for anybody to use the phrase whenever and wherever they think appropriate. It isn't copyright! In fact I first saw it on a church notice board at Iffley, Oxford, circa 1970. Speaking of church noticeboards there was another poster that has stuck in my mind ever since I saw it near Chelmsford in 1966. This one is for Christians essentially though I suppose one could substitute that title with 'Humanitarian' also. It read: "If you were arrested tomorrow and charged with being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

FINALLY Next time a little more about Pax Africa. We are always pleased to hear from anyone. Letters addressed to HIPPO, The Old Vicarage, Llangynog, Carmarthen SA33 5BS will be dealt with in the UK. Anything addressed to Fowler as the top line at the Llangynog address will be redirected by Royal Mail to us in Kenya. If you want to write direct (but it will cost you more in postage!) our address is Fowler, P.O. Box 13200, Nakuru 20100, KENYA.

Kind regards,
Neville, Hazel & Mark 

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