Newsletter May 2020

It is now over six months since we last wrote. I am sorry not to have kept you updated. Greetings to all our wonderful friends in the name of Jesus. In these amazing days of change I am thankful that Jesus is giving his peace in my heart and mind because of what He has done for me. It is incredible, the rapidity of change in our lives over such a short period of time. I assume that most of you are in some form of lockdown. We are being careful but there is no lockdown here. Our postal system is closed as there are no flights. Hotels, many restaurants and all tour companies are closed as there are no tourists. The only means of communication is through the internet and phones. Church on Zoom??? Fear and worry, death, biased news information is what many feed on. In these days it makes us think. What is the purpose of my life? Are we just born, live our life as we want or how life unfolds and then we die and go back to dust? Is that all there is? I asked these questions 55 years ago and came to find a purpose in knowing the living God through the death of his son Jesus, who died for me, cleansed me and gave me a new life. What about you? Where do you stand? I hope that you will or have come to the place of perfect peace and rest that is found in knowing Jesus.

All three sons and families have been in lockdown in Loughborough, Kristiansand & California. Thankfully all are doing well. We had many visitors from January to March, although we were alone with no family for Christmas. A group of friends came from a church in Pennsylvania who have sponsored a water tank built in Simendo. It should be ready to operate fairly soon. Frances Ashmore came for 6-7 weeks and was a great encouragement and it was good to see Anne's sister Brenda, a regular visitor. The president has taken the step of keeping mosques and churches open so people can pray and trust God for an end to the virus.

Last week we had another problem. We had 530mm (more than 21 inches) of rain in 4 days! Now 1 week later we have had 697mm of rain (the same as Leeds gets in a year!). We have never seen so much rain. The farm was completely flooded, many people's houses flooded out, bridges washed away and crops washed away. Those who planted beans will probably not get a crop - too much rain. Even for maize many have had their crops washed away. There seems to be no break or let-up of the rain. We hear stories of massive plagues of locusts in neighbouring countries and wonder if they will come here, though it seems that the wind is blowing them north rather than south to us. We are very grateful to those who generously gave to help refill the maize stores and bean drums. This should help whatever the eventuality.