Mission Accomplished in Ciamanda

Our very own member, Rev Margaret Fowler admits to having two “familiar” homes – here in Billericay where she is Priest in Charge at Christ Church and in the Kenya village of Ciamanda.

Margaret enlightened us on June 4 about her eighth visit to the African continent and Ciamanda in the county of Embu. She said: “It is the second place in the world most familiar to me.”

“We stayed at the home of Rev. Maxwell, his wife Pauline and two daughters, Joy and Ivy.  The Maxwells extended their house last year especially so they could host people from Billericay, a measure of the strong friendship Christ Church has developed with our friends in Kenya.

Bright But Poor

“We never know how our visits will develop. This time the main focus was on the education of children who are bright but too poor to attend senior school.

Primary education is free.  Senior education is not. In 2012 Maxwell set up an Education Committee to help such children and begun fund raising.   Christ Church agreed to support them annually from their Mission Support funds.

“There are about 15 children sponsored so far.   Three more have been added since we returned home to the U.K. thanks to the generosity of a Billericay family.”

So what happened?

“Stuart and I met with the Education Committee, which is made up of local headteachers, clergy, the local Chief and Maxwell (formerly vicar of Ciamanda, but now responsible for mission outreach in Embu Diocese).  What was covered?

• Impressed with their selection of sponsored students
• Visiting children’s family homes to which we were able to join them
• One grandmother bringing up four children – youngest just three months – when her daughter left them with her, returning only once or twice a year
• Grandmother was shelling maize and drying it in the sun and Stuart was dismayed to see she was wearing a Manchester United hat. He supports Spurs!
• One grandchild was very bright, but she could not afford school fees.  Now her worries are over that his fees are paid for.

Margaret elaborated on other such visits, too detailed to report here in full. 

For example, two sisters have now completed senior school with such high marks they have qualified for university but will need support to enable them to go.  A fundraising in Ciamanda was held to help and Christ Church staged a similar event for them on the same day.

Water The Goats

Other visits included crossing the river Tana, the longest river in Kenya which flowed orange with mud.  The temperature rose and the landscape changed to mountains, dust and rough scrub.  “It hadn’t rained there for several months. Thank goodness we were in a 4 x 4.  We passed women goatherds who walked up to 20 kms each day to water the goats and return with barrels of water on their donkeys. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best and a goat had to be killed in our honour. They sang Christian songs and danced for us. They were poor but insisted we take gifts of maize when we left. How could we refuse without offending them?“

As Margaret said: “So many stories to tell from our trip.”

We love hearing them Margaret and thank you.