Mwangi Update January 2021

Here’s the latest from Gerald and Louise:

Hi everyone,

Praise the Lord for His grace and mercy! Just to look back over the last year, 2020 started well here in Kenya. We had 51 students sign up for TransformD which was double the number we had in 2019. Many people around the country now know about our programme.

One of the problems that Kenya experiences are tribal tensions between different language groups but we are happy that our programmes are becoming more and more diverse and hopefully by having them together people can see how the gospel goes beyond race, colour, tribe, language, etc.

Sadly, the programme was cut short half-way because of Covid but we are glad that we have kept in contact with most of them through online conversations, calls and at one point we have gathered some of them back in our offices for a reunion and fellowship. Some of them have now joined university and others still waiting to know what next for them. We hope that they will continue to shine the light of Christ wherever they go.

We intended to have a programme in January 2021 but because schools have been closed for so long we have had to change. Normally the Kenyan School calendar starts in January and finishes in December and students join the university/college in September so in that gap we were able to run the programme. This year schools were closed from March and reopened for all years in January 2021 except for two exam classes (age 14 and 18) who went back in October. This will have a significant knock-on effect to many things and we will have to adjust the months we run the programme for several years because of it. We hope to have a cohort starting in May as that’s when the high schoolers will have finished the exams and we pray for God’s guidance in that and other future plans.

Prayer points.

Thank God for Gerald’s healing who had contracted Covid near the end of 2020.

Thank God for Louise’s recovery after the birth of James.  

Thank God for Jeremiah and Daniel who adore their baby brother and are now learning how to make him laugh, he loves to watch what they are doing.

Thank God for friends and partners who have been praying and supporting us through the year.

Pray for energy and strength to keep going amidst what is going on around us.

Pray for iServe as they rethink how to adjust the programme in light of Covid and also dealing with the uncertainty of the months ahead.

Pray for Kenya as schools started again on 4th January and before that many people will have travelled out of the cities for Christmas. Covid cases have been increasing and we wait to see how the schools returning and people travelling will affect the numbers, particularly hospital admissions.

Thank you for your continued support, we pray you have a blessed year ahead.

Gerald, Louise, Jeremiah, Daniel and James