SEPTEMBER 2021

The start of a new school year is always filled with anticipation and excitement for the year ahead and Jonah and Caleb have both settled into their new classes really well at RVA. There are still strict Covid measures in place; they wear masks all day, sit at individual tables and have to keep their distance from friends, but it doesn’t seem to stop them enjoying themselves. Sean is spending most of his time at Cornerstone Preparatory Academy while Rachel has continued to juggle managing the Naomi's Village social media accounts with everything at home. More recently we have seen a rise in the number of power cuts at home which has become increasingly frustrating. We are grateful to be connected to a generator which usually kicks in after a few minutes. However, it is rather noisy and on more than one occasion has been on for so long that it has run out of fuel, leaving us without any power at all. Sometimes the generator has to come on a dozen or more times a day, so with the power out while you are waiting for the generator to kick in, it can make cooking or working online nearly impossible. Something else that is annoying is gastroenteritis. Rachel recently had it which we attributed to the water here. We cannot drink water from the tap so we have to filter all our water. We felt that it was inevitable that one of us would get gastroenteritis or something similar and some point and we are fortunate that it was nearly a year before one of us did. Thankfully we live very close to a hospital so Rachel was able to access antibiotics easily.

Whilst the new school year has got off to a great start at RVA, it has been a more difficult start for pupils and staff at Cornerstone Preparatory Academy. James, who was head of HR and a good friend, was hospitalised with COVID. There are some good hospitals in Nairobi and James was at one of those. He was there for nearly two weeks but his condition got worse and he eventually died. He was 31 with no underlying health conditions. He left behind a wife and 3-year old son, along with numerous siblings, extended family, and many who love and miss him dearly. The morning after his death, Sean was notified that one of the teachers had also been hospitalised. He had been attacked with a machete. Thankfully he has recovered and is doing well. At the same time another teacher had not reported for work and had gone missing. Nobody had heard from her for 3 days. Thankfully, and to everyone's relief, she did eventually contact the school to inform us she was moving up country to be back with her extended family due to a domestic violence situation at home. Although it was certainly a very trying couple of weeks, unfortunately, there were further difficulties still around the corner. We currently have several large building projects going on for the high school, and it came to light that not all was as it should be. It is a long and complex story but resulted in having to temporarily shut down the site due to corruption. In and amongst all this Sean has still been able to work with other senior leaders at the school to observe and provide feedback to every teacher at the school over the past few weeks. With all of this going on Galatians 6:9 has been a source of encouragement "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

It has been a long, hard month and we really appreciate your prayers, support, encouragement, emails and messages. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without people standing with us and partnering with us. As we partner together to educate, equip and empower orphans and children at risk we are reminded of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 about the Body of Christ. We are only one part of the body over here and we are grateful for you and the other parts of the body that allow us to work together to bring God's kingdom.