Fisherwick Presbyterian Church

AN UPDATE FROM DIANA CARSON IN KENYA

Please pray through this update.

Much of Kenya is blighted by drought – grass is dying, crops failing, cattle, sheep and goats suffering, and many areas face poverty worse than ever known. With poverty comes hunger and illness. The farmers need rain, and the people need food, and aid, which can only come from outside the country. At the same time, a very few areas, Mombasa in particular, are suffering damaging floods, roads and houses inundated, tourism impossible (economically catastrophic for this lovely tourist area), so, again, aid is needed for survival, and for repair/ rebuilding large areas. There are several areas of tragic violence, dissidents reopening old wounds, leading to killings, terrible woundings, and community fears and grief. Prayer is needed or healing of spirits, to achieve peace in this beautiful land. Maternal deaths in childbirth happen at a rate of one per second, literally, in Kenya (and perhaps in much of the poverty-stricken world). Better nutrition and maternal care, including medical care, is vital to save the women. The government is trying to meet this need, but cannot do it alone. Doctors, nurses, medicines, food, and education are needed. Cholera is killing many people, babies, teens and adults, in the major slums of Nairobi – more than twenty people have died so far. Cholera spreads quickly, and can kill in just a few days; doctors, medicines clean water and better sewage are urgently needed.

And me and my work? I am helping my one-time senior, Rev John Mburu  (my ’boss’ twice; when I was teaching at the Lay training centre at Zambezi; the ‘M’ in Mburu is silent) write what is going to be a fantastic book on healing plants, teaching people how to prepare medications from nature, to cure many illnesses. The book will be both comprehensive and simple, written in easy-to-understand English language, not sophisticated jargon, and can then be translated by Rev Mburu (a fantastic linguist, as are many here) into Kiswahili and Kikuyu. We pray for wisdom, energy, and ultimately for a publisher. I am learning a great deal, in a hurry! and am stunned by the coming awareness of how health can be rescued/restored by nature’s own medicines, even where medical services are too costly, or just not available. It is very exciting; Rev Mburu does the research, writes notes, and I ‘spin the words’. His English is very good, but time is short, and it is vital to get this work done ASAP. Next week I will give you net-references to articles he has written on several topics (yes, in English!), and which interested people can Google. I am in good health and energy, and am profoundly grateful for both, and for the privilege of working here in Kenya, where I am given the acceptance and affection of so many people, people for whom I have high regard, and who accept me as their Christian sister, even though I am conspicuously pale. That makes no difference - a great gift. Even strangers are kind to me. (I live as a family member with the Mburu couple; he is a retired minister.)