Update on Global Missions in Kenya (by Warren & Anne Marie)

Warren Smith and Anne Marie Werner-Smith returned on Oct. 20 from a nearly two-month trip that included periods in New England. New York, Kenya, Turkey, and Greece. It was an amazing time of renewal for both of us. We want to focus on Kenya for which we have done fundraising for nearly 10 years with the generous support of many people at Canterbury. 

Here are the areas of support:

St. Lukes Hospital, Kaloleni, for which we bought a 33-seat bus in 2010 which allowed its nursing school to receive accreditation. The director of the hospital and his staff welcomed us warmly (even though they had no advanced notice we were coming!), showed us the bus which has been maintained in perfect shape, and has even made money for the hospital though being rented out. The nursing school is thriving and we had a tour of their latest teaching equipment. They are getting ready to trade in the bus for a 54-seat model.

Bishop Hannington Institute, Mombasa (BHI). This school has many needs. The principal, Martin Orlando, has opened up areas of fundraising in the U.K. and has put the school’s budget in the black, but they need more enrollment (currently about 35 students), more full-time faculty, and building expansion.  Anne Marie and I stayed in a cramped dorm room and when we emerged the first morning, the entire faculty, staff and maintenance crew were lined up at the bottom of the stairs to greet us.

The new Diocese of Malindi, run by our old friend Bishop Dena and his wife Jane, who hosted us for nearly a week. The diocese has just been created and the Denas are busy visiting often remote parishes and determining their needs.

We had nearly $7,000 (700,000 Kenyan shillings) to distribute and we are now operating through Anglican Development Services, (ADS) run by our friend John Mangenge out of the Diocesan offices in Mombasa. We directed him to distribute these funds in this way:

--making the final payment on the nursing school bus

--scholarships for two students at BHI

--two computers for the BHI library

--licensure for BHI to start using E-textbooks and end its antiquated do-it-yourself Xeroxed text system

--at Bishop Dena’s request, buy a motorbike for a priest in a remote parish (we have bought motorbikes for priests twice before). We also bought a large tea-urn for the Denas to serve up to 100 cups of chai at the many functions they now host. We accompanied the Dena to several “harumbays” (fundraisers) including one for a new church bookstore they are starting in Malindi.

Warren has completed a book on the origins of the church in East Africa, “A Colony of Heaven: Bishop Hannington and Freretown,” which, after many delays, should be published in 2016. He is at work on publishing the diary and letters of William Henry Jones, one of the first native clergymen in East Africa and strong leader of the Christian community in the 19^th century; this will require a second trip to Birmingham, England, where the Church Missionary Society papers are stored. One of the blessings of this trip was to have breakfast with Simeon Tabu, chair of the hospital board and banker who helped us buy the bus, and to discover that his wife Gladys preserves in her memory many old stories of the Freretown community Warren has been writing about, and knows personally relatives of Rev. Jones and others from that era. Sounds like another trip to Mombasa is also needed.