Tempting me back to Perth

Following Anne's comment an earlier post, I came across a post by Olive & John Drane, about the Christmas Eve service at  St Matthew’s. 

Scott came to St Matthews round about the time that we were preparing to leave Perth but we have heard some very positive and encouraging  reports about him and the direction the church is heading.  I passed the church regularly on my way to the coffee shop, and it  always stood out for me in its combination of  ecumenical spirit and practical intentions.  They always seemed to be working hard to raise support for Christian Aid, in particular.

Bu this is just great! St Matthew's Special Ale.  I’m looking forward to heading back up to Perth at some point.

We had a little wander down Carnaby Street ...

the other day and came across the snowmen.  If this doesn't remind you of Ghostbusters, then you're from a different era than me!

I'm loving London

So I nipped out for something to eat and a bit of a wander, and it turns out that they are filming the new Sherlock Holmes film outside the office in Clerkenwell.  The fans (presumably of Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr) and the paparazzi were all gathering around a caravan presumably to catch a glimpse of the great ones. 

It was quite impressive being in the midst of it all, but I was most impressed by their catering facilities.  They seemed to have about 3 lorries dedicated to catering and food.  About 25 % of the total number.

I can now relax for a month or so

I have just sent the last assignment for my Masters away which means that I have now managed to complete all 18 of my assignments, at a grand total of over 300 pages.  It has taken me about three years to get to this stage.  I still have my thesis to do (it's only about 150 pages long so I should be pretty quick in knocking that one off!)

I know I'm not exactly Karl Barth, with his 10,000 page Church Dogmatics, but I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.

Just back from the pub...

The church was invited by the local pub to have a Carol Service with them, so we all went  to the John Baird pub and had a bit of a sing-song.

The landlord gave us the freedom to do whatever we thought appropriate so we had some songs, readings, and Will, one of our Vicars, gave a small talk.

It was an odd, but very interesting, night.  I'm not sure the church has done anything like it before and it certainly was a "slight" variation on the nine lessons and carols format.  But we met some very interesting people, took a little bit of Christmas out into the community and, on the whole, it seemed to go down with the regulars well.

The tree is up...

and has stayed up so far, although it is a wee bit crooked.

I wasn't allowed to add any tinsel though.  Apparently when I start to put tinsel on the tree I get a bit overexcited, so the wife tells me, and she has subsequently banned me from using tinsel not just on the tree but within a radius of 6ft from the tree.

That leaves me the kitchen and the bathroom ...

I am detecting that the anti-tinsel feeling is not just limited to my wife!  There's a lot of negative attitude about which I don't understand.  Surely all it's trying to do is make the tree look like it has a bit of snow!

Anyway, not going to get all "Scroogey" about it, the tree is up and the endless cycle of John Rutter CD's begins.

Friday Morning

Yes, I know things have been very, very quiet here for some time but I was walking toward Highgate this morning and saw this sunrise over London. You can't make it out but the towers in the distance are Canary Wharf.

I have an assignment due on Monday and, once that is out of the way, I have promised myself to update and re-arrange this blog. I may even start posting to it a bit!

Last Sunday in Opuwo

We had our last Sunday service in Opuwo yesterday. The Pastor, Kalusha, came back from his training course especially to spend the last weekend with us and share the celebrations.

It was a good service, we enjoyed seeing the people who had been about the church for the last year, and then we shared a meal together after the service (which extended a three hour service to about six hours!)

 

There were a few tears as we feel very much part of the family here, and have assured them that we will return for a visit.

 

 

 

After being prayed for by the church we had an opportunity to say thank-you- just about holding back the tears!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our faithful old 'tate's' on the front row enjoying their sprite!

 

 

 

 

Last Newsletter

Well here it is, the last newsletter of the year!

Please have a read, and see the results of the mattress appeal!

Thanks

Newsletter #7

Our most recent newsletter has now been sent out and added to the site.

Please have a read.

Thanks

Global Day of Prayer

Some of you may realise that today is the Global Day of Prayer, and it even reached Opuwo.  All the churches united for the day, marched to the soccer stadium and held a service there.  It was really good to be part of this whole event here in Namibia!

 

Singing from the Stands

Shoes and shirts for the kids!

  Yesterday morning, having been woken at about 7.00am by Timona (who was looking for sweets), we decided to take a bag full of shoes (that Helen's sister brought over) and some football shirts (that Andrea sent over) and give them out to the kids of the paediatric ward in the Hospital.

It very nearly descended into absolute chaos but we managed to give away shoes to most of the children and, to those for whom we didn't have shoes that were the correct size, football shirts.  We also managed to give out woolly jumpers to some of the babies in the ward as well - they were very popular, since we are now heading into winter time here.

African Wildlife (6)

Found this guy crawling around on the chain-link fence outside the house.  He is an Armoured Ground Cricket, with a  body length of about 3".

There seem to be a lot of them around now that the rains are over and we seem to see a lot of them on the roads

Initially we thought they were spiders so Helen is relieved to see that they are only crickets!

Out for a week

Pieter, the Town Mayor works for Every Home for Christ, and they have been doing outreach programmes to some of the villages around Opuwo for some time now.  He invited me to go out with the outreach team for a five day trip last week, so I headed out to the bush for a very interesting experience.  The purpose of the trip was to assess how to do follow-up in about 30 villages so we spent five days driving from village to village, talking to the Elders and the Christians in the villages, trying to find out what their needs where and how these could be met.

There were a lot of interesting discussions, mainly revolving around: what meats can a Christian eat, and are there any restrictions?; and if a man with three or four wives becomes a Christian does he have to get rid of all his wives but one?  We also heard lots of news about new Church plants and how they are growing.

It was also interesting in that we camped in dry river beds, ate lots of maize porridge, cooked bread over a camp fire and was given a goat by one of the village Chiefs which we were able to kill/butcher/eat over a couple of days.

We also some some amazing scenery, as well as wild ostrich, springbok, jackals and a leopard.

Newsletter #6

Well, our most recent newsletter has now been sent out and added to the site.

Please have a read.

Thanks

Namibia failing to meet health goals

 

“NAMIBIA is unlikely to meet its Millennium Development Goals in reducing child mortality and providing equal access to primary healthcare.”

The article notes that “[a]ccess to primary healthcare remains highly unequal in Namibia … rural areas across the country are left without meaningful healthcare provision because of uneven service distribution … [and] lack of primary health care centres in rural areas resulted in high rates of poverty-related deaths, especially among pregnant women and children under five.”

It also notes that “20 per cent of all Namibians,especially in the rural areas of Kunene (where we are based) and Omaheke , lack access to primary healthcare [and] rural primary healthcare facilities were understaffed.”

A number of key facts and statistics from this article include:

• About six per cent of the country’s GDP, equivalent to US$77 per citizen, goes towards healthcare … far above the WHO-recommend US$34 per capita for low- and middle-income countries.
• The health sector spent the bulk of its annual budget on administration, “From among 10,000 health workers in the country, only 3000 are doctors and nurse, with the remaining 7000 being people employed in the administration of health,”
• Namibia is ranked 189th out of 191 countries in a World Health Organisation (WHO) global assessment of health sector efficiency, which compared spending on health with actual service delivery
• The per capita expenditure on health was the lowest in the north-western parts of the country, which also had the highest child mortality.
• The Government has failed to meet its target in reducing the mortality rate of children under five years from an average of 63 per 1000 to 50 per 1000.
• Most of the child mortalities were the result of malnutrition, a poverty-related cause of death that can be prevented at a low cost if the intervention was targeted at reaching the poorest parts of society.
• The north of the country is the area with the highest number of children with preventable non-lethal illnesses … because primary healthcare and vaccinations are the lowest there.

When you look at these it’s worth bearing in mind that we are working in the north-west of the country.

The whole article is available on line here

African Wildlife (5)

Well, here is the little beastie that I wasn't allowed to show you until the in-laws had left.

Ironically, we had been on the phone to Helen's parents re-assuring them that we hadn't seen any scorpions or snakes in the house, and then later that night we fond this guy in our bedroom, beside our bed.

He has a relatively thick tail, so I guess is a little bit dangerous!  I think he is a Western Granulated Thick-Tailed Scorpion.

The Canadians

Since we are taking the Canadians (Evan and Stephen) down to Windhoek this weekend as they are heading back to their homeland, they came around last night to cook us pancakes (the proper Canadian way!).

We thought it only appropriate that we show our thanks by posting a picture of how they were dressed when they turned up at the house.

I can only describe it as some blend of fashion from the Himba, Hawaiian, and possibly the Canadian cultures.

Grootfontein Soup Kitchen

On our way back up north, after the accident, we were able to stay overnight with Linda, an AIM missionary in Grootfontein, and see the work she is doing there.

She is involved in a church plant there and one of the other things she has done, in the ten years that she has been there, is to set up and run a soup kitchen at one of the secondary schools.

School here starts at 7.00am and goes until 1.00pm, with a break at 10.30am.  She has managed to get a bunch of the local women together and every morning at break time they make porridge for the children in two huge cauldrons (you can see one of them in the bottom picture).  It has become so popular that the local primary school kids now come over after the secondary school kids have been fed. They feed, on average, up to 600 children every day, guaranteeing them at least one good meal.

George & Bob

An interesting article in Time Magazine with Bob Geldof talking with George W. Bush about his funding for Africa.  Not something you hear too much about.

Helen has been on a couple of courses relating to MDR-TB and HIV/Aids while we have been here, which have been funded through his Global Fund.  They do seem to run a lot of courses in Namibia, which can only be good.

Although, when you read this, it is a sobering comparison.

African Wildlife (4)

We went for a walk last weekend, and came across these little fellas.

No idea what they are (but am not allowed to put any scary animals up until the in-laws have been and gone!).

Some reflections on the Accident

Both our phones "disappeared" at the scene of the accident, so we instantly lost the ability to communicate with anyone we knew in Namibia, including the hospital, church or friends in Opuwo and any of the AIM people in Windhoek.

What is really amazing , was that one of the passengers in the passing Combi must have recognised Helen as one of the "white doctors" in the hospital and rang up the hospital to see if she was OK.  The message was then passed to the Principal Medical Officer and then to the Regional Medical Officer that we had been involved in a car accident.

They somehow figured out that we were heading to the Medi-Clinic in Ongwediva and rang there and managed to speak to Helen, and from that we were then able to inform the rest of AIM and from there organise our insurance, medevac, etc.

In the three hour period that we were being driven to the hospital and wondering how we were going to get in touch with AIM and let them know what was happening, there was a parallel work going on that we weren't aware of.

There is no doubt that God, in His providential care, had the whole situation within His control.

Psalm 91 (Message)

You who sit down in the High God's presence,
    spend the night in Shaddai's shadow,
Say this: "God, you're my refuge.
    I trust in you and I'm safe!"
That's right—he rescues you from hidden traps,
    shields you from deadly hazards.
His huge outstretched arms protect you—
    under them you're perfectly safe;
    his arms fend off all harm.
Fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night,
    not flying arrows in the day,
Not disease that prowls through the darkness,
    not disaster that erupts at high noon.
Even though others succumb all around,
    drop like flies right and left,
    no harm will even graze you.
You'll stand untouched, watch it all from a distance,
    watch the wicked turn into corpses.
Yes, because God's your refuge,
    the High God your very own home,
Evil can't get close to you,
    harm can't get through the door.
He ordered his angels
    to guard you wherever you go.
If you stumble, they'll catch you;
    their job is to keep you from falling.
You'll walk unharmed among lions and snakes,
    and kick young lions and serpents from the path.

Remains of the car...

After the accident, we had to leave the car where it was ... you know, urgent appointments with the hospital, etc, etc.

The next time someone we knew went to the car was on Monday morning (about 40 hours later).

As you can see from the photo they took, the car had been pretty well stripped.

 

Newsletter #5

We are aware that the site has been pretty quiet for the last wee while, but we a reworking to change that!

Our most recent newsletter has been added to the site, so please have a read.