AUGUST NEWS

August has been a dry month as it should be around Arsim area. However the Arsim River has been flowing continuously and rains have begun to fall around Maralal and other areas of Kenya. We praise God for this as after long droughts in previous years we do not take rain for granted. We are busy getting ready at Arsim for the visit of the auditors in September. We are mostly ready but am sure there are last minute things to do. We are anticipating a new gravel road being built from Laisamis to Lake Turkana which goes right through Illaut. They need 600,000 litres of water per day to build this road so when they are in our area they will be buying water from the Arsim community which means they may also fix our Arsim driveway and maybe airstrip while they are around. This will really open up our Northern area to all kinds of development. They are putting in a big wind farm by Lake Turkana to generate electricity for Kenya. So they need a bigger road to haul up all the tower parts and equipment from Nairobi. I believe this is a Belgian project. The new Sedai Lutheran Church is ready to build a permanent meeting place and so they are having a fund raiser in the near future to get the funds for the church building. Pray for God to bless these efforts. Yesterday was a big and exciting day in Kenya as they promulgated the new constitution which was passed by a public referendum on August 4. It was a peaceful and happy day in spite of huge crowds in Nairobi to attend the ceremonies at Uhuru Park. I stay at Kathleen's place in Nairobi when I come to Nairobi so we stayed home and watched it all on TV. People are optimistic that this new constitution will help them move out of many of their problems into a brighter future for Kenya. We pray with them that there will be political, public and personal resolve to live out the good things written in this new constitution. I will take a short vacation trip to Masai Mara in a few days with Rut and Chirsten, some missionary girl friends. I look forward to this rest.