Apologies for the delay in Blogging. The reason for the delay is twofold. Firstly we have travelled to Nairobi, and secondly we had to prepare for Sunday.

Sunday was our big performance. Michael had been asked to take the service at the local secondary school, Moi Girls. . The school is named after Moi the second Kenyan president. Kanyetta who was the first president got his face on the money and all the large important buildings such as the airport are named after him. I don't think he got round to the schools before he died so Moi got them.

Moi Girls is a boarding school so the girls present had come back to study in the holidays for their September exams. Competition for university places is fierce and the girls are under a lot of pressure to do well. The girl's have their own church service on Sundays and Michael asked us to speak. The talk was supposed to last 45 minutes which seemed to be a very long time. Claire and I spent some hours throughout the week planning, praying and talking about what to say. We felt it would be right to talk about the Father's heart. It has been so key to our personal journeys with God and also for our church. The question was how to talk about it. I woke up in the night and was reminded of a talk I heard several years ago on the prodigal son. I decided this would be the right passage to talk from and so we prepared from this. I told the story and introduced the main themes and Claire unpacked the practical issues.

The service started well with girl's from the school coming up on their own or in groups to sing at the front. There were some great singers and performers and a lively atmosphere. There was some girls using a keyboard to accompany the singers but it was in a different key most of the time. It was noticeable that despite the limitations of no PA or in tune accompaniment many of the girls were worshiping whole heartily and passionately. I know that I get distracted easily in worship and I think that I should be grateful for what I have.

Our talk went well and the girl's listened as we unpacked the story and used it to look at being a child of God (ask nicely and I can preach to you for 45 minutes). After we finished Michael came up and shared a little of his story. It was incredible to hear how he had been abandoned by his father, mother and wider family, but how God had looked after him and lead him to become a father and husband and to share God's love with children. It was all the more powerful as he had his young family with him on stage and as he spoke he urged the girl's to forgive their father's where they had failed and to know God as their heavenly father. If I ever get the chance I am going to get this guy to share his testimony at our church. It will blow you away.

I will talk more about sunday in my next entry.