Harries' Farm, Thika

The beautiful Harries Dam, lined in feathery Palms

about 20km outside of Thika, Kenya

On Saturday, with our kids feeling much better after a week of being home with aches and fever, we enjoyed getting out of our house and taking a drive with our friends Amy and Sammy into the rolling coffee country of Kiambu, Ruiru and Murram Road, near Thika. We were on our way to visit Rev. Mike and Pauline Harries, a white Kenyan couple who live on a beautiful farm in the heart of coffee country.

Sammy, Pauline, Amy and Mike

Over the past few months, we have had the joy of sharing pre-marriage counselling with Sammy and Amy. As the November 27th Wedding date draws near, we travelled together on Saturday to meet with pastor Mike, who will be officiating at the wedding with Aaron. It was very interesting to get to know the Harries and hear about their perspective of living in Kenya.

We are praying for Amy and Sammy as the next two weeks of preparation will be intense with family coming from the United States and around Kenya.

Love is in the air!

Ready to head back to Nairobi,

as the sun dropped low in the sky

African Christian Church and Schools

Erica with Patrick Miana and Henry Mwangi

of the African Christian Church & Schools' development department

African Christian Church & Schools' headquarters, Thika, Kenya

On Monday, we travelled along beautifully green coffee fields and pineapple plantations on our way to Thika to visit with our colleagues serving with the African Christian Church & Schools. Since 2004, the ACC&S has founded nine Guardians of Hope projects throughout Kenya. Please pray for the leadership in each of these projects as they meet this week in Thika to help one another in planning for next year's ministry.

Aaron in conversation with Henry and Patrick during the recording for our latest podcast. Together we discussed the impact of the Guardians of Hope within the ACC&S. We hope to have this audio interview posted by the end of the week.

The Thika Community Library

We were also delighted to visit the newly opened Thika Community Library that has been built by the ACC&S in partnership with Canadian Baptist Ministries and American Friends of Kenya. The library will provide access to a growing collection of fiction and nonfiction for the community, as well as students studying within the Bible classes at ACC&S headquarters.

Erica speaking with Eunice Muthoni,

librarian of the Thika Community Library

Eunice is very busy as she sorts through thousands of volumes that have been donated to the library. "It will take us another six months to catalogue everything," shared Eunice. "I am so happy to have so many books for people to read!"

Patrick looking through the wonderful

Children's Reading Section of the library