Helen and Alastair - some background

Helen and Alastair - some background : We have always hoped to return to Africa once more before we're too old (perhaps we already are!). Alastair first went to Africa in 1974 as a junior doctor, working for the Church of Scotland in a small hospital in Transkei, South Africa. I met Alastair there in 1982, were married in 1984 and continued in Transkei until 1988. From there we went to Kenya, as employees of the Church of Scotland, where Alastair ran Chogoria Hospital. We left in 1995, with Alec, Peter and Becky to establish the children's schooling and our work in Britain. Here Alastair found himself as consultant in Breast cancer surgery, and Helen initially trained and worked as a GP before "evolving" to full time ordained ministry. Alec is now married to Ruth, and they have baby Zach; Pete is in his final year of medicine in Edinburgh, and Becky half way through nurse training in Oxford.

The Diocese of Western Tanganyika is a partner of Gloucester diocese. The plan is for Helen to join the teaching staff of the Bible College, teaching those preparing for ministry. Alastair will teach English to the students at the college, as well as doing some surgery at the church-run hospitals, and helping with project management in the Diocese.
We will keep you updated on our plans over the next few months and will greatly value your prayer support. Our current prayer requests - and thanks to God of course - will be posted on the side bar.

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Preach and Beach


Guess which is me!
The beach at Kigoma
Yes, I did it! 25 minutes in Kiswahili, complete with visual aids and jokes. It was rather far from my usual relaxed preaching style, as every word was scripted, checked and practiced for days. A good friend, Ephraim - the Diocesan youth officer helped me a lot to prepare. It was a huge service (four and a half hours) of the ordination of the new priests in the Diocese, in the big parish church in Kigoma. 800 or so people. It was an extremely generous gesture of Bishop Sadock to invite me to speak, and a great privilege. The bishop said afterwards that my Swahili sermon was a "miracle". I disagreed as I think Jesus did miracles spontaneously, but I needed 2 weeks to practice!!  Now the challenge is to keep it up ready for next time.
The beach at Kigoma was more beautiful than ever. We stayed a night in a cottage just 20 yds from this private beach. We sunned and swam, and wondered how anywhere in the world  could be so beautiful. Becky is now at Shunga for the month, gaining African nursing experience, and being scrub nurse for her Dad in theatre.

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1 comment:

  1. James Turk3 August 2012 at 14:01

    Amazing ! well done, I agree with the bishop though!

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