I have some very exciting news – we have finally found a suitable plot of land in Kibera to buy for Sarah Junior School and are signing the contract for it on Tuesday! We abandoned the other place we wanted because that plot was too contentious, so since then I have been to see lots of different places. The chief has been so helpful and was actually the one who found us the place we are going to get. The plot is comprised of 28 ‘houses’ or rooms, so is more than adequate in size. It’s in a safe area of Kibera and has good accessibility by road, so those and other criteria we had are all met. So the process is that after signing the contract with the owners they issue an eviction notice to the tenants, who are given 1 month to vacate the property. The owners than have to demolish the buildings and hand over a completely empty plot to us by 31st August. We can then set to work building a new school for Sarah Junior. I’m so excited! What I’ve been wanting to happen for 3 years is finally taking place.

Some other not so great but now ok news is I finally went to the doctor last week (after suffering with a bad stomach for months) and got diagnosed with 2 tropical diseases – Giardia and Helicobacter pylori. One is a microorganism that sits on the stomach wall and irritates it and the other is a parasite that lives in the small intestine and takes all the nutrients from the food before your body can absorb them. I had such high levels of them the doctor was shocked I was still working and he said it looked like they had been there for months. I was given 5 different medications to take twice a day for 1 week, which I have now finished. I’m already feeling so much better. My stomach is getting back to normal and more than anything I feel so strong and full of energy. I think I had got used to operating on no energy, so hadn’t realised how weak I was – I’ve lost 8-9kg in 4 months! I’m now on a mission to eat and for about the first time since I’ve been here actually feel like eating. I and other people have been laying hands on my stomach for weeks and I’ve been studying and meditating on healing scriptures in the bible for 20mins every morning and evening for about a month now, which I believe is making a huge difference. I think the fact that I had such high levels of these diseases and still continued with all my work, study, ministry etc. shows that I’ve literally been living off the divine life of God within me.

KA is still wonderful. We’ve just finished the salvation course, which I have loved so much. I never realised that the Greek word for salvation – soteria – included things like health, soundness of mind, prosperity, success, deliverance etc. as well as being spiritually reconciled to God. From the bible we’ve learnt principles to apply to achieve full salvation in each of these areas, so that no-one should have to suffer poverty or sickness etc. The course finished with counselling and we have a practical for that on Tuesday which is quite scary. The mock scenarios are those ‘hopeless’ cases and what’s more is the lecturer said the marking is very strict. I’ve then got the salvation exam on Saturday.

Ministry in Kibera is still great too. By God’s grace every week He is using me to lead people to Christ and heal them of sickness, diseases and pains.