Drought in Kenya
We have all been talking about the weather this week, with the UK experiencing record high temperatures on Tuesday in particular. The effects of global warming and climate change are being felt by communities around the world. The devastating impact of this was brought home to me this week when I spoke to my dear friend Edward Buria, who oversees hundreds of churches in Kenya and neighbouring nations and is part of the Newfrontiers apostolic fellowship. He told me about the immense challenges brought by the continuing drought in east Africa. His church teams are regularly taking emergency food relief to hundreds of people and are also assisting with drilling bore holes so that communities can avoid travelling several miles a day for water. With no rains expected until November, the situation is expected to get worse, and thousands are in danger of starvation. The need is huge, and as an immediate response we have sent £10k from King’s Hope Fund to provide famine relief and help fund water infrastructure projects.
This year, King’s has given £40k to our local food project Big Red Bags, £45k to the Ukraine relief fund, and £15k to support our partnership with Scott Marques in Zimbabwe. Altogether we have given about £300k away to initiatives outside of King’s in the last year, and I would like to thank you once again for your ongoing generosity.
Finally, we had an excellent time at the church picnic on Sunday. It was wonderful to see hundreds gathering and enjoying fellowship together, despite the heat. Many thanks to all the staff and volunteers involved in pulling off such a great afternoon – you did a brilliant job!
