Kings Family CMS Link Letter 6, April 1987
by Ali Kings
Date added: 27/12/2023
By Alison Kings
Now we are five. Katherine Esther was born on 17 March at 00.45, weighing 7lb 6 oz. We thank God for looking after us all, for Katie’s early arrival, meaning that we didn’t have to wait too long in Nairobi, and for a straightforward and fairly quick labour during the night, so that the first Rosalind and Miriam knew was when Graham told them the news as they awoke in the morning.
I enjoyed my stay in Nairobi Hospital where I was well looked after and had a chance to rest and have some time alone with the baby. It has been lovely to return home to Kabare to a very warm welcome from our friends. People are delighted that we have also given Katie a Kikuyu name, Wambui. We have been showered with gifts, mostly the traditional ones of very good food, including chicken, fermented porridge, cooking bananas and paw paws.
The joy of a new baby is very great, but it also emphasizes the sadness of leaving one’s family in another country. I have missed our families not being able to see us or our new baby. A good friend of ours, the headmistress of the neighbouring girls’ boarding school, was pregnant at the same time as I was. We were very upset to hear that her baby son died at three days old. It made us appreciate how gracious God has been in granting us three healthy children, and also brought home the many private tragedies hidden in a high perinatal morality rate.
Rosalind and Miriam are delighted with Katie and are adjusting well to her arrival. They have been preparing for months, looking at my books on baby care and playing babies.
Rosalind loves her Kikuyu nursery school, which she has been attending for an hour each morning since January, after two hours of home school. It is a wooden building with a mud floor, corrugated iron roof and the shade of a mango tree for an extension. There are about 60 children in her class, so a lot of the learning is through singing. Her Kikuyu has improved markedly. Miriam is a delight, free with grins, laughs and jokes: she is looking forward to going to school when she is ‘bigger nuff’.
In the college, we welcomed a new first year intake in January of 19 theological students, including six women: three of the men are from Tanzania. They settled in quickly and well, and the atmosphere is happy, partly though the good influence of the women! The tutors are involved in theological writing as well as in teaching. Gideon, the Principal, is secretary of the Provincial Liturgical Committee, which is revising the Prayer Book. Joyce Karuri and a part-time lecturer, Kiara Gathaka, are working with a team on a modern translation of the Bible into Kikuyu. Joyce and Graham were part of a group drafting a Provincial response to the Final Report of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.
Last term Graham wrote a chapter of a World Council of Churches book on evangelism in inner cities, based on our experience of a parish in northwest London. This term he has enjoyed reflecting on the encounter between African Traditional Religion and Christianity, in an article for Anvil, an Anglican theological journal.
In January, he climbed Mount Kenya, with some friends, to the third highest peak, Point Lenana (16,355 ft): to reach the top twin peaks (17,056 ft), climbing equipment is needed. On the way up, they noticed two strange prints – one a large cat’s paw mark and the other what looked like a bicycle tyre mark. The guide confirmed there was a leopard up there, which fed on rock hyraxes, and when they reached the top hut, where they spent the last night, they met two young Europeans with a bicycle. They had cycled and carried it up in aid of a development project near Meru.
Thank you all for our support and prayers. As well as praying for our family and for the work of the college, please remember the country of Kenya. You may have seen reports of President Moi’s recent visit to the USA and to Britain: please pray for him and for the fulfilment of his national slogan of ‘Peace, Love and Unity’ and also for the extra crucial element of Justice.
With our love and best wishes as we celebrate the new birth in our family and Easter, the festival of new life.
