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News as of Sunday 1st December 2002

Graham and Sheila Pountain returned from Bethany Tanzania on Saturday the 30th November.
They were fortunate to witness the return of four of our Bethany children who had temporarily been
staying in Mwanza with Fares Mussa and his wife Grace (ex-volunteers). They were Mwita,
Kwekwe, Emakulata and Rehema. A great celebration was held on the Thursday night at
Bethany attended by over 200 villagers who met to welcome our children back. Sadly Nuriyati and
Jamari are still with Fares but we hope that they too will soon return.

Bethanys new team are looking at ways of expanding the work. Already they have invited the
village leaders to come and discuss ways of doing this especially in helping growing their own food.
One of the village leaders has offered to help with ploughing of the land with his cattle and others
have offered to come down and help the children dig over their shambas (fields) and advise on
when and what to grow. The local AIC church pastor, a man called Bonniface has also been and
offered his assistance. Eddie Marshal (past volunteer) has also been assisting Bethany by arranging
meetings with our trustees etc and re-establishing good relations with Kuleana (a childrens refuge in
Mwanza). The team have also been actively bringing government officials and the social welfare
department up to date with developments at Bethany. We are also in discussions with Social
Welfare department about a scheme they have of helping children (orphaned) to stay with their
relatives. We want to look into the possibilities in our immediate area (so that we know the children
we would be supporting).

Brian Bancroft is now at Bethany for several weeks and is helping with various developments.
Brian has a farming background as well as being an engineer for many years. He is helping the team
decide on what livestock they might buy including more chickens and perhaps even a cow!

Gillian Luck

Graham and Sheila visited Gill on their way to and from Bethany Tanzania. On the way there they
had lunch at Tim and Debbie Carpenters house where Gill is staying to convalesce. We cannot
thank Debbie enough for the kindness she has shown to Gill throughout the time Gill has been in
Nairobi - without her and her family Gill would have been very much on her own. Still recovering
from her broken ankle, her next appointment is on Saturday the 7th December when she is hoping
to have a partial weight bearing cast fitted. Gill is keen to get back to Bethany as soon as possible.
Please write to Gill at Tim & Debbies address which is: Tim & Debbie Carpenter, P.O.Box
21171,Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa

News from Bethany Wednesday 18th December 2002

The team report that the returning children have settled down well. Rehema is now taking sewing
lessons in Magu along with Anjelina. Ibrahim the oldest boy is now doing a type of apprenticeship for
mechanics in Magu on Saturdays and all through the school holidays. He has one year left at the
primary school before training full time.

The shamba(field) work is going really well and Mwita one of the older boys has now a large plot of
land which he intends to grow maize and a variety of vegetables. The other children have their own
small plots of land to work on as well as a large plot of land which the village leaders have helped to
cultivate by ploughing the land for us. We hope eventually to be as self sufficient as possible.

The new gas fridge (very small) is working well (useful for keeping things cool for the clinic) and Brian
has constructed a gas burner for cooking purposes. All our gas is bottled gas but we hope it will be
more economical than charcoal - it certainly burns cleaner. Rebecca our nurse has left Bethany as
her travel costs travelling back and forth from Magu became to expensive. Eliza our part time cook
and qualified nurse has taken Rebecca's job in the clinic. We now have a new man in the kitchen and
we are told by the Tanz team that should mean more work and less gossip (we shall see). Yusto our
lab technician is to leave at the end of December so we are looking for a replacement. We expect
there to be some staff changes and additions in the near future as the new regime finds its feet and
work starts in earnest. Brian has been helping with all the different aspects of the work including the
reintroduction of hens which we hope will this time prove to be more of a success than previously.

Gillian Luck:

Gill has not been forgotten and we believe her sense of humour has helped her deal with her home
sickness and sustained her through the sadness of the situation at Bethany and loneliness of the
past few months. The UK team keep in regular contact and try to keep Gill informed of all that is
going on. Gill is still being looked after by Debra and Tim Carpenter and their young family who live in
Nairobi and have helped Gill throughout her recovery. We cannot thank them enough for their
kindness

The good news is that Gill tells us in her email that:

' I still have to use crutches and am not supposed to be full weight bearing yet. The doctor
said I could return to Bethany when I feel confident walking, and would prefer it if I used
only one crutch or walking stick (I'm hoping that I will be able to walk without either -
soon).'

Please join us in our prayers that Gill will recover sufficiently to return to Bethany before the new year.

Children's trip to the UK:

Sadly this does not now seem likely at present due to the recent setbacks. We believe we may have
to postpone the trip or make it another year perhaps 2004

Future trips:

We have numerous ex visitors and volunteers who have contacted us recently to offer their
encouragement and support. Four such people want to visit again to encourage the staff, children and
the workers include Marjorie Rylands (ex 12month volunteer), Dave Shore (founding member), Maria
de Frietas (nurse) and Christopher Gaster (joiner) - all have visited previously but now want to return.

News from Bethany Saturday 28th December 2002

Today we received an email from Bethany Tanzania to say that Rehema (pictured below) has passed her
exams to go to secondary school. We believe it has been a number of years since a pupil from Yitwimila
Primary School has passed the national government exams for admission to secondary education.
Sadly, neither Mwita or Nuriyati (now serving as a house girl for Fares and Grace) have passed. We
know that Mwita is interested in electronics and now he has completed standard 7 (top class at primary
school) he could go do a more practical course in electronics or similar.

Gillian Luck to return to Bethany

Gill has now booked her return flight to Bethany and she hopes to be back in her old room at Bethany by
the New Year. She has a lot of work to catch up on and will be working with a completely new team. We
want to thank you all for your prayers for Gill's swift recovery and now we ask you to pray that she soon
integrates into the new team.

The team also report a temporary problem with the water supply system which was off for a couple of
days as the new team struggled to sort out the problem. After checking everything they found the inlet
pipe in the Lake had become blocked and they managed to clear it out and re-prime the system which is
now working again. They need congratulating on overcoming this problem as it is the first time they have
had to deal with such a problem with a UK team member being present or Fares or John Katinde.

The ploughing and planting of the land are making progress and we should soon be reaping the benefits of
the food we have grown when harvest time comes.

Trip to Bethany, Dave Shore, Marjorie Rylands and Graham Pountain will soon be leaving for Tanzania
for an extended stay. Marjorie, who spent over twelve months at Bethany intends to visit the Serengeti
this time as she never got chance when she came before. Dave Shore (founding member) is looking
forward to renewing old acquaintances and helping pioneer new ways of developing the work.