August '08 | September '08 | October '08 | November '08 | December '08 |
This has been a busy month. We celebrated three birthdays - John’s 73rd, Andrew’s 14th and Matt’s 11th – and we spent
an afternoon with Jane, a Kenyan friend, at the beach in Branford.One Saturday, we helped to served hamburgers, hotdogs, fries and cake (from Trader Joe’s) to needy folks at Norwalk Emergency Shelter.
Jane and Lucy, formerly of Tumaini Children’s Home in Nyeri, Kenya, have been offered jobs at The Fairmont
Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, starting in December. Thank you Amy for making this happen. We are
praying that the remaining formalities go smoothly. Jane and Lucy completed their Food and Beverage Preparation
and Management course at Thika Institute of Technology (now Mt. Kenya University) at the end of 2007. We enjoyed wonderful music again at Noroton Presbyterian Church - this time, an Organ Concert by Josiah Armes, featuring works by Bach, Durufle, Distler, Howells, Pierne, Bingham and Mendelssohn. Josiah is 20 years old and a first-year graduate student at the Yale University of Music, where he studies organ with Thomas Murray.
Three of Marilyn’s Photos – “Hula Hooping Daisy”, “Grande Dames” and “Monk at Key Gompa” have been selected for “Encore! Art in Public Places”.They will be on exhibit in Stamford Downtown, June 9 through the end of August.
We spent a weekend in Stone Harbor, NJ with six members of our gourmand group and enjoyed long walks on the beach
and lots of wonderful food.
John played his tuba again at the concert after the ecumenical service at the Presbyterian Church in New Canaan
on the Sunday of Memorial Weekend – and then he marched with a sousaphone in the parade in New Canaan on Memorial Day.There is still an urgent need for scholarships for Tumaini Leavers (students who have finished secondary school and want to go on to a university or college/trade school). Please go to How You Can Help on this website – there’s a direct link for making donations thru The Outreach Foundation. Also, please be sure to specify that your donation is to go into the “Nyeri Vocational Training and Further Education” account for post-secondary school fees.
We are off to India on the 29th. We fly into Delhi, then to Chandighar. From there we’ll go by Toy Train to Shimla to start our guided tour into The Spiti Valley (where we were last June and which we think is more like Tibet than Tibet itself).
As we prepared for our four month sojourn, we prayed this Pilgrim Prayer from “Walk in a Relaxed Way – Life Lessons from the Camino” by Joyce Rupp. We will continue praying it every day while we are away. We’d love for you to pray it each day too so we are all connected though 12,000 miles apart.
guide us on our way today.
Keep us safe from harm.
Deepen our relationship with you,
your earth, and all your family.
Strengthen your love within us
that we may be a presence of your peace
in our world. Amen”
The Birthday Boys (and Emily)
Lucy and Jane on the Bus
On the Beach
John Marches On