So its been a relatively quiet couple of weeks since we climbed Snowdon. We raised over £1600 with gift aid, which means that climb alone has funded one person to go to Kenya complete! Actually everyone going has contributed what they can, but its lovely to think of it in terms of a person going to Kenya. The talk on the Kenya group chat at the moment is mostly about vaccinations! The advice is confusing, different health professiuonals seem to be saying different things, and boy are they expensive! But hopefully we'll all be vaccinated up before too long. The most exciting thing this coming week is the chance to meet Rachel, who teaches in Kimilili, and was our initial contact for going there. She's very kindly coming to speak to us all about life in Kenya and what we can expect, as she's home for a few weeks. I can't wait to meet her, and get the opportunity to find out more about one of the places we'll be visiting! We'll report back soon. :-)
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We've had another incredible weekend here in preparation for our Kenya mission trip. Yesterday 14 people climbed Snowdon. I (Claire) have been reflecting on the trip in the last 24 hours and there is so much I could see. Here are a few thoughts, and a few photos. Firstly a few 'prizes' - - craziest climber - Simi (with Matthew as a close runner up) - most helpful - Matthew - bravest - all of us, but especially Grace and Heather battling through injuries and pain - most sacrificial - Kevin, Hazel, Amy and Nicola - giving up half their weekend and climbing Snowdon with us despite not even going to Kenya - mountain goats - the Maynards - they made it look easy! It wasn't! - most shocked by how big Snowdon actually is - Grace and Josh L - leader of the pack - Josh G - somehow managed to keep at the front for most of the climb up and down to help keep our young people safe - wisest and most sensible and so he...
Little video update
So I just thought I would do a little video update - sorry its a bit long - I do waffle. This is a bit of background on what we're doing and why, along with some info about our sponsored climb of Snowdon next week - if you want to sponsor the 14 of us climbing Snowdon please click here - https://www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/stjamessnowdon
Wow what a weekend last weekend was! Ali, Josh L and Claire spent many an hour cooking, and so many people from St James helped with set up, lending us equipment, pack down after, washing up and more - thank you so much everyone who helped. Guests were treated to a choice of 3 different stews, Ugali (somewhere between rice and mashed potato - hard to describe) and chapatti - yum! It was an incredible night, with over 70 people in attendance! Final total to be confirmed, but we think we'll have made over £500 profit towards our Kenya trip - fabulous. Special congratuations go to Annie, Keith and Martha, who came 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in our talent show. The talent show was so good, and the poor judges had a very difficult time (thank you Jo Jo and Esther). And Grace is born to Emcee - well done Grace. And of course a massive, massive thank you goes to the Sweet Nothings, who came all the way from Exeter for the weekend t...
I'm so excited for our next fundraiser - Kenyan food, the wonder Sweet Nothings acapella group performing and a talent show! Do come along if you can. Details for booking tickets are on the poster (so we know numbers for food and the talent show), and videos of the Sweet Nothings also attached so you can see how great they are - I (Claire) might be biased as one of their MDs is my gorgeous daughter Gabbie.
In August 2026 a group of 13 from St James Church Styvechale, Coventry, will be travelling to Kenya on a mission trip. The 13 will be a mixture of adults, young adults and young people. Our ages spread from 11 to quite a lot older than 11. This trip has varying roots - Claire, one of the organisers, travelled to Uganda 17 years ago and has been desperate to travel back to Africa ever since. It changed her perspective and grew her faith. More recently Claire has been keen to take some of our church youth group to Africa to have the same kind of experience she had. Also more recently our Kenyan youth worker, Josh Lumwagi, joined us. Josh came to England a number of years ago to share Jesus' love here. But it will be such a pleasure for us to go with him to visit his home country. Our plans inlcude time in Nairobi, and time in the Bungoma region. We'll update more details as we make them, but hope to gain insight into health, education and church life in a different...