20th April 2018

Clitheroe man loses his locks for Kenya

A Clitheroe man came under the clippers this week, to help local people in the Kenyan city of Eldoret who struggle financially with issues of unemployment and bereavement. Colin Wrighton, who drives the minibus belonging to St James’ Church in the town, decided to be shorn after taking a team of eleven people to Manchester Airport at the start on a ten day exchange visit. Colin was so impressed by what could be achieved by the twinning arrangement between his church and church school, and a church and school in Kenya, that he said he wanted to do all he could to raise funds for the scheme.

The ‘Eldoret Eleven’ made the 6,700 mile journey, taking with them all the technical equipment needed to get King’s Highway School connected to the internet. For the first time, children at the school were able to browse sites such as Wikipedia and connect with St James’ School back in Clitheroe via Facebook. The team had the help of an employee of Google in setting up the connection, and plans are underway for regular Skype calls between the two schools and churches. “We want to keep our twinning relationship with King’s Highway School and Church alive and real”, explained Mark Dyer, one of the leaders of the trip.

The team have also established a hardship fund, designed to help people in the local Kenyan community where there is little help for those who can’t find work or lose a partner. While there the team also did some teaching in the school, helped with worship in the church, and gave out football shirts. English soccer is a major interest in Kenya and the Manchester United shirts proved the most popular.

The trip followed the visit of three pastors from the Kenyan church to the Ribble Valley last summer.

You can see a video about the visit at: stjamesclitheroe.co.uk/king-s-highway-church

Ronnie Semley
23/04/2018