Dear Friends,

My last year at college was spent at St. Augustine's, Canterbury - a delightful place (when the wind didn't whistle down the North Sea, straight from the Arctic), built in the grounds of the ruined medieval Abbey Church named after the saint who brought Roman Christianity to England.  In fact, it was where the Kings of Kent were buried, and for many years it rivalled Canterbury Cathedral (just across the road).

It had been, before the Second World War, the `missionary college` for the Church of England, and one of the chapels (!) in the college was decorated all around the walls with the names of those who had trained there in the late nineteenth century and then gone abroad (mostly to Africa).  Each name recorded their dates.  Most only survived a few months - succumbing to disease, mainly.   It was a sobering thought, and I can only begin to imagine how it must have felt for those in training years before, who had only to look around to see what might well be going to happen to them !

That was what missionaries did, wasn't it ?  They took the Christian faith to other people in other countries.  Few stopped to consider the cost.  Even in the middle of the twentieth century it often brought great hardship - not only to the missionaries, but also to their families.  Maybe not death, but certainly poverty; sometimes danger.

Today, missionaries are just as likely to come from Africa to bring the Christian faith to people in this country - think of the Archbishop of York !  But whichever way they go they are referred to as "mission partners", coming to share in the work of the Churches in Surrey or Soweto, to bring a different perspective, a new enthusiasm, or some particular skill.  In Elstead and Thursley we have particular links (through the Church Mission Society) with Colin and Anita Smith, who work in Nairobi with the Anglican Church of Kenya.

This time last year, you may recall, we helped to send Edward Jowett and John Preston out to Nairobi to join them for a month.  This year, they are coming home for a while, and they will be visiting us on Sunday 29^th July, when we shall be having a joint service at Elstead at 10 am to meet them and hear from them. 

Nairobi can be quite a dangerous place to live and work (but then, so can parts of south London !), but the responses that the Church there is getting would put us to shame.  Not only that, but I suspect that often the Christian faith means so much more to some of the Christians in the shanty towns than it does - in practice - to many of us in Surrey.  We probably have much that we could learn from them.  So please make an effort to come to the 10 am service at Elstead on 29^th July to meet our `link mission partners` and hear about their work with our real mission partners - the Church in Nairobi.

P.S.  Thank you for all your prayers and concern for Liz - she has successfully undergone her second hip "resurfacing" and should be back at work shortly.