Grace News is Anglican Aid’s quarterly newsletter, through which we share encouragement and updates from our project partners.

Last night we received an email from Anglican Aid’s partner in Kenya, Norm Gorrie, “We thank God for wonderful rain that is now falling here at Marsabit. Thanks to all of you who have been praying. It is so, so wonderful to hear the rain on the tin roof. For those living around the mountain, they now have real hope of being able to plant!”

We praise God for answered prayer! Marsabit, like the rest of the horn of Africa, has been in the grip of a devastating drought after five failed rainy seasons. We thank God that the long-awaited rain provides some hope to people who are facing starvation in northern Kenya. We also praise him for the generosity of Australian Christians who have given to our East Africa Hunger Appeal. The needs are enormous and it will be months before any crops will yield a harvest, so we ask you to keep praying for East Africa and our partners as they distribute food relief in the name of Jesus.

‘You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.’

We also praise God for a theological education conference in Tanzania earlier this month. A year ago, GAFCON Anglican bishops in Tanzania asked for Anglican Aid’s help to run a conference for the future of theological education in Tanzania. Much planning and prayer went into the conference that gave 10 Bible college principals and 22 bishops the chance to lay foundations for curriculum review and set a course that will help shape the Anglican church in Tanzania into the future.

The needs in countries where Anglican Aid partners are working are enormous but I have been reminded of Isaiah’s charge to God’s people, ‘You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.’ (Isaiah 62:6,7). God’s people were to call on him, to persist in prayer and give him ‘no rest’ until the Lord came in glory to restore Jerusalem and her people. As we see the brokenness of the world, Isaiah encourages us likewise to persist in prayer and ‘give him no rest’ as we wait for the glorious return of the Lord Jesus and the restoration of all things.

Let grace flow in East Africa