Dear friends,

Receive greetings of peace from the family of St. Martin CSA.

Every year during the months of October and November, we organize a number of celebrations in the community where we invite our volunteers to reflect on the past year’s experience and give thanks to our Father for the far He has brought us. During these celebrations, we also talk about a theme that we carry with us into the following year. The theme is usually guided by the gospel of the day.

This year’s theme will be “You are a Gift”. It is inspired by the Gospel of Bethany, where a dinner was prepared in honor of Jesus.  Lazarus is among the people reclining at the table: what a beautiful image!

Jesus and Lazarus are at the center, Mary is seated with them, listening and anointing the feet of Jesus with an expensive oil ‘pure nard’ and Martha is busy in the kitchen cooking and serving. This is the vision of the new community that John is presenting, one that is built around the poor and is surrounded by love and service.

The end of these volunteers’ days is usually marked by the St. Martin Day. On this day, collaborators, stakeholders, friends, staff and volunteer management committee members of St. Martin, accompanied by their spouses, come together to reflect and give thanks to the Lord for the support they have received from each other.

This year’s St. Martin Day celebrations will be a very special one, since we will also be marking the 10^th Anniversary and the day after, inaugurating L’Arche Kenya, Effatha Home.

We wish to sincerely thank you and invite you to these two major events which will be held on the 14^th and the 15^th of November 2009 at St. Martin CSA Hall and L’Arche Kenya, Effatha Home in Nyahururu respectively.

Kind regards,

Public Relations Department