West Ham are giving a motorbike to Marsabit! Will you help?
By ‘West Ham’, I don’t mean the football club, of course. I’m referring to the lovely people who are part of Anglican churches in Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest which, together is the Archdeaconry of West Ham. And by ‘Marsabit’, I mean our friends in the Anglican churches of Marsabit, which is a huge area in the north of Kenya.
Some years ago, the Bishop of Chelmsford’s Lent Appeal raised enough for quite a few motorbikes to be sent to Marsabit, where they are used to get around on territory that, in some places, would challenge any 4×4. The bikes help widely-scattered communities keep in touch, despite all the challenges of drought, political unrest and violence that have troubled Kenya at times.
Those bikes are wearing out, as I saw when I visited in 2014 (the photo above was taken then, at Samburu, on the southern side of Marsabit). This has been on my mind ever since, so when the Bishop of Marsabit visited the UK in 2017 I mentioned my concern to him. I also spoke to the former bishop, who now lives in England, and to a few people in and around West Ham Archdeaconry, and together we worked out that to buy, tax, insure, service and fuel a motorbike in Marsabit for its first year would cost about £2,300. So we launched an appeal at Christmas to every parish in Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, asking whether we might be able to raise enough for a new bike.
The response has been astonishing. In a little over a month, over £1,600 has arrived in cheques from parishes and individuals. I’m so heartened by the generosity of the people of this archdeaconry that I’ve gone ahead and ordered a brand-spanking-new Yamaha motorbike to be delivered to the Bishop of Marsabit in just a couple of weeks’ time, trusting that we can raise the remaining £700 to cover the cost.
So, if you haven’t already contributed, will you help us raise the remaining £700? If you can help, we want to say a big ‘thank you’!
You can donate through our ‘Just Giving’ page – https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/elwin-cockett
Or just send a cheque made out to ‘the Archdeacon of West Ham’
to ‘The Motorbike for Marsabit Appeal’ c/o The Archdeacon of West Ham, 86 Aldersbrook Road London E12 5DH
Views from the flats... 