End-month news September 2025
From Jim Harries, jimoharries@gmail.com
Dear Friends,
Time for Mum
My mother had a serious stroke in mid-August. This has given her dementia. She can do very little for herself – needing help to dress, eat, toilet, and everything else. She recognizes family members, but usually not others. She is admitted into Winchester hospital, stroke ward. She is being very well looked after. I give thanks to God for all those who are caring for her and visiting her.
September, for me, is given over to mum. What can one say, about one’s mother? Mum was indeed my greatest supporter. I guess she still is. I could not be at peace staying in Kenya, not having definite time-related commitments, so I travelled to UK on 5th September. Mum is very different to her old self. ‘Everything new’, she keeps saying, mostly using German. Through God’s amazing grace, some friends who live just 7 minutes walk from Mum’s hospital bed, invited me to stay with them. Hence I have been staying in Winchester and often visiting mum multiple times per day. Dad is also visiting her frequently, as are my brother and my sister.
Although she has improved a little since she was admitted, there seems to be little prospect that mum make a very serious recovery. The hospital is looking for an NHS nursing home where she can be placed for 6 weeks and still receive medical care. Beyond that, the future is not known.
My Furlough Activities
My furlough ‘kicks in’ on 2nd October. I have some conferences in London in early October, plus family and other visits. I am then to be in Norwich, Birmingham, York, and Derby visiting supporting churches and friends. Back in Andover for a while, then in Wantage. From 8th November I am to be with family, then from 14th November in Germany, before returning to Kenya on 28th November.
Ongoing Work
I am honoured to have been able to participate in a variety of church services and fellowships.
I have not ceased working this month. Apart from planning for meetings and travel in the next few months, between spending time with mum, I have been busy writing articles. Give thanks that this kind of work gives me a lot of time flexibility; so I can work between doing other things. I attended a conference ‘in Norway’ on 17th September over teams. There were about 12 people in the room as I presented my paper. Interestingly, none of the European people had any questions for me. All my questions came from one person, who was from north Africa. That about summed it up! Europeans, Christian included, seem to think that they have done all they need to do, when they reach out to refugees and spread education, medical services and technology, around the world. They can totally miss the point – relationship requires understanding, and that understanding can only be acquired in depth by relating closely to a people.
Encouraging Times for Vulnerable Mission
I continue to be very grateful and encouraged by the way the Lord is leading the new team that now guides the AVM (Alliance for Vulnerable Mission). Our new Director Dr. Marcus Grohmann is turning out some very high-quality academic articles. Many of these are clearly presenting key issues related to translation, and abuses of power, in the Majority World. Please pray with me that there be a wider realization of ‘what is actually going on’ so that more people adjust their mission’s policy so as to allow God to work with people in places like Africa in response to their own ways of life. I am putting finishing touches to the text of a booklet. I have also drafted an article to underlie a presentation I hope to give at a conference in South Africa in July 2026. I am much in prayer, and often sheerly amazed by ways in which the Bible speaks powerfully to us in contemporary times.
The AVM produces a monthly Bulletin. For those interested, click here for the archives going back for years. Let me know if you want to receive the AVM Bulletin for free every month.
Yours,
Jim