Safe and sound!
Countdown to God's amazing provision of a PA system. By Ken Joynes (9th May 2003)

It starts back in November 2002...
...when Colin Bond (pastor of Tavistock Community Church) and Derek Perry (projects co-ordinator) go to Africa. Colin spends over a week teaching pastors at a conference in Nairobi, Kenya. In that time he stays with a pastor and his family in the slums on the outskirts of Nairobi. The pastor leads several Shield of Faith churches in Kenya. He and Colin become good friends.

Fast forward to February 2003...
As a result of this friendship, Colin is invited to assist in a street mission and another conference in Nairobi in May. Colin happily agrees to help. The pastor makes just one additional request - is there any chance Colin could provide a public address (PA) system for the event?

We're a very small church. Spare PA systems aren't something we have knocking around too often. However, on the basis that if God wanted to provide a PA, He'd do it, Colin says that we'll do what we can.

Early March...
Operating on his usual zero-budget, Derek springs into action and sends over fifty emails to contacts across the UK asking if they have (or know of anyone who has) speakers, mixing desks, amplifiers, microphones, music keyboards and so on that could be donated to go to Africa.

One contact - a couple from Milton Keynes - forwards our e-mail onto someone they know in the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI). Several people e-mail back expressing support for our endeavours - but no equipment.

Late March - the first equipment arrives...
A couple of weeks later, Derek is contacted by Gary Guillon from FGBMFI, offering a powerful set of speakers (with stands), a mixing desk and various connections and leads. Praise God - a donation of £1,500-worth of equipment! There is just one major item lacking - an amplifier, without which none of the rest would work. No problem! It's a wonderful advance on what we had earlier (i.e. nothing).

In the meantime, the importance of the PA system has increased greatly. The street crusade organisers were originally expecting 400-500 people to turn up. That estimate has been revised to 4,000-5,000! The amplifier (wherever it was going to come from) would need to be much more powerful than we first thought.

Early April - still no amp and the deadline is approaching
We are given some very helpful advice from World of Music in London, but they aren't able to help provide an amplifier. All the quotes for a suitable amp are in the several hundred pound region.

A further complication has also arisen. Colin and the team are due to arrive a week after the start of the street crusade, so the PA system is going to have to be flown over separately as cargo before the team left - an added demand on time and finances.

Third week of April...
God's cavalry arrives via a contact in Cross-Rhythms Broadcasting. He knows of our work in Africa and got in touch with someone he knew in Wigwam Acoustics. A week later we receive a fully working powerful amp. Hallelujah!

Last week of April...
All sorted? Not quite. Derek gets help putting the system together to check it over. Problem - the speaker cables don’t match the output sockets from the amplifier! One phone call to Wigwam and a set of special adaptors arrive in the post two days later. Another test run shows the pieces of equipment work together fine. Praise God!

And still God hasn't finished...
At the end of April, Colin and Joy go to Exeter for the day. Joy nips into a music shop to find a tuner for her auto-harp. When the store manager if he can help, Joy recognises him from the youth club Colin ran about 30 years ago!

Three days later, that manager lets us have a good Casio keyboard to take to Africa at half the price we'd have got it anywhere else.

First weekend of May
The PA equipment and keyboard is packed up and all manages to squeeze into one car (just!). Colin and David Palmer drop it off at Heathrow en route to meeting Bishop Sadiki in London. Three days later the pastor from Nairobi emails us to tell us that the equipment has arrived safe and sound and is working perfectly.

Thanks to the generosity of our Christian brothers and sisters, we've sent out a £2,000 cost-new PA system to Nairobi for the cost of the cargo (less than £200) and the time and expense of taking the gear up to Heathrow. Many thanks to everyone who played a part in getting the system together. The network of people who helped stretches from Tavistock to Lancashire, Milton Keynes to Gillingham, Plymouth to London. Being part of God's family is such a amazing privilege!