Published: Thursday, 15th October, 2009 5:00am

Kenya church project delight

A HADDINGTON churchgoer who has spent the past four years raising funds for a new church in Kenya will attend its official opening later this month.

Mary Wallace, who is a member of the congregation of Holy Trinity Church, will fly out on Tuesday to attend the official opening of St Peter's Church in Ihindu in the East African country. The event takes place on October 25.

Mrs Wallace, who lives in Gifford, first became involved in the project, which cost £22,000, after travelling on a holiday safari in Kenya with her husband in 2005 and finding out about places of worship there.

When she returned home, tour guide Sammy Karanja, who attends St Peter's, contacted her and told her of the church's plight.

Mrs Wallace then sprung into action when Mr Karanja revealed how services were being held in a small corrugated shack.

She explained: "Although this area of Kenya is notas bad as others in Africa where there are extreme problems with homelessness and starvation, it has its own problems.

"There has been a drought in the region, with some of the smallholders sadly losing their land."

Despite the problems in the region, Mrs Wallace is looking forward to attending the official opening of the church, which had its first service in December last year.

She said: "I feel delighted and privileged to be able to attend later this month.

"It is the biggest project that I have ever undertaken in my life so it will be a great pleasure to see how it is now it's finished.

"The £22,300 we have raised was for construction costs only. We did not charge any of the administration costs to us."

Big-hearted Mrs Wallace will spend two nights in Ihindu, 50 miles north of Nairobi.

She will be guest of Mr Karanja who last year made an emotional visit to Haddington to say 'thank you' to her for raising the much-needed cash to fund the building of the new church.

Mrs Wallace's fundraising events have included running coffee mornings, opening her garden at Yestermains, Gifford to the public and selling jars of home-made jam.

She has been supported by members of St Mary's Parish Church - which has formed an official link with its fellow Presbyterians at Ihindu through the Church of Scotland - and her own Holy Trinity Church, which is a Episcopalian congregation.

The Rev Jennifer Macrae, minister at St Mary's, hoped that the official opening of St Peter's later this month would begin a new chapter between the two churches.

She said: "Until now the link between the two churches has been largely about the fundraising, so I would expect that there would be more contact by correspondence and visits like Sammy's last year so that we can learn more about each other."

The original corrugated metal church building is now being used as a nursery for 12 children.