BIBLE SOCIETY OF KENYA
CHAIRMANS REPORT TO THE 35TH NAGM
25th MARCH 2006
Members of the Bible Society of Kenya
Members of the Board and Staff
Invited Guests
Brothers and Sisters
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this 35th National Annual General Meeting of your Bible Society. It looks like only yesterday since we held the last General Meeting here, confirming that 2005 was a very full year at all fronts of the ministry, full of both challenges and His blessings. Our Lord gave us the privilege to serve His Church, and we have no regrets that we accepted the privilege, serving it both locally and internationally.
Activities in year 2005 were run under the theme of the Strategic Plan for 2005-2008 – Consolidating and Moving ahead. We saw a lot of consolidation of the activities of your Bible Society, and made some steps towards moving ahead. While in 2004 we cerebrated 160 years of Bible work in Kenya, year 2005 is to us the year of take off in many aspects of the Bible work in Kenya. My report today will dwell in a short form on some of the outstanding aspects of the ministry. I would like to thank you all members of the Bible Society of Kenya, friends, supporters and staff on behalf of the Board. Your prayers, financial support and giving of your time for the ministry have enabled the Bible Society of Kenya to be what it is today. Thanks to many of you that participated in one-way or another.
We are today meeting at a very difficult time in the life of our nation. The wrangles that have dogged our government since its inception in December 2002 have continued to affect the spiritual, economic and social lives of Kenyans. While some noticeable economic progress has been achieved, this has not effectively filtered to the common person (Wanjiku) who remains oppressed economically and socially. The Word of God comes to give Wanjiku hope. Unfortunately, she has the challenge of affording the Scriptures. The government significantly raised taxation and clearing costs of the Bibles from the printers (not to mention the efficient tax body, KRA that makes sure that Wanjiku is heavily taxed whenever she buys anything anywhere!). This, coupled with increased international cost of doing business made the affordability of Scriptures an issue of concern. We are amazed that with increased efficiency and commitment, we were able to victoriously go through the year with an increase of only Ksh. 20.00 in the price of vernacular Bibles. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. We have been able to support the Church in her endeavour to carry out her three-fold ministry to the nation in teaching, healing and preaching, and being the conscience of the society.
BSK continued to serve the Church in the year, supplying the Word of God with increased vigour. Indeed we had the highest level of distribution in the history of the Bible Work in Kenya. We have great hopes that year 2006 will continue with the trend, and improve the performance indicators, supporting the Church in building the Kenyan people for the great mission that the country must carry out in and outside her borders. We are in Kenya at this time for a ministry that extends beyond her immediate neighbours. It is our prayer that we shall rise to the occasion to serve one another and our neighbours, to positively transform the economic, political, social and spiritual lives of our people. The Word of God plays a very important part in that transformation.
The Bible Society of Kenya faced many challenges in 2005 as your Board and staff strove to achieve the BSK mission - To make available and to promote use of Scriptures in languages people understand best, at prices they can afford and in suitable formats”. We can only thank God for the victory experienced in many fronts. This report is therefore only a short summary of the many travels, meetings, sermons, late night activities, laughter and joy that characterised the year. I would like to commend the Board and staff for their very clear commitment to the Mission of the Bible Society that enabled the Society to make another historic mark in its operations. I would like to give this report under the following headings:
A. Ministry Overview
B. Resource Mobilization activities
C. Administration