The Five Minute Friday prompt this week is BRIEF and all I can think of is the 1945 film Brief Encounter. I have been reflecting on brief encounters in my own life. I confess that this blog took longer than five minutes because I became engrossed in the story of Rae.

The flagpole, hidden by the tree,
Rae Girls Secondary School. LM1972

I was looking through diaries of my gap year at Rae harambee school in Kenya in 1972. Mr Oyare was a local farmer. He was the school’s head teacher, administrator, and fundraiser. He welcomed me and another British girl, sent by the Church Mission Society gap year scheme and guided, supported, and inspired us as we taught 70 girls in two classrooms. Each morning he held assembly around the flag of the newly independent nation.

Staff team, Mr Oyare in yellow shirt. LM1972

I did not realise that I was taking part in something significant.While I was there water was piped from the local river for the first time and the classroom for the third cohort of pupils was built.

Rae Girls Secondary School now has 1500 students, many of whom go on to university. The school is renowned for music and drama. Claudius Oyare is named as a visionary educator and founder.

I taught at Rae for just nine months. I was naïve, vain, and young in my Christian faith. I learned to say prayers in the Luo language, to trust God’s word, and to respect self-sacrifice. It was an experience that moulded my attitudes and beliefs for the rest of my life and for which I am deeply grateful.

1 Peter 1:24-25 New International Version

All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever

Last Saturday I started a Foundations in Ministry course. There were over one hundred students, listening to  an inspirational talk on the Bible given by Revd Peter Nivens. Nothing happened but something changed and this week I have been overwhelmed by chance encounters:

A mum with a young family dropped in for coffee and a chatA conversation about trauma with a family struggling with mental health issuesTea with a swimming friend led to prayer for a new stage in her life.

I did nothing, just listened, but I pray their encounter with me was rewarding in some small way. Our brief encounters, in God’s hands, become significant.

Writer, blogger, member of the Association of Christian Writers.

I fell in love with eastern Africa in 1972 and have visited many times since. You can find my South Sudan novel trilogy here.