SCRATCHING THE SURFACE?

FOUR MORE BOYS JOIN US.  Dennis Kogo 9, and brother Kelvin 8, AND Samuel Mainia 9 and brother Ben 11.     All four are totally parent less and have been living in desperate circumstances.
Dennis and Kelvin will become part of the Jacaranda Cottage family, and Samuel and Ben will be calling Testimony House, home from now on
Dennis and Kelvin have missed a lot of schooling and are quite behind for their age.    We will need to help them on and will appreciate prayer for them that they may be quick to grasp language as a priority - neither speak English or Swahili well.
Ben and Samuel have been to school and will join their appropriate classes.    They should do well.
All four need prayer that they may not only settle in their respective new homes, but that they may also use the security and sudden sense of well-being well and seriously.

We always rejoice to see new faces, lit up with a quiet joy.   Turnover in any Children's Home is slow.    Not many come in to stay during any one year    Our average is about EIGHT only in any one year.     It may go up to as many as 12, but not often.     When the National need for places is well over the two million mark, our own contribution seems just like scratching the surface of a problem too deep by far.        BUT I have heard some say it is 'not numbers that matter' but the quality of life.   Guess that goes for churches too!     Well the Lord has sustained us, and although we HAVE increased  over the years we have not done so hugely.    We ARE still a very small ministry.      And perhaps it is true that the REAL reason for us being here at all, has not been SO much to help a multitude, but rather that in helping just a few we have been able to point out objectively that GOD is there - and that He HEARS when we speak to Him, and WILL answer us and interact with us.      THIS is our basic and REAL testimony, and our REASON for being and DOING.         And, although we are small in the scheme of things, yet we and YOU together are involved and interconnected with us in this activity.         One small stone dropped into a pond generates many ripples affecting the shore and the world at large.

MIRIAM & JOSHUA Mbithi are hoping to visit friends and supporters of themselves and their ministry, (NEEMA Children's Home), in the UK in the near future.      They hope to receive their Visas next week.   It is now many years since they were last in England - and at that time they visited on behalf of us all here.    THIS TIME the Lord has provided for them to come, still as our friends and 'family', but ALSO more specifically to share what the Lord has done and continues to do  since He led them on in their own Calling and Vocation.  It is a testimony needing to be heard, and we truly hope they will have opportunity to visit many of our own friends as they spend this few months amongst you all.      Their work is only a few kilometres away from us and although Neema is a quite individual Vision and Work to ours I think both parties would say that we remain very much 'Workers Together' for the Lord and for the children of Kenya.       Hopefully both they and ourselves may be travelling to Australia together later in the year for a three week visit to Tyndale Christian School.

LAST WEEK'S Blog was delayed in being published.     Our Server just seemed to crash, and we were left in the dark over the week-end until on Monday we were advised that 'our main cable was cut in the high seas of the coast of Kenya.'   Today we were told that a tanker had dropped her ANCHOR and that it scored a direct hit on the communication cable in question!!     Sounds almost stranger than fiction - it still MIGHT BE fiction.    One can never tell these days.    But at least we are once more connected and able to be in touch.      One thing came home to us very clearly, and that is how more and more dependant the world is becoming on technology, and how very fast total chaos and paralysis can disrupt our civilisation's communication and general utilities.         I think, if I could choose, that I would prefer to still be in the 40/50s - still delighting in the use of a fountain pen and notepaper; still able to type without electricity.
Still forced to read more for pleasure as well as information.     Still able to converse with others in a regular language instead of devalued and often corrupted one.     Still able to expect justice and discipline in a relatively just and disciplined society.      To me NOW this is more and more an 'alien' world, and as I LOOK into the hopes and dreams of the future I fear that the world I was born into will not even be remembered or even understood.   A fast and furious world.
This week the High School National Examination Results came out.     We were placed 84th Private School in the Republic.    An overall mean score of C+  -  Definitely the best result yet, but still with a long way to go.     BUT our teachers and students seemed to think we had come first, and the whole place erupted into such pan demonic NOISE that I was convince a riot was taking place as the uproar continued more and more, and had to go and investigate.   'Just high spirits' I was assured, and the usual peace was restored.       What will happen if we should by God's Grace ever become FIRST!!     THIS world is SO emotional, SO excitable, so easily HYPED into uncontrollable hysteria. .........

We have been taking for granted that the information and news that we send out via the Blog will somehow get to everyone we know - forgetting in our haste that 50% of our friends have no Internet, and often no E-mail either..      They are in many ways very fortunate, but WE have been guilty of forgetting to take them into account.     So in the next week or so we shall be resuming the sending of Newsletters to them by Airmail post.     In the past we have always done this from right here, but in the future we may have to find a way of circulating friends from within Europe.      As from yesterday our postal costs rise by 100% from 55 to 100 shillings per letter      This is becoming too expensive for regular usage.      Understandable though since more and more have gone to electronic mail ......    Increase the stamp charges or go bust!  --- but of course they will not only go BUST in any case, but will eventually become EXTINCT.    Maybe all will become unable to hold a pen or remember what a stamp looked like!     A world ravenous for change, heedless of its past, and thoughtless for its future.     A BRAVE NEW WORLD?      Or one that must be stopped in its tracks by the very POWER that made it?       Keep AWAKE and Watching, and most of all hold yourselves READY an even GREATER change.

We love you all, and walk with you all in our thoughts and prayers as always.

John and Esther 

HERE AND THERE

WAY BACK IN 1976 these two boys came to the door with their Mother.    They were brothers, Simeon aged 10 and his little brother Charles aged 8.   Their Mum, unmarried, brewed illicit beer for her living.   They and many other siblings all lived together in severe squalor and poverty on the outskirts of Eldoret Town.   after ourselves visiting the 'family home' and seeing the awful situation, we finally agreed to help by letting the two boys into Testimony House.

Simeon grew up to be quite intelligent, and eventually joined the Kenya Army where he is still serving - right now in Somalia against the local terrorist group Al Shabaab.   He is married now with children of his own, but regretfully the Army introduced him to alcohol, and he is well hooked on it.    But he had previously made a decision for Christ, and he knows the Way Home - just awash in liquor and presently away from the Safe Way Home.   His little brother is not with us any more either.   He was crossing our local river in the month of May 1977 when he was just 9 years old.   He and his friends were returning home from School some few miles away - we had not started our own school then - and they all opted to cross the river which was in flood - not by the safe road bridge but by a short-cross over a sewerage pipe that spanned it nearer to our compound.      Charles was last to cross, and slipped and fell into what was a raging torrent beneath him.    He was swept away, our children running along the bank after him till he could be seen no more.   All of us from Testimony House spent the rest of the day and night searching, and then into the next day, following the river through the Town.    But Charles was never found or heard of again.     We held a Memorial Service for him a month later.       Everyone was greatly distressed and shocked.      BUT a little later we were able to take a third member of that family into care - Frank.    Frank was just ten years old when he joined us in Testimony House, a quiet, intelligent child who went on to qualify as a full Chef.     He is now married with two children of his own, and as we reported before is now Dad in Drakeley Cottage.   He AND Simeon have not forgotten their poor old Mother, and have managed to repatriate her to her original family location in the north of Kenya, providing a little land and a simple house for her to find refuge in her old age.     Children come and go.     The majority do keep in touch, but some have left to not surface again for years.      When a child is admitted it is impossible to know the final outcome in advance.     We are not always happy about them by the time they have to leave us......but we have learnt to trust the Lord for them, and to follow them with our prayers, and over the years we have seen HIS Faithfulness in pursuing after them and finally securing their lives.       Testimony Faith Homes is not impervious to the world around it; and with the advent of the School the lifestyles and cultures of the big 'outside' have actually come inside our compound.     AND the Town which was at one time three kilometres walk away has now begun to encircle us, and to threaten our insulation from it on every side.      Our children therefore have more and more to grapple with as they grow up - even here in Eldoret.

***************************************** 

WHO IS TO BLAME

(a poem discovered in a Parish Magazine from Sheffield)

Apparently Anonymous!

We read in the papers and hear on the air

Of killing and stealing and crime everywhere.

We sigh and say, as we notice the trend,

This young generation - where will it all end?

But can we be sure that it's their fault alone,

That may be a part of it isn't our own?

Are we less guilty, who place in their way,

Too many things that lead them astray?

Too much money, too much idle time,

Too many movies of passion and crime;

Too many books not fit to be read,

Too much evil in what they hear said;

Too many children encouraged to roam,

Too many parents who won't stay at home.

Kids don't make movies, the don't write the books;

They don't make the liquor, the don't run the bars;

They don't make the laws and they don't sell the cars;

They don't peddle the drugs that addle the brain;

That's all done by older folk, greedy for gain........

******************************************

THIS WEEK has been a comparatively QUIET week, with just our regular routines ordering our day.

Mondays are the usual Shopping Day taking us to the Market and Provision Stores for the week's supply, God Willing, of the basic needs for each of the four Homes.   Other days also find one or the other of us out and about in the Town for sudden extra needs such as unforeseen items, visits to the doctor, dentist, and the Children's Office.     Then the occasional payment of a bill, follow up of a child's background history, attendance at a Meeting of some Committee or other.     This on top of constant supervision and making sure every one is busy with their individual duties and responsibilities within the two compounds.

GLAD to report that little Yusuf who had his tonsils removed has recovered well and is now weaned from his 'ice cream' diet - it was only for a couple of days in fact.   He is now well and happy, and we hope will enter into a healthier and less troublesome phase of his life.

YESTERDAY it RAINED - HEAVILY - for a good part of the afternoon and evening, and even through the night!!    It was very much welcomed by our thirsty, water starved, gardens.     We are hoping it might continue for a few days at least although this is NOT yet the expected commencement of the Rainy Season.

Every little helps.    And on Saturday we took in another 130 LAYERS into the Poultry Project.   We should have enough eggs now to also be able to SELL some.     Praise the Lord for this provision.

I do apologise for being late this time.    Our Server has somehow once again been unable to serve us, and we have been unable to access the Internet for some days now.    We ARE back on today, but Service these days is very uncertain - either very slow or just disconnected.       Frustrating?    YES!   However we are doing our best to reject such irritation - since after all life goes on.      Frustration is another way to take us away from the Spirit Filled life.     We need to be on our guard - what WE think should happen and so on may be quite carnally selfish.      At ALL times we should trust in HIM who is busy arranging our steps.      Nothing NEEDs to happen the way I think it should - I should not feel inconvenienced or upset when things seem to go wrong with my planned day.     I should trust HIM to have it all in hand for my blessing and Praise Him for keeping me safe and well.       Blessed be the Name of our God.

I am sure our brother Paul found it a comfort at times to have a physician like Luke as his companion at times.      These days we tend to have to go looking for a doctor, and IF we can afford to wait, might have the doubtful joy of actually seeing him or her.      Then it not always comforting.    My doctor is a very busy one, and also mixed up in politics.     Very hard to find a time to see him without wasting a day sitting in his Waiting Room.       This last year my blood pressure and sugar levels have gone up, and seem unable to come down.    Constant checks with my hard to see doctor result in constant changes of drugs, none of which seem to produce any result other than anxiety.     I FEEL well, but apparently am NOT well.    

I begin to see the truth of the proverb - 'what the eyes don't see, the heart (mind) doesn't worry about.'

We are told High Blood Pressure and Diabetes are both silent killers - you are dead before you know death is creeping up on you.     I think that is not very bad actually.      Better not to know and feel WELL and happy, than to spend your days glued to some kind of 'metre' or medical check-ups that only inspire anxious apprehension .........

I have actually changed my Doctor for an older man, who has time and patience AND wisdom - he only tells me what he thinks will encourage me.       He is of course just a humanly common sense pulse upon my physical well being - the REAL Physician is Jesus, the true HEALER and origin of our health.  Thank God I can trust Him and rest from all my frail doubts about myself.     HE finally IS all my health - AND WEALTH!    Isn't that TRUE?    Do I really believe it - DO YOU?

MY CHRIST, He is the "The Tree of Life"

The living "clear as crystal" stream

Whence life for ever flows.

CHRIST is my Meat, Christ is my Drink,

My Medicine, and my Health;

My Portion, mine Inheritance.

YEA ALL MY BOUNDLESS WEALTH.
John Mason 1646-1694

Our love to you all, and be sure we do try to remember you all in our prayers as the days pass by.  Be encouraged, and strengthened in His Name ALWAYS.

John and Esther







A LITTLE BIT OF ICE CREAM...!

THIS IS YUSUF TAJIRI, aged 8 years old.       He had just arrived home as of yesterday afternoon, having had a Tonsillectomy the day before.    His smile reflects the unexpected 'delight' of being fed almost solely on ICE CREAM ever since!

Yusuf has grown up in TYNDALE Cottage with Senge and Micah Yego since April 2006, when he was not quite two years old.   he has been the 'boss' of his age group, but in a most applauded manner; greatly loved and admired by his peers for his bold, outgoing, and good natured style.

His parents are (we think) both alive.   They are first cousins in their family, and according to 'custom' within their Tribe, it is impossible for them to be allowed to keep the child themselves.   Both were under age at the time, and it is likely they will not even have been told what happened to Yusuf.    WHY is he called YUSUF - he is not from an Islamic background?   We do not know.     It is no longer remarked upon here, and YUSUF is just very much Yusuf to us all, and very much a Joy and Delight.   He has suffered serious and recurring Tonsillitis since he was 2, and last year our doctors felt that to safeguard risk to his heart a Tonsillectomy would be necessary.   He has come through, as you can see, quite resiliently - by God's Grace, AND in part no doubt to the ICE CREAM that has followed it.   I remember feeling much the same and for the same reason, after my own Tonsillectomy when I was six - Yumms!!!

TODAY our very dear friends IAN and DIANA Hogley have left us.   They were with us for only a few days this time, but God willing we hope to see them again later in the year - probably September.   We have felt so very blessed that they are able to frequently visit Kenya and us!      Esther and I have known them since we got married, and we have remained friends throughout.     Additionally the Lord led them to also become involved in another Children's Work on the outskirts of Nakuru Town - RIZIKI Children's Home.     It was started by Julius and Esther Kivindyo, a very dear and loving couple, and you may remember that we also attended its Official Opening with Ian and Diana in 2010.  It has continue to flourish and care for needy children, and Ian and Diana will by this time be with them all.    They will continue for some days there till it is time for them to return to Huddersfield.

AND NOW HERE WE ARE ALONE ONCE MORE in Green Cottage and we are already halfway through February - we are left quite breathless by the speed of passing days and events.   This week-end is our School Half Term, so for a moment, at least, we feel held in limbo ...... before finding life forging ahead again into the next chapter of events - whatever they may be.    And after all it is only another ten months until Christmas.

The weather for this last week has been wonderful.  HOT and DRY, but not in the least uncomfortable, with light to moderate breezes, blue skies and peacefulness.    How fortunate we are!    BUT, a few days ago there was torrential RAIN in Nairobi, and yesterday our own area became suddenly overcast with cloud ........could it be a little shower might come our way also?    That would be SO refreshing, for after a while the DUST does get up one's nose, and the earth beneath the feet, is parched and cracked.   

BUT the weather HAS been good for building works, and now the back end of DRAKELEY Cottage has been completely repaired, and we only wait for the final drying before painting and tidying up.

THIS WEEK the builders have been mending cracks and replacing tiles on the inside bedrooms and bathrooms.   They have also completed refurbishing the Kitchen.   It all looks good.    And now this coming week they will continue down to TYNDALE Cottage to do the same for their Kitchen, and then back to JACARANDA as well.     We feel happy that the Lord has helped so much to be done on this side of the road.       Just the Driveway left - quite a big one made of earth and stones, muddy in the Wet Season, and DUSTY in the summer.      It has been endured since we moved into Jacaranda in 1975, but it will be nice one day to see the dust laid, and feet and shoes kept cleaner.

HERE above is also one of the most recent photos of the completed end wall of Drakeley Cottage.    The Contractor had to dig under and into the foundation eventually and then bolster and re-enforce it with more concrete.    Then a new Retaining Wall was built along the whole length with four Buttresses as well.     He says nothing will ever move.     We hope and believe so.    Once the site has been properly cleaned up and the grass re-grown it will all look fine.

FRANCIS and Eunice, Dad and Mum of the Home, are truly glad to have the full use of the two bedrooms and bathrooms back at last - after months of restricted and uncomfortable 'make-do' living conditions.    AND glad for the Kitchen Face Life as well - a  photo here included.     You may remember that last year we had decided to experiment and centralise cooking for the four Homes.   Each Home up to that time had used its own kitchen to prepare and cook its own food - with its own cook.    THEN we turned Testimony House Kitchen into the Central Kitchen for all four Homes, with just two cooks.    Everything was prepared and cooked there, and then distributed at meal times.     This did in fact save a lot of money.     But we also discovered that it took away some of the family homeliness from each house - it just wasn't the same.     SOOOO!    We have now returned almost to where we were - each house with its own working kitchen but without a professional cook.    NOW the Mum in each Home is the Cook as well.     This was not immediately seen as a good idea by the Mums, but NOW they wonder why we had not done it before.    It has brought so much more bonding between the children and the Mums. and now the Kitchen has become what it always ought to have been - a Meeting place to lend a hand, laugh and joke, and generally generate that homely, family atmosphere we have all these years been trying to improve.    Thank you LORD, for helping us to go on LEARNING?

THE FARM is carrying on.      Water still in our wells but not as much as we had hoped.    We can still water daily, at night, and it keeps us going well enough to grow enough.    But the air and earth is DRY.

The Gardens begin to look a bit more burnished than green - kind of shut down a little.     The Cows are fine.    One that calved latest contracted Mastitis, and although she recovered, lost a lot of weight and of course milk production.    The other has continue to supply ALL that we need alone.    Both bull calves born earlier have now been sold.      Our third cow and the BIGGEST is also in calf - may deliver by the end of this months - another cow we hope, rather than a bull.

AND the CHICKENS continue to lay eggs at least 50 every day at present, AND another 200 Broilers growing bigger every day.     Yes the Farm is working,

And so I will close once more, for another time.       Thank you for your prayers and good wishes always.

We feast upon them, and in return pray for you and yours just there where you are.     Truly this is 'Working Together' and it IS most remarkable.      God BLESS you all

John and Esther

PS_  To Dear Friends John and Alison ATKINS - we have become disconected from our end.    We would love to be able to write to you, so if you should read this please do e-mail  a contact address to us.

To ALL our friends and Family - if you have ANY suggestion for making this Blog more interesting, eye catching, or challenging please feel free to tell us.

DAYS GO BY!!! - FAST

YES!  YESTERDAY Testimony Faith Homes School was INSPECTED!!     The Wareng District Children's Department & The Area Advisory Inspection Team arrived at our compound at 11.15a.m.    There were 3 Children's Officers, a District Public Health Officer and two others.      Daryl was away in Nairobi making sure my sister caught her flight to Amsterdam.    SO I dug myself out of 'retirement' and showed them all round - First the SCHOOL, and then each of the four Homes.     We did not take lunch, but went straight ahead finishing at 2.20p.m.     We Thank God that we appeared to make an impression, and most of all that in the course of Questions and Answers before they all left, I was able to Testify to the Living God.      This was in fact the first comprehensive Inspection of our work by Government for some years.       They were very thorough, very inquisitive, and very courteous.     I doubt if the occasion improved my Blood Pressure, but I was grateful that I was able to walk them round for so many hours without either of my feet seeming to notice the exercise - a real proof God has touched them.  Hallelujah.      This will not be the LAST time - hopefully - that we shall suffer an Inspection.    They are supposed to be regular and, we hope that from now on they will be.    

ON THURSDAY, Daryl drove PAT up to Nairobi to stay the night with one of Esther's nephews, and his family, before flying off for Amsterdam on Friday morning early.     It was quite hard to actually part with her, and to see her GO.       In many ways what has been happening has a kind of unreal quality about it.    After all we had only met once before in April 2011, and now after only a month or so, she has gone again!!   Just, really, after making headway in understanding each other and getting to know each other.      It was the more difficult really since we could not devote all our time to her, as we still had our work and duty to do every day, and so she was often left by herself - though the weather was good .        We hope she will return again - and that then we can also plan how to be more with her, and/or for her to be more with us, and perhaps occupied in some areas with us.    I have just been on the phone to her in fact, and she has arrives safely in Scotland, , safely met by Harvey and Marion.    It was just lovely to hear all three on the phone, and I am believing they will ALL be back as soon as maybe to spend more time with us.      

Daryl arrived safely back her on Friday - after the Inspectors had left.

TOMORROW OUR TEAM FROM AUSTRALIA will also be leaving us.     There have been FIVE of them, led by Ben Potter.     They all have connections with Tyndale Christian School that send out a Team every year at present to work in with us, and to be a Blessing to us.      Mike Potter who is Tyndale's Headmaster leads this larger team at present - BEN is his son!     Following in Dad's footsteps very well.      We have enjoyed each one of them,  Ben himself, and friends Joel Garfoot, Sam and Lucy Whelan, and Maddison Anzil.      Ben and Maddison have had to cope with various medical attacks whilst with us, but came through with flying colours, their enthusiasm and determination undiminished.       HOORAH for them all.      They together took on - in the few days they have actually been with us - the exterior painting of the walls of Jacaranda Cottage - a LOT of work under the blistering sun.     They also PAID, from their own earnings laboured for in Australia before them arrived here, for the repainting of the roof (steep and perilous), and for the laying of a new cement walkway from the Road Gate to Jacaranda Cottage and on to Drakeley cottage.     There just was not time for them to be physically involved with everything AND give time (a lot of time) to the CHILDREN.     In between being SO busy for us the Team also spent two full afternoons with NEEMA Children's Homes, and the children of Miriam and Joshua's ministry.   



(L to R Joel Garfoot; Daryl Green; Ben Potter; Maddison Anzil; Sam Whelan; Lucy Whelan; John Green)



TONIGHT we take them out for a final treat laid on by our new Director, Daryl Green and his wife Carol, and which we also hope to attend.       We expect to eat CHINESE in town on this last evening before they flee from us.        They have managed to eat a meal in each of the four Homes, and thus have also had good family fellowship and fun in each house.     Everyone fell in love with them - one or two a little heavily - but none got hurt.                               Just heard from Ben's father MIKE!  He writes 'Regarding our school trip in July, we have 36 coming, the biggest group so far!   We will be arriving on 5th July and leaving on the 16th...'   WOW.    We are more than blessed by such a supportive school and student body - it is as if we have become part of each other - ONE BODY of people, growing stronger and stronger in our togetherness.    It is very AMAZING.

INTERNAL WORK on Drakeley Cottage continues.     The exterior work is now completed and is just awaiting the cement and plaster work to dry before finally painting.     Interior work has begun and perhaps next week will show more photos.    

THIS WEEK I started a new regime of drugs toward lowering my B.P. and B.S.     Sadly no change so far seen; both are still up rather than down.     BUT I generally feel well and energetic.     Don't see the docs again till the end of next week.     I think I can make it till then!!  Ha, ha!  Glorious weather here right now - the more so when we see what all of you in Europe are suffering.      BUT it feels as if we are in fact drying out, and that soon there WILL be a great dearth of water all round.        We shall see.

Esther is well and busy back in School now as an 'inspector'.     She just loves being occupied, and it is good for her.      This afternoon she is attending a Memorial Service being held here in Eldoret in memory of our daughter in law's aunt who recently passed away in India where she was to have surgery.     She was the wife of Janet's father's brother.       She was much loved and will be greatly missed; the entire family is truly mourning.      Esther is with Daryl, I being unable to get away due to other appointments.

God Bless you all.       We have heard that AENON is forwarding some gifts from some of you, so you will be getting our usual Thank You Note.       We love to know that YOU know that we have received and been helped by any Gift sent.      None of us here can ever thank any one of you enough for sending a gift - however small it might be even.           Certainly THIS transfer will be 'Stitch in Time' in which you are all a contributor.

John and Esther

SALVAGED FROM FIRE TO?

THIS IS JACOB!   He came to stay with us in Jacaranda Cottage yesterday.  He is NINE years old.    When he was one year old he became trapped with his paternal grandfather in a mud house which caught fire.   His grandfather died in the fire, and although baby Jacob was saved it was not without severe burns on his right side including the loss of his right hand and damage to his right eye and ear.
His father refused to look at him after the accident, and left the family soon afterwards.    Jacob's mother is lame and unable to find work, so she and Jacob moved in with his father's widowed grandmother, who ekes out a very minimal living from the sale of vegetables she grows in her tiny plot.
He has not gone to school, and has grown up very much alone and shunned because of his disfigurement.     To-day at nine years old he holds himself uncertainly, and has an almost frightened visage.     But he seems intelligent and bright.     With both parents still living this is not a child we would normally take in, but in fact he IS an orphan child, and more than that - an 'outcast' from his family and community.     It is hard to really understand WHY this should be so, but it is clear that he is unwanted, and perhaps an 'embarrassment'.
There is a little scripture in Isaiah 16v4 which says -

'..let my outcasts dwell with you!

Be a shelter to them'.  

In 2 Samuel 9 we read that King David took Mephibosheth, the crippled teenage son of Jonathon into his own house.   It is written there that Mephibosheth referred to himself in front of David, as 'A Dead Dog'!!   That is probably how he had been made to see himself - helpless and good for nothing.    But the KING took him in and sat him down at His own table. Yes I LIKE this.    It is truly a 'Jesus' thing to do.

We hope that the Lord will now help us to bring hope and life to this little boy, Jacob.   We hope to help him to 'stand tall' and with confidence, no longer conscious of his scars, and able to laugh and smile with the best.    He is the first child to join the Homes in 2012.      

MY SISTER PAT is expecting to leave for Scotland again on the 10th February - just a few days left.    It was a little stiff initially, but as the days have past we have come together wonderfully as family, and we can say that truly it has been a great Blessing to me, and to all of us to find her, and be part of her family as well.     We had hoped that she would extend her stay for another month at least, but she feels that she should return to Scotland and make sure her home there is safe and sound.   Nevertheless we hope to see her back again soon many times.

TYNDALE SCHOOL IS HERE AGAIN and we have an Advance Party to the one expected in July now with us until 12th February.      BEN POTTER, Mike and Danni's son is here with two young men and two young ladies - SAM and JOEL + LUCY and MADDI.      The boys sleep in Testimony House, and the girls sleep with US in Green Cottage.      They eat also with us, and also with each of the four Homes as they visit and have fellowship after their WORK!     Yes they do work, and they work hard!   Their main task is to paint the exterior walls of Jacaranda Cottage, and 'maybe' to also help lay a cement path to link Jacaranda with Drakeley Cottage.   It is demanding and tiring work for all five, but they have not flagged at all, and have remained in good spirits enough to play and spend their spare time with the children.  
This is the first time we have seen two groups from Tyndale coming out in the same year.    We  owe them all a lot in providing us with real assistance in improving and caring for the material needs of the Homes, as well as bring so much real happiness and joy to the children.        We are tied so much together that it really feels as if we are ONE.

Well this has been a busy week for all of us.      I also attended a Quarterly Meeting of the Area Advisory Council for Children for this huge County.        We were advised that the problem of Street Children was increasing with more than 3,000 on the streets of Eldoret today!     We also heard of an illegal and unregistered home for children discovered and inspected by the Children's Department on the outskirts of our Town.      They had gone there in response to concern shown by members of the locality who said that the children were being ill treated and exploited.       It seems that the 22 children living there in very confined circumstances (14 to a room measuring 6 x 6 feet) were not from Eldoret but other provinces.     The concern is that these children may have been brought to Eldoret for export via the Child Trafficking Business rife in Kenya.     These children might have been sold for body parts, sex or just plain servitude to the Middle East and even other parts of Africa.      Incredible and very worrying.   The Council recommended immediate closure of the 'home' and investigation of the owners.

Those who follow my personal health will be glad that having proclaimed the recovery of my foot from the pain and inconvenience of a 'bunyan', I can now continue and proclaim that my rising Blood Pressure has returned to even better than normal.      Surely the Lord our God is Good.     Truly He is our HEALTH and HEALING when we call upon me.      NOW for the Blood Sugar which continues to be a trouble.      I need to exercise say my medical advisers AND adjust my food intake.    I agree to both comments, but I am NOT a very 'spry' 71, having never in all my life been of a physically energetic disposition.     Also this place does not promote walking since the terrain is uneven and fraught with traffic.     BUY a Treadmill ?     Yes we have been looking at some, but they do not look very enticing either in design or price.     MUST I really walk for an hour every day till I sweat?    Maybe not, though I will do my best to walk and be on my feet more.       As for food and diet, I hope to see a Nutritionist with Esther next week - but in it all I am looking FIRST and foremost to the LORD Who is my LIFE.

AND THE WORK ON DRAKELEY COTTAGE has continued apace, and by NEXT Saturday I hope to include a photo of the finished exterior work attempted so far  ( though TODAY we have seen signs of further 'bulging' of the foundation in-fill in a different area!)     We shall see.

And so from underneath a clear blue sky giving free course to the burning rays of our Sun I must again break off and attend to other matters.      Bless you all for praying for us.    Accept of our united love and prayer also for each one of YOU

John and Esther
                              

HOLDING THINGS TOGETHER!!?

REPAIR AND MAIN-TENANCE has commenced on Drakeley Cottage.    To the right you can see the beginning of work to expose the problem under and above the damp course.    Basically it seems that two previous attempts to compact the infilling of the foundation at this end of the house failed.   This produced various troubles, from forcing the wall outwards, to also interfering with plumbing.     The Municipal Engineer has instructed us to put in three steel reinforced vertical columns  keyed into the wall together with a horizontal reinforced beam just above the damp course, about a metre from the ground level..   You can see in this photo on the right how this end of the house has really begun to bulge and move outwards.
It is SO SAD that a man with a Christian Testimony such as the contractor that built this house, could have been so willing to cut corners and even evade structural issues in order to make money out of his brethren.  Faults with the flooring throughout the house, general fittings and plumbing as well as many other matters have, during the four years of it's existence, necessitated continued and repeated expense in keeping it up and workable.         Yes Drakeley Cottage was completed in 2008 and has needed more help to remain in good shape than we have spent on Testimony House - an old (circa2010) MUD brick house - in 40 years.
I guess it is the same with human beings as well.     Some age faster than others - but we all age, and need constant maintenance!!!

(I am 71+ and overweight.     I have always been heavier than I should, but my heart seems in good shape.     Yet this year, suddenly my Blood Pressure has shot up and my Blood Sugar as well.     I have Diabetes 2 and I have not watched my diet as I should - BUT really I am well ,,,,,,,     But I now am aware that I have to take myself in hand.    In many respects I resemble the stressed stonework in the picture above.     My doc says not to worry, but not to be complacent.     For this month he has been changing my drugs almost every week with no apparent change in my situation.    Start a new cocktail of more drugs today!  - and oddly every new drug to try seems to cost more than the last one.........BUT my Bunyan is completely better, and I am walking more.     NO I am not physically discomforted, and I thank God that the GREAT Physician watches over me, maintaining me, and not just patching me up along the way, but healing me.      He provides and maintains the physical side of TFH and I know He will maintain and keep me in good repair and health.  Hallelujah!)   'IN HIM all things consist (cohere, are held together'  - Colossians 1v17

 To the left is another view of the ongoing work on the exterior of Drakeley Cottage.    We have dug down well below the damp course and foundation, and you can see the iron skeleton columns waiting to be fixed - one at each corner and another in the middle.     Already the worse  affected part of the wall - far lower right - has been repaired and straightened, and you can make out the recess being made for the horizontal retaining beam at the lower part of the wall.    
This this should all be completed this week together with the plumbing and drainage repairs and replacements.

THEN we shall go INSIDE and repair internal matters.     Immediately behind the wall shown above and starting from the near end is a bedroom for 8 girls, a toilet and shower, and then a Guest Room for 4 plus en-suit toilet/shower.      Internal walls have been slowly cracking due to a drop in the floor level.    At the right is a view of one of the shower rooms with a serious structural crack caused by faulty plumbing leaking water into the wall.  

The Kitchen also needs attention in respect of the flooring and work tops, and also three Shower/Toilets.       We expect that ALL of this work will cost around £1,000, and as I told you before these funds are already to hand as well as £2,000 more which we hope to use in further needed restorations in two other of our children's Homes.      Many of these material repairs have been pending some time, and it is truly a great joy to at last see them getting attention.      There IS a time for everything.
THE FAMILY PHOTO is of Francis and Eunice LAHOL and their two children.    Francis and Eunice are Mum and Dad in Drakeley Cottage now.    Mum and Dad are both trained Chefs in fact, and Francis actually grew up in Testimony House whilst Esther and I were Mum and Dad there (1984-98).    He was only 10 when he was admitted.   They are a happy family, and are proving themselves to be with big enough hearts to be parents to the 30 other children  that share the Home with them.    

On the 1st February, next week, we shall be welcoming Mike and Dani Potter's son Ben with five friends for a ten day stay with us.      They will come to lend a hand the Homes together, just a they and other have done before when their School - Tyndale Christian School - has also come to do the same.    It will be really great to have them here.    ALSO hoping to have Ian and Diana HOGLEY our friend from Huddersfield here again toward the middle/end of February.     A good beginning to the year altogether.

Esther is well and fine, and we both send our Love with Thanksgiving to you all

John and Esther

PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES

THIS IS A PHOTO OF Harvey and Marion my most recent nephew and niece!!     The are having a brief refreshment whilst shopping in the heat and tumult of Eldoret's rush hour streets.  They caught the sun - just a little - and may well already have lost it again since returning to freezing Scotland on Wednesday this week.  They also caught Testimonyitis and may never be free of it!   The children loved them as if they had known them for ever, and they had very good times together.      We are always delighted when folk come and want to take an interest in the children.     It is very rewarding to all concerned, and we just love to see them happy.
Almost every day of their two week stay they were followed everywhere by laughing and happy kids.     They are now very definitely Aunt and Uncle to all.
THANK you both for opening up YOUR hearts to our children and becoming immediately part and parcel of THEIR family as well as ours!    
Whilst here they did a lot of exploring for themselves, took a lot of photos and videos.     Also tried their hand at cooking, sport, and Marion even joined Internal Security and did a turn at the Main Entrance Gate!!       They were willing workers, outgoing and friendly to all.

NOW THEY HAVE GONE,  leaving their Mum, my SISTER, still with us for about another three weeks.     She seems fully of spunk and a 'ready for anything' attitude to our Mad Compound.       She is often left on her own, however, since both Esther and I both have time when we must be away, and about the compound.     But we still spend a lot of time and fellowship with each other and we hope her time here will be more and more enjoyable as days go by - perhaps she won't want to go home!!?

Just to divide this letter here are a few views of the School.     The first on the left shows the double storey tuition block at the end of which, in front of the tree, will be the 4 new classrooms joined on. On the right is where the new Boarding Hostel will be built.

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MANY YEARS AGO, in 1969 I was just beginning this ministry in rented property in MASENO, Western Kenya.     During that time I met a Norwegian Lady who was also working temporarily in Kenya.   Her name was, and still remains,  GRETA RIMINGTION.      We got to know each other quite well and then she returned to Norway.      We lost touch for many years but later she sent me a book that she had written and put together with illustrations of some of her Artwork.     GRETA is in fact a gifted creative artist.  She paints a lot, but she especially felt God leading her into ecclesiastical artwork.    This found an outlook in producing priestly stoles and vestments, and also altar clothes and fronts.       Reading her book and for the first time also getting to know something more about her Christian Testimony, as well as SEEING God's Spirit at work through her fingers was a very moving and wonderful thing for me.     It is remarkable and wonderful, the people God brings into our lives to leave a mark or memory that will in fact add to the sum result of who we ourselves individually are.   This photo was taken circa 2004.
I am going to share a little of her story here as it was printed in 2004 when she was 70.

FROM HER STUDIO in Son, Greta Rimington looks out on a calm and cold Oslo Fjord.   In front of her easel she is working intensely on a new motive "Shooting Stars".  It is the first in a series entitled "The Universe".   Whilst painting she finds that she is one moment in the present, and the next she is a small girl looking at stars with her father Claude Rimington.  At the age of 70 the artist is ready to tell her story, looking for the golden thread and the hand that has drawn the patterns in the tapestry of her life.   She strives to find a harmony that was once, but that then disintegrated early on in here life. 

Greta was born in Pretoria, South Africa on 13th February 1933.    Her father Claude Rimington was an English scientist, and her mother Soffi was Norwegian.    After a few years the family moved back to Europe, settling after the war in England.   Greta attended St. Helen's School for Girls in Northwood in North London.     On finishing she went on to attend The Slade School of Fine Art at University College, London.     On finishing, instead of pursuing Art, she decided to enter the Teaching profession.     She explored the possibility of teaching in Africa, but eventually took up opportunities to teach Art in Norway.

Her story is an alternating one of joy and pain.   Early on she appeared to be mature beyond  her years.   As she grew older she gave the impression of being an independent and adventurous woman.  Yet the ice that encased her heart as a child had created a shell preventing her from really experiencing joy to the full.

Only later in life does the cold heart start to thaw.   Her mother Soffi, died in 1982.   After her death Greta took the dramatic step of becoming a full time artist.  With the constant support of her father an ever widening circle of friends she moved into the most creative period of her life -painting, designing and decorating church interiors.   It was also at this time that she moved from an intellectual commitment to God, to a warmer embrace of Jesus Christ.   Her belief is in Christ as a warm and close life-giving force.  In her art she wants to give a positive indication of this.

At 70 Greta is flowering both as an artist and as a person.She is more productive than ever. Her inner journey has given hr more insight and answers.   She is no longer tied and bound by her past.   With a childlike inquisitiveness she is still on a voyage of discovery in art and faith.     

Greta is an inspiration to us all to keep on going on.     Especially those of us who have passed death to life, we need to enter into the never ending aspect of our Life, and cease looking for our physical death as at best an interruption.      We have every reason to look and to plan ahead.!

Much Love to you all.    I shall be giving the Word of God once more tomorrow morning and will value your prayers.     The last in the Series it will be of course Thou Shalt Not COVET..

Sincerely


John and Esther