AN AGREEMENT!

FRIDAY 29TH FEBRUARY 2008

An Agreement HAS been signed as of yesterday, by the President and the Leader of the Opposition.      It remains astounding that finally the two men most prominently involved who had not met face to face for a month, where the ones to actually AGREE.

There have been concessions on both sides in order for this to happen, but why did they not do it immediately instead of allowing this shameful delay and the involvement of so many 'outside' advisors?   It would have cost the Nation a great deal less if they had got together at the onset and Agreed then.     It would have reduced the number of dead and displaced.    It would have saved the Nation untold economic distress, and reduced a 90% loss of international trust and presige in the tourist community.

SKY NEWS were here in ELDORET this morning, and were also visiting the Show Ground Refugee Camp - where I myself and Daryl, and members of the Children's Services Forum also were.      The Reporter referred to Eldoret as the biggest centre of ethnic unrest and violence.    However, Eldoret might only have been worthy of such a description for about 5 days.    Living here for 37 years Esther and I have seen and heard VERY LITTLE of such ethnic animosity.      For the most part Eldoret has been and is a very tribally cosmopolitan town, where many tribes not only meet for trade and business, but where they have lived together in peace for many years.    Occasional interruptions to this picture have only occured due to a few radical individuals trying to make a name for themselves.     Generally Eldoret has remained quiet, calm, and rather unknown and univentful.        We hope it will in fact now return to that condition.

 

The PICTURE on the front of the Daily Nation of the Signing found most of those shown with rather dour facial expressions..... No JOY seen in THEM.  An Agreement of Necessity where perhaps neither side actually won............   BUT the Nation generally is glad and happy about it.   

 

The numbers in the Show Ground remain huge.      We estimate that there may be twice as many or more than the 21,000 said to be living under canvas there.   I was particularly visiting the SCHOOL that is there.    Classrooms all tented and teachers for the most part trained volunteers.      None of them have been paid so far for their services.    2,500 Primary Children, 500 Secondary, and 700 Pre Primary.    To-day they had run out of exercise books, and were short of text books.   No desks, no benches even. - when it rains as it is now beginning to do, the children cannot learn since they cannot sit on the ground when waterlogged.     What the whole camp will be like when the RAINS actually come is anyone's guess ---- VERY bad.

However it has been all set up and established efficiently by the UN and Red Cross.

It is clean and orderly.       WE were there to with the FORUM to assess what if anything we might be able to to contribute to the needs of the School.   BUT their needs are so great.... and we feel that the Government should be the ones to now deal with some of their basic needs such as exercise and text books.      One of the big issues there is how to keep track of donations made!!   Red Cross seem to be doing a good job of feeding and clothing.

 

Today is the last day of the month.        Daryl and I have been busy this week inspecting our FOUR Homes.     We shall be doing this monthly in future.    It is an excersie meant to keep a check on Repairs and Maintenance needs of the general fabric of the buildings themselves, and also general wear and tear related to furnishings, children's clothing, bedding and so on.    Up until now I have done this every six months.        We have found, however,  that some of our houseparents are not so hot when it comes to keeping a close eye on things like this, and depreciation can go unnoticed.     By arriving unnanounced  week by week we not only ensure standards will be kept, but also more hopefully will slowly teach our staff what to look out for, and encouraged them to do so habitually!   It is quite a task!    As we go round we have to also note loss and need for replacement.       Right now we are on the way out to buy, cups, plates, cutlery etcetera that has diminished in number......  Some paintwork to accomplish and various other structural repairs.     Daryl loves to run around doing all this so he is quite busy with it all right now.       A VERY strong right arm, but he still seems to be planning to leave us at the end of June.      By leaving us I mean the work - he will still live close by and so family wise we shall still see a lot of him, but obviously we expect him to be busy workwise elsewhere.    

 

The Guest Hostel continues to be built.      During the previous two months things slowed down, and for some weeks building stopped as all the workers ran away.   They are now back and the roof is beginning to go up.        Costs also increased over this recent period and we had to consider options having got to the ring beam.   Timber is in short supply normally but now it is at a premium.     Still it arrived today, and we hope to complete the building work by the end of April at the latest.     So far it has cost us £,20,000 - all paid for - but the work is being done well, and for a building that will comfortably give accommodation for more than 40 we feel we are getting value for money.

 

We still have it in mind to enlarge Jacaranda Cottage, and to some extent re-design it as soon as we can after the Hostel is complete.        Our vision is ongoing and progressive, and if we cannot predict a secure time schedule for events, we remain sure that He who gave the Vision, will assist it to be attained in His Time.   Pray along with us.

 

High School results have now come out for 2007 and we have some EIGHT of our seniors who have passed well enough to go on to College or some Training.    Even Hellen (Tweetie-pie) our teenage daughter!      We have not yet got the final details of how OUR High School has done as a school in the National Performance.

 

God be with You all, and thank you for praying for and with us

 

John and Esther

 

NEWS

TUESDAY, 26TH FEBRUARY 2008
ALMOST TWO MONTHS have passed since the fateful Election Results began to come and change the face of this quiet and happy land. Two months commencing with terror, violence and abject misery for hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
Two months of ignorant, barbaric vandalism, hugely enjoyed and entered into by hoards of unemployed and unschooled youth spurred on by those who should have prevented it. Two months of ineffectual chit chat, and political maneuvering whilst honest men, women and children, were exposed to every kind of travail from being hunted from their homes to death.
And where are we now? It is still quite hard to tell. President Bush and his Lady Spokeswomen have come and gone leaving various words, usually not new, and definately somewhat deprecatory behind them. And poor Kofi Annan is STILL with us and the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb Party representatives. For him I feel the greatest sorrow and sympathy, for I think he agreed to come with the very best of honest motives and ambitions - only to find his quiet and humble logic quite rejected by men and women quite unwilling if not UNABLE to see his point of view. He has endured hardness like a good soldier. He has endured insult, innuendo, stubborn ignorance, duplicity, and arrogance. I would not have stayed! His quiet patience puts mine in the shade.

Of course in another way this was and is only what should have been expected. Kenyans may have 'looked' as if they wanted help to sort themselves out, but INSIDE they will NOT have actually believed or wanted it. They believe in themselves, and they believe THEY are the ones to sort themselves out without external pressure or wisdom. In some quarters this 'help' may even have been seriously resented. BUT they did and DO still need help - even if they reject, refuse and spurn it all.

The 'talks' have rambled to and fro, and if we must accept that some progress has been made, it has in fact been very little, and the basic intransiency of both sides is not much diminished. From inside Kenya it feels very much like living in the world of Alice in Wonderland............... Will we, won't we have a Prime Minister; will we won't we have an Executive President? Will we find agreement ? How long will it last? The present looks as foggy as the past, and the future seems full of possible pitfalls and stormy days.

Testimony Faith Homes remains calm, undisturbed and busy with the work of letting the Spirit of our God be SEEN. My Permit has been granted for a further TWO years, though they are going to make me pay TWICE what it was two years ago! It is odd to be here to GIVE and still have to PAY for the giving! EVEN MORE STRANGE THAT a Moslem has stepped up to offer his help us to obtain our original Immigration Status of some years back. He has connections with Immigration and has lived in Eldoret all his life. We have never met, but he says he KNOWS all about the work of TFH and would like to put things right for us. He will come to see us from Nairobi in early March. We shall see. BUT our hope remains as always solely IN THE LORD OUR GOD.

DURING THE weeks commencing in February the economy seems to be going crazy and the cost of the smallest items doubling, tripling as the cost of petroleum goes sky high, and transport of goods at a premium. The suddenness took our breath away, and we seriously did wonder if we would be able to survive the challenge. BUT Father has seen what was coming, and provided enough for us to STILL cover even the inflated and quite unplanned for increases. Not only us of course have had to be confronted by this nightmare but EVERYONE, and the shops look emptier and people poorer. Still more than 20,000 in the displaced persons camps.
Tomorrow we shall ( the Childrens Forum) be seeking to obtain places for some of the many thousands of children still there in terrible conditions.

MORE than £16000 of Aid sent to us from UK via the AENON Trust has been handed out, providing hundreds of families with basic clothing. Additionally we have helped dozens of children back to school, and to places of shelter and security. We are currently paying rent for some to at least have their own room to live in instead of a 6x4 tent. We helped others bury their dead, move their families to safer areas where their tribe is not a factor of malice. It has been a tremendous privilege to have been used to do this, and we thank all those who - reading this - may have been amongst those who trusted us to be so used, and who by their own giving made it possible.
We cannot say we have been able to completely solve peoples need fully, and certainly those we have assisted represent only a very small percentage of those who have remained untouched. We are now beginning to realise that Psalm 91 is not all JOY - though it is true WE have not (so far) been touched by the troubles and violence around us - yet we HAVE had to SEE the result of it, and to experience the sorrow of heart such sights bring.

The SUGOI children are still in their temporary timber dormitories in the Presbyterian Grounds. The Forum (and ourselves as an NGO) have continued to assist them, and the majority have been able to now be clothed and put back into School. Now they must wait patiently for the Lord to REBUILD in a NEW place.

ELDORET is currently remaining quiet. We are glad for it, but slowly things are beginning to surface about the past days that make our hearts heavy. TWO other children's home were burnt and the children have fled into the bushes, their guardians also having fled. It is quite awful to think that this has been happening in the dark so to speak, and that many of us have been ignorant of the plight of others close to us..

We are being exercised about the REAL meaning of FELLOWSHIP as it was enjoyed and experienced by the Early Church - and there is a new urge to draw together in a closer and more intimate manner both in our own fellowship, and with the surrounding missionaries and christian pastors, as well as with those who lives are entwined with ours from a lay perspective. We have been excited and stirred up by this, and we feel the Spirit of God is preparing us for something new and wonderful. Continue to pray for us.

Our love to you all always

John and Esther, and all at Testimony Faith Homes

Fw: NEWS

 

----- Original Message -----

From: John Green

Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 6:45 PM

Subject: NEWS

SATURDAY 16TH FEBRUARY 2008

 

I HAD HOPED to also include some photos today, but still have not quite discovered how to successfully import them into the text.    I WILL do so soon!     A case of not being able to teach an old dog new tricks!     At least not quickly!

 

TODAY in the Daily Nation we have read -

ANNAN HINTS AT A NEW GOVERNMENT

I won't leave Kenya until solution is found, says chief mediator.

 

Obviously a lot more talking still to be done.   More and more people coming to dabble their fingers in the pie.     Could be a case of 'too many cooks spoiling the broth'.   And of course the comfortable talkers seem quite removed from the suffering that is continuing to erupt all over the state.       They say the CAMPS are emptying as more and more displaced persons are returned to their tribal areas - but this forced manipulation of persons lives cannot be achieved without misery and unhappiness.

The Newspapers say - 'Fear of attacks and reprisals have not reduced despite the recent calm.  The CAMPS for the displaced are swelling with new arrivals'   This again printed in today's Nation.      This is certainly still true of the Eldoret Camp.

 

On the 13th February - Wednesday of this week - I was with others at the Church Ground of the Presbyterian Church in Eldoret.    I had told you I would be there, and there were in fact a party of more than 20 of us representing different Children's Works in the District together with the Media and some Government Officers.     We were there to show sympathy and love to the 140 odd children who were burned out of their Children's Homes together with their staff.      We were able to present more than £1000 of aid and also some bedding.     The money will go to providing school uniform and other clothing to the children who had to flee with nothing but their sleeping clothes from the fiery mayhem.        They will never be able to go back.      The spirit and animosity that caused their homes to be burned down remains rooted in the land they stood upon, and in the hearts of those that live there.

There was prayer and praise.    There was exhortation.   I watched the faces of the children.     Aged between 3 and 28 boys and girls.     None smiled.    None seemed GLAD.    They sat and stared.    I wondered if they still believed in humanity - even in us and our handouts.       Did they see their 'Attackers' in some of our faces?   We took some photos - will hope to share one or two soon.

 

we are handing out a lot - yet not a lot - to dozens of individuals.    We have now topped £5000 so far given in gifts of clothing, food, and even school fees and house rents for those rendered destitute in fires and robberies.     There seems no end.......

 

Yesterday Daryl and I went to a Municipal Housing Estate with an 17 year old boy who is on Probation for Theft.    He will conclude his Period in October this year.   I sit on the District Probation case Committee.   Last year TFH took him on, and we have sponsored him.         He lives with two unemployed brothers older than him and his mother.   His mother is about 50 and crippled by Polio and also having an eye problem.    She is unable to do much for herself except squat on the floor.      They live together in a filthy room about 15 feet square in almost total destitution.      The 'room' is supplied RENT FREE by the municipality who never maintain it, paint it, or inspect it - a room built way back in the Colonial Administration.

One room in a long row of rooms all containing physically disabled families.   All around them is greater poverty, dirt, and hopelessness.     This a slum area known as Kidewa not far from the Children's Rescue Centre.       We spent some time with the family and left very quietly.      We will continue to sponsor the boy, and perhaps also try to assist his brother.     I am beginning to think we could do more if we just walked around and opened our eyes.      Inside our Compound it is easy to forget the greater world and NEED that is outside.

 

Both the Peugeot and the minibus have been off the road for some days, and we have got used to life without them - not easy though.   Yesterday the Peugeot came back to us looking stronger and healthier - But the Minibus will have to have some serious treatment which will take it away for longer.       The ravages of old age come to us all!

 

We love you, dear friends, brothers and sisters.     We love you for your care and compassion that flows through you to us from Father.    May He bless each of YOU and keep YOU safe, well, and cared for.

 

JOHN and ESTHER

 

 

 

NEWS

TUESDAY 12TH FEBRUARY 2008

 

THE DAYS HAVE RUSHED BY and we are still all here safe and sound, and lifting up the Name that is ABOVE every Name.  Hallelujah.      And the 'Talkers' are still talking down in Nairobi!!     YES, there has seemed to be glimmers of hope that there may be some measure of Agreement by tomorrow - BUT at the same time a similar feeling of disbelief that anything will actually change no matter what they agree on!    This is largely because there are various factors which not only continue to be present with us in day to day life, but factors that seem - some of them - to be growing.      If Eldoret has remained quiet it is still not without disturbance 'here and there'    Some homes have still been burnt in our area, and still people being mugged and threatened.    To day for example a big national MILK supplier (Brookside) has closed down its Eldoret Branch and we witnessed their evacuation this morning with our own eyes.   This is a Kikuyu owned Business.

In other areas of the Country there is still violence - ten shot dead last night by police.

The PRESIDENT is advising all those who have fled from their homes to return and re-establish themselves - rebuild their burnt out homes!     He tells them that a Kenyan has the right to live anywhere, and if anyone burns their home again........?   Not a very tactful word at such a time.     However, people are AFRAID.     In Parliament today the Speaker in his opening address assured us all that the violence was not linked to any ETHNIC origin but purely political - a very barefaced lie - and he will not have put anyone's mind at rest by saying it.         A lot will NOT return.    A lot are still moving around unable to decide yet what to do.    A growing number are turning up at the 'refugee' Camps - Eldoret's now swollen to over 20,000 today, and still occupying the Agricultural Show Ground - the SHOW has had to be cancelled because of it.   No sign of these people being resettled!!     More than 2600 children of primary school age, and more than 700 or nursery age.     The camps themselves are uncomfortable and increasingly dangerous - rape and worse taking place daily.    Horrible to see, and awful to contemplate - and so little seemingly to be done to HEAL the situation.

Fear, panic and what is worse OPPORTUNISM is the order of the day.    The majority of those coming to the Show Ground for instance are NOT displaced people but the POOR who have always been with us, coming to take advantage of free food handouts with a modicum of security.

 

Tomorrow TFH and others will be with the SUGOI CHILDREN whose Home was burned down, and we hope to be able to give them more than £1000 of age plus. to assist in re-clothing them and assisting them get to school.     This is partly made possible by the goodness of many of you who will be reading this.    We have been able to help a lot because of YOUR help in giving.     The HORROR is that once one starts handing aid out more and more come into view.         WE have decided to try and concentrate on definite group needs and individuals in an effort to get at least some able to get up and able to face life again.     We shall be including some pictures eventually.  We are not sensationalists pictorially and never have been.      We do not want either to be seen as those trying to raise money from the pictorial misery of others.      We are thus not traveling often with a camera, but just a caring hand and practical help.    BUT later some images will be brought to you - we hope not to sadden you but to give you a joyful heart because of HIS love and compassion, that we can all share in.

 

Manu, our is now back at University together with two others from the Home.   Hardly any lecturers though - many had their homes destroyed earlier - and not so many students.     Not sure if things will actually take off, we shall see.      This is Manu's last Semester.     Helen is hoping to join a College in the next month as well, and then we shall begin to think of what to do with out space - Perhaps we could fill it with more children, and start to be parents all over again.......You never know!

 

Both the Homes vehicles are in hospital right now.      Our Peugeot was hit by a reversing lorry which succeeded in smashing our headlamps and pushing in the front.  Some panel beating to be done.     The Minibus has serious engine problems and may end up being a terminal case.   The Lord knows.       We have never had to think about transport.     At least the FOUR School Buses are all on the road and doing well mechanically.    Each one a good bye.    

 

I try to visit and thoroughly inspect each Home one a months, but December was just too busy and January found us all outward looking, so only began again this week.  I began with our old house TESTIMONY HOUSE.       Staggering how in only two months so much wear and tare can take place !    Although 44 pairs of feet DO kick up a lot of dust and damage!      They have two main groups in the house at present - the under 10s and the over 18s.      BOTH able to wear down concrete......

 

Next week I will take another House.    I don't tell anyone I am on the way, and I never use the same day of a any week to visit,    It's good to take people by surprise as long as one can be prepared to sympathise with both sides of a problem.

 

Some have been surprised because I have mentioned Daryl; some thought he had already left us.    NO.     He did not manage to get into politics in the end, but he also failed to persuade the Board that he was sure of God's place in his life.    They asked him to find alternative employment and gave him six months form the 1st January to do just that.        He is therefore working his notice out - or perhaps working himself out - we are not sure ........continue to pray for him, and with us, for God to have his way and to give Daryl the confidence he lacks spiritually just now.     He is NOT anti God, more anti himself, and fearing God finds him too difficult to suffer.    

 

The weather is COLD, the sky GREY.       Otherwise we are KEPT by and in His word.  The birds are singing,  and the children happy.

 

God Bless

 

JOHN and Esther - (Must look for a RED ROSE tomorrow - after 37 years she is still my one and only Valentine.)

NEWS

THURSDAY 7th FEBRUARY 2008

 

IT IS POURING WITH RAIN, TORRENTIAL AND VERY COLD RAIN.     I am thinking of the 18,000 people huddled in leaky tents in Eldoret Show Ground, cold and uncomfortable.      Am also think of the Children in the Presbyterian Church Grounds - 140 of them plus their Carers.    They at least can shelter in semi permanent timber buildings.    But it will be cold, and they will all be sleeping on cold concrete floors.

There are many other camps in and around the Town.       And still the senseless violence is continuing in one part of Kenya or another.      And STILL the 'Talkers' are talking without making any promising progress.   Deadlocked in the toils of their own egos, and totally selfish aims.      What DOES the future hold?

 

I went to visit the children in the Presbyterian Grounds this morning.   Amazingly they were all bright and happy.     Delighted to have a visitor.    I sat with their Carers and a few of the Church elders.    One of them, quite an old man, owned the land that the burnt out Home had stood upon.     He has about 60 acres of coffee and he had donated some five acres to the Home so that they could develop it.    Now after seeing it slowly built itself up over the last ten years since it was begun, there is nothing left to see.     The marauding hoard also burnt his remaining 55 acres of coffee and chopped down the shade trees.     His father and grandfather had farmed that land.  He says he will never go back.

Neither will the children.     The church has decided to carry on, but they will now seek to develop land they own that is adjacent to the main Town Church here in Eldoret.  Of course they have no money to actually DO that, but they do believe God will help them.     Many were tearful; frustrated, yet at the same time doing their best to see things in the Lord, and to gather heart.

They will need about £250,000 to rebuild what has been lost ($460,000)   Not a small amount of money.       But of course they have the children still, and fortunately they have on the adjacent ground four timber sheds of some good size which can be used as dormitories and even a dining place.      But it is crowded and cramped, especially when the six  carers also have to live and sleep there.      Toilets are a problem as well.       They have NOTHING from their old place.     Just what they stand up in.  They need EVERYTHING.       SOME help IS coming in, but they need a lot more.

 

WE are hoping to provide about £1000 of aid that has been given to us toward assisting their immediate needs, (mainly clothing and bedding).     The Forum will try to raise a similar amount from within our community.         But it will be a hard time ahead - and much harder for those in the Show Ground.

 

But the Government has said they will do their best to help them out.   The question is how long will they take to actually do it - and with the weather seeming to be ready to change for the worse as well.

 

MEANWHILE the cost of almost everything continues to rise as the economy falters.

 

And TFH - what of us?

Well we are all going on as if nothing has happened.      The School is now FULL to overflowing - amazingly so - and most of our college students from the Homes are getting ready to leave on Monday for their colleges, all of which have stated they will be opening, come what may.     A rather daunting prospect for some.    But they WANT to learn, want to get on with life.       And that is what we want for them too.  Keep walking with us.

 

I may not write up the Blog every day since I may not always have time or place, but whenever anything that needs sharing arises I will do my best to post it up.   We are all in good health and spirits.

 

Thank you again for praying with us and for us, and for those around us.    We really FEEL those prayers.      Thank you too, all of you, who have sent gifts to AENON and to our Bank,  for us and our neighbours.     We are all singing Praises to Him for His Demonstrated Love and Compassions.

 

From us all - John and Esther

NEWS

MONDAY, 4TH FEBRUARY 2008

 

DARYL and I went early to the Presbyterian main Church in Eldoret this morning.

We found them having just finished breakfast camping in some spare timber buildings in their School Compound.    The Pastor and some of his Elders, one or two that I have known for many years, were gathered together there, and we joined them.   They were very glad, even moved, to see us there.      Tears in their eyes they recounted how they had woken in the early hours of Saturday night to the blood curdling screams and yells of a two to three hundred strong gang of destruction.     

The children were sitting on the dusty ground as we talked - about 14o of them.   They had enough food and blankets. and refused any other assistance until Wednesday.  They are all very concerned as to what to do next.      Their Congregation, almost 100% Kikuyu also disturbed and wondering if they can really have a future in Eldoret any more.      Certainly they do not feel they can rebuild on the Church land out of town upon which they were raided.    Next time the raiders might KILL them.   

They are considering seeking bedspace in other Homes in the area for the children they have, and then closing down their operation.    If that becomes a hard and fast decision then they will ask the Children's Forum to step in and offer places........

I am sure we WOULD all help even if it means squeezing!      Talking with them there was a sense of great LOSS and 'lostness' amongst them.....HOW could this all be?  Just a few short weeks ago everyone had been living quietly together......

 

NO STORY in the papers!    Just a photograph of ruin, but no description of what had happened, or how a hundred infants had woken terrified in the night to be chased out of their safe place and put to flight......probably not bloody enough for the press to sensationalise about!

Today's Headline in the Daily Nation

AGONY IN CAMPS AS MPs APPEAL FOR PEACE

'At least about 300,000 Kenyans are still sheltering in about 44 makeshift camps around the Country.

 

Testimony Faith Homes has continued to be strengthened by the Word of God, and by Prayer, and much generous giving from brothers and sisters in many places.   We have been more than Thankful - not just to have our own growing needs met - but also to have been able to distribute more than £4,500 in material aid to friends and neighbours around us.      We will soon provide an account of how this has been spent, and relief provided to local victims of this deep sorrow.    Some being members of our own staff, and many from outside, young and old.      We want to demonstrate the fellowship of the suffering that has at least a little been alleviated by the love of so many.

 

TODAY I have written to the Uasin Gishu District Commissioner asking that he arrange a Meeting with the Children's Services Forum (the officers) and the Children's Department.       Many NGOs busy working amongst children are wondering what the future holds - IF as seems likely the policy of ethnic cleansing should continue would it become necessary to employ ONLY Kalenjins, and care ONLY for Kalenjin children?

How safe would property owned or managed by non Kalenjins actually be, and what measure of officially protection could be expected.    Most of us came to Kenya to help the NATION not just a small part of it.

 

IF the idea of DIVISION of Kenya were to actually come about (although the politicians strongly deny this would mean tribal divisions) it might well end up producing a situation in which none of us would be free to reach ALL needy children from ANY area of Kenya.      This would mean that all of us would need to seriously re think HOW to fulfill the vision given to us.

 

SOME schools and colleges are opening.     BUT the Eldoret Campos of our own local University (MOI) remains closed - Residential Halls still burning and gutted having been totally vandalized by the local population - apparently quite unaware that they are also destroying their own livings and local economy (the students have been the source of a real increase in their prosperity - until now!)         The other part of the University, the MAIN CAMPUS is about 40 kilometers away and expects to open next week - and our son Manu will have to take up his studies there again - with some trepidation on all our parts.

 

This afternoon a tiny, emaciated Kikuyu woman came to my offence.     She is a single mother, slightly physically deformed and recovering from an operation that has gone septic.    Her poor shanty home has been burned down and now she is out in the street with her three infant children - will I take them in.........She will come again tomorrow - Esther and I thinking how to help her.    We do not want to just take her children from her.....SO MANY PROBLEMS.

 

It has been a quiet day.    Everything normal.    The sun has shone.   The Leaders still talking in NAIROBI without a word of how they are progressing - It is truly AMAZING that they can be so apparently unmoved by the PAIN so universally perceived and born.

 

All for now, dear friends and family.

 

John and Esther

NEWS

SUNDAY 3rd FEBRUARY 2008

ABOUT 7a.m. our time this morning the Manager of a Children's Home on the other side of Eldoret phoned to say that in the early hours they had been invade by a gang of people and their entire complex - School and Home - burned to the ground.   Mercifully the 130 children and 13 Staff were all unhurt.     Nothing material was left of either the timber or stone buildings.     Nothing of the their contents survived either.    Many of the children in this Home are under 6 years, the majority are rehabilitated Street Children.

Many of them just ran into the bushes during the attack and have not been located yet.  The rest have been put up in a Presbyterian Church in central town.    I will be there in the morning to see what we may be able to do to help them out.   I am sure many of the FORUM Members will be there with me, AND the District Children's Officer who also phoned a few minutes ago in great distress at what has happened.    The Home is known as the PCEA (Presbyterian Church of Eastern Africa) MUNSINGEN Children's Home  -  (Munsingen being a town in Germany that has helped them).     We had only met this last Wednesday together with some of the management at the Forum Meeting.      VERY DISTRESSING indeed.

WHY have they been so invaded?      The area in which the Home is situate is in the midst of a Kanlenjin society - a very depressed area.     They people have long taken exception to the fact that the PCEA had BOUGHT land there, and that they have not only imported children from other tribes to their own, but also staffed the place with non kalenjin staff.     BUT they had no one qualified enough from amongst themselves of course, so really what could the PCEA have done?   Well it seems they should have just KEPT themselves away.      The majority of Kenyans belonging to this the Presbyterian Church are Kikuyu!     Churches denominationally commenced historically in particular regions in a general sense.    The Presbyterians in Central Province the home of the Kikuyu, the Anglican Church in Western the home of the Luhyia and Luo,

the Quakers in and  good number of Pentecostal groups in Western as well.       The Africa Inland Church has attracted the Kalenjin and Nandi peoples.      Only the Catholics seem to have spread themselves all over without concentrating on particular area.     THUS even the Churches have a 'tribal history and background'.       

AND TALKING OF CHURCHES another Pentecostal Church was also burned down yesterday, situated right in the Town Centre near the main road bridge into town.   Again at night so no one was hurt.

 

SO where is the Security - where is the protection?      My brother at the Children's Home said only two policemen turned up and did not either help them or show any particular interest.    Will they actually find out who did this?    Perhaps.     If they do though one wonders if they will be punished in this day when the world has been slowly turning against strong discipline.      No wonder the violence is not ceasing when it seems there is nothing being done to deter it or even put it to flight.       If you lived here and had to listen to all the foreign media and political pundits telling us our police are too heavy handed and we should not involve the army to assist in keeping order, you might hopefully feel as we do - ANNOYED AND IRRITATED.         What are we to do as a Nation when we see our homes and our neighbours lives being burned, pulled down, ruined and destroyed - just rap the perpetrators on the knuckle and say 'You bad boys, don't do that again because we are not allowed to stop you.'      Those that know me will understand that I would not condone such weak kneed, ineffective and irresponsible methods of keeping order in a society in chaos.

 

As our PEACEMAKERS AND leaders sit around still in five star hotels well away from any sign of disturbance or discomfort, the VIOLENCE NATIONALLY IS CONTINUING, PERHAPS INCREASING.

Consider the following extracts from today's DAILY NATION -

 

The front page Headline reads

VIOLENCE

TEN MORE KILLED IN FRESH CLASHES

 

              ODM takes offence at Kibaki's remarks                                                                                                                      Protect activists, say Amnesty International

 

Whilst blood continues to flow and property burns all over the State,  the LEADERS comfortably and imperturbably throw insult and cynicism at each other at the Country's further EXPENSE, and foreign busybodies tell us to recognise Human Rights - especially those of the empty headed criminals who are realising havoc in the land.    ALL this is so very unreal - yet if we have been watching the Films and Cartoons that have been the visual entertainment of ourselves and our children for years one should not be surprised.      They have now become REAL LIFE and no longer a fantasy.

 

Our Sunday Service was again packed out.        Much Praise and Testimony of His Faithfulness amongst us all - even in the midst of such evil news as recorded above.      Our children all in good voice and innocent happiness - the two NEW children brought in yesterday already smiling and apparently adjusted to their new life.

 

WILL we have one eye open as we sleep tonight?   NO, I think not.     It has been very sad to see the way things are turning, and we are aware that things may indeed become worse, BUT we are not looking at the earthly evidence of Satan's activities, but rather looking UP to where HE is seated in Majesty and Power.     We ARE hid in Him.     EVEN IF we ourselves were to suffer as our friends suffered last night we will not flinch or flee from it, and are confidence of His Presence .....

 

TOMORROW we shall - if He wills - and commence another day, another week.        

Pray for us, and for all the people of God in this disrupted Country.

 

John and Esther.

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS

SATURDAY 2nd FEBRUARY 2008

 

I am sure you have all been wondering WHY no further news from me.....Just TOO busy.      The calls upon our time and energy are never ending, for not only is Commencement always especially busy but the necessity of counseling, comforting, and even providing for, the constant stream of frightened people seeking help is an all day, every day event.       YET at the same time being  inside TFH it is like being totally cut off from whatever else is going on - truly an ongoing Oasis of Peace at the present time!

You will no doubt have heard of the TWO Opposition MPs that have been shot dead in the last week or so.    The SECOND was shot dead here in ELDORET - the West side, as we ourselves are on the East, and thus right across Town from us.    Esther, Daryl, Manu and I were all shopping in Town at 11a.m., the shooting had occurred just an hour earlier.    By 1p.m. in the afternoon the whole Town centre was again in turmoil after the news arrived and there were further riots and unpleasantness.    We had NO IDEA, having left town before it all began.      By the evening it had quieted down again, and all was calm and peace, and this has by and large continued.

However peace is not actually restored nation wide, and most of our Universities, for example, are still closed, so OUR university students still at home more than a month after their expected return.    Unrest still in the areas where they operate.     SO Manu is still at home with us and about four others.     Manu's  University Campus is about 4o kilometers away from us,        Steven's old University (The University of Eastern Africa)is a little further in the opposite direction -  was invaded by local people - mainly youth - last night, and there is talk that it (It is a Private University and had opened hoping to avoid the fracas experienced elsewhere) will close today.     Some students may come to spend overnight with us today.

 

The MEDIATORS continue to mediate in Nairobi full of URGENT exhortation to each other to END the VIOLENCE, as if by just saying it all will now be calm.   NOT SO!!

Nothing else of any inspired interest has so far surfaced from their endless chattering.

 

Some well fed, stalwart - if unemployed - Kenyan Youth, suitably masked and armed with sharp edged pangas (machetes) were interviewed by one of Sky News' globe trotting lady Reporters in Nairobi.     She encouraged them to explain their lust for bloodletting, and even head chopping, squatting in squalor with them.    She seemed full of understanding and sympathy for their outlook and the youth's key note phrase of

'KILL TODAY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW' was well aired!!!     I really wonder what the Media does for the world.    Certainly it does NOT encourage a better tomorrow, or even uphold the standards and values that ensured that yesterday was much better than today - at least morally and relisgiously!

 

The opposition has accused the Government of being behind the murder of the two politicians calling them 'assassinations' - strongly denied of course.   HOWEVER, ON TV, last night coverage of the arrest of the policeman behind the fatal killing in Eldoret seemed quite jovial on his way to Court to answer a charge of double murder - The MP was shot dead, and another wounded policewoman died on the way to hospital.   The Police who were escorting him also looked very happy, and were unarmed - their so called suspect un-handcuffed!      It looked rather unreal and staged!!    NOT good publicity for the Government side of things.

 

Kenyans generally must be the MOST PATIENT people on earth since the TIME that has been taken to restore law and order seems still to be almost unlimited.    This is causing irritation and even another kind of anger.       It is likely that no one really cares about the political rights and wrongs that became the trigger for all this awfulness.   They just want things back to normal - almost at any price.    Politically no one might want to ever take part in an election of any kind again.      BUT normality cannot just be restored just as it was.............Something has GONE, and for a long time to come I would imagine.      If Kenya was the 'Gingerbread' of East Africa, then the GILT has gone from it well and truly.

 

BUT some things ARE the same.

The POOR are still with us - but in increasing numbers.

The Street Children are still there on the littered streets.

AND THE Rich remain fairly untouched by all this mayhem - it is not the UPPER and Middle Classes (yes we still have 'class' in Kenya) but the ordinary working man, the labourer, junior clerk, artisan - the lower class - and below them the REALLY POOR that are truly hurting right now, and for some time into the future.

 

The MAIN ROAD THROUGH to Uganda and central Africa is BLOCKED.  Bridges broken down, and no sign of urgent repair - surely the ARMY engineers know how to span a river...?        Uganda is of course now also seriously inconvenienced by our state of chaos.     Food IS getting into Eldoret now, but still but a trickle.  Prices continue to ROCKET.       Potatoes for example have risen from £5 for 90 Kilos to £30 for the same weight!    Same for cabbage.     ALL basics are rising - not always because they NEED to but because those who provide them are cashing in on misery!

One wonders if some of our trouble is not Judgment on national GREED and SELFISHNESS that grips the individual citizen!! 

 

Two small children one five and the other seven - brother and sister, having been orphaned when their single parent died of AIDS where then displaced from their slum squatter quarters by ruffians, who burned their only shelter, and were taken to the Show Ground to join the multitude of 'refugees' from terror.        BOTH were admitted today into DRAKELEY COTTAGE taking the number up to 28 in that Family.  Esther and I have just come from having tea with some of them, and with their 'parents' Steve and Emily Stuma.      A lovely family, full of peace and laughter - a true HAVEN.

We hope to take another FOUR children ourselves from the same place during the coming week - no space for more -  HOW we would love to scoop them all up from their misery and give them secure solace and love here with us in TFH.    

 

The day has sped by again.     The School and Homes carrying on as if nothing is happening.      We are blessed so far in being spared so much suffering.    We have to do a lot of soul searching to encourage ourselves into feeling our lives deserve such consideration.........If not then our turn may still have to come.     Continue in prayer for us all, and for innocent who shelter here under the NAME that is above every name.

 

God be with you always

 

John and Esther, and ALL with us who would thank you as they thank God day by day and moment by moment.