UPDATE

SATURDAY, 24TH MAY 2008 

To be or not to be...

THAT is the question!!

 

In 1 Kings 22 we read of Jehoshaphat going to the aid of the then king of Israel against Syria.      The burning question was about how the battle would go - who would win.      The King of Israel brought 400 men who were his advisors (prophets) and they all said 'GO and fight for the Lord will deliver the battle into your hands.'        Humanly the prospect did not look good, but the word of these men was encouraging, and sure.      Never mind how bad things look - the future is bright, you will win through.     There will be VICTORY.

 

Everyone would like to believe that about world civilization at this point in history.     Things look bad..     Yesterday on SKY NEWS the Financial Expert was saying things look bleak - a World Recession is now close if not inevitable!       What does that mean?   How are we to see this?       TODAY in the Kenya Daily Nation we read on the front page -

OIL PRICES SET TO INCREASE FURTHER

Kenyans have been warned to brace for further increases in oil prices - and the rise in the cost of living that goes with it.

Many household budgets have been stretched to breaking point by increases in fuel prices which have sparked similar rises in the cost of food, transport and other essential goods.

From motorists in Mombasa to farmers in Eldoret, and fishermen in Kisumu, Kenyans will have to tighten their belts as experts predict oil prices will continue to escalate.

Global oil prices soared to a high of $135 a barrel and this is likely to rise to $150.

 

The situation could not look more uncomfortable economically, and if we take this with the increasing incidence of world unrest elementally, politically and socially, then many might be forgiven for looking for someone to provide encouragement to believe in a better world around the corner.     Everyone would gladly accept and believe in ANY MAN that could assure them of PEACE, PROSPERITY, and REST from all this  increasing apprehension and fear of the future...............Perhaps he is not far away!

 

I was recently reading an account of the English society as it was in the early eighteen hundreds - just a hundred years ago.

'Success in discovering new forms of livelihood

was uprooting growing numbers from the country's traditional life.   Though many thrived in that freer society, many more, the old props gone, went to the wall.   Those swept into the slums of the capital or squatters towns around the steam factories could transmit to their children only a memory of the Christian traditions and influences among which they grew up.   A generation after Waterloo a third of Manchester's children attended neither church, chapel nor school   The stony places in which the dispossessed took root tended inevitably to make hard cruel reckless men and sluttish depraved women.'

The Age of Elegance by Sir Arthur Bryant.

 

NOT a pretty picture.

Yet England recovered, rose up, and attained greatness.

Perhaps there are 'cycles' even in the ebb and flow of national and world society.

Solomon tells that there is 'nothing new under the son'

It has happened before.    We should hope and believe for recovery, and even improvement and advancement in the evolution of man and civilization.

SURELY - not all is lost!    A better day IS coming

 

IS IT ?.    

2.Timothy 3v13 tells us that people (humanity)

will get worse and worse!

PAUL who is the author of this Epistle says the basic reason for this is because Man in the last days will be a lover of himself and a seeker of pleasures for himself.;

C.S. Lewis in his Essay entitled 'We Have No Right to Happiness' written in 1963 says -

'Though the 'right to happiness' is chiefly claimed for the sexual impulse,

 it seems to me impossible that the matter should stay there.

   The fatal principle once allowed in that department, must sooner or later seep through our whole lives.

   We thus advance towards a state of society in which not only each man but every impulse in each man claims carte blance. 

 And the, through our technological skill may help us survive a little longer, our civilization will have died at heart, and will - one dare not even add ' unfortunately' - be swept away.'

 

JEHOSHEPHAT

asked the King of Israel if there was a Prophet of the Lord ..

He was not satisfied by the words of the 400 men - the majority sycophants.

A Man called MICAIAH was suggested by the King of Israel

But he said of him 'I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.'

And Micaiah spoke oppositely to the 400, and predicted ruin and defeat.

And so it was

 

The whole story is worth reading and thinking about.    We need more men and women like Micaiah to stand for the TRUTH against all the deceit and lies of the Devil that surround us and encourage us to go to our deaths without a fight.   Let us see things squarely and rightly in the light of God's Word.

 

THERE WILL BE NO LASTING PEACE OR PROSPERITY

Till the King Comes.

 

###############

This Week in KENYA the politicians are still bickering with each other as they have from the outset.       They have been discussing the size of the Cabinet, and whether or not to have a Grand Opposition in the Grand Coalition!     To and fro, to and fro.......very economically costly discussion,      So far little progress.     Life goes on - more and more expensively, and still just a little apprehensively.   The started, faltered, stopped.    Prospects for a good harvest already very negative.    Many business people in Eldoret still selling up and leaving - including our only Baker!    Population increasing with congestion, crime and some little insecurity in urban areas.

THIS WEEK in Testimony Faith Homes has been testing to say the least.  But those who KNOW the Lord will also know that at the same it was also faith building and profitable.

 

On Monday I was in the Eldoret Children's Court processing Court Orders for some of our children.     The Lady Magistrate was impressed by the fact that so many of our children are from different tribal groups and said she had been distressed and offended by one Children's Home whose managers had presented the children of only ONE tribe.    When she had enquired why, he had said that his Home would only take children from that tribal background and no other.      She was wondering how this could be allowed, and was mounting an investigation.         As I have said before Eldoret is in the midst of an area where tribalism is on the increase, and where there has been a feeling to discourage all others but the predominant local tribe to live and work here.       It was not encouraging to hear that this attitude had crept into a Children's Home.         We shall no doubt discuss this in the Children's Forum Meeting which will be taking place this coming Wednesday.

The youngest child we presented to the Court on this occasion was four year old Simon and his six year old sister Kezia.     Their parents had died of AIDS.   The Magistrate fell in love with Simon and had him sit on her lap through the proceedings.       She is coming to visit the Homes and have lunch with Simon in Drakeley Cottage which is where he lives.      A successful end to the morning.  

We still have to take 32 more children to her Court in the near future.

 

Tuesday we discovered that the cost of building material had doubled in cost in  relation to roofing materials, cement and sand.     Over the period since we had begun to build this had in fact pushed the cost of the new Guest House up by more than 60% overall,     This was rather bad news - but we are near to completion now and there is no going back.          We have trust the Lord for the cost from the commencement, and we just have to trust Him that much more.... We are safe in his hands.      Indeed as you will have noted from the beginning of this update costs ARE rising and will continue to rise.     We cannot retreat or cease from what we are doing, but must continue and even grow notwithstanding all these evil prospects and dire predictions.      The Testimony and the Glory will go only to Him when it is seen how we survive and prosper still in His Name.

 

During the week myself and other members of the Children's Services Forum including the District Children's Officer have been receiving offensive and insulting letters by E-mail.    At the same time similar letters have been sent to the Press and printed by them.     This has caused us all some concern, and we have finally lodged a complaint to the District Commissioner in the hope that something might be done to root out the perpetrators of this maliciousness.        Mainly the letters accuse us of making money out of children, abusing children, and generally manipulating Children's Services.      The letters are all unsigned and without sound evidence to back up their accusations.        It is felt that it is a ploy to disrupt the good progress that has been made in helping needy children in our District by those who have not been so successful in other related fields.

 

Otherwise LIFE in the homes has continued as usual with 140 pairs of feet walking, running, and romping around in the four homes and another 700 pairs doing the same in the School.     It is quite amazing how QUIET it is even so - and at the same time how HAPPY and JOYFUL all the children seem to be both at home and at school.    One broken window in Jacaranda Cottage this week - a football came to close!     Two Toilet seats broken in Tyndale - still not sure how ..?    The cook in Testimony House off work with Malaria so Mum Mulli is doing the cooking!    RAIN very intermittent at present - ONE day in ten it really RAINS,     Rationing of water now introduced - (saw the Water Company this week but they are helpless to do much until it DOES rain in a real way - so last night in our Night of Prayer this was one of the main requests going up to God.

 

Here we sit, stand, and work for the Lord our God.    We will not be moved even if our arms are sometimes heavy or our knees week.     We are upheld by your prayers and most of all by the Spirit of our God.

 

John and Esther