Update

SATURDAY, 23rd AUGUST 2008
This time it is the turn of Jacaranda Cottage to be in the lime-light and the photo reveals the family of Phillip and Rosalinde NZOMO and their three children, Phillip and Rosalinde are Mum and Dad in this Family Home, and they and their three children also share the house with 37 other children aged between 3 and 22 - boys and girls. Rosalinde is a trained Councillor, and Phillip is actually a Science Teacher, and before coming to us was Assistant Warden of the Eldoret Child Rescue Centre which is still going strong by the way. They came to take over from Joshua and Miriam Mbithi in 2004. It was not an easy first year for them since they had to come from being their own small family to expanding and becoming totally integrated with the Jacaranda Family overnight. This was hardest on their own children who had not had to share their parents affection and attention before. Also, of course, it was not easy to initially find themselves accepted as Mum and Dad in place of Joshua and Miriam who had been in that position for nineteen years before finally leaving to start a new Ministry. NOW they are doing well and the Home is a progressively happy family.
Last week I mentioned the problems of changing Houseparents. Jacaranda which opened in 1975 has perhaps had the greatest challenge to it 'family' status; it has had five sets of Houeparents in thirty three years. Francis and Elaine Wainaina were the first to be Mum and Dad there from 1975-84. After that we had Hans and Sonja Jenson from Denmark, and Bob and Joy Grahamslaw from UK in quick succession, and then from 1985 until the end of 2003 Joshua and Miriam Mbithi. How long will Phil and Rosalinde stay with us? We don't know, cannot tell! But we hope and pray that they will stay a long time, and ask you to pray for them.
Jacaranda Cottage is quite an old house; half of it built of mud brick without any foundation, and the other half build of cement blocks in 1977. It is scheduled for eventual demolition, and a NEW Cottage built opposite the present site. Then part of the site will go down to lawns, and the cement block part will be turned into a Maintenance Workshop and Laundry. We hope the Lord will help us to accomplish this in His own Time and Plan, and hope you will be praying for us. The New Jacaranda Cottage will cater for up to 50 children which will give us a total of 110 children on the compound as a whole. The Building Plan is completed, and all we need now is to accumulate the building materials needed. In a way it will be sad to see the old house go, but it has always been an inconvenient house to manage, and constantly in need of repair and maintenance because of its age and irregularity of shape.
The photo above was taken from Tyndale Cottage which lies near the main gate on the right hand side of the driveway going up to Jacaranda. Drakeley Cottage lies also on the right hand side but further up and beyond Jacaranda Cottage.

SO now I have covered all four Children's Homes as they are today. I will try next week to also give an overview of our School, and how it came about, and how it relates to the Homes. It is an overcast day here in Kenya. The children are running around outside enjoying a dry spell, and the last few days of School Holidays. They have really enjoyed seeing the Olympics on the TV, the coverage having been quite good.
The Lord continue to bless you all and every one.

John and Esther

PS Many thanks to the two of you that wrote to assure us that you would like the Blog to continue. We have also sent by Airmail a Printed update about the Green Family and a leaflet about TFH. We sent it to all those whose address we have including those on E-mail. Please let us know if you would like such updates to also be sent to you quarterly as well.