BEST WISHES FOR A BLESSED 2009

TRULY we wish you all an especially memorable NEW YEAR. Here in Kenya at this time last year we were in the midst of the beginning of insurrection, riot and terror. Fire and smoke hung over our town as people fled for their lives from their burning homes, and from the keen edge of pangas and machetes wielded in the hands of those bent on killing, rape and pillage. It was a horrible and most frightening time for us all. HOW GLAD to come to the end of the same year in Peace and safety. The harassing scenes included here still remembered but now unseen in our streets and suburbs all now back to normal life. Hardly any physical sign of what happened, and everyone engaged once more in an almost nonchalant life in the sun! BUT this is not to say that problems still remain in our society, and that there are still those who have not recovered all that they lost at that time. There are STILL displaced people and families camping out in the Town Show Ground, now sheltered only by the shredded tatters of the UN and RED CROSS tents handed out to them a year ago. 1500 or so children of school age amongst them. Not a pretty or happy sight. Those who lost their homes to fire still without restoration or even reparation. Many more that lost their jobs as well remain unemployed. So the 'shadow' of the early part of 2008 has still not entirely been dispelled, and the sorrow, hurt and fear engendered still lingers in many hearts and homes.
CHRISTMAS found the Town a little subdued of Christmas Spirit. No lights, decorations, or in fact ANYTHING outwardly declaring the Season of Goodwill. Shops and streets crowded with shoppers though, and traffic so vast a problem that it was dangerous to even cross a road on foot. WE were holding our breath and drawing in our belts since we were still suffering constraint from a shortfall in funds carried over from September/October, and so we were intent on at least making sure we ate without trying to spend more. The sun shone, the sky was blue, but the situation remained arid. However on Christmas Eve we were to Praise the Lord as two Gifts arrived to deliver us from want. These provided all that we in the Homes needed as well as in sharing something with the less fortunate living around us. We always try to give even as we ourselves are given, not wanting to have or teach a selfish spirit.
On Christmas Eve quite a large party went out amongst our neighbours singing Carols. They started at about 2p.m. and arrived back about 7.30p.m. when they also joined the rest of us in our School Hall for Family Prayer and Carols together - all the staff and children, untill about 9p.m.
Christmas Morning we were again all together for a Service commencing at 9a.m. and ending about 12 noon. I shared a Message on 'The Fullness of Time'. Then all to our various homes for lunch. In Testimony we have our Christmas Dinner in the evening, and this was achieved in each Home separately. The houses all had their own tree and decorations - we all share the Christmas Cards sent to us, and we make sure that there are plenty of balloons to hand out.
Board Games, footballs and other items that can be shared and enjoyed together also made available - and we DO thank those who especially sent for this kind of provision. It made the Day so much more enjoyable as a Family Day.
The weather remained HOT and enjoyable as Boxing Day dawned, and ALL the Homes again joined together for the purpose of a Pic-nic held at a local school that permits us to use their grounds and Swimming Pool for the whole day. We have the sole use of it for that day, and the proprietor is very glad and happy to reserve it just for us. The children, and staff, all finally arrived back home in the evening around 7p.m. quite worn out with exercise - they also were able to play football in an adjoining field.
I was unable to send the BLOG on Saturday this time as our Server had gone down with some technical problem and I could not get to the Site, and if I had I would still not have been able to get out as everything was DOWN. Hope you will forgive me. We have been busy still in the days since Christmas, and today the National Primary School Examination Results are being announced as we run up to the opening of School Term on the 12th January. We shall be having an evening of Prayer and Thanksgiving tomorrow - New Year's Eve - but otherwise no special program. School Uniform has yet to be bought, and it will be a case of all hands on deck getting the children sorted out and ready for School.

I feel this New Year will be one of great challenge and change. We all need each other's prayer from the word go, and I am confident that AS WE GO forward in His Name, He will go with us, and indeed also in front of us, to secure us and prove His Presence with us. Our sincere love to you all in His Name, with a deep appreciation of your being with us in our own Walk here in Eldoret, Kenya.

John and Esther

ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS

ESTHER AND I, standing outside our Academic Centre dining room LAST Saturday with all our houseparents and helpers both in the School and the Homes. Seventy one of them altogether plus a few visitors. We had just enjoyed our Christmas Luncheon together, and had a wonderful time of good fellowship, prayer and encouragement. A real 'Family'. As I mentioned a few weeks back it marked not merely an END of an important chapter in the story of Testimony Faith Homes, but also proclaimed the beginning of a NEW period in that story. A platform and foundation has been laid down, but there is still room for so much more to built upon it, should the Lord tarry.

THIS SATURDAY, our youngest son James MANUbhai Green Graduated with a Bsc. in Science & Technology. He obtained a 2nd Class Honours Upper Division. He enjoyed himself with 4000 other graduands plus all their friends and relatives. The day was hot, dusty and very CROWDED. Esther and Daryl plus Steven Stuma from Drakely Cottage, attended. Manu roasted in his gown, but otherwise seemed supremely happy to be ENDING this period of his life. After Christmas a NEW beginning in Nairobi will commence as he seeks employment in the wide world. Not going to be easy either with climbing unemployment.
Manu is 24, and looking forward to the next big step in his life. He is third from the left in this photo - minus his mortarboard! - not sure who the young lady is ...?
Next year we should see three of the Homes' boys also graduating from University as well. AND of course one or two more joining having completed their High School this year. Education just goes on and on year by year, and the cost of it escalates with the numbers involved. We also have one or two that do not go on to College, but instead need to seek some kind of trade training. This may sound a little sad, but on the whole those that learn a trade end up being as materially successful as anyone else - quite often!

The WEATHER is fine; clear sky, brilliant sunshine, and plenty of warmth. Not like last year, and so we hope that we shall be able to have many of our activities outside instead of couped up in the houses. Certainly all are expecting to SWIM on Boxing Day as we all join together in a neighbouring school which is letting us have the exclusive use of their pool for the best part of the day. THEN a week of hard work getting everyone ready for school once again.

The BLOG is almost a year old, with more than 2oo pages of events and comment on the life of Testimony Faith Homes, and the ongoing tale of a missionary in Kenya. Enough material for another book! We shall see. Still no definite news of the REPRINT of the old book so far, but will not forget to alert you all when something needs to be said. I would quite like to write at least one more book, but it is time to do it! I just seem to be more and more caught up in things. But I am not overburdened. I have also been thinking of a trip away from TFH to visit friends and churches. It is some time since I have done this with any intensity. In 2003 and 06 I was in the UK briefly and visited only a very few of our friends. I have not visited ALL our contacts since 1994. AND, of course I was invited to visit Australia recently! George Muller managed to spend his later years travelling the world with the message of God's Faithfulness and Providence. Well if it is not me, I may think of sending someone else, as it is really high time that we made face to face contact with many, and perhaps extended the knowledge of what the Lord has done here, and continues to do, to His Praise and Glory.

By NEXT Saturday Christmas Day will have passed. I will hope to fill you all in on how we spent our days here together, and perhaps also include a few telling photos. Until then we send you all our Love and Best Wishes in the Joy of God's Wonderful Gift - even JESUS our Life and Salvation. May He be the more revealed and experienced in all our homes and hearts this year, as we look forward to His Second Coming.

John and Esther

GRADUATION DAY

GRADUATION DAY ! The colour of the caps and gowns will NOT be orange but BLACK of course! It will be held NEXT Friday, 19th December, at MOI UNIVERSITY, which is our nearest University some 40 kilometers away from Eldoret. Thousands of parents, friends and other well wishers will gather at the Main Campus to witness the 2008 Graduation. It will be quite a CRUSH, and without much shade, if it will be a sunny day, making it a VERY HOT experience for those having to for the most part STAND and watch. Esther and Daryl will be there, and probably most of the rest of our two families here in Eldoret - apart from me. I just would not manage either the heat or the crush these days. So I will be home whilst the rest suffer. But WHO is Graduating? Why, it is our youngest son, James Manubhai Green of course! At 24 he is very glad and happy to have completed the Course, (a Batchelors in Information Sciences) and so are we! Indeed we feel very releived that he can now apply his endless energy and high spirits to earning a living, and finally getting to serious grips with actually making his own way in the world. Since he came to be ours - just a few hours after his birth - we have watched him grow up and we can say that in those early and formative years until he joined Secondary School Manu, as he has come to be affectionately known, gave us both so much pleasure and happiness. Once in Secondary School things changed and he seemed to determine to make himself, instead of being made in the hand of God. He became very independant, unruly and self opinionated. YET, at the same time, a generous, compassionate nature still shone through, and we have had to trust the Lord to harness the good that is in him and believe that finally the good SEED that was sown into his life will eventually spring to life - even if it may need FIRE to make it happen. We remain very fond of him, and he himself sees himself very much 'family' with all his brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins in the Green Family. Friday the 19th will be a special day in his life. We hope to be together (all the Eldoret part of his famly) for a family celebratory supper. He will spend Christmas with us, and then off to Nairobi to seek employment. We would ask you to remember to pray for him. He is a lover of the world around him.

AS A BOY I used to be fascinated by illustrations of old wooden ships. The fascination took me to literature as well as pictures, and as I grew up they remained something that ever stirred my imagination. Here is a picture of the 'Victory' on the high seas. Nelson's Flagship. How stately and proud she seems there in the midst of the sea. My mother always used to say, when trying to impress a friend of a generous intention, 'When my ship comes home' you will see.....! Well I don't think the ship she had in mind ever did reach her. She waited and looked in vain.......BUT in fact her ship, the one sent out to seek and search for her DID arrive, and brought to her a full and free Salvation in Christ Jesus. In 1983 when I was on a rare visit to the UK I actually was able with Esther, Michael, and Elisabeth, to visit the Victory in dry dock at Porstmouth. But she was quite dead - like Lenin in his glass sarcophagus; like a stuffed bird in a glass box without air or breath or wind to stirr her into life. It was good to walk upon her decks and to consider her strength and power, but I missed the sound of the wind in her sails, and the song of the sea around her.

TOMORROW we remember my arrival 40 years ago. I talked of it last week. In all that time I have only spent one Christmas in England. In so many ways I have felt often 'marooned' in Kenya, far from the sea, and far from all I grew up with, and more recently even my family. When we had been in our house here in Eldoret just a few months we were visited by a family of German missionaries. Their children still live nearby and are still engaged in mission, though very differently to their parents. I remember asking the wife how many years she and her husband had served the Lord in Kenya - when she told me FORTY years I felt quite astounded! How could anyone stay in one place for 40 years? NOW I guess I know the answer! What is to come next........What has God got in store for us? We shall sit down with 50 odd co workers and friends tomorrow about 12.30p.m. Kenya time. Pray for Testimony Faith Homes, The Fabric, The People, The Children. We need your prayers.

Love you all...........

John & Esther

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS ICONS of 'Father Christmas'. NOT a picture of some plump, jovial, grandfather in a Scandinavian track suit scattering presents from his Sleigh in the Sky, but of a more real man; a man of God caring for others. It is said that Nicholas Klaus was in fact a Bishop in one of the poorest areas of Europe in the middle ages. And not so much a bishop fond of regalia and pomp either, but rather one who having his own roots in poverty, constantly remembered the discomfort and need of the poor. A man who gave, and a man who saved. A man who especially at the Season remembering his Lord's Birth in the manger that night in Bethlehem, set himself to visit the poorest homes and shelters in his diocese in order to encourage, uplift and provide for those who had nothing. They say he disguised himself, and as much as possible left gifts without letting those he gave to know he had visited them. And often in his provision was something for a child so that his name became especially loved by children who were touched by his affection. Children who knew what it was to need affection; children who did not already have too much, and who often shared the tears and distress of their parents unable to provide for themselves. This aspect is emphasised yet again in the illustration opposite and taken from a German children's book printed in the early nineteenth century. The aged, kindly child loving Bishop. Yet in truth this man was self effacing, and did all his good works secretly and without any ostentation. His real mission in life was to show by his own life the compassion, love and mercy of Christ who was his Master and his Lord. Truly a man of God seeking nothing for himself, not even a name. I think he would be disappointed to see how much attention he is given in our world, and how little credit and recognition has gone to God. A God who still loves little children, and still loves the poorest sinner.
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LAST WEEK I left off writing to comb my hair and rush out to a function to settle a 'Bride Price' - amongst other things. I had envisaged myself in for a somewhat lengthy afternoon of semi boredom! All for a good cause of course - since I was there to promote - rather remotely - the cause of my son Michael in securing his chosen bride! Esther was of course with me, Daryl, Manu and Helen, also, AND a supporting cast of some 15 other friends of the family. It was a beautiful day weather wise, warm with clear skies and a light breeze. Michael was in UK wondering what would be happening! He survived the ordeal!

We arrived at the Bride's parent's house about 1p.m. The ladies in our party traditionally had to sing outside the house before we were ceremoniously let in! They also jigged around a bit as they sang - quite joyously. The doors finally opened and our entire party welcomed into the garden of the house by the bride's family and friends - more than three times as many as ourselves. Awnings had been put in place in the garden and chairs arranged, and a buffet meal also set out and arranged for all. There were speeches and prayers and presentations. Much laughter and halfway through a few of our party separated ourselves together with a few of the Bride's family to discuss the important issue of what the Bridegroom would offer for his intended bride - and whether it could be enough! Well it is not for me to share the intimate details of all that took place, but surfice to say that it only too fifteen minutes to settle everything with much happiness and satisfaction on both sides. Janet - Michael's fiancee - WAS not at this very private discussion, but she was THERE and at the gathering and was asked publicly if she really did love our son Michael enough to really want to marry him - which she affirmed with demure shyness. Lastly it should have been that the Couple should be prayed for by the parents and pastors present. However since Michael wasn't there it had to be a little different, and so Janet had to stand with our younger son Manu as Michael's 'Stand In'. THEN the hands were laid and prayers were said, and the Presence and Blessing of God was very real. It was 6.30pm. It had been a wonderful occasion, and a time when two families began to be ONE. Now the final arrangements for the Wedding can go ahead. Nothing definite at this time, but when we know officially and finally I will of cause let you all know.

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On the 12th December 1968 I flew out of Gatwick Airport on my way to Kenya. It was the first time I had ever been in an aircraft. Later I was to write "It was dark and wet the night I flew from Gatwick. It was 10p.m., and I had left my sixty year old Mother crying in the airport Lounge. I was not to see her again until March 1972, and in all the years that were ahead until her death in 1988, I would only be able to spend a total of three months with her. I had no idea what a sacrifice that would be to her until much later, when I also had become a parent. I was aware that she would miss me (as her only child) of course, but I also knew that she was not alone, and would be well cared for. For the rest I had to leave it to the Lord. Some of my friends felt that I was being selfish, and just pleasing myself by flying off on some hair-brained stunt to Africa, and said so in no uncertain words. But there was nothing I could do but trust the Lord even in this. It was hard.
The VC10 taxied down the runway and lifted off into the star studded night sky. I was leaving twenty-eight years of my life behind, but I hardly thought about it. I had never flown before, and was a little apprehensive as well as simple minded about the whole thing. Where WAS the parachute..? I had not heard a word of the Cabin Announcements being made as we took off.
Then - "This is your Captain speaking! We have just attained our cruising altitude of forty two thousand feet...."
"Excuse me!" I hailed a passing stewardess. "Can you tell me please, where is the parachute stowed?" She looked a me a little oddly, and said with a smile "There are no parachutes on this Flight sir, but should you have any problem there is a brown paper bag in the seat pouch just in front of you..~" She passed quickly on with a widening grin! I sat staring at the paper bag; it conjured up quite a picture! I turned to my Bible and opened at Isaiah 42v5-7

'Thus saith God the Lord.....
I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand;
I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people...'

(Words that talked of the Messiah of course, but to me they spoke to my own life)

A little later, as supper was being served, I reached chapter 43v21 -

'This people I have formed for myself;
they shall shew forth my praise.'

I felt assured and confirmed in my faith. Surely God had called me to preach, and to be an Evangelist to the people of Kenya. I would definitely get there - with or without a parachute! I saw my name floating on Banners across the streets of Nairobi...wow! How vain glorious and ignorant I was. Truly His Ways are not ours, and His Thoughts far from our own. We know nothing as we ought. The night sped by, and I awoke to find we were nearing Entebbe, Uganda, where I and a few others were to get off. I had to change to a local Flight to get to Kenya my final destination.
As I walked down the steps of the BV10 Jet that had flown me the four thousand odd miles from England non stop to Entebee, Uganda, a soft warm rain was falling. Yet the rain that was filling my eyes was not from above, but from within, where a spiritual dam just seemed to burst. There standing on the shiny runway outside the toy-like Airport Building, were African people; all with smiling faces; Officials and Air Hostesses running forward with huge umbrellas. And suddenly I had 'come home'. These were my people, and it just didn't matter that they came from Uganda and not Kenya my ultimate destination. Africans were my people, and standing there in that warm friendly rain, I knew it as surely as if God Himself had said it to me out-loud.
It was Friday, 13th December 1968" (A Cry From the Street by John A. Green)

I arrived that day at Kisumu Airport, Kenya with only an English sixpence in my pocket and the promise of nothing from anybody for my future support. I was met by the Director of the small faith mission I had come to join knowing that nothing would come from him either! My hope was in God alone. I had no return ticket to the UK - my bridges were all well and truly burnt..... FORTY YEARS PASSED.

A SPAN OF 40 YEARS is somehow special.
It is somehow Complete in itself, like a chapter of a book or an era of history. it has a Beginning and it has an Ending. Moses had his first 40 years in Egypt. He was a Prince for most of that time. Then he left Egypt and became a humble shepherd for the next 40 years until he was eighty! FINALLY he returned to Egypt as a prophet and led the People of Israel out of slavery into freedom for the last 40 years of his life. Three distinct parts to his life. Each part different but connected.
MY LIFE has not been divided up like Moses, but I do feel that when I started Testimony Faith Homes in August 1969 it was the Beginning of what is now here. And that beginning had ITS Beginning at my arrival at Kisumu Airport on the 13th December 1969, forty years ago.
Everything that God put upon my heart to do in 1969 has now come to pass. We have four family Homes, a School, and a Christian Fellowship. The years have passed, and 40 years has gone by. What now?
We shall be remembering my arrival at Kisumu next Saturday. Perhaps it will be the prelude to something NEW just as my arrival was the prelude to TFH being born in 1969. Perhaps in August 2009 Testimony Faith Homes will see something NEW begin! A new CHAPTER in its experience. I feel it coming over me, and I am quite excited about it. NO, I do not think I am going to live another 40 years! But I just feel something IS ending, and that something NEW is about to commence....... WOW! How wonderful to still be a child in His hands; waiting to be astonished anew at what He has in store.

Have a great week. God Loves you and wants you to KNOW it!

John and Esther

SONS & DAUGHTERS

This photo is taken from an Article headed 'HOW TO CRASH A KIKUYU DOWRY'. Apparently some young teenager with nothing to do one day in Nairobi decided to go along with a friend to a meeting to decide how much 'DOWRY' should be made for a young lady whose hand was sought in Marriage! In 'Old English' tradition it was the maiden who brought the dowry to the boy's family. In Africa it is the other way around. When I first came to Kenya in 1968 I observed a young girl being wooed by her prospective husband with a gift of 100 metal teapots, and a rather moth-eaten goat!
Well I am not about to gate crash such a meeting. No! Today Esther and I will be officially visiting our own son Michael's prospective In-laws to both introduce ourselves AND settle the whole matter of HOW MUCH he will be expected to GIVE for his Sweetheart's hand in Marriage! Well, well. Michael is not actually the LAST of our children to get married, but he HAS taken his time about it, and we had almost given up expecting him to actually find a wife. AND so today we go to present his Plight to the young lady's parents and family. The process of reaching final Agreement can be long. First WE have to visit them to introduce ourselves, then THEY visit us some weeks later. THEN we visit to agree what should be given in the way of Dowry. THEN again to decide the date and details of the actual Wedding.

BUT Mike is living in England, and so HE cannot be with us, and JANE MWANGI, his intended (living and working in Nairobi) would like to hurry things along a little as it is hard to be separated by so many miles and see so little of each other. They have known each other since teenage, and time is running by........ SO my wily wife, also a Kikuyu as are the prospective In-laws has managed to cut some of the cackle and agreed with them for us to meet today with them ONCE AND FOR ALL, for Introductions AND to settle all other matters. They will then visit us in a few weeks time reciprocally. Esther and I will be accompanied by a party of some 18 others - members of the family and friends from around. TWO of the eldest will speak for Michael and for us as his parents. All we will do is sit and listen (at least Esther will - for i will hear very little (knowing VERY little Swahili or Kikuyu in which most of the proceedings will be conducted in!) I am wishing I had learned knitting!! We are expected to be at the 'family home' at 12.30p.m. Kenya time, and will no doubt be there for the rest of the day! How much Money will they think Mike should pay...how many COWS - or teapots - will they demand in addition? We will not know till the sun sets probably! The Family of Janet will no doubt be assembled in some numbers to welcome us, and see what we will bring! As in the large photo it can be quite a crowded affair, and all kinds of gifts / donations / inducements to win a YES from the girl's family get spread out for all to see. Something for the Parents, something for the Grandparents, something for the Aunts and Uncles - and a multitude of others, plus a few odds and ends demanded by tradition! Michael will not doubt spend most of today biting his finger (if not also his toe) nails in apprehension - finance is getting tighter day by day! And of course there is also the prospect of the Wedding itself.......... hopefully to be held in July here in Eldoret next year. All this may sound a little wearisome, but in fact it is usually (at least with the Kikuyu) a happy time of fellowship rather than a serious and 'business' type of gathering. At the conclusion it is hoped that both sides will know, like, and rejoice in each other as part of what now will be ONE FAMILY.

The last few days of November are passing quickly by, and then December will be upon us. We have a small Children's Camp continuing at present - mainly for poor children from outside of the Homes who come in for a fortnight's fun, christian teaching and counselling. They use the School Boarding Facility and the School Hall. Also the teachers and our staff have been busy this week with a Refresher Course for First Aid. Then on Monday we have visitors from the UK for three or four days, and on the 8th open a Seminar for Social Workers involved in Children's Services on TRAUMA COUNSELLING which will continue until the 12th. On the 13th we will host our support Staff Christmas Luncheon before most of them go on holiday for a few weeks. This is not just about eating a meal together, but it is a real 'fellowship' time.
On that day in 1968 which was also a Friday (for those who like to consider inauspicious days) I arrived in Kisumu, Kenya for the first time. Forty years of life............ Time for a change, New Vision, New Challenge? I must say that I do have a sense of expectancy concerning the future - though not apprehension or anxiety. AND THEN it will almost be Christmas which means it will almost be NEW YEAR - and everything will begin again - this time we trust without FIRE and BULLETS. In Jesus Name!

ON THE 27th NOVEMBER Esther and I were invited to THANKSGIVING by some American missionary friends. I used to think American Thanksgiving was in remembrance of winning the War of Independence from the 'Tyranny of British Rule'. I had never been invited to such a Celebration and thought it probably no place for a Britisher like me - and a loyal Monarchist to whit! So it was real surprise to find myself invited with Esther, and a greater one to find out how misguided I had been all these years, for far from being some kind of national pride, Thanksgiving is all about being Thankful to God for His Providence and Mercy. More like our English Harvest Thanksgiving usually held around Michaelmas each year. Our friends are also members of the Missionary Fellowship - a group of more than a dozen different Christian Mission organisations and societies that meet each Sunday in each other's homes to fellowship and pray together. This year they had felt led to invite ALL of us to THEIR family Thanksgiving. We had a truly wonderful time together; more than a hundred - Americans, German, Dutch, Danish, English, and Kenyan.

We also received a donation of £10,000 to purchase a new (2nd hand) mini bus for the Homes.
Our current one is about to conk out utterly, and is currently moving under duress! A wonderful provision. Funny how donations of such a nature (ones that cannot be diverted to other needs) always seem to arrive when we have nothing to eat - I think the Enemy has a very twisted sense of the Word of God. We had not actually been praying for a vehicle urgently. We have been praying for more consumable daily needs. 'Oh Lord give us bread!' and along comes a million shillings of glass and steel. THANKS Lord! No I really am not trying to be facetious or cynical. We really DO Thank Him. And we know He has everything else in hand - The Vehicle is a BONUS thrown in from a very loving Father.

God Bless and be with you all - must go and comb my hair and so on before zero hour arrives!


John and Esther

GRAND CHILDREN

Esther and I have seven grandchildren at present. Some are near to us and some are far. In the photo we are with Eric and Tonia (left) and Becky (right.) Eric and Tonia are the children of Steven and his wife Anjie. Becky is Daryl and Carol's daughter. A rare get together! We really miss seeing the U.K. kids growing up even though we have Daryl's children here with us every day. Our children tell us that we love our grandchildren MORE than we loved them - at least this is what Daryl says. I guess we might be guilty of doting on the three that are closest to us more than we did their parents. Probably we would be doing exactly the same to the four living in UK if they were within reach. In fact we feel deprived of doting on them. But we are thrilled to see them all growing up in safe and loving families, with Jesus in the midst. THAT is a rich reward and joy.

I think all children are in a sense GRAND! We have so many here with us, but those between 1 and 11 give us a great deal of pleasure and pride as they grow up. And it just a month to Christmas again! Indeed it seems to be rushing upon us faster than ever before. It is the small children that seem to love Christmas the most, and perhaps identify with the wonder of it all. Carols are already being practiced, and the usual Concert being organised. But Christmas is also the time for us to join in things together and to see ourselves as one BIG Family instead of four small ones. This is fun, and it is also a blessing as we share meals together and enjoy each other's company. On the 13th December ALL the Homes Staff - houseparents, office workers, cleaners, gardeners, maintenance people, and cooks - about 70 will join together for a common meal and fellowship to mark the end of the year, and to remember that we are all, regardless of our position or duly, workers together with and for JESUS. Many will leave us for their own holiday with their own family afterwards, and we shall shrink in number and take on a little more work while they are away.
We are believing for a QUIET and uneventful Christmas this year without the tumult and terror that came upon us a year ago. Still raining on and off, but for the most part there has been a little more sunshine and warmth, and we are hopeful that all of us will be found yet once more together on Boxing Day, swimming and enjoying a pic-nic together at a neighboring school swimming pool.
BUT we shall also be preparing for the New Year and the New School Term. School uniform, books, and shoes all needed repair or replacement, and of course a another amount to find for School fees. Christmas is materially low key due to these annual necessities that insist that we take care not to be careless in our spending. Non the less the children always seem to have a most happy time together and do not miss the presents a large part of the world is so used to lavishing on their children.

The week has been quiet and rather uneventful. School finally shut down yesterday. The Homes all full and settled. The week to come is full of happenings and events and promises to be very busy indeed, and then November will have gone. The year began with a BANG! and since then ominous clouds have continued to hover around Kenya, and indeed around TFH. We are grateful for peace, but very much aware that the Enemy is still on the prowl around us all.
We need your prayers. God be with you -

John and Esther

PEACE AND QUIET ?

The School Term has all but ended. Classrooms being cleaned and tidied for the last time before the New Year dawns, text books collected, checked out and stored away. and the marking of the terminal examinations almost complete. It has been a busy week - a busy few weeks in fact - as both the Primary and Secondary National Examinations have been going on. Now both Graduating Classes have completed and departed to await the NEXT chapter in their lives; some to High School, some to College and University.
Within Eldoret Show Ground there is still a large crowd of Displaced Persons surviving! About four thousand adults, and maybe fifteen hundred children under 18. There is a School there too. All under canvas via the kindness of the Red Cross and the UN. But the canvas has aged - some of the canvas is plastic. Gaping holes, and the constant erosion of the weather make most tents look like dilapidated, flapping black and white crows in their death throws. Sometimes more than one family will huddle at night in these cheerless, cold and uncomfortable shelters. only to wake to hunger, boredom and hopelessness. I was there last Monday, and left with tears of distress just to see the state of forlornness and destitution. There seems no kind of security there, and rape and incest and all kinds of abomination continue unabated......... Meanwhile the Government continues to make statements of what it is going to do - without doing it - and a multitude of Committees with high sounding names and agendas pour forth torrents of words, advice and good intentions without actually achieving a great deal - though all spending an enormous amount of money doing it. It is all very deplorable.
I went to pray for the Primary Candidates for the National Primary Exam - some 227 boys and girls - holed up with their families in this unnatended corner of hell. They were excited to have got through their Primary education, but what next? Will they find Secondary School a possibility? Will they still have to live in degradation and poverty? And they are just a tiny fraction of the need. Daryl took a few photos, but they are not quite as clear as usual - a new camera he was not used to, and the settings were a little out. Still.......it gives a small view.

SO WHAT NOW as holidays loom? Some of our College students are already returning home for the vacation - and the new Guest House is now also beginning to be valued and appreciated.
We have two engaged in Teacher Training, both just arrived home - one from Testimony House, and one from Jacaranda Cottage. They are now in their second of three years training. The cost for each is £1,000 per annum. We have twenty more in College and University still, and next year that number will increase - thus a sizable amount of our expenditure has to be applied solely to education. Sadly although there are funds available for bursaries for the poor, they are never offered to Children's Homes - presumably because it is thought they are all well funded from, other sources overseas. Even the Government seems to have the same idea. On the whole this may be fair assessment except for the few like ourselves who are not beholden to regular and endowed sponsorship. God is Merciful but not always abundant when it comes to supply and demand. This statement might be unpopular in some areas, but it is OUR experience that God is not extravagant by nature, but careful in His accounting. We are usually glad not to have more than enough since the more can be a temptation and enticement to becoming unthankful and unappreciative.
The School is emptying but others may be coming in to use some of the facilities.
On the 23rd of this month until the 6th December we are expecting about 60 children to come in for a two week Seminar seeking to empower young people with life skills they need to make the transition from childhood to adulthood without falling victim to to challenges such as HIV infection, drug abuse, and lack of self esteem. It is being run by friends from the Anglican Church here in Eldoret in co-operation with MOI University. Also on the 23rd November for three days the St. John Ambulence will be running a Seminar on First Aid. Actually this is an Annual Refresher Course attended by our Teachers, Houseparents etcetera. Then in the 2nd week in December there will be another group coming in for a week's residential course on Child Abuse and Protection. WOW! And in between of course ALL the children will be HOME - but not ALONE!! Well we really do enjoy the long holiday as it is a good time to get alongside our kids and to bond the more with them.
BUT, as I shared last week, Jacaranda will have lost their parents. As if this was not enough to contemplate, we have heard additionally this week, that the Assistant Houseparent, Calvin Otieno is also leaving! He is leaving before Christmas to emigrate to Australia where he is to get married. We had known he was engaged, but had not thought of him leaving quite so quickly. We shall greatly miss him as he is also very much used generally amongst the Youth in our Fellowship. SO this is really quite an unlooked for situation of some magnitude, since a family of 37 cannot go uncared for. We have one young man we think will be able to take Calvin's place, but he is not with a lot of experience, and will still need the support of Houseparents. Still no one in sight - keep praying for us and for the Jacaranda Family.

I am typing this on the front veranda of Green Cottage waiting for a party of 15 of Esther's cousins to visit from Nakuru - they will have lunch and see around and also visit with Esther's mother who as you may remember is ill with Altziemers and staying with us. To-morrow we have a visiting Speaker at our Fellowship and I shall be leading the Meeting. Then the new week beings, and I shall begin to pay the Bills on my desk. £3,000 of them! they have slowly been accumulating, and on Wednesday we heard that EXACTLY that amount was being sent to us via AENON. Bless the Lord for every contribution, every loving heart, and every listening ear.
Much Love to you all

John and Esther

HONOUR YOUR PARENTS

FOR THE LAST SEVEN WEEKS I have been giving ten minute talks on the TEN COMMANDMENTS.
It is quite surprising that so many adults, quite apart from children, do not know them. Every Friday I attend the School Assembly and usually give a short address - so currently I am taking one Commandment at a time.
The biggest response so far came from the 5th - 'Honour thy father and thy mother.......' Many of the School children and a large number of the children in the Homes have experienced or are experiencing family divisions and splits. Many do not KNOW their origins! Many others are estranged or in other ways at odds with their parents. Not an easy Word to have to give with so much 'resentment', 'rebellion', and even disgust in so many hearts. Greater respect - at least superficially - seems to be given by those within the Islamic and Hindu communities.

I asked the question WHY? Why should we honour our parents? I only had ten minutes and I had to cover a lot of ground. I shared that I personally had never known my own parents; had not seen even a photo of them, heard their voice, or discovered anything about them. Was I also expected to honour my parents? After all neither were married to each other and neither had shown any interest in me - I had been given up for adoption when I was just two months old. I had little to admire about them. Why should I honour them? Probably I should honour my adopted parents, who took over the responsibility of bringing me up, more reasonably? WELL, my answer was that YES I did need to honour my true parents regardless of who they were, how they might be, or even how they treated me - just because God had chosen them to be the ones to bring me into the world, and to contribute to my actual 'being', personality and character. I am who I am because of them, and each of them is very much part of me. To hate, disrespect, dishonour, or wash my hands of them, would be to turn against myself, and disrespect and dishonour myself. At this point many of our older students and young people seemed very discomforted. Later I was to learn some had broken down - one had gone home to confess to her parents how she had had a wrong attitude toward them, asking their forgiveness! Amazing. We should be grateful for our parents whoever they are or were. Without them we could not be here, and could not be who we are. More importantly we could not have had the opportunity to KNOW God or SEE His Creation. Yes I cannot do less than honour my parents - not necessarily their lifestyle or even the kind of person they might be or have been - but just because God had ME in mind in bringing them together. Thank you God - for my parents. In a way this was easier than it was for me to honour my adopted parents. As I grew up with them I was to criticise, judge, and at times disrespect them for what I thought I knew about them. It was only AFTER I left home that I came to see them differently and to be grateful for what they endured in me - a stranger in their midst!

IT IS NOT ALWAYS AN EASY LABOUR OF LOVE to bring up and at times endure, children or have nothing of yourself in them. Our own three children Esther and I understood and bore with greater patience and understanding just because we could see ourselves in them! But children fostered or adopted were not so easy. Especially when we had not known anything at all about their true parents. Hard for us. Hard for them too since they were not able to look to us for help in any way to understand themselves. This is, of course, a daily situation that is lived with in each of our four Children's Homes. Each home tries to be a Family, and the couple running it try to be parents........but the shortcomings on both sides are obvious, and thus there are for the parents and the children times of distress and miss understanding. No all our houseparents find themselves able to cope indefinitely with this experience.
JACARANDA COTTAGE has seen more houseparents come and go than any other. FOUR couples have come and gone, and now the fifth are preparing to leave. Phillip and Roseline NZOME will be gone before Christmas this year. We knew they were not finding the going easy, and eventually they have felt that they cannot continue as parents any longer. They plan to farm, and hope to return to their home, east of Nairobi, and do just that. Their two young daughters and younger son will of course go with them. They have been Mum and Dad to the Jacaranda Family for just about 4 years. In August I commented about them, and wondered how long they would stay, hoping it would be many years into the future. It is not to be, and now we are seeking the Lord to discover another couple to offer themselves. Until they come along Calvin (the assistant Houseparent in Jacaranda) will carry on there. Please pray with us for this need to be soon attended to.

BARACK OBAMA has been elected President of the United States of America - and if you lived in Eldoret and perhaps the rest of the Country - then you would think he has also been made President of Kenya as well!! The whole Country had a fiesta and ate and drank themselves silly - we were even given a Day's National Holiday to enjoy it all. AMAZING. Have you ever heard of any other leader of any Country on earth including the USA, at any time in our past going so joyously mad about one man? Not even Kennedy enjoyed such popularity. The whole world has gone after Obama in a similarl way that it went after Princes Diana.
Almost he has been received as a God - or perhaps as a Saviour - and not just by those of the coloured races of the world. BUT IT IS STILL RAINING in Kenya! The World Economy is still affecting - progressively for the worse - Kenya's daily life. NOTHING has changed yet!
But the FIRST week of the month finds us yet again provided for; step by step, day by day, and week by week, we continue to walk with the Master at our side. AND more and more children claim our hearts, and clamour for our attention.............I think that if we had the £50,ooo still needed to build the NEW Jacaranda Cottage we might NOT knock the old one down but just FILL it again with MORE children. Sometimes we feel as Noah and his family must have felt safe in the Ark, whilst so many were drowning, and shut out, in the rising flood around them.

BUT we are glad to be alive and HERE. It is a special blessing. We are learning to Thank God more and more, for ALL THINGS.

John and Esther

FIFTY PLUS YEARS AGO!!

ON MAY 24th 1942 I was baptised and christened in the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, in Knaresborough. It was Whitsunday. I tried to revisit it in 2003 but found it locked. A church has stood there for at least a thousand years. My adoptive mother and father, aunt and uncle were all there and made the usual promises to bring me up in the knowledge and way of the Word of God. None of them were churchgoers, or having any personal conviction concerning Christ.
On the 5th December 1954 I was Confirmed by the then Suffragan Bishop of Sherbourne in the Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels, in Melksham, Wiltshire. My family were not present. My adoptive mother had left her husband in 1950 and was now living with another man. This had caused us to temporarily change our family name from Green to that of 'Richards', and so I was confirmed as a Christian under an illegal name, and when I was still ignorant of Salvation.
My mother had insisted I was confirmed as she said 'It's the thing to do!' But I seemed to have understood nothing about it at the time. Not until I was 17 and on the verge of committing suicide did I come to know that Christ had died for me to rescue me from sin and sadness. I was then working in Melksham, a rather gangly, bespectacled youth, rather introspective, and serious. I had gone immediately to the Vicarage of St. Michael's Church to share what had happened to me, and I found him in the midst of his lunch, but very able to welcome me into God's family and to give me good and clear council. Council that I needed, and which set me SAFELY on my way to discovering God's purpose for my life.
In 1955 I also finished my Secondary Education - not too well. I managed a further year of education in the Melksham College of Further Education, and then went to work sweeping floors and humping boxes in a Wholesale Grocery Firm, generally learning the trade from the warehouse floor to the Office when I became an accounts clerk. I was not very good at making friends, but during that period of my life 1955-58 I did make one friend. He was quite mad on films and we often visited the cinema to watch one that he was especially interested to see. Eventually we even began a Film Society in Melksham, and I remember one of the very first films we hired and screened was one of the funniest I had ever seen. It was french and entitled 'Les Vacancies le Monsieur Hulet.' with Jacques Tati. We also went to the extent of making a replica of the Tichfield Thunderbolt and parading through the streets of Melksham during an Annual Town Parade. The name of my friend was David Stratton, and he was the son of the Managing Director of the firm in which I worked - Stratton Sons & Mead Ltd. He was also with me at Melksham College.
Idly looking up names on the Internet recently I found myself typing in his name - DAVID STRATTON, and immediately discovered him to now be a renowned film critic living in Australia! I almost fell off my chair with surprise. He had left England in 1963 for Australia. I had left Melksham by then, and we had never met after I had left in 1958. I had later changed back to my family name of Green. But I never had forgotten David, and the good times we had enjoyed briefly in our teenage. Both of us have had very different lives - his perhaps more glamorous than mine - but no less interesting and adventurous. There is nine months between us in age. An Eternity between us and faith. Might God have something in me catching sight of David once again. Who knows. But it IS one more strange connection between Australia and Testimony Faith Homes. Life is full of surprises.
TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES, and all that find shelter and life with us are still walking through the wilderness. It has begun to stretch before us seemingly without end. Last week I shared with you how Father spread our table in the wilderness, and so proved that there is indeed NOTHING too hard for Him to do or achieve. Since then of course the days have continued, and we have continued also walking on. Today is the 1st day of a NEW month, and we can rejoice to say that in coming to this day, we are able to look back on a month fully provided for, and a month in which we have seen all our workers also provided for. Some good news also for us in Kenya. We are told that petrol is to come down by almost 10/- per litre, and today the Daily Nation has announced that the cost of Electric Power is also to come down by 35 percent which will be a great help - (a saving of about £290 per month for us).
TODAY the Primary School is holding its Entrance Examination for Class 1. The compound full of Pre.School children and their parents hoping to find places for the coming year. The School year is soon to end. Already the Secondary School is in the midst of the Final Government Examination (The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education), and soon the Primary Certificate will commence. Then the long school holiday. The weather remains uncertain. RAIN is still with us, and cloudy skies. POLITICALLY too things remain in many ways uncertain, with continued tensions and confrontations amongst our politicians. Outwardly stable, the inner state remains very volatile. Much prayer continues to be needed if we are to see peace continue without constraint or threat. BUT we are not fighting uncertainly ourselves, and we feel as before without anxiety. Underfoot the going is a bit gritty, and the diet a little limited, but otherwise we are not prevented from going forth unhindered toward the Promised Land.

Our Love to you all

John and Esther

UPDATE

THE END OF THE MONTH is just a week away now. It has been a difficult and challenging month in every way, but it has also been a month of great events and happenings. To start with the month of October is usually a very pleasant month weather-wise! The rains have usually stopped and a season of mellow fruitfulness leading up to the high summer of December and hot drought of January/February is providing us with the enjoyment of brilliant, warm and pleasant days. But this year it has not been so. The Rains had been intermittent during July/August, and then seemingly unable to lift. Towards the end of September they increased, until through this month we have had heavy and torrential downpours. Hardly a sunny day, and the COLD on some days, especially the last week or so, enough to chill the marrow in your bones! Not cheerful weather; not uplifting weather. Not very 'equatorial'. It was a month that also dawned upon us when we had spent all that we had, and were wondering how we would actually survive the month. By the end of the first week we had received and spent what we could have reasonably have expected on the basis of monthly tithes - then still considering the 88% we still needed to get us to the end of the month. Of course life goes on - even when there is nothing in hand - and so we also stepped out in faith believing - and our friend and brother from St. Andrews Church, Ashburton, Devon, arrived to spend some weeks with us - and in his hand was a £1000 from the saints in his Church. Oh, how truly wonderful a day THAT was - so very unexpected and unlooked for yet again......AND so much on time and in answer to our need.
Yet it was soon swallowed up and GONE. THEN came a bout of sickness after drinking infected water on a visit to a rural Children's Home. Both Philip Dary and I were laid up for a week. And of course in between all these things the School Office had been robbed twice of more than £400 and there was the turmoil of getting to the bottom of what appeared to be an 'inside job', and the subsequent dismissal of some of our staff; the sorrow and disappointment this entailed, plus the daily apprehension of rising prices (bread WENT UP 20/- a loaf on Monday) and unforeseen expenses - such as the repair of our aging vehicles. YET there was laughter and a great deal of pleasure woven into all of it, and the Lord saw that we were indeed kept by His Power. Then this Monday we received yet a further Help from a neighbour who called in early at my Office to give the Homes £1000 in kenya shillings; he said that he and his friends had been in prayer and felt that TFH was in need, and so they had taken up an offering, and this was it. - and the week's housekeeping that we still had not got in hand, was suddenly right there! We still do not understand how it is that GOD communicates what WE have not even whispered outloud!
Today, the promise of the final needs of the month are also coming to hand. The amazing thing about THIS month is that we have been kept in the dark about how He would provide, and step by step He has brought our need to the door as well as from far afield, and for the most part this month from sources we could never have guessed or imagined - some from sources never before known. Finally - as far as at today's date - I was called from my bed at 11pm. on Thursday to be told that a gift of £10,000 was being sent to us in order to buy a NEW vehicle for the Homes! Our current minibus is about to give up the ghost entirely, and has been in and out of the garage for first aid (and last rights), for months. We have no real idea where this Gift is coming from ! it is STILL raining, and the skies are still leaden. but we find our hearts being lifted, and our faith increased........not by anything that we have done, but by His grace. THANK YOU ALL for your prayers, and for remembering us when you talk to the Lord, the Father of us all. This is something very much to be shared and to be rejoiced about TOGETHER.

THIS IS PHOTO OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. I have a feeling I will probably be writing some more about this man as time goes by. I came across his Autobiography 'Up from Slavery' only recently, and have found it both interesting and remarkable. Booker (1856-1915) was born into slavery in Virginia, USA. Teaching himself to read and write, he rose to be a most respected black educationalist, having the ear of Presidents and Statesmen alike. He died of High Blood Pressure when he was only 59, the son of a slave woman and unable to identify his father. His middle name was given him by his mother as 'Talaifero' which some will say is Portuguese for 'Free land', and thus might hint that his forebears may have come from a Portuguese Colony somewhere in Africa.
By the time he was nine years sold he was labouring in salt and coal mines, but all the time a growing longing to LEARN was taking hold of him, and finally, after the American Civil War was over and all slaves free, at the age of sixteen, he joined Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, and after only three years Graduated with Honours. Later he joined the Faculty of the Institute and few years later in 1875 he was asked to head up a new Teacher Training College for black teachers. This was still within a period soon after the Civil War when racial tensions were still running high. By 1915, when he died, Booker T. Washington had built and expanded what was in 1881 to be known as the Tuskegee Normal & Industrial Institute (now University) into a School of 107 buildings on two thousand acres of land with over 1500 students, and more than 200 teachers and professors.
In all this he maintained a high regard for God, testifying to the fact that he could have done nothing without His Guidance and Support in his life. He was accused of compromise and appeasement when it came to promoting Civil Rights for Black Americans because he chose a less aggressive way forward than some of his contemporaries. Nevertheless he is still a Role Model internationally since what he actually did and attained against all human and natural odds with the help of God was astounding.
On his Monument erected in the centre of the Tuskegee campus it is written -
"He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people,
and pointed the way to progress through education and industry."

Some quotes -
"I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."

"We do not want the men of another colour for our brothers in law, but we do want them our brothers."

This man stands out from many others because of his attitude. I may have to return to him another time, when I have thought some things through, but at this stage I consider his life and example to be well worth looking into, and we may introduce the reading of his autobiography into our school.

Well today is what WE call Spiritual Emphasis Day, and we all, as a staff, join together for prayer and praise in the School Hall. This happens once a term. ALL the teachers, houseparents, cleaners, gardeners office staff and so on attend. It keeps us all together. Later today I have to attend a Board Meeting for another Children's Home running not too distant from us, and tomorrow I am sharing in a Seminar on Marital Relations...... and then it will be Monday again, and another week of uncharted as well as routine events will begin. Praise the Lord!

Our love to you all

John and Esther