MISCELLANEOUS

NO APOLOGIES for two more pictures of ourselves taken just a year ago - I really think I probably am as disagreeable as I look - not nearly as pretty as my dear Esther! This week has not seen a great deal happening that we can talk about, so it seemed a good idea to push in a few more views of the ravages of AGE, as we move up the ladder.
I am sitting in our sitting room at Green Cottage typing this today. I can see blue sky on the horizon, through the window. But over our compound there is a kind of perpetual cloud layer that keeps us in a dull shade - a howling gusty wind moving around the house and compound. Quite cool. The Meteorological Office says it is the prelude to a FEW days of RAIN. It would be good since water is short nation wide just now, and we could do with more than a drop to come down and top up our depleted reservoirs. According to our papers Kenya is now confronted by an increasingly present Famine, as well as Drought, and also this week a Fuel Crisis!! Wow, come to sunny, warm, and scenically beautiful Kenya - and maybe starve, get thirsty and find increasing black outs and dry petrol pumps!! Water IS being rationed in fact. BUT on the other hand this IS the right time for dry weather and heat. The Weather-men never seem to remember the seasons, and always evince alarmed surprise whenever any kind of weather takes place.
ESTHER is with me here in the sitting room. She is busy 'quilting' which is a hobby she very much enjoys, and it is good to be together in the same place for once - SHE is usually imprisoned in the School, and I am either busy in MY office or about town. TONIGHT she is taking ME and Manu out for a Chinese meal - she got a small prize from her School yesterday, and so decided to share it with us!
YESTERDAY we received an invitation to visit AUSTRALIA for three weeks, in October! It had in fact been suggested before, but we had held back a bit due to me being uncertain as to whether I would cope with the travel or not. And of course we had still not finalised our thoughts as to how to fill the place of my Deputy. This is in fact still in question. BUT we did both feel that we should accept and GO! So this looks like being an eventful year what with the 40th Anniversary of the Ministry, AND Michael's Wedding which looks like it will take place in Eldoret in July/August.......... Well I had felt it would be a very special and eventfull year as well as a challenging one. Seems I was right.

Our little daughter HELEN(19) is back in Nairobi commencing her 2nd year in Pre-School Teacher Training. She seems to enjoy it, though does not like Nairobi too much.
Manu still currently at home, but due to be thrown out quite soon if he does not quickly find a job! Well he has been trying locally but it looks impossible so he will have to go soon to Nairobi as well to try his luck there. Unemployment is climbing here as in many other parts of the world, and of course competition is also increasing, and especially in his own discipline.

Desmond and Virgina Hales from Northern Ireland should be arriving in Nairobi today, and will be with us God Willing on Tuesday next week completely eclipsing the Inauguration of Mr. Obama as President of the United States! We are really looking forward to having them with us.

HALF of the Homes children attending Higher Educational Institutions have returned to continue their Courses. The other Half are still waiting for finance from the Lord, and some other 8 are waiting to COMMENCE for the first time. Otherwise all our Primary and Secondary children are back on track in Testimony School.

Sad news! One of our senior girls from Jacaranda Cottage, currently studying to be a Primary Teacher, has become pregnant. She is continuing pro-tem with her Course, but she may be prevented from Graduating this year as planned. She is about 4 months on, and quite distressed. She loves the Lord, and this has made her even more upset and ashamed. She has always been a devoted child, and we shall of course stand by and with her, and trust the Lord will lead and guide us all.
There is hope that the young man responsible (from the same town in which she is studying, and not near us here in Eldoret) will seek to marry her once he has concluded his own studies!
As if this was not enough the brother (aged 21) of this same girl, ran off last week from his College and has not been seen since. He had apparently planned to do so, but it is not known why. So this has been a double blow, and something we have not had to grapple with before. We feel that since both the girl and the boy have spent their time with us in Jacaranda Cottage, that our previous houseparents there have somehow missed out on vigilance and care. Whatever the reasons may be it is a very unhappy occurrence, and we would ask you to pray for the Family in Jacaranda, and for Damaris, and for Festus her brother. We will keep you posted as time goes by. God loves them both, and we know He will not give them up or cease to pursue after them.

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COME! LOOK AT THESE FACES!
Just two of our girls from Drakeley Cottage. Lovely, aren't they? Just as God painted them.

In 1969 I walked into a Chemist in Kisumu. I had not been in Kenya very long. I found a little booth inside the chemist with the a banner over it reading ' GET A LITTLE LIGHTER THE AMBI WAY '. A young brown lady was sitting under the banner at a small counter piled with tubes of AMBI CREAM. I could not resist, as a joke, going to her and innocently asking - 'Do you think that will help me?' She looked quite shocked and quickly said -' Oh NO sir, you are already quite light enough!' But of course the 'white man' is always trying to get darker, laying out in the sun to obtain a TAN, and even buying special creams that will assist him to turn browner and browner in the sun. WE human beings all seem to think we are not attractive enough just the way in which we were created; we must make some adjustment, some improvement. This is so much the case today that the COSMETIC industry has become one of the most lucrative in the world. soaps, perfumes, deodorants, creams of every description, eye shadow, lipsticks, nail polish and more recently even plastic surgery.....fortunes are spent attending to our FLESH.
Have you ever wondered what Adam and Eve did about making themselves more attractive? Well friends all they had was WATER to wash in. My Mother used to say that all a person needed to keep clean was soap and water applied frequently. She never used any kind of 'make-up' but was in a fact a very good looking woman.
Adam and Eve did not even have SOAP! But I guess it did not matter to them for they were made just as the Creator desired them to be, and when they met and saw each other they accepted and loved each other just as they found each other to be.
When I first saw the young lady who was to be my wife - my Esther - I thought she was the prettiest girl I had ever met. She was not wearing make-up either, and after 38 years she still doesn't use it - and she is still, as far as I am concerned, one of the prettiest women I know. From the first I found her to be honest about herself, and about her looks, and I fell in love with that unpretentious reality. So good to have found a woman to have and to hold who is not a painted doll, or a 'made-up' model that can be spoiled or smudged out of shape or beauty..............

(to be continued next week......)

The blue sky seen earlier has disappeared, replaced by grey cloud, the wind still huffing and puffing around the house and amongst the trees outside. Still chilly too.

Well dear ones, God be with you through the week ahead, and BLESS you

John and Esther