WALKING IN THE RAIN!

IT HAS BEGUN TO RAIN IN ELDORET - AT LAST! The photo to the left depicts a couple of Street Kids looking at the puddles at the Show Ground - no doubt with mixed feelings. There are STILL more than 3,000 souls camping out in the now ragged and torn tents. The RAINS will hardly be kept out of them, and those within might be better off outside! Daryl and I were there this week, and the sight and situation was more than pitiable. Most of the charitable support and assistance has either been removed or prohibited in an effort to encourage people to leave and return to where they came from. The problem is that many have nowhere left to go to, and others just do not want to leave!! For THESE people, in their tents, spread across the Country, the prospect and experience of RAIN may not by any means be attractive.
BUT this youngster seems thrilled to see the raindrops falling - he also resides with his family in the Show Ground Camp for Displaced Persons. For him a long awaited but very natural occurrence gives him excitement, and even perhaps JOY. All the people in the Show Ground are totally destitute of this world's good. The little that a few of us try to do is like scratching the ground for just a grain of maize. The UN and the Red Cross both continue to have expensive Stations in Eldoret.....but their ability to alleviate suffering seems to have waned somewhat. One wonders why they are still here! Our Leaders have also visited the Camps in and around Eldoret. They Came, they Saw, and they LEFT. With their self awarded millions why should they really be concerned after all. The poor read the Newspapers, see the expensive suits and
cavalcade of cars, and wonder what they come to look at.........before they return to Nairobi. Life does, none the less, go on. But some ARE dying.

LAST SATURDAY a mother of five died in her ragged tent, leaving her children to fend for themselves. Two are under 10, the rest in various stages of teenage. All hungry; all without a hope for the future. Just five out of 3,000 outcasts from society. TFH had gone to see if anything could be done. We ourselves are rather needy as well just now, but not as needy as these. We may take the two youngest into the Homes. Two older girls might be given a home by another Charity that we work in fellowship with. The eldest boy we might try to find some kind of training for in the hope of getting him employment later on. As we stopped at the TENT of this family people came running for the other tents in the vicinity, but news of us spread backwards and outwards to the far perimeters of the Camp so that we began to be surrounded on every side by the entire populace of the Camp - all hoping, struggling, and anxious to find some help and answer to their situation. It was quite overwhelming. We just had to bundle the children we were interested in, into the car and escape with them to a place we could talk quietly with them, and them alone..............The RAINS started that night.......MUD, wet and cold welled up upon the Camp, and the people within it. Sickness and Disease will inevitably follow miserably to plague and trouble them all.

CHILDREN ARE IN NEED ALL AROUND US, not just in IDP Camps. Here is a photo of ESTHER Bihati, now six month old. Esther's 'single' mother died of AIDS in the Moi Referral Hospital in Eldoret. She was also diagnosed as having HIV, and Pneumonia. Her only responsible relative her mother's mother; her grandmother, herself suffering with AIDS and some 60 years old, unemployed, and with no settled address. One of the huge population of truly POOR amongst the greater population of Eldoret. This woman has seen three of her five children die from AIDS.

Testimony Faith Homes have been able to give a roof to THREE of her grandchildren, orphaned by AIDS. Esther will be the FOURTH, and arriving on Tuesday of this week, she is now part of Tyndale Cottage Family. She is just three kilograms, but bright and pretty. She was still very congested on arrival and we took her off to our own Doctor for appraisal. He joyfully told us she was no longer HIV and that he felt she would thrive with care. Well CARE she is having, and already we see the difference.

TYNDALE Cottage has Micah and Senge YEGO as parents. They married in 2003 and have remained childless. Their loving hearts have just overflowed with love for the children God has brought to them, and as if in Reward, Senge has heard this month that AT LAST their prayers have been answered, and God has opened her womb, and she is expecting. Oh JOY.

ALSO having joined the Tyndale Family this week, IVYNE who is 7 years old has also come in from the 'cold' of social stigma (his parents both died of AIDS) and found a safe place to be loved and cared for. He has been with us three days, and already looks relaxed and happy.

We keep saying that we are FULL, but it is very hard to say NO to a child in distress. We are still praying for the funds to expand our 'TENT' and be able to shelter even more kids in need.

Joseph and Beatrice ROP are doing well in Jacaranda Cottage, and one can feel the warmth amongst the family members. DAMARIS, gave birth to a baby girl of 3 kilos last week. She had a difficult birth ending in a C.section, but both are doing well. Damaris you may remember was in the midst of her Teacher Training when she discovered she was with child. The young man involved wants to marry her, and in May she expects to rejoin her College (she has continued her study privately whilst at home) and complete her Course. A lot of details still to be prayed over and worked out with the Lord, but we believe all will work out well for her finally.

I HAD A TOOTH EXTRACTED ON MONDAY. It was not an easy extraction - it was not willing to leave me - after almost 62 years! Poor dentist was sweating, and had to make quite an effort - but he won in the end. Just a little less of me to carry around!

The FIRST School Term is almost over, and the School will break up for Easter on Thursday of next week. We are expecting MANY visitors over the week-end, but I will do my best to share a thought on Saturday as usual.

Until then may Our Father in Heaven Bless you all in Jesus Name.

Lovingly in Him

John and Esther