THE WEDDING - AT LAST!

THE DAY DAWNED GREY AND CLOUDY. The lawns between Testimony House and Green Cottage had all been trimmed and then upon them a Wedding Tent erected, and some three hundred chairs placed. There were so many flowers, and just as the Bride arrived so did the sun, together with a few light spots of rain, and then for the rest of the day sunshine and warmth. God surely answered everyone's prayers for a FINE day!

The BRIDE was of course late, as almost all Brides seem to be, but otherwise there were no hitches, and and the Service commenced at about 11a.m. Some seven hundred guests attended - we think! It was probably MORE, since we had catered for 1000 and all the food went! After the Ceremony the Bridal Party went for a brief recess to take special Photographs, and the Guests made for the Receiption Tents which (5 of them) were pitched on the lower lawns. It was a truly delightful and wonderful day, when two young people, loving the Lord, came home to their families to witness and demonstrate that their marriage was made in Heaven and confirmed by God Almighty in Jesus Name .
There were FOUR Groomsmen, and four Bridesmaids in the Party, plus two page boys and two flower girls.. Daryl's young son,, Jesse, was one page boy, and Steven's daughter Tonia was one of the flower girls. MANU was one of the Groomsmen, and also two of our old boys, both pastors ( Christopher Kosgei and Anthony Kiprotich - both twins, but not identical).. Our family was almost complete except for Elisabeth's husband Prem and their two children who were unable to travel at this time from England. In addition Esther's sister and family came up from Nairobi to join in, so we were quite a party on our own side. Michael and Janet are still with us for this week and then will go away for a week alone before returning to the UK. Steven, Anjela, Elisabeth and the children will leave on Monday next. BUT BEFORE they leave we have our LARGER Family Reunion and Anniversary taking place this coming Saturday again. We expect to be a fellowship together of some 500 including old boys and girls visiting. So much squeezed into a fortnight, and not without pressure and even ATTACK from the Enemy who is ever ready to gate crash into one's affairs. Nevertheless we PRAISE the Lord our God, Who has kept us, and answered our Prayers, and effectively demonstrated that He is GREATER than that enemy!

However, I was quite unable to service the Blog on Saturday or even later, and it looks very much as if the same will occur this week. I must thus ask your kind indulgence and patience as I try to recover my normal routines enough to settle back into my Saturday appointment.

WE are all WELL, and strong in the Lord, BUT we do have need of your prayers at this time both in respect of our material AND spiritual state. We know the Holy Spirit will guide and direct those prayers. I had personally hoped that I might hand over the bulk of my administrative responsabilities at this time to the one who will follow me - but at present that seems still unable to be. I had also thought of taking some time to return to the Uk to visit and personally share about the ministry here, but that too is on hold since I do not have anyone able to stand in my place as far as the running of the Children's Homes are concerned although the School is strong and well cared for. Still all is not lost by any means, as I remain well and energetic enough to carry on for some time yet. Perhaps next year the situation will have changed. But it is something to pray about, and I will appreciate your fellowship.

God Bless you all, and little by little the many events and happenings of these two busy weeks will filter through as I continue to share and write week by week.

Love from us BOTH - John and Esther

WHERE HAVE ALL THE TREES GONE?

A THOUSAND BILLION (Kenya Shillings) TO BE SPENT ON TREES -Thus reads the Headline in last Wednesday's Daily NATION! - 'The Environment Ministry is set to roll out a Ksh.1.5 trillion climate change response investment plan to be implemented over the next 20 years! Under the plan, 35,000 schools, 4.300 women groups and 16,350 youth groups will be involved in a major campaign to plant trees!'

A bit of 'shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted'. As long ago as the commencement of President Daniel Arap Moi's regime there was a drive to plant trees - with himself often shown to be in the lead. An annual Tree Planting Day was introduced and observed initially with great fervour only to slowly tail off. And in any case with hundreds of thousands of trees being supposedly planted, the forests still reduced and even disappeared over the ensuring years right up to the present. NOW the Country faces immense food shortages due to the vanished Rains, causes apparently by the lack of forests. SUDDENLY out goes the Cry ' ALAS! ALAS! Our Forests have gone! Well no one has ever tried very hard to stop them going. For the sake of greed and avarice the people have been sold down the river.

Of course it IS good to plant trees, no matter what has gone before, but even so, it may be too late to prevent hardship and even death due to current and increased famine caused by failure of the harvest. Trees do not grow overnight, and then again it is important to plant the right kind of tree, those that are conducive to drawing rain, and to conserving the undergrowth. Many of the RAIN FOREST trees that have been cut down in recent decades took hundreds of years to grow. Most have not been replanted to date. Where trees have been planted, (for paper production for example) PINE has been planted which has little or no affect on the climate for good. It will take years - a decade or more - before any appreciable difference will be felt by a present action to plant more trees. Very desperately RIGHT is the decision to PLANT, but will there be water while we wait for the trees to GROW?

AND OF COURSE, we cannot be SURE that trees WILL be even planted, or that the determination to ongoingly do so will not flag as it did under President Moi. Kenya is great at saying what it finally fails to DO. Well GOD does not have to have trees to provide us with WATER, but again not so many are looking to Him, these days, to do the impossible.

PRAY THAT THE DECISION TAKEN WILL BE IMPLEMENTED. PRAY that the imagination of our people will catch on, and the national response will rise up and carry it through. WE have been planting trees through this year already, and plan to continue.

IT IS RAINING IN ELDORET!

For the last week we have experienced fairly heavy thunderstorms.

But the Eldoret River is still almost a trickle.

WILL IT RAIN ON MICHAEL AND JANET'S WEDDING DAY?

We hope not - so far the pattern seems to give sunny mornings and afternoons.

We have just a week to get all things ready, with many family guests both from Kenya and the UK staying with us, and as many as perhaps 500 or more on the Day!

Looking forward very much to having so many of the family with us for once!

YESTERDAY, August 14th it was our 38th Wedding Anniversary!

This photo was taken on Valentine's Day this year. We took ourselves out for lunch yesterday, and rejoiced to be able to look back on happy years. Oh yes, of course, we had our 'days' but it is true to say that God was wonderfully with us to help us grow in understanding, appreciation, and love for each other. JESUS has been the binding strand in our threefold rope of marriage. With Him we have experienced so much, and in Him we have become strong. I was reading recently that the current average number of years for a marriage to last is between 5 and 7. One might think it was worse as one moves around and shares with others. And of course the Marriage rate is declining, and more and more are just living loosely together without a great deal of commitment, with little to prevent leaving at will. Distressing news when one realised how MUCH can be gained from seeing marriage as something especially beneficial and precious. It needs a little WORK. A little patience and forbearance, and some forgiveness along the way - but oh my - with perseverance comes gladness of heart, security, and confidence. I also read that couples who have been married 31 years or more have still come to divorce! Amazing! Surely God, who joined the first man and woman together, and took them through what must have been a long and variably tested marriage, is able to keep ANY couple together, His intention and plan being that they should never separate, but grow in Grace. To all those who with us may still be labouring in their Marriage, we re-state the fact, that it needs to be a 'Labour of Love' and that it is worth whatever it takes.

Keep up the Good Work brothers and sisters. Advertise your marriage, look for the best in each other, Encourage young people by your own example in and by Marriage. Let God BIND together in Love so that things can NEVER fall apart. It is the Will of God.

John and Esther

THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME!

A VIEW OF THE CITY OF WELLS in Somerset, England. I probably visited Wells first when I was about 11 or 12 years old. It left a lasting mark upon my memory and is an integral part of what is, for me, the nostalgia of my Country. BUT at times, as a Christian, one can be made to feel it is somehow not quite right to let the land of one's birth mean more than the Kingdom of God. Thus the lyric that tells us 'This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through', which no doubt is aligned to Hebrews 13v12 and 1.Peter 2v11 where we are told to see ourselves as having 'no continuing city here on earth, but as seeking one that is to come' and again to reckon ourselves as 'strangers and pilgrims' in our earthly lives. Why get so 'attached' to the world around us - and as one might follow this line of reasoning, it will question the whole idea of national pride and identity. Yet I feel that like it or not our 'earthly' roots and origins have a lot to do with the people we become, and are. Forty years AWAY from England somehow has not managed to dim or cloud the 'idea' of England, or of being English!! CAREFUL Green, we must not seem to be racial or 'True Blue British' by any means, That would be very politically incorrect. Away with England and St. George, away with Trafalgar, King and Country - away even with Christ and Christendom.

I remember well, as I walked first the streets of Wells that sleepy summer day in Somerset; I remember the sense of 'for everlasting' that assailed me as I felt the warm sun upon my bare young arms, and gazed at sights that took me back in time. Not as crowded then as now, but still quietly busy, without the noise and inordinate clatter of today's world. Not so much traffic either, and one could still smell the aromer of the many bakeries and coffee shops. A piece of England that surely would never change. HAS it changed I wonder. When I first saw the west front of the Cathedral, I just felt overwhelmed by its beauty and grandeur, and I have always felt ever since that it was one of the most joy filled places I had ever entered.

In 1983 - the second and only other time, I visited Wells, the Cathedral was undergoing Restoration. It was also full of little booths (as many other Cathedrals are) given up to trade and bric-a-brac. I left feeling the emptiness of what before had been such a fullness. BUT of course life must go on. Wells was busier but still with the ability to confront you with the mystique of the past, and the sense of an almost eternal sameness. It still evoked an 'unchanging' England that identified with infinity, and with all our long historical past................You see! I am not so much a nationalist as a romantic.

AND WHAT has stirred all this up this week. Why the funeral of Harry Patch, a man I remembered seeing once or twice on TV, but whose life and importance had quite escaped my real notice. Harry Patch! A very 'ordinary' man, said his friend Jim Ross at the funeral. The last man left from the English Trenches of the 1st World War. A man who went almost unknown for the next eighty years of his life until he wrote a book, and bared his heart about WAR, and his own personal taste of it. I have not read the book yet. I WILL read it.

I watched the Funeral on SKY tv - who managed to effectively interrupt their LIVE broadcast to spend 30 minutes on the Bank Rate - Almost sacrilege, but true to the average trend as far as national and spiritual interest is concerned. I was greatly moved in my own soul as I watched - saddened not to see and hear ALL that had been arranged as part of the day. QUITE amazed and surprised to see a 1000 souls come to give respect INSIDE the ancient walls of Wells Cathedral, walls that had stood so long to witness centuries of worship, and public testimony to a shameless Love for God. Surprised to see men and women (admittedly more of them over 50 than otherwise) not just attending to WATCH, but in the majority it seemed to actually open their mouths to SING, and to PRAY, many with tears in their eyes, and obvious evidence that they BELIEVED in GOD! I was touched with spiritual PRIDE that there are of my Countrymen. still some that have not turned their backs on the 'Old Ways' of the Land. NONSENSE! I can hear some say it. I forgive you! MANY have visited us here to say England is a GODLESS land, and that the hearts of the people have gone a whoring. BUT, I caught a glimpse, just a glimpse perhaps, that all is not lost. A REMNANT is still standing there in the shadows. We must not become like Elijah at the Mount, and believe in total loss. God always has His witnesses. I was witnessed to at Harry's Funeral. Thank you Harry, and thanks too to all those that put that Service together and made it happen. And what about WAR? Am I for it or against it? Would I say with Harry it was not worth it ? I was born in 1940. I had little knowledge of the 1st Great War until I myself was an adult, and no part at all in the 2nd. BUT I have inherited a kind of 'feeling' about WAR from those childhood days when the 2nd Great War was ending. I too have wondered in my latter years if our fathers would have thought any of it was worth it. I have wondered if we have today what we thought we had THEN, to die for. ARE we a better Nation I wonder. How DO we see ourselves - diluted perhaps, ashamed of our heritage, our history, and our faith not really bothered perhaps.

HARRY said he did not fight for King or Country - he just did what he was told. No doubt a good many others might say the same. BUT some DID fight for what they believed in, and many of them DID believe in England - and the King. Is that too trite...too ridiculous? Yes, today I think it would be. For the most part I do not see RESPECT either for England or the Queen. Respect for ANYTHING is hard to find. BUT men and women GAVE their lives - there has to be a reason if any of it is to mean anything. Harry felt there was and is NO reason.

When I was a much younger man in Bible College, I spend part of my holidays in a small Nursing Home for the elderly as a male nurse; basically to earn my Fees. This Home was known as Pouchlands Hospital in Sussex, and had at one time, many years before, also been a Work House for the destitute and homeless. One night when I was alone on night duty on the male ward, I heard a man start shouting and crying.. 'I killed them, I killed them! Oh dear God, I am a Murderer -condemned!' There was only very subdued lighting in the ward and more than forty beds.

I could still hear the man sobbing as I walked down trying to locate him. I had been warned about him by the Matron. "You might get disturbed by Jack - he's a 2nd world war veteran, and gets disturbed at night at times. Just ignore him and he will quieten."

I had found him. I had known him of course from when I was on day duty, but he had never spoken to me. A man of about 68 I would say, unsmiling, without visitation. Tonight, my first night on duty I found him awake and still convulsed with sobs. I was 25. I found it strangely upsetting to see this elderly man so disturbed. I put my hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it violently from him.. "Don't touch me...you don't know me..I'm a killer." he said between clenched teeth and snarling lip. I sat on the edge of his bed. Tell me about it. I said.

Little by little, through the early hours of that long night, Jack told me how he had entered the war as a Regular Soldier. He was a crack shot, and he was an assigned sniper whose duty it was to pick off those of the enemy before they could themselves kill. He often did so before they even saw him, or were able to defend themselves. Some he shot in the back. It was all in the call of Duty. He just did what he was told - just as HARRY PATCH did. And afterwards, when the war was over, and he continued to live, he lived on with the memory and the GUILT of what he had done. Nothing could expunge it from his memory, and right up to that momentous night he was haunted, hounded, hunted down by the thought of each and every man he had killed so precisely and so well. He made my hair stand on end during his recital.

BUT at the end I found he had some faith imparted to him as a child in Sunday School in an Anglican Church. But how could God really forgive him. He could not believe it. BUT I COULD, and by morning Jack also came to believe it for Himself, and he slept. He opened up like a flower - but not for long did we enjoy the sight for the Lord took him within the week.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Attending TWO weddings today. One a Christian Wedding and the other a Muslim Wedding. Very interesting, and both parties friends of the Homes for many years now. I should say that Esther, Many, Helen and Daryl are attending. I am not. This week I have been battling with a heavy 'flu (NOT Swine flu) and still coughing powerfully! Yesterday my right leg began to present signs of the problem I had last year when I had a trapped nerve. Not SO painful so far, and I can move around, but still not very restful. Just the Enemy having a go.

DAYS are flying by. School IS only partially shut as we still have extra tuition for some classes continuing. So plenty to do still. Jesse Renata seems to be recovering well, and has now been accepted to Train as a State Enrolled Nurse. She is very excited.

Two more Sundays left to announce the Banns for Michael and Janet's Wedding on the 22nd, and then a week later the 40th Anniversary is scheduled to take place. We expect at least 300 guests on the 29th to Celebrate. A great deal to do and arrange. We need your prayers that the weather will be great, and that all the needs will be met.

THEN - the first week in September - SCHOOL will begin AGAIN. Life NEVER stops. And each DAY brings us NEARER to the Coming of the Lord Himself. Oh Glory! Oh HALLELUJAH!

Love YOU ALL. Keep on Watch....

John and Esther

HANDLING AUTHORITY & POWER

IN 1986 I wrote, 'ARROYA SWEEPS INTO POWER'. Last Saturday she died of Cancer in the Philippians where she had been President. She was 76. She came to power on the wave of Revolution, and the ousting of the MARCOS duo. A couple very like King Ahab and Queen Jezebel!

A 53 year old housewife in a yellow dress, Cory swept to power on a wave of popular euphoria. She served her elected terms and then stepped down in line with the provisions of the Constitution.

COMMENT from Manila over the last few days from those who knew and worked with her, reflect their opinion of her as a woman and a President.

'What a great gift the Lord gave us in her -

and what a great gift she WAS!'

'She was the 'moral compass of the Nation.'

She loved the truth and honesty

when others would not.

A POEM has been put together from quotes from her own public speeches , and I will include here just a few verses from it -

I just do whatever it is that I believe I should do;

Regardless of the risks to my life.

I would rather die a meaningful death,

Than Live a meaningless life.

Faith is not simply a patience

That patiently suffers until the storm is past.

Rather it is a spirit that bears things

With blazing, serene HOPE.

In Cory Arroyo we see a woman of POWER who was not corrupted by it! Yet we have to admit that we have seen many come into power as Heads of State worldwide, and few of them have gone uncorrupted. As Lord Acton, a famous historian of the last century once wrote -

'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' This has become a well known maxim, but I wonder how true it is? Certainly the MISUSE of power corrupts, and when power is absolute then its misuse will corrupt absolutely. BUT surely power is not, in or of itself, corrupt? JESUS, for example, had absolute power over all things. It was given to him by God the Father. This Absolute power did not corrupt HIM! There was and is not the shadow or even the suspicion of corruption imputed to Him. WHY? How can this be, if Lord Acton is right in his assumption about power? Obviously it is not POWER that corrupts, but the one wielding it. Power can only tempt an already corrupt mind and heart to GREATER corruption. God is NOT in any sense at all corrupt, and therefor POWER and AUTHORITY in His Hands cannot be used to corrupt ends.

BUT MANKIND IS CORRUPT by reason of his fall from Righteousness. His mind is no longer pure and free from selfish motive but generally given over to it. It is the selfish ego, the fallen nature of Man that is untrustworthy; he can no longer be trusted with power or authority since he is himself self deceived and corrupt. He is not righteous, and will not hold power righteously.

IN THE BOOK OF 1.KINGS chapter 21 there is the story of Naboth, who owned a vineyard (a farm) that King Ahab lusted after. The farm had been in Naboth's family for generations, and he had no wish to part with it, and he refused the King's offer to buy it from him at any price. AHAB was unhappy about it, and sulked and went off his food until his wife - Queen Jezebel - asked him what was wrong. On hearing the whole matter, Jezebel said to King Ahab -

'Dost thou now govern the Kingdom of Israel?'

And she proceeded to tell him how to use his power to obtain from Naboth what he wanted - unrighteously. Thus lies were invented, a trap set, a murder committed - and Ahab got the farm! Does this sound familiar? The KING had ABSOLUTE power. He could fix the Courts, the Judges and Magistrates, and make the LAW say whatever He wanted, even when it was a lie.

Of course we all have power in some way or another. It is in our power to love and to hate righteously or unrighteously. As the Chief Guest of our Parent's Day last Saturday His Honour Mr. C.G. Mbogo asked ' Have I done what is RIGHT - have I acted righteously'. It IS possible to achieve at least some measure, perhaps even a progressive measure, of righteous living in our lives IF Christ has come to LIVE in us. What is impossible for us to achieve ALONE, can be achieved when GOD is with us!. Perhaps then, in some measure, God was with Cory Arroyo? Possibly. Jesus said - you shall know them by their fruit! Was He saying you will know a Christian, a Jew, a Moslem - NO, I don't think so. Jesus was not trying to make comparisons. We can know if a man or woman has something of God in them by what comes out of them. BUT we may not know for sure if GOD owns THEM as His child - his family possession - or not. Many WILL say that they have done godlike or godly things, yet He will declare that He does not KNOW them because they were in effect serving their own interests more than His, even when doing acts of so called good! Something to think about carefully. As our Guest said again on Saturday - 'We should take account of ourselves' To be truly righteous we will have not to go with the crowd, not bend the rules, not compromise with lies and dishonesty. To stand out can be costly.

An Anglican Bishop recently asked -

'Why is it that everywhere the Apostle Paul went they had a Revolution,

but everywhere I go they have a cup of tea?

Paul did not blend in, HE STOOD OUT!

On his first missionary journey, the stoned him and left him for dead.

On his second one they threw him in prison.

How did he handle this?

He prayed and praised God till every door in his prison opened.

Child of God, the word for you today is -

GIVE IT ALL YOU'VE GOD - and KEEP PRESSING ON.

It is RAINING - and School has closed for the August Holiday. A quiet morning. I can hear the children laughing in the garden, and also a few Great Green Ibis having a conversation whilst searching for Worms and beetles. It is cool but not cold today. And now I must seek the Lord for a Word for Sunday. I am speaking this week.

Thinking of you all. Keep in prayer for us. Our daughter Jesse Ronata that lives in Testimony House has been quite down and unwell recently. You may remember that she is HIV positive. Her blood count is good, and she has not seemed affected by the virus in any way, and doctors have not yet felt the need to prescribe special drugs for her. But she has now bee diagnosed with a peptic ulcer. If you have a moment just lift her up in prayer.

Love you all in Jesus Name. Lift up your Head - let the King of Glory IN.

John and Esther