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