GRADUALLY GRADUATING!!!

WHAT A HAPPY FACE! Great Joy for us to see our little girl Graduate from her Teaching Course today. We were not able to be there with her in Nairobi, but some of our family were, and she seems to have had a happy day, and ready to face the next step - a teaching job - perhaps in the big city. It seems only yesterday she was a babe in arms. Her birth mother walked into our District Hospital twenty years ago, gave birth and immediately left - without the baby. She never came back. In fact Helen was two months early, and so tiny and lifeless, that midwife was on the way to the disposal unit to get rid of her thinking she was 'still- born' - but halfway there she suddenly moved and whimpered. She was ALIVE. She was eventually to be adopted by Esther and me. An affectionate, shy, and initially with a definite likeness to the little bird in the Tom & Jerry Cartoons - Tweety-pie - a name that has stuck too her as a nick-name. She attended Michael & Janet's Wedding in August, and thus there she is snuggling up to him.

We are VERY happy to see her now grown up, and ready to take hold of her own life, and future.

BENSON LAGUINA, one of our senior boys from Testimony House also Graduated yesterday from his University College with a BA in Christian Ministries. He has done very well, and hopes now to go into full time service for Jesus. He is brother to Beverly (now working in Tourism) Jesse (waiting to go into Nursing)

Melvis who is still seeking a career in Business Management. It was a joyful occasion.

LAST WEEK I mentioned the Primary School top class Graduating and getting ready to enter High School. THIS WEEK our top class in High School (Form IV) also Graduated, getting ready to enter College or University. There was a formal Luncheon for Students and Staff, speeches, and a lot of enjoyment . I gave a short Address was given as below -

'THIS IS THE LAST DAY for you in this School. You have learnt for a minimum of twelve years already, and NOW you are poised to continue on in C0llege or University for a further four years.

You have been confronted with countless choices and decisions that needed to be made, and you have had to make them - good or bad.

As life continues on, slowly, we inevitably reap the effects of those choices and decisions. We grow up from infancy to childhood, from childhood to teenage, and from teenage to adulthood.

WHEN YOU commenced Form 1 of High School you were already teenagers, and most of you still are. What kind of teenager are you today? How would you describe yourself.

As you now launch out into man and womanhood in front of your peers in a place of higher learning will you be known as a person of integrity? Will you be the kind of person that will be known as Honest and ever Truthful? Will you be known for your sense of Fair Play, and Responsibility? Will you be RESPECTED? It is a sure thing that not all you peers will be

demonstrating these qualities - perhaps even your teachers and lecturers may not demonstrate them! Will you go along with the crowd, career along with the herd?

IN THE BIBLE a man called JOB was suddenly plunged into material ruin and physical illness. He lost everything on earth dear to him, and was racked with pain from head to foot. In the midst of all this suffering he said -

'As long as my breath is in me,

And the Holy Spirit of God is in my nostrils,

my lips will not speak wickedness, nor by tongue utter deceit.

Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me!

My righteousness I will hold fast, and will not let it go!

My heart will not reproach me as long as I live.'

Job 27v3-4

Job's priority in life was to do, and to be right in his life - whether it was seen or not.

His three oldest, closest friends, told him that his suffering was due to his personal sin, but he would have none of it. He admitted that he was suffering, but he would not agree it was due to his own wrongdoing; he insisted he always did what God wanted. Even in the very midst of his pain and anguish of body and spirit, he HELD ON to the living out of a blameless and upright life. And he did it without bitterness or in speaking against God. His wife could see no sense in it at all. She mocked him and said, in the midst of his personal pain -

"Do you STILL hold on to your INTEGRITY?

Why not curse God and die?"

YOUR PEERS in the world around you, and in the Colleges and Universities you will be joining, may not be so concerned about their integrity - may have never even heard of integrity! Indeed it may well be that you will find that the majority will have no interest in such matters having flung all moral values out of their lives whilst they embrace every unrighteous and dishonest way of life. Can there be INTEGRITY in using the hard found money of parents and others in order to party and drink the days and nights away instead of putting it to the use it was given for - to complete your education, and prepare you for the life ahead? Can there be integrity in forming relationships and making promises to others with no intention of keeping them when someone more attractive or influential passes by?

When your parents have struggled to earn the money to feed, clothe, and educate you, and your teachers have dedicated their lives to passing on knowledge they themselves have sacrificed to learn for YOUR profit - IS IT RIGHT, can there be integrity in wasting it all with drugs and riotous living, and dishonest practices?

EACH ONE OF US IS RESPONSIBLE for his brother/sister in the world around us. We, Ourselves, are to be Leaders and Guides in the society around us. How shall we guide and lead without INTEGRITY, and remain blameless for the chaos that will follow? NOW is the time to be determined and to make up our minds to BE RIGHT in what we do no matter what the pressure to do the wrong may be.

ONE who studied in this very School, and who continued on to University, found plenty of friends to welcome him, and to show him the delights of alcohol and sex. He graduated poorly and found no employment. He had begun with a brilliant mind, good looks, attractive personality, but now must take casual labour - to support a drinking habit. Instead of honour and integrity he has become a bum without a future. A WASTED life.

BUT we pray this will not be the future end of any of YOU! We hope that you have wiser hearts, appreciating all the hard work, faith and sacrifice that has brought you to this hour. DO NOT demonstrate the lowest, least commendable, and most demeaning aspects of a fallen human nature. That instead you will lift up your dear heads and hearts to God, and take your cue from Him, willing to stand in front of Him, and all Mankind, tall, strong, and determined to demonstrate what is RIGHT .....

Finally young ladies and gentlemen -

Whatsoever things are TRUE,

Whatsoever things are HONEST,

Whatsoever things are JUST,

Whatsoever things are PURE,

Whatsoever things are LOVELY.

Whatsoever things are of GOOD REPORT,

If there be any VIRTUE, and if there be any PRAISE,

THINK ON THESE THINGS!

Philippians 4v8

CATHERINE SENGE'S baby - Steven Erot YEGO has now completely recovered and both Mum and baby are back home in Tyndale Cottage. Both doing well. Many thanks for all those who joined us in prayer for them both. School is not closed for the Holiday. The children all at home, and plans for Christmas beginning to be considered.\

John and Gwynneth COOPER have worked hard to become a welcome part of each of our four Homes - Gwynneth occupying all the little ones, and John playing chess and being used in conversation and counselling. We have benefited greatly from their input - and still some weeks to go before they return to UK.

VERY HOT today, clear skies, no sign of RAIN. Things will now dry up the more.

God Bless you all, and every day convince you of His Presence with you.

John and Esther