AND INTO 2010!!

JOY TO THE WORLD - PEACE ON EARTH! We hear this said every year at Christmas. But how much real JOY do we have, and carry forward with us into any New Year?

Of course one can remember moments of real happiness and joy in a year, but often they are truly only 'moments' and do not make up the major part of the days that pass by. 2009 was, for me in the main, a year of considerable disappointment and at times frustration, often bringing me to tears, and certainly close to despair. YET, looking back I know that in the most difficult times I was comforted and encouraged to press on...... THAT actually, in the end, translates into real JOY, the joy of inwardly never being alone, forgotten or abandoned. IN Christ, we are NEVER alone, always ASSURED that our heartache, hurt, or exasperation with oneself is being secretly, patiently SHARED. Yes this is FULLNESS of joy. Happiness has to be founded on this understanding and knowledge - that without Christ in our life WITH us we shall BREAK. He makes the difference always. He is not just the Anchor that ensures our confidence, in the midst of the turbulent waves that so suddenly come to disturb us in life's sea. He is the CONSTANT unseen companion that walks and communes with us, giving us balance, inner strength and fortitude, along the way. I have been so grateful for such a friend during this rather turbulent year for me personally. My dear wife has had her part in the support I have needed of course, but there are times we cannot confide in the closest friend or relative the churning thoughts and emotions that can suddenly come upon us as our plans and ambitions seem thrown into confusion. So hard to talk, to explain, to admit defeat!!! BUT there is no such problem with that One closer than any brother - the One who lives in my heart by the Holy Spirit. He is always there IF we turn to Him. Always there! Thank you Jesus, and as you have been with each one of us through the years that have gone by, be with us NOW as we enter a new year and a new decade of our history. Give us that JOY, that deep seated empowering comfort springing from your Presence with us, that will enable us to ENDURE whatever may befall us in the year ahead. We of all people should be able to smile through to VICTORY, and progressively learn how to find the 'Silver Lining' within the darkest times. Perhaps as we REMEMBER these things our Happy Moments will be extended and expanded.............

Esther and I rejoice to enter this New Year in good health peace of mind. We both have a sense of 'New Beginnings' and perhaps even Renewed Vision, for the work here, and certainly Ready for Anything!! Not bad for over 60s - life in the old dogs yet!!

100YEARS AGO it was once again the end of the first decade of a new Century. King Edward VII died that year and the end of yet another era - the Edwardian Era - came to an end in England and the world. His son, became King George V, the grandfather of our present Queen, Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II. In the hundred years gone by there has been much change. Change that has altered the world. And NOW, in the first decade of a new Millennium, life and culture is changing almost day by day.

The first TEN years of my life, found England in the midst of the 2nd World War. Yet within the United Kingdom, life still seemed, as I look back now, to have been quietly undisturbed and unchanged by the thirty years since King Edward died. Of course fashion had changed, and to a certain extent no doubt custom and manners had changed. But for all that one did not feel in the least threatened or pushed out of a lifestyle based on Christian concepts and timeless cultural tradition. It altered in the 50's, and accelerated in the 60's until now one can barely find old moral and cultural values. Why the very way we see ourselves has changed as our history has been forgotten, and our national spirit suppressed and overwhelmed by the import of other exterior cultures and ideas. It seems that what I was taught England stood for no longer goes. We have a 'new' England - perhaps no England at all.. Every thing in the world, and the world itself, seems to be in the melting pot - perhaps humanity itself as well. Perhaps the END of all things IS not far from us. This last week I have seen TV Documentaries about the MAYA's of South America who we are now informed put the End of the World at the year of 2012! Yesterday it was news of a NEWLY discovered book by Nostradamus which also - apparently - predicts the same year as the climax and end of human history. NOT very cheerful thoughts? Depends how you see it. An END that might be a NEW Beginning, could be Man's only REAL hope, and after all the World as it is now unfolding, seems to have little hope in it, only increasing fear, anxiety, violence, and despair. IS our world better, than it was in 1010? Perhaps not!

TODAY IN KENYA, things also have changed since Independence. The biggest change has been from a virtually rural to URBAN society.

Also from a more caring and intimate family life to one often fragmented by the need for both parents to work, and be separated from each other and their children. In the SATURDAY NATION of today the photo here displayed goes with the caption

'WHAT KENYAN TEENS WISH PARENTS KNEW'

- 'They feel UNLOVED, viewed with suspicion, and in the words of one, left on their own to figure out 'this ADOLESCENCE thing'. Their parents, they say, CONTROL whom they fraternise with, but ironically, provide little or o guidance on growing up, relationships, and sex.'

There ARE serious gaps between the up and coming generations and their parents and grandparents. Much of this is because of the leaps forward in fashion, manners, and material acquisitiveness brought on by advances in technology. This current generation - at least that part of it with the money available from parents or even their own labour - is leaps ahead of the previous generation in knowledge and experience. Generally also the slow erosion of of traditional cultural value and religious faith has contributed greatly to increasing change in moral outlook sexually and even in matters of personal honesty and integrity. Parents that are in business have little time for their children who, for the most part, are in boarding institutions and fraternising with their own age group away from home and the influence of their elders. A completely NEW culture is therefore in danger of developing and blotting out even the memory of what their fathers fought for during Independence.

PARENTS may provide little guidance or help to their children regarding sex and adolescent problems but partly this is the fault of the United Nations and governments worldwide who have more and more acted as 'Nannies' and taken more and responsibility away from the parent. Parents, instead of rebelling against this, this have taken advantage of it, and spent time upon their own interests often letting the distance between themselves and their children increase until there is hardly any real relationship left. The increased and increasing breakdown in Marriage due to unfaithfulness has also increased a lack of respect for that institution, and for the promises and vows made within it. This in turn has led to greater promiscuity amongst the younger generation. Indeed with the changed attitudes being adopted toward the Gay Community, it seems there are no longer any moral boundaries left.

Children and young people, for their part do not want to hear that their own lifestyle is needing correction or discussion. They believe they are better informed and advised; generally wiser than their elders, and REFUSE to discuss any life issues with them. This is something that has been encouraged by the knowledge that their parents, teachers, and elders generally have had their disciplinary hands tied by - yet again - the United Nations, and the rise of Human Rights, Children's Rights plus plus! The known and proved structures that OUR parents and grandparents ordered society upon have been removed, weakened, and almost done away with to be replaced by what is often termed the 'New Freedom'. I cannot see the problems now being raised being changed or answered in the near future. Rather it is likely that there will be a general increase in chaos as the knowledge and experience gathered through thousands of years of progress and development is discarded and thrown away.

To bring up your children well you will soon need to be anti establishment! Indeed to actually love your children, give them affection, guidance and correction will make you an enemy of the state........... Huxley may have been wrong in his date of 1984, but there is no doubt that we are seeing MANY of the evils of his 'Brave New World' replacing the ethics and faith of our Fathers. With or Without Christ it will take courageous men and women to stand for the Old Ways and Standards, that have guided humanity and family life in past ages.

I believe that non of us should be men pleasers, but willing to offer ourselves to speak up for what is Right and True for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Happy New Year?

YES indeed, that must BE our wish for each other - but we need to know that our 'happiness' has to be deeply founded on He Who is our LIFE, and upon ALL that He represents of the Word of God. As long as we regard and DO the Word of God then we SHALL have JOY and SATISFACTION within us - even though we may often suffer humiliation and scorn in a world further and further removed from Righteousness.

A somewhat sombre message from a very WET and rather COOL Kenya. May I say - in mitigation - that within our community here there IS joy and contentment, and that relationships between our children and young people AND those who act as parents and teachers has not been better. This cheers our hearts indeed, and even gives us hope.

SCHOOL opens on Monday, with the highest enrollment yet. The Graduating Class did very well, and we have been encouraged to see all our students attain good marks without exception.

This also has been an encouragement to Esther, now retiring effectively from being Head of the Primary School. She feels she left without seeing the School failing in any way. NOW we are waiting to see what she will turn to NEXT!

Our much Love in Jesus to you all. Lift up your heads - and let the King of Glory IN. Who is the King of Glory - the Lord of Hosts - He is the King of Glory.

John and Esther