70 ARE THE YEARS OF A KING

ON SATURDAY, 15th May, my wonderful wife, Esther, and Daryl threw a Party to Celebrate my 70th Birthday, in the School Hall.
They had invited more than a hundred old friends from the district and old boys and girls from the Homes.

It was quite wonderful.

Actually my Birthday was on the 11th but being a weekday nothing could have been arranged. As you see they had arranged the Hall beautifully, and everyone was able to sit down and partake of a good lunch and to fellowship at the same time. A Once in a Lifetime occasion.

A group of children from the four Homes sang

and another group danced as part of the entertainment. Daryl's little daughter Becky danced for the first time, and became a 'star' immediately! It was a truly moving occasion for me.

BUT I was especially Surprised and Thrilled on Friday the 14th. I was working in my Office during the afternoon, and suddenly Daryl put his head round the door, and said, "Dad, you have a visitor!" I was very busy, and did not want to see anyone, and was about to say so when looking up from my work, I found myself confronted by the sight of Steven Green, our eldest son walking through the door. He should have been in England! In fact he had told me on the phone only a few days earlier that he had planned to be with us, but circumstances had cropped up preventing him. I had felt SO disappointed..........and then, there he was, large as life. I had missed him so very much.........it was the very best Birthday Present I could have received. Esther knew of course. SO I felt VERY blessed.

I have continued to feel well and on the 'up and up' health wise, and it was good to pass such an important milestone in life. The Bible actually says that '70 are the years of a king', and in a sense I have been a king under the hand of God - at least for the last 40 odd years here in Testimony. And the Bible also says that the years of a Man shall be 'Three score years and ten." - 70 again! A Generation - a specific period of time. To me it had also suggested itself as a possible END or REST from all that has gone before, and thus the BEGINNING of something new. I had been feeling this since December 2008 as I had looked into the year ahead. Time to hand over? Time to Retire from TFH? Yes all this had been in mind, but it has not transpired that this has actually come to happen - YET. BUT the sense of inevitable and imminent CHANGE remains in the air.
We are seeking Father about it. We are NOT feeling weak or ailing. We are both STRONG. Pray along with us about it.

ALSO we have been considering the possibly of taking time out, leaving DARYL in charge, for maybe three to four months and making a visit back to the UK to visit friends and churches. We have of course made VERY brief visits in the past seven years or so, but mainly to visit family; we were unable to visit the many that pray and support us and the work of TFH, and to bring them up to date, face to face. This might be a time to start planning such a trip - Please let us know what you think.

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IN THE LAST FEW DAYS three unrelated and disturbing headlines have made themselves noticed in the Daily Nation here in Kenya. On the 19th we read

KENYAN GAYS COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

People have to understand gay people are normal.

Then Today, we find on the Front Page -

SCIENTIST WHO CREATES 'LIFE'

'He isn't God'

And then on Page 9 under a general Section Title ' Green Energy' -

DANGER LURKS IN ENERGY SAVING BULB

'The Energy Ministry hopes to install 1,25 million of these in more than

400,000 homesteads across the country'

Just WHERE is our world going? Quite apart from the universal upheavals amongst human society of petty war, civil strife, economic collapse, and ecological destruction, what IS the future of society in general? At 70 I am sure I am excused for asking such a question.

First off I did not like the idea of 'gays' coming 'out of the closet'. Why were they hiding there in the first place. The article reported a gathering of miscellaneous 'gay' people of both sexes

- more than 100 - who 'dined and wined, sang and danced, in front of the media, in a move viewed by many as an attempt to ward off stigma and victimisation.' the reporter states that 'ten years ago there was no public place that could have hosted such a function.' CERTAINLY there has been an increasing shift away from old moral standards since the Sixties world wide.

One spokesman, cited in the Article, says that 'experts put the proportion of 'gays' at 6% of the world population - suggesting a similar figure in respect of Kenya.' Continuing he went on to say -

"We are born this way. We are created this way.

We want to feel comfortable when we come to church"

On Page 20 of the same paper it was reported that a MALAWI COURT found two gay men guilty of of Sodomy and Indecency, according to Section 156 of their Penal Code. The Magistrate adding that such action was 'against nature'. In Malawi gays are NOT normal people, and it is suggested that their abnormality is willfully indecent and unnatural behaviour. It ought not to be encouraged, or its dangers minimised. YET they are normal in most other ways no doubt. They may be intelligent, able to inter-act in all other areas of society almost without detection.

But a man or woman with a brain tumour, for example, whether born with it, or developing it during his/her lifetime, would have in fact a life threatening condition, whilst at the same time appearing to be exactly the same as any other person - until almost too late to help them. This is no doubt a poor comparison. But my point is that to be gay is to have a condition that is unnatural, and which can have an adverse effect on society including ones self. Should I be encouraged to see it as 'normal behaviour' in order to be prevented myself from seeing and understanding that I need HELP? Surely to NOT tell a person he is ill and needs treatment is to wish him dead. Surely it is THIS attitude that needs putting right. To legalise homosexuality in any of its forms is to wish all those who practice it to be DEAD - a very antisocial attitude. These practices are against NATURE, and against the purpose of the Creator (and I speak not only from the Christian appreciation of what is acceptable to God, but from the perspective of Islam, Hinduism and the majority of those Religions that have heard from God). They are considered by God as offences punishable.

Thus note the words of JUDE in the Bible - v7 - The wicked are sentenced to suffer, just as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the adjacent towns, - which likewise gave themselves over to impurity, and indulged in unnatural vice and sensual perversity, are laid out in plain sight, - as an exhibit of perpetual punishment, and to warn or everlasting fire.

AND we are TOLD that as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah so it will be in the LAST DAYS of this world. The most common sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality.

For us to see no danger in it, no terrible punishment waiting upon those who continue to practice it flies in the face of all common sense, and the example of history. This is no genetic accident for which none are responsible, but a willful CHOICE of mind, as much as stealing or murder is a choice of action. 6% and climbing! Much MORE than that in reality! Are you watching, are you concerned, will you be a good Watchman to your community, your social circle?

AND NOW A SCIENTIST HAS CREATED LIFE IN A TEST TUBE. Not a baby this time,but 'the first living cell to be controlled entirely b y synthetic DNA.' This is not new, but a definite advance in the mechanics of genetic engineering, and we are on the thresh hold - if not already going through the door, into a new world where MAN can have the power to change, and manipulate any species - even Man himself. This spirit of tinkering with what IS, in order to create something different or even new is disturbing. I believe that it is an attribute of the Enemy to be able to 'engineer' changes - mutation - in existing creation. Through it will come confusion, horror, and even destruction at every natural level of nature.

Great wisdom is needed here - where will it come from?

AND FINALLY those new 'corkscrew-like' bulbs - the energy savers, the money savers. Kenya Power and Lighting Company describes the health hazards (skin cancer, mercury poisoning) of these energy savers as "minimal". The power saving benefits of the "green" bulbs" they say far outweigh its health hazards. What IS more important than our health. Already the old bulbs are being withdrawn and taken out of production. Soon there will only be these new unattractive and 'perhaps' dangerous replacements. Who could possible be behind such a scheme whereby - who knows - billions might be put in jeopardy of ill health even death? WHO could possibly be so busy planning attack after attack upon MAN - made, after all in the Image of God. And we seem to generally, as a species, to be pretty easy going and laid back, letting whatever will be - BE .....Peace, prosperity, DECAY - at ANY PRICE. Should we not WAKE UP, and SEE where we are going, and how little is left to sucked out of life's 'sink' into the WASTE?

Have a good week - we love you all!

John and Esther