WORSE AND WORSE!

WITH THE ECHO OF THE MINISTERS CRY FOR HELP ringing in our ears, the Kenya Revenue Authority has begun to give THEIR attention to those running Children's Homes - at least in OUR area.

NEEMA Children's Home run by Joshua and Miriam Mbithi have this week been asked to pay ELEVEN MILLION Kenya Shillings in back taxes on donations received from outside of Kenya over the last five years! This after a three day Inspection of their work and ministry!


WE applied for Tax Exemption some 15 years ago, and received an Exemption Certificate. However, last year when applying for RE- Insurance of our School Buses, we were told that we would have to pay a special Road Tax to KRA. On Inquiry we were advised that all commercial vehicles had to pay. Of course we pulled out our Certificate and said we were exempt, and that the buses were in any case not running for profit or for any commercial venture. IMMEDIATELY they told us that our Certificate was INVALID, and that Certificates were issued only for a THREE year period and then had to be re-applied for. No such condition or warning is printed on the Certificate. We have had to re-apply for Exemption and have been turned down. We are in the midst of an appeal, but we expect to hear that we also will have to pay back taxes on Donations received that will run into millions of Kenya Shillings. Both for NEEMA and ourselves this will be impossible and we will face having our property sold under our feet to meet the Bill! This is far from just Taxation, but nearer to Extortion, and robbing the poor in the most blatant fashion. Indeed the Government on the one hand CRIES OUT for their poor to be aided, and with the other snatches the bread that is given to them right out of their mouths. Taxation, unjustly made upon the population, will surely bring universal penury. But is this purely another effort to discourage the operation of Children's Homes in Kenya, but without actually saying so?
INTERESTINGLY, when on the Web, I visited the Kenya Revenue Authority Website. This is what I found written in their own manifest - I quote

'Charities may claim EXEMPTION from tax

on most forms of income and capital gains,

if they are applied to charitable purposes.

ONCE a body has been accepted as being a charity for tax purposes,

it normally retains its charitable status until such time as it ceases to exist

either in its original form or altogether.

FOR ITS INCOME TO BE EXEMPT FROM INCOME TAX

an organization must have been established solely to relieve poverty or distress

of the public, or to advance religion or education. In addition, the commissioner of Income Tax must conclude that the income is expended either wholly within Kenya or in a way that benefits the residents of Kenya. (Income Tax Act, First Schedule, Section 10).'

We shall, together, of course take advice on these matters, and we ask you to join us yet again in prayer for this further challenge to the furtherance of ministries such as ours. So far, this year we - as a Ministry - have paid out more than Ksh.250,000 in Government related fees and charges related to the work we are doing. In Kenya it is costing more and more to offer voluntary aid to its needy people. To actually HELP you have to PAY!!

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YESTERDAY, FRIDAY, we took in a further SIX babies aged 6 - 18 months old, and we expect to take in another FOUR, three of them girls, next week aged between 3 and 9 years. There are more than 80,000 in the queue! Our ability to help is so small against such a backdrop of continuing and even growing need. BUT we are grateful to have been able to help even a few to a better life and hope, whilst even more importantly pointing them to Christ, and Eternal Life.
WE ALSO COMMENCED BIBLE STUDIES ON The Letter of JUDE this week. Did he look like the portrait opposite? No idea, but who knows?
His Letter is an Exhortation to the those who have believed in Jesus Christ as their Personal Saviour and Lord; that they should 'contend (fight for, struggle for their FAITH - the simple Message of the Gospel.'
This simple gospel (without all the many trappings of tradition, and doctrinal variations injected by men) is perhaps most clearly set out in in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthian Church chapter 15v1-5

'...Now let me remind you'(since it seems to have escaped you), brethren, of the Gospel (the glad tidings of salvation) which I proclaimed to you, which you welcomedand accepted and upon which your faith rests,AND by which you are saved, IF you hold fast and keep firmly what I preached to you, unless you believed at first without effect and all for nothing.

FOR I passed on to you first of all what I also had received, that Christ the (Messiah, the Anointed One) died for our sins in accordance with (what) the Scriptures (foretold) Isaiah 53v5-12. THAT He was buried, That He arose on the third day as the Scriptures foretold (Psalms 16v9-10) - AND that also He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve.'

Paul emphasises this 'simple Gospel 1(.Corinthians 2v2) where he writes -

Í resolved to know nothing to be acquainted with nothing,

to make a display of the knowledge of nothing, and to be conscious of nothing)

among you, except Jesus Christ the Messiah

and him crucified.

This is very different from our day when there are SO MANY DIFFERENT denominations all emphasising something MORE than this simple gospel; some christian teachers even using the gospel for commercial and selfish reasons - misleading the rest ....... JUDE was VERY concerned about this in his day. As also was Peter writing in (his) 2nd Letter and the 2nd chapter. It is STILL a message of IMPORTANCE in our own day when there is so much confusion - we NEED to sort out the wood from the trees. We need to affirm once again the Basic TRUTH that Saves us, and ditch the rest. We will be continuing this next week from v.5 to 16. A lot of good interest being aroused.

Nothing more for this time. Some ask why I do not comment on Kenya Politics. Too confused, too unstable, too discouraging to give time right now. Nothing remains the same from day to day except general lack of decision, and willingness to reduce corruption. Better left alone. Our petty governments worldwide and without exception have nothing to contribute when compared to the knowledge that GOD is over-all and controls our future.

Be encouraged to WITNESS. Be encouraged to TRUST in Him alone!

Lovingly

John and Esther