ANOTHER WEEK - ANOTHER FUNERAL!!

THIS IS PAUL NGUI, aged 40.

Paul was brought to Esther and me in July of 1974. He was then just three and a half years old. Neighbours had alerted the Child Welfare Office in Eldoret that a child seemed to have been abandoned in a house nearby. On investigation the Welfare Officer had indeed found Paul alone and weak, lying in a locked hut. His Mother had apparently died and his Father had taken the body to the parent's home for burial more than three hundred kilometres away. He had not returned. AND SO Paul was scooped up and brought to us.

He could not stand or walk. His hair a sandy yellow from malnutrition. His eyes also looked as if they were infected, swollen and sore from untreated Measles, and it was obvious he had

difficulty seeing. His ankles, knees, wrists - and even his facial features also seemed somehow distorted. He weighed 28 lbs and measured 35 and a half inches from head to toe! As he sat, propped up, in one of our lounge chairs whilst the Welfare Lady chatted to Esther, he deposited six round worms as think as a man's finger and about six inches long in the chair. I had never in my life seen such things come out of a human

being - I was still, even in 1974 - as green as green could be!!

SO THERE HE was a helpless child. Could we really take him on? We had 50 children in the Home already. Could Esther cope?

"It's just for a few days till we sort things out" pleaded the lady from Welfare. But in the end he stayed until the Lord took him to his Eternal Home early Tuesday morning of this week. And as the months went by he responded to regular meals and good food and put on weight and learnt to stand and even walk. Steven and Michael used to make a wobbly threesome with him walking around the garden. He was intelligent, humorous and friendly from the beginning to the end of his life. But physically life seemed against him.

In 1976 Paul attended Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi. They attempted to improve his sight by surgery, but although this did improve his vision a little, the improvement was not to last, and eventually he became totally blind.

In 1981, when he was 11 Paul was admitted to The Salvation Army Blind School in Thika, just beyond Nairobi. He did not like it there, though coped well with learning. In 1982 we transferred him to another Salvation Army School near Kisumu. He initially got on well there, coming always 1st or 2nd in his Primary Class. But his physical state was deteriorating. We had met a Doctor who was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in England, and he was immediately interested in Paul's condition, and after a lot of tests and research discovered that he had Hurler's Syndrome, a metabolic sickness passed on through the female line. Only ONE in every 10,000, incidents are recorded off such a sickness. It attacks the blood cells and collects them at the joints, eventually affecting the skeleton causing progressive paralysis. Finally it attacks the brain leaving the victim a vegetable. The prognosis given to us was very daunting, ad especially as we could SEE Paul's condition worsening all the time in front of us. But his brain remained quite unimpaired, and continued alert and competent to the very end.

His facial features became very distorted about this time, and partially sighted students and even staff in his school began to speak about him as 'the monster'. He became VERY distressed and as he also had to be aided more and more in everything he did, so that our home doctor felt - (baring in

mind that he might die at any time) - that we should bring him home to Testimony House. Paul was happy with this. He knew all about his sickness. We offered him the chance to continue education in Testimony School, but he refused, saying he would learn privately. Thus we purchased a Braille typewriter and braille books, and he applied himself in earnest to learning what he could. He was 17. He had left regular schooling at the end of Standard V Primary. And now he needed a wheel chair, just to get around.

By 1988 his fingers could not provide enough pressure to use the typewriter. Eventually his fingers could not even feel the raised braille symbols that had to be read. He relied more and more on RADIO, and especially enjoyed NEWS and SPORTS world wide. He also loved all Christian programmes having himself discovered his own Faith in Jesus when he was 15.

Paul's Father eventually, after about two years turned up. He had been a drunkard, and after taking his wife to be buried had not hurried home. But then he himself found Christ, and his life changed for the better morally, though regretfully he contracted cancer. He had married again, and there were two step brothers and a sister all younger than Paul. BUT the family was living in poor circumstances, and it was increasingly impossible for them to be in a position to properly care for Paul. His Father also died in 1993. They visited. Many of them attended the funeral on Thursday of this week. There was no bitterness in Paul against God or man, for his physical ill health or confinement to a Children's Home; no jealousy against his brother who went to University and prospered into a respected Administrator and Christian. Only happiness and joy at having a family - and one much larger than he could ever have normally enjoyed.

Esther and I were Mum and Dad to Paul from 1974 to 1998 when we moved out of Testimony House to Green Cottage just fifty metres away. We continued to be his Mum and Dad until the last. On Saturday last week he was diagnosed with Pneumonia and admitted to hospital. Mr and Mrs. Muli, current houseparents in Testimony House in which Paul still resided, together with ourselves and many of his past and present Faith Homes brothers and sister, his own younger brother, and other blood relatives were constantly at his bedside.

On Monday he succumbed to coma and early on Tuesday morning Paul passed away. We laid his body to rest on Thursday morning with more than 150 of his brothers and sisters from Testimony Homes, and others from his own blood family attending and Thanking God for his exceptional example and life.

From the day of his birth Paul was doomed. He had a life expectancy of only TEN years.

YET he was to live for FORTY. During all this time of progressive debility, deprived of sight and freedom of movement, he never complained or moaned about his condition. He once said that he did not want anyone to take him to Prayer Meetings to be prayed for; he said that Jesus could and would heal him in His own good time, and that He could heal him just where he was if He wanted to - and it he wasn't healed then it was because JESUS had a good reason and purpose behind it, and he was content. And this was exactly how he lived. As he grew up in adulthood Paul advanced as a friend and councillor to all. He loved people, and he loved all those that surrounded him in the Homes. He showed no sign of feeling different to anyone because of his varied conditions in body and health. He hated people to comment on his ailments or frailties. He did not pity himself, and hated others to do so - he was happy and content - and God was his Friend in whom he trusted. He was also an ardent fan of Manchester United, and although he could not SEE a match on TV, would non the less 'watch' it avidly, commenting and enjoying it to the full.

Now he is with Jesus. He is walking and talking with HIM, looking into His face, and SEEING Him - yes and seeing ALL the beauty and glory that he missed on earth, multiplied and expanded all around him. I am so personally grateful to the Lord that he did indeed take him before his mind gave in to the sickness that pursued him throughout his life. He was full of fun and humour; full of delight and interest in life around him. Full of the Word of God which he constantly dispensed fluently in three languages to whoever came near to him. He is missed already, but we shall ever REMEMBER him who knew him.

For Esther and me the funeral was a real blessing. As I shared above so many of our old boys and girls were there from way back, as well as the recent past. As years have gone by and so many grew up and left, there were often times when WE wondered how much of a 'family' had in fact been built. On this day we were SO moved to see the family ties that still bound so many together into a fellowship spanning lifetimes. And WE were still Mum and Dad to so many of them, and they as our own sons and daughters even though so often our time and affection was so thinly spread.

AND it is still raining in Kenya - in Eldoret even! AND the sun shines in a blue sky!!

Kenya is a Miracle Country, full of beauty and Adventure. And a Nation noticed by God AND the Enemy also. Pray for Kenya, for our PEACE, for as much as you might pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. Kenya is a place of pivotal importance relative to the Gospel, and to the Witness of JESUS.

God Bless you, and our heartfelt and very sincere thanks for all of you who have written in or otherwise expressed you sympathy at our loss over this week.

John and Esther