CHANGE, & CHANGING...........

GEORGE V and QUEEN MARY attending a DURBAR in INDIA where they were Crowned King Emperor and Queen Emperor.      This took place on the 12th December 1911 - just a hundred years ago.     What a lot of change was ahead of them - in less that 50 years!       And since I was born WHAT even greater changes have swept us all along into the space and technological world.      Faster and faster into yet another year - the Year of 2012.      SKY tv proclaimed THIS current year as one in which the world has seen the GREATEST change!   They went so far as to say that 'the world will never be the same again!'     Well I believe they are right.
NOTHING ever has remained as it was, and the world has continuously been changing since it began.

OOPS!   our Electric power supply has just gone off!    It was off yesterday as well for some hours.   There is quite a lot of apprehension everywhere just now because of Al Shabaab and the fear that they may seek to cause disturbances here and there.       Very much hyped up fears I think, and so far Eldoret has been quite untouched by any terrorist incidents.      BUT it IS annoying to be without electricity.   Hope it comes back in time for me to send this out today.......... (the unpredictability of life!).     In case anyone is now feeling alarmed for us let me say that Kenya Power Authority goes off quite often in a week.   Can be due to maintenance being carried out on the lines, or because a tree falls on a line, or because lizard gets short circuited in some local transformer.

For us this has been quite a year, and certainly there have been many challenges.   We opened the year needing more than £5,000 to pay School fees, buy uniform and pay salaries to our workers.    As usual we continued quietly in prayer, and on 5th January more than £7,000 arrived to provide for all this great need.    Surely God hears and answers.  
On January 3rd Manu, our youngest adopted son, working and living away from home,  was suddenly rushed to hospital with appendicitis!    The operation took place the next day, and was successful; he was sent home on the 7th, good as new!      
EARLY FEBRUARY it became necessary for us to find ways and means to obtain Birth Certificates for ALL our children in the Homes.     The majority did not have one, and to actually discover their early history and obtain needed documents to support an Application became VERY frustrating and time consuming.            We managed..........!       At the same time the Inland Revenue visited us and decided we needed to pay up about £100,000.     Eventually with the help of our Auditors this was reduced to £30,000.     We still felt this was unfair and without foundation, so we did not pay (could not pay) and the matter is currently in abeyance.
IT RAINED a little mid MARCH!     Finance a bit wanting, but non the less we ate every day.
Our children in the UK - Steven, Michale and Elizabeth decided to pay for Esther and me to fly out to visit them all.        Funds were at this time at their lowest.      It did not seem an appropriate time to leave Kenya.
IAN AND DIANE HOGLEY visited shortly on the 5th April, with Pam Wilding.    On the 11th Daryl, our son, was appointed Acting Director and General Secretary over all the Work.
On the 13th Esther and I flew to England.     We were basically spoilt by our children there, who just wanted to be with us.    We enjoyed ourselves.     We did manage to visit just a few old friends, but on the whole entered into very little ministry.;      But we did journey to Northern Ireland for the first time ever, and again were wonderfully blessed by the kind generosity of our friends Desmond and Virginia Hales of Port Stewart.
BUT on getting off the plane on the 14th April, my left foot erupted into terrible pain, and inflammation.    It was to discomfort me for most of  the trip, almost to the day I left England.      My Diary was not written up whilst I was away from Kenya, and Daryl once again discovered that its not all 'Tea and Cake' being the one responsible for everyone's well being - especially when times are hard - which they were.    Thank God for E-mail the the ability to be able to share and talk things through.
At the end of April, just before the Royal Wedding took place, Esther and I, plus our daughter Elizabeth and husband and  two children, plus Steven our son, motored up to the Scottish Highlands to meet my long lost and quite unknown sister, Patricia and celebrate her 72nd Birthday.       It was a very special and amazing occasion which of course was well covered in the Blog of the time.        She, together with her son and his partner will be arriving HERE next Wednesday!!!!     EXCITING. prospect.

ARRIVING BACK in Kenya on 30th June we were met by Daryl and were soon wondering if we had ever been away!!     The financial strictures had continued whilst we were absent, and Daryl had learnt a lot from the experience   BUT we had both been in prayer regarding the future of the Work, and so we were soon exchanging notes.     The main innovation which both of us had felt the Lord speaking to us about strongly was toward using some of our grounds to open up vegetable garden that would provide us with year round vegetables - AND a small Dairy to provide us with Milk, AND a Poultry Project to provide us with eggs and meat.!!     This was soon embarked upon and has indeed been a tremendous boon with more than an acre of garden producing, three cows, two of which have already given birth to a bull calf each, and one still waiting, AND the chickens supplying beautiful eggs and broilers to eat.    WOW.    
Daryl was appointed Chief Executive Officer; Director of the Work of testimony Faith Homes in total, with me given a watching brief as General Secretary for as long as the Lord might grant me strength.  He continues to do well.
We had both also felt that we might do well to centralise cooking and laundry activities.      The LAUNDRY seems to have really been a good idea, but over the period until this week we have felt that taking food preparation out of each individual Home has deprived each family of a fundamental element of homeliness and comfort - SO as from next week each Home will again be using its own kitchen to prepare food for the family.    BUT we shall not employ cooks for each Home as we used to do.   Instead the Houseparents will be responsible for cooking and preparing food with the children's occasional help.
IN LATE JULY our friends from Tyndale Christian School in South Australia again visited, and finding us in the midst of change, piled in to help, helping in particular with the conversion of vacant buildings to a Diary, and also putting up the Poultry Project houses.      We expect another small group of EIGHT to visit this coming February and another larger contingent once again in July.     REAL commitment, and hard work that has produced SO MUCH real support to us all - and ALSO to Joshua and Miriam Mbithi at NEEMA Children's Homes, just three Kilometres away.

A SEASON of Death then began to disturb us.     First, on July 25th  Johanna Okombo one of the very first of our children who came to live with me in Maseno in 1969, died suddenly and unexpectedly from pneumonia.    He was only 47.  
On the 30th July two of our longest serving Primary Teachers Joseph and Rachel Ochieng) from Testimony School both died driving their car to Nakuru.     They had been with us 22 years.      The School and us as well were all plunged once more into mourning.
On 14th August Esther and I Celebrated our Ruby Wedding - well we would have done, but she was away at the time visiting a long time sister in Christ who was her close friend recovering from Cancer.

The days passed quickly and we had almost managed to forge the double sorrow of those deaths in July, when again, suddenly, on 18th October, another of our children passed away.     This was Paul NGUGI who had been with us since 1974.   He was only 4 years when he arrived.   He developed a disease known as Hurlers Syndrome, which blinded and crippled him progressively over the next 36 years of his stay with us.    Doctors had only given him a life expectancy of SIX years when he was Admitted.    He was 40 on his eventual death.     He spent his entire life in TESTIMONY HOUSE.     He left a great gap.  Hundreds of Old Boys and Girls attended his funeral, revealing to us not just how HE had influenced so many lives by his own Christian Testimony and attitude, but also the 'Family Feeling' that there is amongst them all.    Out of this has been born a Family Association.

In November Esther and I have both been wrestling with various challenges to our health, but currently we are both feeling well and strong.    Esther had been having unexplained palpitations, and my Blood Pressure and Sugar had been rising too high.      Both our doctors are now apparently happy and satisfied with us, and we ourselves, as I have said, feel fine now.     We do thank God for His Health and Strength.

AND SO CHRISTMAS came and went, leaving us ALL very happy and contented.   It has been a very Wonderful Family Time for all the children and for us.     His Spirit Blessed us throughout, and whatever need we were confronted with HE provided for it.     Thus we had no anxiety, and were free to enjoy HIM, and each other.    All the predicted activities and events I described last week, too place and were enhanced by perfect weather.      MANY guests and visitors spent time with us too, contributing to our joy, including Dr. Paul Mbugua,  his dear wife Elizabeth and two fine sons, David and Samson.   Paul is now an Associate Professor at Kenyatta University and we have been family friends for me than thirty years.

AND SO HERE WE ARE ON NEW YEAR'S EVE!     We feel, even more than usual, on the brink of momentous events.     We also feel the comfort of His Presence with us.      We wish you ALL a very  Happy New Year, but more than this!     We wish you the power and strength to face whatever may be coming upon us all;  we wish you the wonderful knowledge of His Fellowship in and with you day by day.
Let us remember one another, praying for one another, and encouraging one another till He COMES.

Sincerely in His Great Love

                                                                                                               John and Esther
          

YOU SHALL CALL HIS NAME JESUS

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS  to you all, and most of all let it be a true Renewal and Rebirth of Jesus in all our lives, for this is our greatest need.
In the midst, for many, of good food, personal gifts to each other, and for others a scarcity of all these things, LET US REMEMBER JESUS - for this is a day to understand that GOD in Heaven GAVE to each one of us past present and future a priceless Gift - the Gift of His Own Son, and through Him, by His Death on the Cross of Calvary, the Gift of Free and Eternal LIFE.  
WE give each other toys, chocolates, and whatever we think might express our love to the other.    GOD gave us Himself.     IF we are to also GIVE let us give ourselves - first to God, and then to each other, and then to those in need around us who are in the wide sense all 'family'.     Greater love, says our Saviour, has no man, than that he should lay down his life for his 'friend'.     So when we say we love God......our husband, wife, child, family friend, the man or woman on the street in the wide world around us.....just how MUCH to we really love them?   Do we love them enough to lay down our life as JESUS laid down His own.     No FORGIVENESS until we love like this.     When I would give my life for you, then I must forgive you all your sin as well.
So brothers, sisters, friends make this Christmas special.     Forgive each other, reach out to and for each other, and give the GOOD NEWS to each other - Tidings of Comfort and of Joy - A Child has been born and given into the world that has become the means of our cleansing and forgiveness so that we might once more be what we were created to BE - children of God.

THE SUN IS SHINING HERE IN ELDORET, KENYA - A BEAUTIFUL DAY of Light and Warmth, and Colour.    Last night a busload of our children went out into the neighbourhood singing carols from about 4p.m. to midnight!!!    Tonight our Family Christmas Eve fellowship on the lawn in front of Green Cottage.    All the children will be there again as they were last year, and we expect to have a wonderful time together sharing and remembering the Birth of all our Hope and Happiness.
TOMORROW the Christmas Service, an afternoon of family togetherness - some will play games, some will go for 'Family Walks' and in the evening each of our Homes will share a good Christmas Meal together.    
And on MONDAY we expect, God and the weather permitting, to ALL go for an all day outing and pic-nic to a nearby School Swimming Pool facility.    We usually arrive about 10.30a.m. and leave about 4.30p.m.      All four Homes join together for this outing, and it is now a tradition that we all go and fellowship and have fun.      Old boys and girls also come if they are nearby, and even friends.

LAST WEEKEND Esther was away in MBALE a Uganda Border town about 100 kilometres away.  She was with her sister Mary and brother in law Joe Kibe.     They left here on Friday last week and returned on Monday.     On the way home, (Joe driving),  a white saloon (top) made as if to overtake them.  The were just about 20 kilometres out of Eldoret.      Then suddenly the overtaking vehicle, radio blaring, turned abruptly into the rear offside of Joe's car, ramming it, and making it spin around to face the direction it was coming from.    Somehow both vehicles were now locked together and the Joe's car was then dragged along backwards by the 'rammer' who continued on his way, for twenty or thirty metres before separating and overturning on the road.        Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic, and a policeman appeared immediately on the scene.   It was very scary.   BUT no one was hurt in any way, although both cars had to be towed to the Eldoret Police Inspection Unit, they were both on the road again the next day!!     Poor Esther and family were quite shaken up, and although they had started their journey back here at 10a.m. did not finally arrive until 7.30p.m.
It was yet another proof of how we are all watched over by appointed Angels.     Thank you Father for your servants who constantly have the care of us.

GOING BACK now even further to 2007 Tyndale and Drakeley Cottages were both being built by the same Contractor.    He proved himself (although with a Christian Testimony) to be very unfaithful, and put in very substandard material into the construction, and also was found careless.
DRAKELEY Cottage especially has suffered.    The house is built on sloping ground and one end needed a lot of 'filling' in putting in the foundation.     This filling of ballast and earth later was found not to have been properly compacted, and in 2009 we found cracks in the outer wall of the one end.
We had another contractor in and the floor was dug up, but by 2010 the problem re-appeared until we could not use one bedroom and bathroom for fear of collapse!!       The cost of repair, which will necessitate a great deal of work on the floor, foundation and outer wall of one end of the house was something we could not contemplate.      So we told the Lord about it and left it there.      Just this month we were advised by a friend in Northern Ireland that a group had heard about the ministry here, and having funds on hand were offering to put them at our disposal to BUILD a new Home for the kids.      However although a sizable sum of money it would only have accounted for perhaps one quarter of what we would have needed to put up a new house.     I replied that we really could not contemplate building in the near future anything substantial, and suggested that maybe the Lord would have the funds used somewhere else where an immediate project was in view.     HOWEVER, I did say that we could use the funds for repair of a building that was in need, if this might fall within their vision for their use.        They have written back to say that they will be delighted for us to use this money for this purpose.     GOD is so good to us.    SO we hope to start work there soon.
I shared this because it is yet another example of us only sharing our needs with the Lord - but HE puts them on the hearts of those who have not known from us anything at all!     Surely this IS a Wonder.       He IS Wonderful.

This year has almost ended, and 2012 is very close.     A NEW year!      Yesterday I heard someone talking on SKY tv and saying that our world had changed completely since the beginning of this year!     No doubt he was referring especially to the Economic & Financial Crisis.    But in truth our world has been changing faster and faster over the last 50 years of my life.    And since the advent of 2000 things have speeded up even more.     CHANGE?    Yes I would think so, and I still have in mind that our Lord said that the generation that saw the Fig Tree (Israel) putting forth her shoots once more (1947) would not utterly disappear before His Return.     CHANGE is imminent more than we can imagine.       WATCH therefore, more than ever before..........HE who was born IS coming again - this time tall and majestic with the Crown upon His head.     NOTHING will ever be the same after that.

God Bless and enfold you in His arms

John and Esther

KEEP FOCUSED on HIM!

MY PERSONAL PRAYER for myself is that I might know Him, and the Power of His Resurrection, more and more.     It is so easy to begin well and enthusiastically, and then find the cutting edge of our life in Jesus has been dulled or blunted.    And whilst we may still know the theory and language of our faith, we can at the same time be losing the inspiration and the energy to actually LIVE the LIFE.    I think that is why I appreciate Christmas - it is a time to take a rain check to the BEGINNING just to confirm that my face is still set like a flint to go all the way with Jesus to Jerusalem!!    Am I still walking in His steps; am I still hanging on His every word?
JINGLE BELLS and Father Christmas quite apart; the world's 'Christmassy' distractions put aside, am I keeping up with Him?    Is my dependence solely upon Him?    Or have I slowed down, turned aside and lost the passion and sparkle of my first burst of love for HIM Who IS my Life?       Oh yes, I may still look to the Cross, but I need also to look to the Manger.       I dont' want to end up like King Asa, in 2.Chronicles 14-16.   HE began well, and his heart / mind was perfect with the Lord all the days of his life - but towards the end he somehow hung back and compromised with his faith.

THESE LAST FEW WEEKS I have been hampered once again with a very painful BIG TOE on my left foot.     I have had it before.   It does not seem to be an ingrowing toenail or related to the main joint - just the tip of the toe which is red and tender.      This started in March on arrival in UK, and has come and gone two or three times.      I have so far done without seeing a doctor about it..........
but this week it has been SO painful and frustrating.........and as King Asa in the cartoon  I have cried out 'MAYBE I should have this looked at.'     And he DID.   He took that problem to the Doctor and NOT to the Lord, and he died.   Well I am still enduring...   I hope to continue so to the END.    
The BIBLE teaches that the one that ENDURES to the end will be saved, and secured - the one that keeps on GOING ON.    the one who FIGHTS the Good Fight with ALL his/her might to the very last moment of life - THAT one will be SAVED.
look at Hebrews 10, 35-39 in the New Testament!     It says there -

'DO NOT FLING AWAY your fearless confidence in Christ Jesus, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward, FOR YOU HAVE NEED of steadfast patience and endurance so that you may perform and fully accomplish the Will of God, and thus receive and carry away and enjoy to the full what is promised.     FOR YET A LITTLE WHILE, a very little while, and the Coming One will come, and He will not delay.    BUT the just shall live by faith, and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, my soul has no delight or pleasure in him.   But our way is not that of those who draw back to eternal misery and destruction, but we are of those who believe e - who stick to and trust in and rely upon GOD through JESUS CHRIST

And again in Galations 6v9 & 2 Thessalonians 3v13 where it is written - 'Let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time we shall reap if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faith. (if we continue without weakening).'
IT IS SO EASY TO FLAG!  
LOOK AT REVELATION 2V2-3 -

'I know your industry and laborious toil, and your patient endurance, and dhow you cannot tolerate wicked men, and have tested and critically appraised those who call themselves apostles, and found them to be impostors and liars.    I KNOW you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My Name's Sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary,  ----   BUT - you HAVE left, abandoned, the love that you had at first - you have abandoned Me, as your first love!     REPENT THEREFORE, change the inner man to meet God's Will, and do the works you did previously when you first knew the Lord!'

In other words, instead of being a FORCE for Righteousness, it is very possible to become a PUSH-OVER by the World and the Enemy - becoming WEARY of well doing!

A WEEK TODAY will be Christmas Eve.      During that evening we shall all (staff and children) assemble on the front lawn near the huge Mahogany Tree, and sing carols, listen to the story of the Nativity,  share prayers and our supper there under the stars and a few lanterns.     We did this for the first time last year and it was a truly wonderful occasion which we will probably continue to enjoy till He Comes.
IN TOWN this morning Father Christmas (an electronic one) swayed to the canned music of the saxophone he was supposed to be playing.      Better than the one they had last year I suppose.   Just one little kid taking an interest.     The shopping mall was overcrowded with noise and bustle, but still no other sign of Christmas to be seen.     Outside the town flooded with a mass of traffic and people.    HOT, dust filled, dirty.      BUT the sky was blue, and the trees green;  just needs one to look up, and things seem better already, and God closer!!
At home the kids are all happy and playful in the sunshine, and in the safety of our grounds.   Truly a little Oasis of Love.        The children are just full of Baby Jesus, and the Wonder and Beauty of it all.    A summer breeze of excitement and expectation.       OUR prayers are with you all, and we know and trust yours are reaching out to US.

Lovingly in the Name of His Majesty


John and Esther  

            

1. 
   

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION in 1789-99 the populace of Paris were starving, and clamouring angrily at the gates of the Palace of the French King, Louis XVI. There was no food in the City, not even bread, the most common commodity. And the people cried out for Bread. Queen Marie Antoinette, Louis' wife is reported to have asked what all the clamour was about, and on being told that the crowd were shouting for the want of Bread, she replied 'Then let them eat Cake!' Cake was even more expensive, though there was plenty of it in the Palace. If the people were too poor to pay for the little bread available it was unlikely they would afford the food of the rich. She is therefore credited with being both ignorant and unfeeling, almost oblivious of t1he plight of the starving masses of her people living on her doorstep. She and her husband, Louis, had their heads Guillotined by the masses just a few months later. According to the latest historical comment, however, it would seem that Marie Antoinette might never have said those words - but someone DID. And the sentiment so expressed has not really altered over the last two hundred years. It seems the People and the Rulers rarely understand each other.

The truth remains that those who HAVE money easily forget how it is to have NONE!

HERE IS A CHAIR!

It is not an ordinary chair, although it looks cheap enough. THIS chair costs Kenya Shillings 200,000/- (approximately £1430 OR US$2220 per chair) BUT these chairs are special. They are to be the NEW chairs planned for installation into the 're-furbished' Parliament Chamber, hoped to be completed in March 2012.

It seems that this NO 'casual' receptical for the backside of a Member of Parliament. According to a recent Press Release THIS chair, and those like it, (about 35o of them) will be made of 'State of the Art' materials which will be the best that money can buy. It will have an expected life of more than sixty years, being impervious to wear and tear. This chair is also FIREPROOF - in case, perchance, the occupant becomes overheated! It is adjustable, but unable to be moved or lifted from the floor - in case some irritated 'Member' might want to pick it up and throw it at an adversary! It is maintenance free, and will never need cleaning or even dusting! ORIGINALLY these amazing chairs were to cost DOUBLE the current advertised cost of Ksh.200.000/-. Realising, however, that this might seem a little TOO expensive, the Government turned to the Kenya Prison Service to take on their manufacture - instead of the specialised company first approached. Kenya Prisons use the prisoners to make, amongst other things, furniture of all kinds for sale, as an aid to funding the cost of the Prisons daily running. But how well-made will these chairs turn out to be? Will they be worth the money they are asking of £1400 a chair? Or may be the chairs will finally be made in China for a mere fraction of the advertised cost.

BUT PERHAPS, after all, it is JUST A PIECE OF CAKE!

Something beyond the reach or understanding of the ordinary Kenyan who barely has enough today for even a loaf of bread. Something to UNDERSCORE, the almost total insensitivity and irresponsibility of the Government for its people. The MP is paid £5,000 or so a month to SIT in Parliament, and will SIT on an appropriately VALUABLE chair worth almost a quarter of a million shillings paid for from Taxes demanded from the already poverty stricken populace.

The average wage of a common single labourer, domestic, or clerk is around £42 a month. The rent for the room he lives in might have to be anything from £7 to £14 a month. His food - just basically - up to £25 minimally. Not much left then to buy clothing, pay for medicine, transport to work and all the other unexpected expenses that might arise. - AND REMEMBER more than 60% of the available workforce is UNEMPLOYED to start with. The GAP between the common man or woman, and their Rulers is immense and growing all the time. Do not the Rulers SEE - do they not CARE? Can they really be so willing, as the Roman Emperor NERO was, to just sit and while away time, watching Rome BURN without lifting a finger to help? Well Kenya is just a little piece of planet earth, one of the least of the Nations - but what is happening here is, in fact, happening everywhere - and the peoples of our world, more and more, begin to ROAR like the SEA, rising up to revenge themselves and to overwhelm their rulers.

THIS INNOCUOUS CHAIR IS A SCANDALOUS CHAIR!.......It has shocked the common man who has in this current year suffered more and more economic disasters, one after another.

One Reporter has commented -

'Not too long ago, the Kenya Shilling lost its value

by the biggest margin ever.

This has led to sky rocketing fuel and common commodity

prices.

The cost of living has risen so high that one wonders how

ordinary Kenyans survive.

The life of the common man has deteriorated in so many

ways that many see no hope of survival in fact.

This is already leading to crime and social unrest.'

On the other hand we should probably not feel to bad about. It could be much worse! Just today I came across another expensive chair. I include a photo of it to the right. It is an entwined Fork and Spoon. It is quite innovative and probably most apt for an M.P. who for the most part SITS in order to feed him / her self. It only costs £48,000 or US$75000!!! However it seems you can get it for less - just depends where you shop! I saw another wood and leather chair as well selling for between 2 and 3 million EUROS!!

THE TEN UPHOLSTERED circa 1950 Club chairs that I purchased from Eldoret Club in 1974 cost me only one hundred shillings each - they were quite elderly already, but have continued to provide homely and comfortable seating for innumerable children and adults right up to the present day!! NOT made from anything very expensive or pretentious.

LAST NIGHT, FRIDAY, we had our quarterly Board Meeting, We have twelve members of the Board. Esther, Me and Daryl plus Anthony Ndungu the School Principle and EIGHT

others who are from our locality, and all Christian educationalists and businessmen. Last night the School was under discussion and the upshot was that it was agreed by all that in the next twelve months we will hope to BUILD four new Classrooms. This will permit our High School to add a further academic stream of classes, making TWO streams all-together. It has been very costly to run the school on four classes only due to the number of teachers that are needed. The same number can service eight classes just as easily as four, and hopefully the income will be that much greater with more students. The School as you know is open to the public who must pay for a child of theirs to be accommodated. The Homes' children go FREE.

The current buildings were all put up in 1987. They still look good and in good shape. BUT, yes there is a but ..... all the floors were covered with a vinyl tile that both cracked and

wore badly. All the floors have now become an embarrassment to our general testimony of care. SO we obtained permission to relay ALL the classrooms and office block, commencing with almost immediate effect. We hve come a cross a DUNLOP Vinyl & Quartze tile which is both supple and hardy. The School of course is paying for all this, hopefully, from expected incoming fees. But of course we have no guarantee as to how many children will be with us at any one time - they come and go......! SO there is also a large element of FAITH involved in all this as well. But the School has become very popular because of its good academic performance. Please pray for Daryl who, as the new CEO will for the most part be up front and responsible for the progress of these projects. Pray for Kenya too as 2012 arrives and proceeds toward the expected Election at the end of the year.

THE RAIN at last seems to have given way to sunshine, at least for the moment BUT it is still quite chilly.

Currently a Prayer Conference is going on in the School, and a large number of our older children have taken themselves off to it. From the sound of it they are being Blessed. Thank you Lord!

NEXT WEEK a group of 18 small boys will be circumcised, but we think they will be bouncing around by Christmas just the same. Generally, with few exceptions, it is a cultural tradition that boys are circumcised - usually around the age of 13 and under. This is done at our local Teaching Hospital.

Decorations will go up next week. Christmas is still invisible to the naked eye, but SOON it will be seen to spring forth with JOY to the world bursting all around us. NEW Hope is also on the way, and with it strength to come out of our sorrows and defeats into a WIDER PLACE of new opportunity and expectations. Continue to pray for us.

God will walk with you in the days ahead. Endeavour to keep focused and not to be sidetracked by the world and all its glitz.

We love you all

John and Esther

CHRISTMAS IS HERE AGAIN - almost!!

I wonder if this tree at the White House will yet again be referred to as the HOLIDAY Tree? I guess it is already there.

WE are a week or two away from even thinking of putting up our usual meagre decorations. No sign at all that Christmas is coming in Eldoret Town. No lights, no sights, nothing at all. A few of the larger Supermarkets will begin to decorate soon, and one might even have in incongruous Father Christmas! Very few, if any, know who Father Christmas was. Every year on our streets in Eldoret one can see a couple of vulgar men dressed up in red and ermine pretending outlandishly, even rudely, to be this Father Christmas, but their display is so ill mannered and course as to be offensive. SO.........

Christmas here is almost naked here, often ignorantly observed, and more often passes unnoticed apart from days off from work, and more drunkness than usual. Sad.

BUT we shall have a good and pleasant time together. For not only will we be making our Homes aware of Christ's Birthday by dressing up the rooms with Cards, and balloons, and even a Tree in each Home, but we shall also be REMEMBERING all that the Birth of Jesus means to each one of us. Yes, by His Grace, we will eat and play games, and enjoy friends visiting with us, AND observe His Presence with us in the midst. There will be carols, prayer, and exhortation. There will be storytelling, laughter, and fun. There will be Thanksgiving, and Joy. Each year it is so for us, and each year the reality of Jesus blesses us all together. Even old boys and girls come to visit, and fellowship, and the sense of home and family once again comes alive for both those who hare here and for those who have left. Already a Christmas

Concert is in preparation and Carol Singers practicing. Now next week we shall be thinking of how to provide against Christmas Services and other annual events. It is a time to be remembered, and I think all those who have left, take a special impression of Christmas with them, and the certain knowledge that God in His Love gave Jesus to be born into this world

to SAVE us from our sins. Praise Him.

The photo on the right is of our daughter Elizabeth and some of the children during the 2007 Christmas time.

This week we have seen two of our children leave us. One was a 13 year old boy called Peter, who had been part of the Jacaranda Family since 2004. He had been picked up on the streets and taken to the Eldoret Rescue Centre. He was supposed to be an orphan and destitute. However the truth was that he had run away from his home three times. Recently his real birth mother had come to visit, looking for Peter. They had a very emotional meeting, and the upshot has been that they have joyfully been repatriated. Peter's mother has a Stall in Eldoret Market, and is a very pleasant and motherly lady. It was very evident that both she and peter were VERY glad to have found each other again.

The other was a girl of 13, Faith, who had been in Tyndale Cottage Family also since 2004. This was a very different case since she had come into the Homes by deceit. The grandmother had come imploring help since her daughter had died leaving a family of three, and she herself was dying. leave us.

The truth was the mother of the children was alive and well, and the plan was just made in order to find a way to get the children a place in Testimony School. Over the last year an 'aunt' had been visiting always giving Faith money or clothing before leaving. Then this year Faith has gone missing only to be found staying with this 'aunt' who now has been proved to be Faith's birth mother. Both cases were taken to the Children's Office, and after verification both cases were dealt with. Peter, as I explained, was allowed to return to live with his Mother, and Faith was also returned to her mother (she is quite financially able to care for her).

NOT EASY for us when this happens, but on the other hand we are not here to care for children who have viable home and family.

On Wednesday I attended a by-monthly meeting of the Eldoret Court Users Committee, which is an opportunity for the Magistrature to meet with heads of District Departments and others that use the Courts. I was there as a Member of the Probation & Community Service Case Committees. Always a good and constructive time, and keeps us in touch with a great deal that is going on within the Municipal and County Administrations.

Gordon and Joyce Lovering left us for Nairobi on the way to UK on Thursday. We had a lovely time with them both.

Everyone is well including Daryl and all our houseparents and the children. The RAINS? Well up to yesterday the rain continued to pour down heavily upon us, and temperature remained COLD as ice! Today the sun is shining - but still cold. Has the rain GONE? I'll tell you next week. God bless you all.

John and Esther