SCRATCHING THE SURFACE?

FOUR MORE BOYS JOIN US.  Dennis Kogo 9, and brother Kelvin 8, AND Samuel Mainia 9 and brother Ben 11.     All four are totally parent less and have been living in desperate circumstances.
Dennis and Kelvin will become part of the Jacaranda Cottage family, and Samuel and Ben will be calling Testimony House, home from now on
Dennis and Kelvin have missed a lot of schooling and are quite behind for their age.    We will need to help them on and will appreciate prayer for them that they may be quick to grasp language as a priority - neither speak English or Swahili well.
Ben and Samuel have been to school and will join their appropriate classes.    They should do well.
All four need prayer that they may not only settle in their respective new homes, but that they may also use the security and sudden sense of well-being well and seriously.

We always rejoice to see new faces, lit up with a quiet joy.   Turnover in any Children's Home is slow.    Not many come in to stay during any one year    Our average is about EIGHT only in any one year.     It may go up to as many as 12, but not often.     When the National need for places is well over the two million mark, our own contribution seems just like scratching the surface of a problem too deep by far.        BUT I have heard some say it is 'not numbers that matter' but the quality of life.   Guess that goes for churches too!     Well the Lord has sustained us, and although we HAVE increased  over the years we have not done so hugely.    We ARE still a very small ministry.      And perhaps it is true that the REAL reason for us being here at all, has not been SO much to help a multitude, but rather that in helping just a few we have been able to point out objectively that GOD is there - and that He HEARS when we speak to Him, and WILL answer us and interact with us.      THIS is our basic and REAL testimony, and our REASON for being and DOING.         And, although we are small in the scheme of things, yet we and YOU together are involved and interconnected with us in this activity.         One small stone dropped into a pond generates many ripples affecting the shore and the world at large.

MIRIAM & JOSHUA Mbithi are hoping to visit friends and supporters of themselves and their ministry, (NEEMA Children's Home), in the UK in the near future.      They hope to receive their Visas next week.   It is now many years since they were last in England - and at that time they visited on behalf of us all here.    THIS TIME the Lord has provided for them to come, still as our friends and 'family', but ALSO more specifically to share what the Lord has done and continues to do  since He led them on in their own Calling and Vocation.  It is a testimony needing to be heard, and we truly hope they will have opportunity to visit many of our own friends as they spend this few months amongst you all.      Their work is only a few kilometres away from us and although Neema is a quite individual Vision and Work to ours I think both parties would say that we remain very much 'Workers Together' for the Lord and for the children of Kenya.       Hopefully both they and ourselves may be travelling to Australia together later in the year for a three week visit to Tyndale Christian School.

LAST WEEK'S Blog was delayed in being published.     Our Server just seemed to crash, and we were left in the dark over the week-end until on Monday we were advised that 'our main cable was cut in the high seas of the coast of Kenya.'   Today we were told that a tanker had dropped her ANCHOR and that it scored a direct hit on the communication cable in question!!     Sounds almost stranger than fiction - it still MIGHT BE fiction.    One can never tell these days.    But at least we are once more connected and able to be in touch.      One thing came home to us very clearly, and that is how more and more dependant the world is becoming on technology, and how very fast total chaos and paralysis can disrupt our civilisation's communication and general utilities.         I think, if I could choose, that I would prefer to still be in the 40/50s - still delighting in the use of a fountain pen and notepaper; still able to type without electricity.
Still forced to read more for pleasure as well as information.     Still able to converse with others in a regular language instead of devalued and often corrupted one.     Still able to expect justice and discipline in a relatively just and disciplined society.      To me NOW this is more and more an 'alien' world, and as I LOOK into the hopes and dreams of the future I fear that the world I was born into will not even be remembered or even understood.   A fast and furious world.
This week the High School National Examination Results came out.     We were placed 84th Private School in the Republic.    An overall mean score of C+  -  Definitely the best result yet, but still with a long way to go.     BUT our teachers and students seemed to think we had come first, and the whole place erupted into such pan demonic NOISE that I was convince a riot was taking place as the uproar continued more and more, and had to go and investigate.   'Just high spirits' I was assured, and the usual peace was restored.       What will happen if we should by God's Grace ever become FIRST!!     THIS world is SO emotional, SO excitable, so easily HYPED into uncontrollable hysteria. .........

We have been taking for granted that the information and news that we send out via the Blog will somehow get to everyone we know - forgetting in our haste that 50% of our friends have no Internet, and often no E-mail either..      They are in many ways very fortunate, but WE have been guilty of forgetting to take them into account.     So in the next week or so we shall be resuming the sending of Newsletters to them by Airmail post.     In the past we have always done this from right here, but in the future we may have to find a way of circulating friends from within Europe.      As from yesterday our postal costs rise by 100% from 55 to 100 shillings per letter      This is becoming too expensive for regular usage.      Understandable though since more and more have gone to electronic mail ......    Increase the stamp charges or go bust!  --- but of course they will not only go BUST in any case, but will eventually become EXTINCT.    Maybe all will become unable to hold a pen or remember what a stamp looked like!     A world ravenous for change, heedless of its past, and thoughtless for its future.     A BRAVE NEW WORLD?      Or one that must be stopped in its tracks by the very POWER that made it?       Keep AWAKE and Watching, and most of all hold yourselves READY an even GREATER change.

We love you all, and walk with you all in our thoughts and prayers as always.

John and Esther