THE STAFF OF BREAD!!

COW NUMBER FOUR in the foreground has now become quite at home and used to the three residents that preceded her.      MILK is still flowing  daily, and providing quite enough for everyone in the four Children's Homes.      The small paddock the four 'sisters' share is not quite so pleasant during the RAINS since it is a bit wet and muddy at times.
HOWEVER, we have found a way or letting them all out for a an hour or two into a set area, different each day, where they are now able to munch FRESH grass at last, instead of the winter HAY.  They very much enjoy that.    They all continue healthy and happy, and provide a great deal of joy and satisfaction to all of us - children AND adults.
And the GARDENS have also sprung back into abundant life once more, and are perhaps the least disturbed by daily RAINS - although the Cabbage and Kale are not  too happy when the rain comes down in marble sized hailstones that rip through their leaves;    We have had TWO very fierce and heavy 'stonings' from the sky during the last week, reinforced with torrential rain and 'huff and puff' winds.     Quite a lot of the Kale has had it's leaves perforated with holes, and blocked gutters and drains (because of the quantity and accumulation of hail stones) caused a lot of flooding - especially to Jacaranda Cottage which suddenly was invaded with water coming in from under the floor and even through the walls.    I would say this particular storm was the worst we have seen here for thirty years.        We always do have to put up with damage in the Rains - probably the long period of hot, dry weather and then the sudden onslaught of water and cold cause shrinkage and or even expansion in wood, tin, and joints finding out holes in the roofing especially where water will get in.
Ah well, the joys of living in the tropics are many and varied - and from what we read it is not much different to living in England - except that maybe the sun IS warmer when it shines.....!!!?
The CHICKENS continue to lay - that is of course the Layers.........and the broilers continue to grow and to be eaten at intervals.     The current batch have caught a cold due to the very sudden onset of cold and rain - rain which also found its way through roofing nail holes into their housing.    We have had to COVER the roofs this week with re-enforced plastic - just in time to avoid further flooding from the second storm of the week.     All warm and cosy again, but some have not weathered things  and have succumbed.       But general population remains buoyant and robust, and the eggs continue to be laid generously day by day.  

Last week I mentioned that we had commenced a pilot project Baking BREAD.      Well it has taken off and is going very well indeed.      For those of you that may be acquainted with Testimony House it may be interesting to know that it is in that House that the Bread is being made.      There is quite a large room which we have been using for all kinds of different purposes known here as the NEW ROOM, next to Testimony House kitchen, and it is there that the Bakery is being set up.    We have had to move the Laundry now to Jacaranda Cottage.       We have purchased two charcoal cookers that can take about 100 small loaves each, and also another contraption for inducing the dough to RISE before putting in the oven.      We can produce at present 200 loaves every 30 minutes!!!  We can supply Bread now for the School Breaks, as well as to the Homes, and we plan to go public and offer bread for sale to the locality.       Everyone is delighted with the outcome and say it is more delicious than any bread they have so far tasted - perhaps due to the milk and eggs we use in the mix.      Very much a self help effort.    But once more seems to have the Blessing of God on it.   Definitely cheaper than the local retail options.


We shall be Breaking Bread with it tomorrow morning in our Sunday Service.    We shall be thinking of the Bread that was broken for us those many years ago.    We shall be remembering that Staff of Life broken that we might be made whole and furnished with a NEW life and Strength to live it.  Yes JESUS is that Living Bread that comes down from Heaven so freely given and attainable.

WHY do we so often still spend money for that which is NOT bread, and work so hard for what does not satisfy us?      Come my brothers and sisters, turn again to JESUS, to the Living Word; turn again to the WORD of God, and let it be taken in, devoured and digested;  it will nourish, fatten, strength, and change us into His Likeness - from one degree of glory to another.    Isaiah 55v2 / 2.Corinthians 3v18 (in the Amplified Bible).     If we, the Children of God, are to 'be manifested' in this Time, then we need to get ourselves back to the Word of God  -   then perhaps we shall indeed shine as the sun, as He Who Is our Live dawns upon us truly!
THUS you will find a few photos of current activity in this area

Outside it is raining again.   Esther is getting ready to start preparing supper for this old man writing.  She says it will be chapati and stew - not bad for a COLD wet evening.     We shall enjoy it together and then settle down for the evening.        God Bless and be with you all.      We still need your prayers and trust that God will be with YOU in the week ahead.

John and Esther.