HOME AND AWAY?

WELL TODAY I definitely do not feel as if I am on a 'Picnic'.     DOWN in the woods - or is it the 'dumps' today, and no other 'bears' in sight - ALL ALONE.......my wife has GONE and departed 400 kilometres AWAY and left me all alone!     It has not happened often, but each time it has I know how lonely I am without her.     So strange don't you think?  And she will be back, God Willing, on Sunday!!

And sometimes,s even when she is with me these days I feel STILL alone, just because she is on the phone, or spending time in some other corner of the compound talking to others.     I must be entering into my second childhood........BUT I am jealous for her company always.    Am I being over 'romantic' or 'Idyllic'?    No - it is just that I have got 'used to her face'.   I know her 'step', her voice, her laugh, from far.    She fills up my life, and completes it.    Recently I read that a man alone is like a 'vase without flowers'.     And yes I can identify with this for I do today feel empty and unattractive without her who is my one true earthly companion.     Without her around to tell me she loves me, to chide me and even encourage me I feel definitely 'down in the WOODS' alone and rather futile.       When we are together she is my sounding board, a stamp of confirmation that I am right or wrong  -  my critique and my commentary.     But when I am alone in the woods my words and thoughts remain unheard by her and fall unnoticed, quickly swallowed by an enormous silence.
I am speaking as if I am ALONE WITHOUT GOD, but of course this is not so - I KNOW God is with me always - BUT there ARE times when HE is silent, then I am the MORE alone, and King David knew this and often cried out to God, saying -

'..be not silent to me:

lest if thou be silent to me, 

                 I become like them that go down into the pit. - Psalm 28v1

Castaways, separated, cut off!    He hated to be in that condition and situation, because he KNEW  how different it was when God was WITH him, close to him, in communion and in love.   YET there are times we DO 'feel' His 'silence' and wear it like a garment of discomfort and neglect.

She has just rung me up - she will ring again later.     I cannot phone her since my phone is dead to outgoing calls since last week.    I can only receive calls.    Bit like that with FATHER this week as well - Quite a lot going out but nothing coming back in.......but HE is still there and thinking of me, just as SHE, by little Esther, is there too.     Sunday will soon be here.

WHAT AM I DOING crooning over wives and women?     Surely not in character with my usual stance against - for example - women in the church -  the dominance (over men) of women in general.     I am one of the LAITY that cannot agree with women bishops, even pastors - as a rule.
YET I began this Blog today insisting that men are ALONE without them.........What would my wife say about that..........I think (as a woman who has in the past taught high school and headed a Primary School) she would at least be tempted to believe she could pastor a church.......but she also feels that this would not be God's will for her.       At least, if nothing else, for the sake of the 'angels' and the 'powers' above!

THE LATEST GOVERNMENT APPOINTED  Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby (left) has just 'INSISTED that women will eventually be ordained as bishops despite the Church (the laity) being against it.'    I find this very interesting.      I personally feel it WILL happen, and I do not see the general climate changing that applauds the equality of women - lock, stock, and barrel  (body, soul, and spirit).       I think it is not necessarily RIGHT.      Basically the doctrine of our 21st Century is that there must be NO DIFFERENCE between the sexes - and already this has opened the door to same sex (homosexual and lesbian) 'marriage'  -   a variation of 'marriage' or human union, that was never purposely contemplated by GOD.     It is unnatural, and I believe that this alone should alert men and women everywhere in taking care just how equal they should be.
C.S.LEWIS, the well known Christian writer and theologian writing in 1948 was of the opinion that if ever the Church of the England (the Anglican Church) allowed women to be ordained priests it would split it asunder - but they have managed to do so without a 'split' so far.    LEWIS did not consider that 'equality' of the sexes necessarily implied interchangeability, and he spoke and wrote as a Christian from a Christ centred perspective.      He also touched on the impropriety of women acting as priests on the basis that God did not send His 'daughter' but His SON to die on the cross, and that this needed to be appreciated and demonstrated clearly in the Church which is the Bride of Christ!!.       Arguments not expected to cut much ice with non committed Christians, but surely ones that still ought to be considered seriously by those that are.
The Church worldwide is on a slippery slope downwards.      The Foundations are shaking.   If Christ does not come there may soon be NO Church.  NO TRUTH either.   NO respect for Man or Woman, but instead only a devalued appreciation of both together with an intrinsic LOSS in our idea of humanity as a whole.

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AND HERE IS MY ESTHER, with our Little daughter of 23 years, Helen at her Graduation yesterday in Nairobi.     She now has her DIPLOMA in Early Childhood Development which we trust will open the door to a good post as a Nursery School Teacher.    She did not know Esther would attend the function, so I guess she got a surprise.    Esther looks a little travel worn - they left here at 5a.m. to travel up to Nairobi in time for the Graduation at about 10am.      Daryl drove the VOXY up with Esther, two of Helen's friends from the homes, and also Jesse and Jeremy, Daryl's two sons.

Quite a posse.    Carol was left behind to finish up on her Vocational Bible School week for the children from the Homes and locality.   Final Day Will be tomorrow.

The new School building is almost finished, and the Swimming Pool is being excavated as I type.   Almost three quarters of it has been done already in about a day.   Will send up to date photos next week.     Should also be admitting three more children on Monday as well.

Locally Esther and I, and Daryl and Carol, all share in a Missionary Fellowship from the locality which meets weekly in each others houses.     We are a fraternity of about 30 from many nations - mainly American.    Thus on the 22nd we all came together for the USA Thanksgiving, and shared a meal together.     There must have been more than 80 present!!      Actually I did not attend this year as our Secondary Form 4 Examination Class were having their Farewell, and I always attend it.    This year it was later than usual and coincided with Thanksgiving.      It was a good time, and we were proud of these students, some of whom had been with us in the School from Nursery - almost 14 years.     Now they will wait for their Results in February next year and hopefully find a place in College or University.     Wow.

God Bless you all.    Time is moving fast.    Soon be Christmas!!      

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER?    Yes!  Very much so though, in fact, Baby Hellen is not one of our very own children, but the youngest of our adopted ones.
One would never know, since the ties that bind, and have bound almost from birth, are deeply founded in a Mother's loving heart.
Helen came to us in June 1990.  She was then eight  months old, having been born two months premature and immediately deserted by her birth mother at the hospital.   At the time of her birth she was thought to be dead, and was on her way to a disposal unit in a tiny kidney dish when the nurse noticed movement.
She immediately changed direction and headed for the Intensive Care Unit.    Surely that day, God looked down and saw her in her blood, and said LIVE!    (Ezekiel 16v4-6.)    BUT she had to fight to live, and even as she grew we could see that her 'beginnings' had affected her.   She was very insecure and introspective.    She was not very talkative, and easily dispirited.    ESTHER took her under her wing, and over the years the two drew closely together, in so much that Hellen obviously saw in Esther the Mother she had lost.     We decided to adopt her, and to give her a name (we had no note of her real name which had been denied to her.)      She is now 23 and will graduate this month with a Diploma in Early Child Development.  I personally am very fond of her indeed.  She adores little children, and being short and cuddly herself,  is quickly trusted and loved by all she meets.      She has studied in Nairobi for two years, and this month has been with us for a week's holiday prior to Graduating.       We celebrated her 23rd Birthday at the same time.  
She will return to College briefly on Sunday (tomorrow).      She already has employment in Nairobi as a Nursery Teacher, and will no doubt continue.     But here will always be home, and no doubt we shall see a lot of her whenever she is free.    In the small photo opposite Hellen (right) is with her long time friend Betty who is part of the current Testimony House Family, and is studying Accounts in College.   Betty and her four brothers have lived together in Testimony since their Dad passed on in 1998.   All of them grew up to follow Accounts, and all of them continue to do so.     There father was already widowed when he passed away, and unprecidently Willed his five children into our care, being fearful that on his death they would be disposessed of their rights and left to die!!!    It turned our very much an act of wisdom.

LAST WEEK, Daryl was told by the Deputy Director of the Kenya National Council of Children's Services that by 2030 all Children's Homes will have been closed down due to a lack of need.   (Of course we have heard this before - the last time it was going to be 2020). It seems the Government is still persuing a dream of seeing ALL orphans fostered out or adopted by that date.   It is not all Kenya's fault that such a policy is in vogue - the United Nations, and even 1st World Countries have been advising and even forcibly dictating such a course.       However, we ourselves, together with others have seen no positive evidence that such a dream will or can happen - not by 2030 at least.    The ecomony of the Country is still declining, and the numbers of children on the streets, and without shelter also increases.
Current figures put only 525,000 children out of more than 2.8 million who are in fact being so far fostered by Government funded schemes.     The CASH inducement has been some Ksh.1,500/- per month to any one family taking in ONE orphan or destitute child!!      The given 'Responability' of this family is stated as including -

• That children from 0 - 5 are taken for immunization and growth monitoring
• That children from 6 - 17 regularly attend basic education.
• That all children in their care obtain Birth Certificates.
• That all Family Carers should attend 'Awareness Sessions'.

NOWHERE is it suggested that these children should be affectionately loved or seen as legitimate members of the Carer's blood family.

These 'rumblings' of change which have been increasingly heard over the last five years remain rumblings, but none the less we must expect the 'quake' to engulf us in the end.      The 'STIGMA' of  a Nation being referred to as part of the 3rd World is increasingly becoming unnacceptible, and there is a progressive move to hurry the process of being promoted to 1st World Status!!       In the Business News of the Daily Nation this week there as an Article headlined  'AFRICA MAY ATTAIN FIRST  WORLD STATUS BY  2048'   -  'THE CONTINENT MAY skip SOME DEVELOPMENT STAGES TO BECOME AN ECONOMIC ENGINE IN A DECADE, SAYS STUDY!.     One Mr. Charles Robertson, author of a book entitled 'The Fastest Billion - The Story Behind Africa's Economic Revolution' is reported as saying (in this article) -

Charles Robertson

'The Continent has the unique advantage of 'leapfrogging' through 

various stages of economic development,

which the more developed western states had to go through

in growing their economies.

THIS is in  continent where only a few years ago everyone thought it was

too poor for people to have mobile phones!

Whatever has happened in the technicological world

is enough proof that Africa will skip several stages

and become an economic engine;

competing with countries like Germany, and the U.S.A. by 2048

Of course their ought to be growth - but FORCED growth can be dangerous.    We used to 'force' Rhubarb in our English gardens by putting the plants under glass to increase sunlight and warmth.   And the plants DID grow - and grow FAST - but for some reason the Rhubarb never tasted as good as that grown at its own speed, grappling with normal weather.        I think there may well be a 'law' at work in this.   Thus likewise it may not be good to take short cuts to induce GROWTH.       More haste can mean LESS speed, and the old Proverb 'Hurry SLOWLY' may in the end have the greatest wisdom of all.     I don't say this because I do not believe in the Third World being able to draw level with the First, but I am not convinced that to force the pace of getting there will, in the end, produce the same equality.        

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John & Moray

THIS WEEK we have been visited by DAVID ISGROVE   of  Riverside Church in Birmingham.   He came with a team of young people from UK and Kenya, and we were able to have very good and enjoyable fellowship with them for about an HOUR!       Then, for TWO days we enjoyed the visit of Rev. MORAY THOMAS, Vicar of St. Lukes. Grayshott.       St. Lukes has been in touch with us for MANY years, supporting us with prayer and material help as the Spirit has led them.    Moray had been visiting friends in Southern Sudan, and thought to also spend a little time with us on the way home.    We are very glad and happy that he did as it made it possible for him to at least prove we are here, and to take back a more real and personal view of TFH to the saints that make up the congregation of St Lukes.      We hope he will be able to visit again for longer.    

Nothing more to talk about really, this week.    The children seem VERY happy to be out of school, and the weather has been reasonably good to them with only a few heavy showers to interrupt good periods of sunshine and warmth.      One of the senior boys in Jacaranda Cottage finally Graduated yesterday from his University with a Lower 2nd Batchelor's Degree in Commerce.    Now we have to help him find a job.   His Houseparent, Joseph Rop was there to see him Graduate.      This was Peter Wangila, and both he and Bethuel Kiplagat from Testimony House are now leaving the Homes to set up independant lives - still part of their families here, but no longer resident.  
LAST Saturday I had woken up with a dull kind of intermittant ACHE in my right breast area.   It got worse and I had to see the Doc on Monday and Tuesday - did I have a lump anywhere ?   Had I lifted anything too heavy for me..?   But nothing to be seen, felt or found!    Heart good and strong.   Lungs healthy.    Just a MUSCLE that had reacted to something.......all very vague.     Very painful on Wednesday, but it slowly has eased and almost completely gone away now!      The Enemy is full of endless tricks to stop us in our tracks, and to somehow divert our attention.      Thank God we do not walk alone.    Thank God we have One who in times of sudden fright will squeeze our hand, and reassure us and tell us not to fear.    Hallelujah!

Our Love again to you all.      Have a peace filled WEEK with Joy and revelation.

John and Esther  & Daryl and Carol
                     Green

ALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

OLD MOTHER AND FATHER GREEN seen here once more with a group of their dear and beloved children - a jumble of family members from all four 'homes'.        We recently received financial help from friends in UK, but these were all eaten up on arrival paying Bills!    So we still WERE waiting on the Lord just an hour before this huge donation of FOOD arrived!     Have we been going through a time of stringency?   Yes, in fact we often do so!
My own first ten years on earth were very stringent times, and I remember my mother had two rhymes she was fond of quoting to underline such times to me.     One was 'Old Mother Hubbard'.....

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the cupboard

to get her poor dog a bone.

when she came there

the cupboard was bare

and so the poor dog had none

It  conjured up to my child's eye a house totally devoid of every comfort, bare and emptied of its contents in order to pay the Rent!   Scary!

The other was perhaps even worse since with the picture of poverty and the anxiety, and worry attending it, came a harassed and irritable grandmotherly figure unable to love or comfort.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe!

She had so many children she didn't know what to do!

She gave them some brother without any bread;

then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

THE BLACK AND WHITE OF IT ALL!

President Obama and Governor Romney

TWO HUMAN BEINGS contending to be President of the United States of America.    Both intent on being seen as the best man regardless, of course, of their colour.    Both ready to put the other in a more inauspicious light than themselves, and both more than encouraged to do so by the rest of mankind.    Why is it that we so love to tear one another to bits in order to promote ourselves or our own opinion?     Man so rarely shows respect to Man.     In fact I think in the last 50 years there has been a generally universal effort to debunk, dismantle and altogether destroy the reputations of other man and women who previously have been admired, looked up to, and honoured; it has become the fashion to discover the faults of every man and to then show none to be trusted, or to be beyond any moral failure or sin.  
Of course GOD has told us that mankind have ALL gone astray and followed their own way;  ALL have sinned - all ARE sinners.    There is NONE that doeth good, no not ONE!!     A terrible condemnation and pronouncement.     BUT in the past we have held one or two, here and there, to have struggled enough in their lives to have achieved something humanly praiseworthy; something brave and courageous; something honourable and true, something beautiful and humane.     But now we delight in giving in to criticism, even hatred and bitterness  
NEITHER of these two men claim a lot for themselves spiritually, and both hold views that many 'god fearing' folk consider anathema; godless - whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or whatever.     There is therefore every excuse for an observer to speak his mind about them, perhaps even to condemn them ....
BUT PAUL writes in Galatians 5v15

'But if you bite and devour one another,

take care that you be not consumed one of another'

This advice is not only to be taken by 'Christians' but indeed by ALL mankind.    We are members one of another humanly.      We should be looking out for each other, caring for one another, willing to help each other from fault and error out of respect and love for each other.       All war and strife come from jealousies and hatreds stirred up by pride and vindictiveness.    Such attitudes find their origin in the flesh.  In the Old Man of the Flesh.          

Should such an attitude be allowed to hold sway in the thought and speech of a Christian;  one whose Lord and Master encourages us to love one another?   Of course we ARE all different, and will vary in the way we see things  and  express ourselves, but should we fuel of our opinions with bitterness and anger?  I must HONOUR ALL men/women.        PAUL in Romans 12v10 .... (Amplified bible) writes -

Love one another as members of one family;

giving precedence and showing honour to one another...

NATIONAL ELECTIONS in any Nation, always seem to bring out the worst in people as they jostle to take sides.     Everyone insisting on their viewpoint, not caring how vitriolic and UNLOVING their words may be about one made in the image of GOD!        Can I hear JESUS in their words; can I catch a glimpse even of the LOVE of God?      What and WHO do I demonstrate and represent when I give in to MY fallen and faulty judgement about another?

AND, when all is said and done, these two men are just sinners like me.     I cannot expect more from them than I expect from myself, and ALL of US who claim to have been cleansed from sin, STILL live with sin, in our flesh, and in fact continue at times to err and sin........NONE are perfect.     

These two men are both politicians playing a game with words for high stakes.     They may not hate each other as they hope their followers will.     They are out for votes any way they can - they are out to GET YOU stirred up about THEIR opponent enough NOT to vote in their favour but in their own.   Race, Religion and Politics are all there to be USED in this struggle for ultimate power - and it seems we are all in danger of being chewed up and spat out in the process, as they use themselves and the media to involve the electorate.   Brothers and Sisters refrain your tongue from evil - let GRACE be upon your lips.    Speak evil of NO MAN!   GOD knows who will govern, and he chooses who He will to provide for what is needed.   Good or BAD,  God will use a Leader to finally DO HIS WILL for the good of all.     

Lighten your hearts and Love your enemy and those that might offend you, praying for them, that they too may receive the Mercy of God as we ourselves have done.  

WHY have I written so much on this?    Because I listen to the words and watch the faces of my brethren in Christ when they speak of these frail men, their own countrymen and 'kind', and my heart fails me.    It IS so easy to forget Jesus is with us and IN us,  -   so easy to be ignorant of being WITHOUT His Spirit.   O Lord have mercy on me, on all of us, that we might pray for one another, for ourselves, that we might remember Who We are in CHRIST.

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THESE ARE PHOTOS of some of the children receiving this and that with joy, and thanksgiving.    We have rejoiced together to see the kindness of many of our Asian neighbours who have recently come to give food to us.      The last months have been often a severe trial to us all, yet moments of real joy and happiness.   I think our Father in Heaven knows that TOO MUCH is not always good for us; we can become too used to having it, and then forget to be thankful for it, or even to seek HIM who is our life for it.     We tend to live in the answer to this prayer found in Proverbs 30v8 -

'..........Give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with food convenient for me

lest I be full, and deny thee, and say Who is the Lord?

or lest I be poor and steal
 and take the name of my God in vain'

THIS week the Lord again provided through so many brothers and sisters via AENON, and we WERE waiting - and not just us but also the families of the many that spend their days here working and serving us and God.     Truly Testimony is a Refuge for so many, a source and provision of SO MUCH.   Thank you all.          

ALSO here is a photo of our latest, fast growing calf, a heifer.     She is different to the rest of our cows.  She eats a great deal MORE, but she is a lovely animal.      She was recently supplanted as the youngest addition to our 'herd' by a black white bull calf.      He will probably be sold of for meat later on.......

Milk flows out from out cows to all the school children in the school and to the Homes.    God has BLESSED

LASTLY a mention of the School NEW buildings that are still coming up.     The NEW BOARDING HOSTEL which we hope will open in January is almost finished now and ready to be painted and so on.    It will cater for 60 beds, and for those who have visited and know about us the building is situated at the lower end of our present Nursery School Block.     At the end of the Hostel where our Basketball Court is now situated the NEW SWIMMING POOL is to be built.   Work should start any day now, and expectations are that it will open in February.       The School is financing all these developments with the help both of the their bank, and parents, all of who have been very much behind this development.     The School has won great approval and praise over the years to the honour and praise of God.        Over the past year the School has been renting premises outside its own compound to accommodate Boarding students from out of town.      But now with its own Hostel within its own grounds a lot of expense will be avoided.        There is only ONE swimming pool in town bigger enough to provide our School with space enough to give opportunity for all our students to learn to swim.    By building its own the School will now provide the safest facility for itself and be able to make it pay by letting it out to other school and so on.     During the Holidays the Homes will be offered full free use.    We thank God for that.

BUT, there are time we feel jealous of all the grown of the School, whilst the Homes seem to be at a standstill, and often in need.       The numbers of needy children is not decreasing.    But the LORD knows and understand this problem, and we are confident that all is well and right for us.

TODAY is the first day of the School Holiday.     The School is virtually SHUT except for about 70 Primary Scholars and about 30 High Schoolers - all in the midst of the their FINAL EXAMINATIONS.   Now the fun begins - and also quite a lot of activities.      

Our hearts go out to you all, and our prayers never fail to reach the Heavenly Throne for you.

God Bless and keep you in His Love and Mercy

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol 

                       Green