A HOME FROM HOME?

John Green and kids -1973

THIS IS HOW TESTIMONY HOUSE looked when Esther and I moved in on Boxing Day 1972. We had 28 children with us, children that had been slowly added to my family over a period of three years. This family continued to grow until it numbered 45 souls in all  - before we added Jacaranda Cottage in 1975.     Esther and I were to spend the next 26 years of our lives being Mum and Dad to this very assorted family of boys and girls with ages ranging from 0 to mid twenties! In all those years only ONE relative of one of our many children arrived to seek for his family member. After a period of getting to know each other once more, and all parties satisfied, the children were duly restored to their family via the Juvenile Court. There were three in the family, two boys and a girl. The parents had died, but the father's brother seemed more than keen and able to care for them - and after all blood is thicker than water isn't it?  . Initially all things went well, but eventually were to deteriorate. Both boys suffered, and one tried to hang himself in his primary school field. The girl became 'used' as a servant to her new found relatives, and dropping out of school drifted into prostitution. The experience WARNED us very seriously not to just accept the validity of a Proverb, or to follow the progressive sociological feeling that children need to be with their family.   They would have done much better to have remained with us.

OUR idea, when we began, was to make OUR own personal home, a home for children who were home-less and parent-less.    Testimony House was just one BIG family - not always 'happy', since 40 odd souls living together have to have moments when all is not as each one might desire.  BUT for the most part it was and continues to be a Family.

Children came to us then, as they still do today, from various family backgrounds and failure.   Children whose parents had died, and no other family member offering to care for them;  abandoned children - babes in arms, and other older ones;  run-aways from abuse and cruelty.   Children who had suffered all kinds of trauma, and who had learned to steal, lie, and indulge in drugs.   A mixed bag.      We hung on to most of them through thick and thin till they could finally finish their schooling and get a job.     We fought to make a home, a secure base, a dependable refuge for all.

When children were committed to our care by the Courts in those days, they were usually Committed until they attained the age of 18.     This was to ensure that we could safely look into the future and plan in the best interest of the child.     It also safeguarded the child from suddenly being 'discovered' by a relative on the make - suddenly wanting to take advantage of a child previously wilfully forgotten, abandoned or rejected.

THUS children soon began to settle down with us and to accept our home and family as their own.   This was of great psychological benefit to them.

A group of our girls including Lizzy on right - 1987

TODAY the sociologists in the Government are telling us that things must change.    Blood IS thicker than water, they say, and thus children must NOT be separated from it.     Indeed the whole aim must now be to reunite children with their roots and culture.     In order to achieve this no stone must be left unturned in an effort to discover any family member than can provide a home for any one child.    THUS, from now on, NO CHILD will be Committed to a Children's Home or other persons for longer than THREE years, in order that each child's 'placement' can be re-examined regularly to allow opportunity to update the best deal for the child.      Remembering OUR related experience, shared above, where the Authorities and ourselves both felt it 'best for the child' to allow a long lost relative to assume responsibility, we now wonder how many more mistakes will be made in the future.      ADDITIONALLY we wonder how any child  (being taught that it should continue to hope for such 'rescue' from an institution, and for 'repatriation' with its 'loved ones'), will  feel either happy or secure whilst enduring such an unsettled and uncertain temporary situation.       Children's Homes will no longer have the opportunity to BE a home, but will assume the designation of a RECEPTION CENTRE - a Half-way House...........(EVEN if the children never actually leave!)     Immediately, from just this ONE change in the Law, we see a very great stumbling block put in our way.     At best, in the future, we may only hope to be a 'temporary' home and family to a child on the run.        This is not just coming from Kenya Government but from the United Nations; it is policy that affects the world at large.      No doubt we shall learn to ADJUST to what must come, but we regret what will be an undoubted LOSS in the sense of 'belonging' that will now result in a child encouraged to always be looking away and beyond the Home.      

LOOKING back we are nevertheless encouraged to remember the years gone by, and the hundreds of children that have come and gone.    A myriad of faces and personalities that we have known and loved, been worried about, sometimes disappointed in during their stay with us.    YET today we see young men and women who have managed to survive the world outside, and become relatively happy and successful.  So many also now married with home and family of their own.    SO GLAD that SO MANY still keep in touch with us, and with those other 'Mums and Dads' of the Families they have been part of within TFH - Jacaranda, Drakeley, and Tyndale Cottages as well as Testimony House..       No matter what will happen we can find assurance that what we were led to augment in 1969, had good reason and purpose behind it, and most of all has profited hundreds of lives; hopefully continuously spreading Christian concepts of family life in our society.      Thank  you LORD!       And again THANK YOU ALL for standing with us.

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THIS WEEK has passed quickly and well.      Truly beautiful weather with cloudless skies, sunshine and warmth.       We have to be more than thankful that we live on the edge of Town still, and that although we are slowly being urbanised on all sides, we are still away from the noise and dust of the town centre.   We have relative peace and calm, and a fresh, untainted atmosphere to breath and enjoy.      Yes, perhaps it does get a little too hot in the afternoons, and the grass is beginning to show signs of turning brown.   This IS the DRY season - and in a way it is somehow comforting to recognise a Season, and to feel glad in it.   BUT I have just noticed a big black and white CROW perching on a standing water tap on the lawn outside - he is a canny bird; bending his head and beak to seek a drop of water from the tightly turned off tap.........     sometimes it does yield just a wee drop, and no doubt this bird has been lucky before    I think I must consider providing a Bird Bath or something.......

Esther has been enduring her sore throat and rather heavy head cold through the week.    Today it is much better and she had a better night, undisturbed by cough and volcanic sneezes!       Poor dear has sneezed and blown her nose epidemically over the last ten days.    Good to see her relieved today, and able to speak normally and laugh a little.   God is good.    

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WE ARE NINE DAYS away from our National Elections, the first since 2007.     The first since the New Constitution was approved and initiated.   The first since the Country has been deprived of its old Provincial Administrative set up, and divided up into Counties.  Big Administrative and political changes.   We stand poised at the edge of a NEW KENYA........yes, and we hope it will be a peaceful, and profitable change that will bless the whole Nation.     Please pray for us.       There is no outward sign of unrest in this part of the Country, but we are told that there will be no transportation of goods from Nairobi to Eldoret as from Monday until the week after the Election.     Stocks will no doubt run low, and we shall have to give some thought to how we will plan for the next two to three weeks.

The Government has recommended School Closure as from Thursday next week for two weeks.    We may close for a few days longer since we do not want to OPEN on a Thursday.       SO the children will all be home again for a slightly longer half term holiday.       We hope to make it enjoyable.    The YEAR seems to be RUSHING by even faster than the last!  - bit like the last of the bathwater going down the plug-hole.

 Our Love to you all.    We live day by day, a day at a time, and we know that HE walks with everyone that has trusted in His Name and who have put their hand in His.     Be confident!   Be CALM.

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol