FEAR NOT LITTLE CHILDREN - I AM WITH YOU.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!!   This week our local RED CROSS Branch offered to give two pairs of canvas shoes to each of our kids.    VERY appropriate, since shoes ARE quite expensive and have to be replaced quite regularly.     Not especially attractive as shoes go, but they will after all keep 140 pairs of feet free from dust, earth, stones and even worms!    ALL Gifts gratefully received, and the more so when they are right out of the blue, so to speak
Where were the shoes manufactured?
CHINA of course!

The PHOTO shows just  under half of our children as they came to collect their their shoes outside the Office.  They were, of course, quite delighted by this unexpected gift..      Another 'small' miracle from the Lord our God who hears our prayers and answers them in the most surprising and unexpected ways.   THANK you Lord God, and thank you Red Cross, and thank you China too.    Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
We are always amazed that we are able to clothe the children - not perhaps very luxuriously, but at least basically - with what they need.       Since the mid 80s we have not been able to import used clothes, and with finance also reducing over the same period, funds have not been predictable enough to really budget properly - but as it is written in Deuteronomy 8v1- as far as you might be led to read - even in a desert GOD is able to provide what we need relative to food and clothing, so that we might learn to believe and trust in Him alone for our life.    The TRUTH of this does not, has not, and never will change.  
OF COURSE you might think, from the photo, that we always have something for everyone each time a need is supplied.     But no, when the potatoes and cabbage are bought each day - although they too are a miracle of God's provision, we do not give a potato or a cabbage into each child's hands and take a photo! It is only when something 'special' that highlights God's love and care that we get to notice it in a more particular way.       Grace is said at EVERY meal, and all the children KNOW it is not just THERE;  it has come because The Father in Heaven has heard and answered all our prayers and found ways and means to put it on our table.    They are - with a few exceptions - thankful for that.     AND when EVERYONE finds themselves with NEW shoes - why, THAT is an exceptional surprise that stirs real excitement.

THIS WEEK the weather has seen a reduction in rainfall, but it is still quite cool despite clear blue skies, and today we have very blustery, windy conditions.    The Water will soon be pouring into the new Pool - maybe even later today.    Everyone very excited about it.  But will it ever be warm enough again to actually SWIM ?

Most of our staff and some School children are attending a funeral today.     A previous Headmaster of our High School passed away this week aged 65.    Zacariah Mbatia was a BIG man, with a very big heart.  He was both loved and feared by his students since he had eyes that could bore right into you, and a voice that might have broken boulders.     A good disciplinarian, but with Christian character and spirit that wooed all that came to know him.   Retired a few years back now with a bad heart condition, he has endured illness for some time.    Many will miss him.
In the early 70s he and I would often be ministering at the same Christian Meetings in local schools.  Always seeking out the lost he was well known amongst all his brethren no matter what denomination.   A Brother indeed.

The Conversion of part of the UG County Social Hall in Eldoret into a short term Detention and Rehab Centre for Street Children is going ahead, and we hope that within the next fortnight it might be in  use and able to see up to a hundred youngsters 15 years and under begin their three month stint on the way - we hope - to a new and better future.     The police have continued to pick up groups of up to 25 almost every day (yes EVERY day!) and they are holed up in two Remand facilities, terribly overcrowded and uncomfortable.
Continue to pray for this operation in our Town of Eldoret.   Pray also for me, and those who assist and stand with me on the Task Force, that we might act with wisdom and good sense as we push forward in our endeavours.

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FOR A CHANGE I have managed to indulge myself a little and find time to watch two films!   Hope I am not backsliding!       Esther has been watching back numbers of 'The Little House on the Prairie' which she remembers from years gone by........so I - well I decided to find a few films I had missed.   

The FIRST one I looked at was Brother Sun and Sister Moon, a 1972 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli depicting the life of Francis of Assisi.     I must say I was quite entranced by it; the simplicity of the presentation as a whole; the wonderful and beautiful photography, and the MUSIC played and sung by Donovan.     For me it is a truly great film.       The young man who took the part of Francis amazingly never made another film, but married, became an accountant, and produced a stable family.      This is a film that can bless you, provided you are not looking for the FAST and the FURIOUS content of the modern productions for the screen.       A beautiful, thoughtful and satisfying film.

St. Francis is quite an interesting personage in the Christian world,  and in watching this film I was reminded of a another that I came across when I was just a kid after reading the book, 'The Small Miracle' by Paul Gallico.     Another good story for children.   A small boy in Rome has a donkey which becomes very ill.   Desperate to help her, the boy approaches a priest and begs him to help him to find a way to get the donkey into the place where St. Francis was buried to be prayed for.     It is the story of how it all happened.   Don't think that in being Catholic inspired these films

might offend your faith or spirit.    They won't - I am sure they have both been inspired by the very real Spirit of God.

The SECOND was a film made in 1992 from the book by E.M. Forster - 'HOWARD'S END', written in 1910 about class relationships of that day.     A strange story, but beautifully presented, photographed and acted.

Very SLOW and DULL unless you are interested in period studies, and unless you are interested also in people.     It is not in the least 'spiritual' in the religious sense.    Rather secular and worldly though not offensively.     I enjoyed it and I found it interesting and thought provoking in many ways.     I first read the book when I was a teenager, and found it, even then in the late 50s, quite fascinating.

All for this week.     I am still pursuing after the GRACE of God; that spirit of undeserved kindness and loving mercy with which God bears ME.      Since beginning (yes I must be honest and say I am only JUST in truth beginning) to do this I have been faced with how challenging it is -  to love others as I love myself, AND as HE loves me!       Not easy, but I am not going to give up.      I have started late, and I may not have much time really left compared to the years that have gone by me, and thus I am determined to make what I can of what is left to me.

God Bless and be with you through the week ahead.    We remember you all with love and thanksgiving.

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol.