WHAT CAN WASH AWAY OUR SINS

THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN STREETS OF ELDORET THE DAY BEFORE EASTER!   Yes you are right, the people ARE washing the streets - with OMO.   Later the Fire engine came and rinsed them all ready for the expected visit of 'The Holy Spirit' and the prophet 'Elijah' all in the person of Kenya's man of the moment - God's Mighty PROPHET

OWOUR.      He is himself a 'very humble man' they say, and indeed he preaches 'Repentance' and 'Restoration' without even taking up an offering.    Over Easter he conducted an extensive Crusade within one of the Sports Fields of Eldoret, with more, perhaps, than two million people attending.      There were manifold 'healings' and one or two 'prophetic' utterances.   And then he was gone, the people receding with him, and the now unwashed streets already back to their dusty and littered appearance.       Prophet Owour, with his 'Pirates of the Carribean' grubby beard, is a growing phenomenon.   BUT is he truly a prophet?      Many are asking the question, and probing this man's ministry.    The surprise is in the numbers of people flocking to hear him, touch him, or just see him.   He is already called 'Lord',   Holy Spirit,   The Mighty Prophet of God.........However, although WE did see a little of him on TV on Saturday, we were in no way disturbed by him, and enjoyed our own Easter just as we had planned, and we were Blessed.    Jesus was among us, and we KNEW once more, beyond all doubt, that HE did rise from the grave, and LIVES in us.

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THIS LITTLE BABY is ABIGAIL, our adopted daughter Helen's child.  She will be just six weeks only on this coming Monday.   She is a Sweetie - but not a 'Tweetie-Pie' like her Mother.     She has a loud voice!    She also suffers from Colic, and only yesterday did she seem, for the first TIME, to enjoy some measure of peace.     Every waking hour until then she had yelled the house down, and kept US very much AWAKE!

BUT how could we not love this little bundle?    Just look at that face --- those screwed up eyes, that dumpy little nose, and those pouty lips - aren't they all just so wonderful, so full of promise......?   Well yes, perhaps, but I seem to see a glint of determined steel within those little eyes.     She will need it.

'Daddy' ran out on them both, and that is why she here with her granpa and granma.    Pray for Helen and Abigail.   No mistakes with a Birth - God is the Giver of Life, and He always gives with a Plan and Purpose in mind.   

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ON THURSDAY of this week a young man of 35, one Harrison Mumia, was reported in our Daily Nation newspaper as saying, among other things, that 

GOD does not solve any of our problems,

because He does not exist.

Harrison was brought up in a Christian family of Quaker persuasion.    One of his brothers is a Muslim!   Harrison works for the Central Bank of Kenya, and is currently President of 'Atheists in Kenya' with a membership of some 2000.      

I WAS SORRY TO READ ABOUT HIM.    Sorry also that the NATION gave an entire PAGE of their paper to Harrison's belief and testimony to godlessness.     Of course the Nation is not a Christian paper by any means, but it is owned by H.H. The Agha Khan, who is appointed to lead an Islamic sect, and one would expect his paper to at least uphold the 'idea' of God if nothing else      BUT who knows the mind of the Agha Khan?    Who knows ANYONE's mind in a real way - only God.    It is not for any of us to 'judge' another - but to forgive and to forbear, and to believe in God's ultimate Mercy and Grace toward them. It gave me pause, though, to come across two very different men, each propounding what I would consider erroneous views, in just a few days.     I could feel the bile begin to rise within me, to rebuke and judge them both.......YET these two did not need my wrath and condemnation, but instead they needed what I needed and need - the Mercy and Forgiveness of God procured for us all by Jesus Christ the Righteous.     Oh my, how VERY careful we all have to be in tune with what IS right -  As the Writer of Hebrews 12v15 says (Amplified Bible)  'Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look after one another, to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favour and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment, rancour bitterness, or hatred shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and many be come contaminated and defiled by it...'

Unlike HARRISON'S confession I have always been somehow conscious of spiritual realities around me.    I was NOT brought up to be a Christian or any thing else.    BUT I was from a very early age quite AWARE of Goodness and Malice, and indeed, of Good and EVIL, and I tended to see and FEEL it in a general sense until in 1957 I cried out to GOD to rescue me - and He did.    He very instantly drew me back for my untimely death.    I knew nothing about God or Jesus in any way perfectly.   I was not a church goer at the time.     BUT having once experienced God's intervention in my life, I have never looked back with doubt about His very real existence.     YES, God was there me, when I needed Him,

I only had to SEE and believe.     No priest helped me BEFORE I came to that knowledge.    

IN ALL THE YEARS SINCE, and in all the ministry of Testimony Faith Homes in which I have been involved for 44 years, I have discovered nothing to encourage me to change my mind, or even question to Truth in relation to the Existence of God, or in His Justice, His Mercy, or Compassion.    I was born into International Conflict in the 2nd World War, and I have lived ever since in a progressively war torn world, spurred on by selfish greed, pride and determination to dismantle all knowledge and respect for GOD.  I have known the horror, the hunger, the violence of this world - but have never needed to blame God for it, or question His attitude to it.     He Created the Universe, this Galaxy and Solar System, and He Created Man with a free will to SERVE Him.      If things have gone astray for man it is because HE preferred his one way to God's Way.     The result Man brought and does bring upon himself.   I have had to SEE many times over that GOD made MAN -  It is not Man who made or makes himself, any more than he made the Earth he stands upon, the Galaxy that Earth is part of, or even the Universe beyond.     GOD is THERE.    Indeed He is HERE!!!     MY Testimony today is that BECAUSE God IS there, EXISTING, He is able to, and DOES, solve all my problems.

What a privilege it is to be ALIVE, and to be alive NOW.     So many to share the Light with, so many to reach out to in love and grace as the Darkness deepens.     Well my light might be small in contrast to the overwhelming depth of the Darkness, but little though it may be,  I'M GOING TO LET IT SHINE, AND SHINE, AND SHINE.      So help me Holy Spirit.  HELP US ALL!!

God our Father be with you all, to Strengthen and Inspire you to GIVE yourselves TO Him.

John and Esther /  Daryl and Carol

THIS IS THE DAY

 TO REMEMBER 

CHRIST DIED

FOR US!

For ME, for YOU, for Everyone

BUT WHY did He die?     Because God our Father needed someone to STAND IN FOR US - ALL the human race since ADAM have gone their own way in opposition to God's Plan and Purpose in creating them.    We ALL have sinned and come short, and NONE has done what is RIGHT.    God did not plan our death, and had no desire to see any one of us condemned to die.     

HE LOOKED to see if there was ANYONE that could take our place at the Judgement Seat and who could help us to avoid the Death Sentence.    He found NONE good enough, better than us.   ALL mankind was and is tarnished and spoiled by sin, each one as bad as the other and under condemnation themselves.

WHO, will go and rescue my children from the requirement of the LAW?     And JESUS answered and said I will go - make ready a BODY for me, and I will go, for it is written of me  that I am here to do your will.      And so JESUS came.     He was not a criminal Himself; no sin dwelt in Him.    But, to please God, He made Himself to be as one of us, and took upon Himself our mistakes and sins, and carried them to Judgement, in our place, upon the CROSS.      He did it to please God - to assuage His Father's sorrow in contemplating OUR death.    He GAVE HIMSELF to suffer and die in our place - that we might LIVE and go FREE of condemnation.       He did that for ME, and for you,

'I SCARCE CAN TAKE IT IN.....!

It is too Wonderful for me!.

I SEE it.. I SEE that I am far short of what God, my Creator, planned and purposed.... I SEE that I deserve to DIE according to God's Perfect Law........And I SEE how much He loves me, that he himself, in Christ, took my punishment upon Himself to keep my by His side.

GOOD FRIDAY - the DAY to remember God's Goodness to ME, to YOU!    Oh how He loves us.     On this day we remember that instead of US, Jesus stood in our place, and suffered, bled and DIED;   putting an End to all our sins as He carried them to the Cross.    Oh Glorious Day.    

NOT A DAY FOR GLADNESS?

Surely NOT - for it is me that helped to put this Christ to Agony and Death.

I cannot be glad for that, for the SHAME it proclaims against me.

YET even in all the PAIN and human SELFISHNESS 

there has to be

GREAT JOY.

 HE RESCUED ME!  

I shall not die but LIVE.

OH HAPPY DAY, when all my sins were washed away

BUT He DIED

We all should remember this.

A Sombre Truth indeed - that is is ME that needed to be on that Cross, and without HIM

would STILL need to take my place in the dock of God's High Court,

to hear the Sentence of Death passed upon me without Reprieve.

to be taken away to DIE eternally.

YES,  as we remember what he went through, those hours for us,  we should refrain from thinking of it lightly.......When they took Him down from that Cross, the body dead and cooling ,He still descended into Hell to wrestle and grapple with DEATH - The Cross was not the END of what needed to be done.

A DARK NIGHTS business lay ahead, and on earth a further long day of heartfelt sorrow in thinking of the One Who Gave Up His Own Life for our sake..............SATURDAY a day in-between , grey, and somehow desolate and hopeless...............BUT WE KNOW now that the Grave could not hold HIM, and on that other DAY He ROSE, forever to be with us.

GOD OUR FATHER, BLESS YOU ALL, LETTING YOUR SPIRITS RISE WITH CHRISTS IN TUMULTUOUS JOY AND GLADNESS.      TRULY,  LET THIS BE A HAPPY EASTER.

From us all at Testimony Faith homes

EASTER REMEMBERED

THIS WEEK WE WANT TO SHARE HOW EASTER WITH IN

Testimony Faith Homes will be spent.

We want to give your this preview because we shall not send out 

a Blog - just a Greeting 

EASTER has taken on greater importance, and is noticed here among us more and more as the years go by.    It starts in a very real sense on the THURSDAY, on what is in the English Tradition  called Maundy Thursday - a day when the King or Queen remembers the poor, distributing money to them.  But this is not why WE remember Thursday before Easter.   NO!   We remember the Passover, or Last Supper, celebrated in the Upper Room that night BEFORE Jesus was Crucified at Golgotha in Jerusalem, from where - in Zion - the perfection of beauty, God has shined'. Psalm 50v2

THUS ON NEXT THURSDAY, 17th April, at our usual Supper Time we shall remember the Lord's Supper.     Each of our four Homes for Children will sit down together in their respective dining rooms (Esther and myself, Daryl and his family, and a few friends or other family relatives) doing the same in Green Cottage) and have a Special meal of -

Roast Lamb

Unleavened Bread 

& Bitter Herbs

(also on the table will be water or fruit juice and Bread)

The Unleavened Bread will be in the form of Chapati, and there will be perhaps also a little potato and extra vegetable available since for us this will be our main meal of the day, and the children at least need to be satisfied even as they hear of the significance of this time together.     And of course there IS significance in it all.

IN EXODUS 12 we are told how God delivered and set His people, Israel, FREE from slavery; a slavery they had endured for 400 years.   They were oppressed, abused, and shackled to the evil will of Pharaoh King of Egypt.      Them Moses arose to lead them out and away from that slavery and distress.     God told him to warn and tell the people - each family of them - to take and kill a LAMB, and to smear its blood over the doors of their homes..  THEN to roast its meat and eat it in hast with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, before leaving Egypt in a hurry.  

 In doing this they would be set free to begin a NEW and BETTER life.

1. The roasted Lamb

This speaks of a substitute dying for the rest.

Providing them with Strength to go on to a New Life and Existence.

2. The unleavened Bread

Bread made in the most quick and sparing manner, unmixed and simple,

to quicken the preparation and eating of the meal because of the need to HURRY.

3. The bitter herbs

To remind them all of the suffering and misery as slaves,

and to encourage them in their determination to leave that slavery behind them for ever.

All this is explained by Father of each family as the meal is served and eaten     It is also explained that it was the Memory of leaving Egypt and of having been set free by the power of God that Jesus and His friends were celebrating that evening.      BUT there was also something else - something very special for Jesus.     Something NEW was now to be bound up with this Memory - a New Deliverance and Salvation.       JESUS Himself was to be God's Lamb of Sacrifice for all our sins.      

The Bible says that SIN, the ungodly things we think, say and do against God's Will and Plan, can only be forgiven by the shedding of blood.     The death of a creature purer than we are, sinless.

GENESIS 3v21 - Adam and Eve's sins were covered up only the shedding of blood - the covering THEY made for themselves could never be enough.     God had to kill some creature - perhaps a lamb.

GENESIS 4v4 - Abel's sins were blotted out by the blood of the lamb that he took and slew instead of himself.

EXODUS 12 - All the people of Israel were hidden and protected from the Angel of Death when they put the blood of the lamb over their own dwelling where they lived.   God said to THEM - when I see the blood over you I will pass over you and let you go free.

And John the Baptist in the Gospel of John 1v29  'BEHOLD (look and see) The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!)    He pointed to JESUS.      Yes Jesus IS the lamb of God.   The One God Himself chose to redeem US and to purchase our life out of the hand of the Devil, that we might LIVE a NEW life; that we might be BORN anew!      Jesus knew that night as He ate supper with His friends that HE was to become OUR 'Passover Lamb'  and that if we let Him into our lives His power would for ever strengthen us to GROW and LIVE a life freed from the domination of sin.   Ever since the day after that Passover it is understood to be that 

Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for US.  - 1.Corinthians 5v7

Therefore let us keep the feast with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth

and not with the unleavened bread of a life mixed with sin.

AND SO by the end of our meal we have come to recognise God's deliberate intention in His Love for us, to SAVE us to the uttermost.    The blood of animals could never completely cleanse or save us from the AWFUL consequences of our godless lives, the Blood of Jesus will and can.     Let us take Him into our lives as our meat and drink - the means to live a NEW and BETTER life for EVER!

AND  so the meal over and the explanations made the Bread and the Water is handed round, just as it was done by Jesus that amazing night.     We all examine our heart and mind as to what we believe.

One of you will betray - one of you will give up for something else, and refuse me.

Is it ME Lord?

The table cleared the dishes washed we join together in a hymn or two and perhaps a prayer.  THIS year the TV, the computers, the i-pods and even telephones will be turned off, shut down for rest of Thursday evening - except for a showing of the Life and Crucifixion of Jesus on Saturday, until Monday morning.        This is a TIME to shut out EVERYTHING that might take our mind and thought away from the only Way any of us may have to realise true Salvation, Eternal Security, and Peace with God.    Miss this and we miss everything.      Only Hell and Death remain.

FRIDAY THE 18TH April is GOOD FRIDAY.      GOOD because Jesus Christ DIED for our sins, for our FORGIVENESS and to provide us with a NEW life.       We remember what it cost HIM, our own part in making His Suffering necessary.       Yes truly a GOOD day but not without a great sombreness and sorrow.       Not a happy day to confront of own imperfection.

WE come together as a community of four families of children, parents, staff and friends to Remember Him, and what happened on that Day.      We all gather in the Testimony School Hall to pray and consider

.....There is usually no Message given on this day, and no Breaking of Bread.  It is a plain Meeting of 8 Bible Readings, two or three hymns and choir pieces, and usually a short dramatic presentation referring to the events of Christs Death.      About an hour and a half, and then as we leave there is cup of tea and a Hot Cross Bun.

The rest of the day is quietly spent.

SATURDAY is still our weekly cleaning day in all the Homes and compound.    But as I mentioned there will be showing of the Life and Death of Jesus during the afternoon or evening.

We have the Jesus Film so well used the world over.     We have the Crucifixion - a recent production which is very fine but at times over violent preventing us allowing the youngest to see it.    And there is also Franco Zeffirelli's fine four part production.      Quite a selection.

On SUNDAY WE WAKE UP TO JOY!     why?   BECAUSE HE HAS RISEN!    We remember that although Crucified, Dead and Buried Christ DID Rise Again to live forever with us.   He is ALIVE!

Oh what JOY,  What consolation, What Confident Happiness.    He is ALIVE      A DAY of true happiness.     We all gather again at 10a.m. in the morning and REJOICE in a two hour service before giving the rest of the day to family joys and rejoicings.

THIS is the general pattern for the moment of how we celebrate our Easters here in TFH.    It has become much more than Christmas or any other Festival of the Church.      

The week ahead will be busy preparing ourselves, and to welcome family guests.     our prayers will be with all of you, dear friends, brothers and sisters.    May YOUR Easter grow on you, drawing closer to and deeper in the apprehension of Christ and all that He is and has DONE for us.    WE shall not forget you.

Lovingly always in Him, and in the Mercy and Faithfulness of our Father in Heaven

John and Esther, Daryl and all at Testimony.

IS GOD CALLING YOU OUT?

THIS POSTER CAUGHT MY EYE TODAY, (Friday)   God is calling for your Marriage - He is asking for your Marriage, His desire is for you to Marry!        THIS was the way it came to me!
MAYBE this is because TOMORROW  (it will be TODAY when you read this).  Marrying - at last.     'M' has had a wife for a long time, and they have a family.   We have stood aside in prayer, holding our breath for their happiness.    SUDDENLY we are invited to their Wedding tomorrow in Church.   Wonderful news to set our hearts at rest.
'M' is the youngest of two brothers who came to live with Esther and me in 1978.    He was 4 years old.  He used to cry a lot, and perhaps had he a softer heart.     Both boys came from the far north of Kenya; from Turkana, but there were living in Eldoret.    They were staying in difficult circumstances.    Their Mother went back to visit family in Kitale, . A few days later she heard that her husband and one of her two daughters had died in Eldoret.   She rushed back, but in a very few days she also died leaving her three children stranded.  The friend they had all been living with took the three to the District Hospital, never to be found since..   Eventually a Child Welfare Officer came to ask if we could give them a 'temporary' home whilst they traced any relative that might help them - she never came back.    Thirty two years has gone by.  'Mowlem' and his brother lived in with us in Testimony House for twenty years as part of our family.    'M's brother 'W' finished formal school and then William trained in Food Production at MOMBASA Polytechnic, whilst 'M', attending the same Polytechnic, trained as a Lab Assistant, and now works in the Moi Referral and Teaching Hospital here in Eldoret.      He is 36 now, tall, and lanky, still of a kindly and affectionate nature - and still with a very dry sense of humour.      And his wife?  She is a lovely person.   We are glad for them both.   But they began as a "A Come We Stay" couple. and they just lived together.  At the time perhaps neither of them were putting God first.    It can be expensive to arrange a Marriage in Church, with a Reception. The cheapest can be in the area of seven to fourteen hundred pounds sterling ( $2,000) and can go up to millions of shillings, depending how wealthy you are.   Most young people just cannot afford to mount a Wedding and pay their way in the early years of their working life unless their parents assist them - not many have rich parents.     So they take the cheaper, more expedient path, a path un-blessed, and disapproved.         BUT we have seen many of our own boys leave us and follow this path, disappearing from sight for a few years, only to one day return and declare they are Getting Married.     It was in their heart all the time.    Just impatient and unwilling to Wait. We hope that our Merciful and Forgiving God will always count it as Righteousness when he looks into their hearts.
SO we have ALL been at the Wedding in Town, and to the Reception later.    We sang, and maybe shed a tear, but mostly laughed and were happy in the Presence of a Loving God and Father.    It was HIS time to bind these two together in His own Power and Strength;   His time to bring them into His own Security, and Awareness of His Presence in their lives.     Yes, they DO love Him as their Saviour, and attend Church.     He who looks at the heart, has KEPT them by His Power until TODAY.    God has called for their Marriage,; YES and there we were celebrating it.   You can SEE the happiness in their faces as they are the first to leave the Church, after the Ceremony.    And a little later, on the steps of the AIC Fellowship Church in which they were married, we stood with them as his proud parents.  In the photo on the right you can make out Esther, The Brides Mother, Grace (The Bride) MOWLEM, the Bride's Father and Me!
The weather was good, and we both stayed on for the Reception with many other brothers and sisters they can both call 'family' today.      How truly GOOD God IS.


THIS is always the HIGH POINT here, at a Wedding, the recieving of Rings.    In this little photo we see such a dainty little hand, whose fingers look so delicate and in need of love and care.   The Man's hand holds the ring, the tie that binds, but to me, in this photo, his hand seems a little uncertain, lacking in positive purpose.    And of course even a Church Wedding does not guarantee a secure and happy life until death intervenes.     ONLY A Wedding with God in it will make sure of that.   God is the THIRD strand that truly keep the other two (the husband and wife) together, able to endure, suffer, love and forgive each other no matter what may come to try and disunite them.      EVERY Marriage needs God in it.   Marriage is His Plan and He knows how to keep it together, and to use it as an example to our children and grandchildren of how a Man and a Woman can stay together in Love.     The ENEMY of our life and soul is totally out to destroy this concept.      BUT He will not WIN.

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SHOPPING WITH AN EYE OPEN

THIS FRIDAY,  Daryl and I were doing the weekly shopping at our customary Supermarket - Nakumatt Holdings Ltd, in Eldoret Town centre.       The Security Guards were at the door with the bomb detectors - no guns in sight.     They just smiled at me and Dal and waved us cheerfully through without even wafting their detectors in our direction.    BUT supposing we had been carrying a bomb!

Familiarity breeds contempt - a careless attitude that no longer pays attention!    These Security guys might THINK they know us........BUT..!       One should NEVER let your 'guard' down - the Enemy is ever vigilent to take advantage of your sense of safety - THEN he will strike.

IN FACT, ON THURSDAY we had been passed a 'Warning' - not from Government - that the Terrorist Al Shabaab people might be planning an attack on Eldoret this week-end.   Especially pin-pointing Euorpeans/Americans who were being encouraged to go into town as few times as possible and to keep away from Supermarkets, Cafes etc.      WE were in the BIGGEST Supermarket and we had lunch in the most popular and cheapest place in Town.     NO one was paying attention - including us - the warning.  I guess some had not even heard it.    Some hearing did not believe it, and some stayed indoors.   WE were just out and about with the LORD my our side.

BUT life is increasingly, as I have previously said, becoming full of fear and apprehension.    TODAY we shall be in the biggest Church in Town, with hundreds of people......What better place to plant a bomb - there have been many others recently.      Shall we then stay away from the Wedding?   Shall we attend it nervously, looking around us, in case of an attack?      Or shall we just GO to the Wedding and trust GOD to keep the Day for Himself?     Well WE shall go to enjoy ourselves, encourage our children, and demonstrate that WE WALK WITH THE LORD, HALLELUJAH!    We walk with THE God, with the KING of all the earth.      Shall we keep an eye open for an All Shabaab.?   No I do not think so, but we shall be looking with our physical eyes at the couple to be Married, and with our spiritual eyes we shall be keeping an eye on the KING.

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IT IS QUITE OPPRESIVELY HOT in Eldoret.     Brooding for RAIN in a heavy, humid way.   It tends to tire me out - never was good in really hot weather - and with the continuous cries and screams of Helen's three week old baby there is little peace, day or night.     

Ah, it has begun to rain......(Friday night) oh that it might continue now through the night!.     But the the mosquitoes will hatch and invade us.       Always something, if only work or tedium.     I am just a month away from being 74, but I seem just as busy, even after handing over most of the responsibility to Daryl.

HE is doing very well by the way, and we feel very glad of him right now.    

WE HAD PLANNED to hold a Special Celebration this year in August, to mark the 45th Year of Testimony Faith Homes.      However we feel that this might not be prudent in the light of our current situation, and in any case why not waith for our FIFTIETH in 2019?     In praying further about this we felt the Lord wanted us to delay and wait indeed for the Half Century.   SORRY to disappoint the many that may have been looking forward to the event, but you are always welcome to just visit without a Special Occassion to bring you.     Always SO GOOD to see any one of you.

Please excuse me if this Blog seems a little confused - I started writing it last night, and am filling in todays details late afternoon on Saturday!

Keep look up!   Keep a Watch on the world's 'weather'.    Keep an eye on yourselves, your spiritual walk, and upon your FAITH.       Hold it FAST.      Praying for you all in love and Thanksgiving.

John Esther and Daryl GREEN