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