THIS PAINTING CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK.    A typical scene that might be found anywhere in Kenya.   The colour, the busy bustle and sense of commercial life - It really does reflect the way life is here,   and apart from the unpredictable 'terrorist' factor, it is a carefree and friendly spirit that one is confronted by.       Of course, behind the colour of this scene, is an underlying poverty and grime.   There is also a sense of dilapidation at times - even here in this painting the artist has managed to convey, from the condition of the vehicles seen, a kind 'work till you drop'  or 'use till it falls apart' attitude.   Yet somehow the 'colour' of the buildings and individual dress, the noise and smells, and endless toil keeping alive, manages to keep everything moving, moving, moving!      I LIKE the painting; it is somehow Happy, and in a sense Innocent - a little like a picture of a childhood 'Toytown". No sense of DIRT, no sign of crime or violence to disturb the joyful and lively scene.      In so many ways it also depicts the Kenyan character and social attitude.      Kenya by nature is a country of joyful, kind, peace-loving, and enduring people, but in recent years it has been slowly disturbed to become more 'anxious' more 'apprehensive and fearful' as the price of commodities rise, crime and immorality increase, and the dread of terrorism have brought clouds to hide the 'sun' of daily life.   Society has changed.     Basically nothing fundamental has altered, but society is being slowly depressed.   The 'colour' is leaking away.     There is a 'CHILL' in the air.





MPEKETONI is a very small town on Kenya mainland coast in Lamu County.     In 1990 it was estimated that only 20,000 lived there - mainly Kikuyu.      On the night of the 16th June the town was attacked and, as the Star, reported, 56  of the residents died.   This figure has been added to since and it is now said that 65 died as a result of this attack.     During this current year we have seen a Mall in Nairobi City attacked, and many shootings in the Easleigh Estate in Nairobi as well.   Other such incidents have occurred in the same areas again and again. For the most part this has been attributed to the Somali terrorist group calling themselves Al Shabaab.    Although these disturbances have been confined to only one district of Nairobi and the coast, the way it has been discussed by the Media has caused everyone everywhere to be a little jumpy - you know - if a tyre bursts everyone runs for cover kind of thing.   Not good for calm and peaceful living.    Not restful.
THIS WEEK in Eldoret there has been a scare!     The Government had prescribed a Public Rally to be held by CORD a political party headed by Mr. Raila Odinga.   CORD decided to go ahead and hold it anyway in one of Eldoret's Stadiums.   Word went round that there might be 'clashes' with the police and party supporters.     WE were warned to close the School for the day 'just in case'!    In the actual event NOTHING happened.      No disturbances, no arrests, no trouble of any kind.   Those of us that actually have lived in Kenya for a long time are quite used to such sudden scares - but since the 2007 trouble even Eldoret is quite easily made uneasy.       But in truth we have lived peacefully and quietly during the past 6 years or so, and Nairobi and the Coast might as well be on another planet.......
IN THE REAL SENSE, however, our world is not a safe place ANYWHERE.  Civil strife, unrest, and disquiet is on the increase - perhaps in an effort (from God's point of view) to encourage us all to look ONLY to HIM for our help.    He ALONE is our only Helper, our ONLY Defence and Shield from ALL trouble.     Keep HIM in sight.

TYNDALE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL arrived in Eldoret today.   They are not staying with us but in a Christian Hostel in Town.    In fact they will not immediately arrive HERE but go for a trip to the MARA Game Park until Wednesday.    THEN we shall receive them, both in Testimony and also at NEEMA Children's Homes just a few kilometres away.      They will be a Team of 39 staff and students.    As usual some of the time will be spent in working at various jobs and projects we have laid up for them, and part of the time in getting to know our children and interacting with them. They will be here for about a fortnight.     We know it will be a good time, and their families and friends can be sure they will be safe and well cared for all the time spent with us.    No sign of any kind of unrest in this area, as I have said earlier, and indeed nine tenths of Kenya is still a pleasant and safe place to be - and the one tenth that isn't is a L O N G way from Eldoret.

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DARYL has appointed an Estate Manager, to supervise the ongoing progress of our various Projects such as the Poultry and Dairy plus the Vegetable Plots.       During the latter part of last year we had slight setbacks with the Dairy first of all, and then the Poultry.     The staff we had looking after each concern proved unreliable.     We lost one of our cows through the diary-mans negligence and another through illness.    We decided to shut the Dairy until we could find a more qualified dairy-man.   We sold the remaining stock, and the dairy has been un-utilised till now.      THIS week we have ordered one Cow, and maybe another will follow soon after.       Likewise with the Poultry - though we did not shut it down - we had to reduce stock, again through careless attention of the staff involved.   We now plan to re-stock having replaced the poultry man with more reliable personnel.    The gardens continue to produce most of our vegetables.         Our new Estate Manager is now confirmed as Mr. Moses Githombothi - will try to bring a photo or two next week.

Opposite another photo (at about 3 weeks) of Abigail, Helen's baby.  You may remember she was coping with chronic Colic, and WE were trying to cope with her shortfall in coping.     Eventually - about ten days ago - she seemed to come through the worst and we sighed with relief.Two days later she began to teethe - at 14 weeks.     And yesterday she went for her 2nd major Vaccination!   AND TODAY she is not feel so well, and making here feelings to be well SHARED by everyone in the house.  Still she IS a smiler, and she has a lot to make up for all her discomfort's inconvenience; we are very glad for her, and to see her grow so quickly and well.     The Lord has truly been answering prayer for her and undertaking for her.

AND TODAY IS LIAM'S Green's FIRST BIRTHDAY!
This is our son Michael, and Janet's son.    He is grown well and fast due to 'Mummy's' good attention. and he seems to be the darling of all.     But perhaps WE have not bee told all his bad points.    I am sure he must have spent a few hours developing his lungs, and in giving way to the selfish desires we are all born with.    Not quite an angel I dare say, but no doubt we might all be persuaded to think so.     Think the best of all Men!!??
This must be Baby Corner today!   Or I must be getting too old - but then grandparents ALL seem to be the same way and go over the moon for their grandchildren.    We are not sorry, and do not repent.    It is a special bonus upon our lives, and very special delight.     We thank God and our children for letting enjoy their hard labour.

IT RAINED LIGHTLY most of last night here!  but the dawn brought back the sun, and warmth.
The Swimming pool is full of kids - I can see them even from this distance splashing away and having fun.    Others are playing soccer, and some - about six are all here with me in our sitting room as I type the Blog WATCHING soccer on TV.       The World Cup has been well supported here, and Daryl even managed to arrange for a BIG SCREEN in the School Hall to enable a sizable crowd to watch the majority of matches without missing classes!     BUT it was a disappointment to almost everyone whose Teams seemed to fail.     Ah me!     BUT I was not much affected myself.

Our loving Thanks, once again, to you all, and especially to those who have in recent weeks been in prayer for us, and also supported us.      All Praise, Honour, and Glory to HIM who has enabled you to care about us, and for US to be cared for.    He may be invisible and intangible, but there is NO DOUBT that God IS, and that He is HERE and THERE with us all.     May He Bless and Keep you all safe in Jesus - Lovingly

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol

PURSUED BY FEAR, A RUNNAWAY........

Hullo EVERYONE!     Here we are back together, and this week I have another story for you.    A story with roots in the past, but still very present with us.
The photo to the left is of a ten year old boy taken in 1983.  His name is SAMUEL MACHO, and he was then 10 years old.    He was brought from Kitale to Testimony House in 1981 when he was 8. THIS, in part, is his story - TFH figures very little in it, and we have only come to know all the details ourselves in recent months.
Sam's father and mother seem to have come from Busia, originally not far from Uganda, and in the west of Kenya.   It may have been that his father either died or deserted, and his mother and the children (he thinks he may have had an elder brother) moved to Kitale , a little to the north of Eldoret.    They lived there on a Farm known as Zeria.    His mother married again, and sisters were born.    Sam's new Step-father was very abusive toward him, and continually knocked him about.
One day he was blamed for some mistake, and the step-father took him and beat him thoroughly, then tied him up to a tree with his arms outstretched.    He then sprayed him with paraffin and set fire to him - Sam would have been 7 or 8 at the time.        Sam suffered severe burns to one of his hands and one of his legs, but with with the help of his mother who heard his cries he managed to survive the ordeal, and ran away to the Town.     Sam knows his mother helped him, but does not know why she did not look for him after these events. Some months later he was taken to the Police and then the Children's Office, and thus to Testimony Faith Homes, and to Testimony House, to Esther and myself.      He was put to school and seemed reasonably settled, but he tells us NOW that at times he would wake in the night in a kind of dream thinking his step farther was about to get hold of him and beat him yet more.   He ran off more than four times from Testimony House under this kind of delusion, and eventually having also stolen, the Children's Officers in Eldoret felt he was unable to be properly safe with us and he was committed to Approved School in November 1984   From there he also ran away, and eventually ended up on the streets of Mombasa, a thousand or so kilometres to the south east of us.   For TWENTY years Sam scavenged from the dustbins of Mombasa for a living.     Grown tall and shaggy he continued to wander the streets, unshaven, unwashed, and somewhat mentally dis-orientated.        THEN one evening, unaware of exactly where he was, he heard people singing a hymn. It was one he dimly remembered having sung when with us more than two decades previously in Eldoret.     He walked towards the sound and entered a building which he later learned was a Seventh Day Adventist Church, and sat down at the back in what was a hall full of people, finding comfort in the hymn.     He continued to sit there till the Service was done.     The pastor found him still sitting there when all had left, and sat down beside him and slowly heard his story.    There Jesus found him, and he with many tears gave up his life to HIM.
The next day he was back, and the pastor suggested he might like to join the Church meetings - but perhaps before that he might think of getting a bath and shave .......he was apparently a frightful sight and smelt very unpleasantly.     The pastor gave him some second hand clothes and said he hoped to see him soon.     On the Saturday Sam was in Church, hair trimmed, beard gone, and looking like a new person, as he truly had become.  
TODAY Sam is the loved and respected 'Care-taker' of that same Church, and at 42 has been to revisit us here twice, full of Thanksgiving for the Life he has lived because it brought him to know Christ.   He says that although his time here was brief he never forgot the years spent here, and he believes that it was here God first planted the seed of his Salvation.       It has been a delight to have him with us - he is now trying to rediscover his family, especially his mother who may now bee in her sixties if she is still alive.
GOD is so gracious, so merciful and compassionate.     For 30 years Sam was lost to us, and we had no word from him whilst God continued to work His purpose out in his life.  

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  Ecclesiastes 10v1
DEAD FLIES - OINTMENT - STENCH
'Dead flies make the ointment of the apothecary to
send forth a sinking savour;
So does a little folly (spoil) him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour

Some week back I mentioned that a serious difference of opinion between two of our missionaries in our Fellowship was causing concern.      Of course none of us are ever 100% right......maybe not even 2% at times, but we find it easy to be persuaded that we ARE altogether right.  That is why, I think, we should do our best NOT to lean to our own understanding about anyone, including ourselves.   I am of course especially thinking of those in the Christian Fraternity and Family.

JESUS told us not to judge each other - and this affects both parties in their view of the other in any disagreement or human lifestyle.     

EACH ONE OF US is like a very special, fragrant, and pure 'ointment' that God is endeavouring to perfect for use to the common good of all society around us.

Our own opinion, and viewpoint concerning a brother or a sister, might so easily end up spoiling someones life, as surely as that FLY in the Pharmacist's Ointment.     Recently I was needing to address the incoming final Academic Classes in our High School, and I chose this Verse in Ecclesiastes.  We had seen one or too very promising students, during the year, suddenly undermined by the sudden intrusion of other human interests that 'dropped in' upon their lives.  The had ended the year in disarray, the entire class severally divided and full of strife and disunity.      This is what I said..........

'At this  time, whilst you are in School, your Teachers are endeavouring to mould you - each one of you - into a perfect mix of the best academic successes.   Each Teacher, in his or her Subject, will try to progressively stir into your life all the necessary ingredients to make you truly the sweetest, most flavoursome, and desirable Form, 1V students ever! This is the Desire and Purpose of every Teacher as they work with you, and for you,  day by day in the Classroom; seasoning your lives with as much information, instruction, guidance and human experience as, in their skill and art, they can give.   Their hearts are full of expectant hope and faith that YOU will all do your best to run the Course, and FINISH  well!   Both individually and together.

BUT it will not be plain sailing for them  - or YOU!     Hard work and determination on both sides will be needed - and there will be opposition to overcome on the way to success.     Opposition from all sides - even from yourselves!.    A lot of annoying, and sometimes damaging, side tracks to concentration.   Here and there along the way a 'FLY' might come your way to distract you, and perhaps even DROP INTO your 'ointment' and spoil everything.

There are, of course, a variety of such ' FLIES' that might drop in. Alcoholic flies, Druggie Flies, and even 'Romantic Flies'  And of course YOU yourself could even BE that 'fly'.  You might yourself be the one to affect the flavour of life around you by your own attitude and opinion..............!

Hopefully, perhaps, such an unwelcome factor coming to threaten the smoothness and purity of the academic constituency of your life might be able to be quickly death with.   But perhaps a FEW 'flies' might go undetected until the 'stinking stench' of their influence in your life and performance force them to be noticed.    Noticed, regretfully, too late to prevent the corruption that will finally end in you, and your chance in life,  fit for nothing.

I hope this will not happen to ANY one of you, either now or in the future.   I hope that a little folly, a little playfulness, laziness, or even rebelliousness, will not cause any of YOU to end up with a damaged reputation for Wisdom and Honour.

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IT WAS NOT until the 18th Century that this Scripture was incorporated into English usage.   It then began to be used in saying ' He is / she is/ there is - 'a fly in the ointment - in your / my ointment - MEANING that someone or something is spoiling all the effort made - just ONE person can be such a 'FLY'.       ACHAN in the Bible (Joshua 7) was such a person; a real fly in everyone's ointment.  By His own inclination to steal, and to determinedly hide that theft, he brought his entire family, clan, tribe, and nation to DEFEAT.    His story is a very telling example of how ONE person's selfish and careless life can affect countless others.   It cost Achan, and his entire family, their lives.

None of us are created to PLEASE ourselves by exploiting or 'using' others.   Each of us are to live FOR the good of the other; for advancement and benefit of the other.    I am to put YOUR interest and common good in front of my own.    THUS we hope each of you now embarking on this important School Year will work together to make sure none of YOU become anyone's FLY in the OINTMENT.

Yet we know that even now some of you may be 'buzzing' around to get attention; trying to get others to join you in fun and games rather than study and learning.

Remember, each one of you is like a precious ointment being carefully prepared for future use and Good.

In the wider view, all of you as a CLASS are that ointment - chase flies away.    Humanly most of us will seek to ward us irritating flies when they intrude on our lives.    We must be just as vigilant against human, and other 'flies' that can affect our lives.   We may not perceive them at first, but after a while

the 'death' they bring will become noticeable - often too late to remedy.  Our lives spoilt.

Let your EYE - your MIND - be single - shut the carrots of temptation, that may lure you away from the Prize, right out of your life and thought.    Strive to overcome, to achieve, and to WIN!   RUN with those who also run to win.    Let your fellowship, your study, your interest be with them.   Remember TWO cannot be together unless they be AGREED - make sure you do not run with those who are not themselves running - you will soon slow to their pace, and you will LOSE.   You will decompose with the rottenness of your friends own infections.     That carefully prepared OINTMENT spoilt and infected .......will have to be thrown away.

FINALLY - know that if there are NO DEAD FLIES in your ointment you then there is GREAT HOPE in you and your reputation for Wisdom and Honour will mature within you till your you fame and testimony will be seen and known to all. 

This Year will be a special test for you.      Watch and Pray each day.  Keep God in view.   BEWARE the enemy of your soul..

HERE, TODAY IN ELDORET, KENYA, the sun is not shining, and the sky is shrouded with heavy grey cloudiness.     It is raining!!     But it is not SO cold, and we all enjoying good health and peace of heart and mind, do go about our daily life Praising God Almighty in Jesus Name.     YES....people ARE dying in Kenya.    There is still unrest in certain areas of the Land.      We do have the Terrorist Element here and there, and the Government is not seeming very prepared to deal with it.    BUT Eldoret is calm and so far undisturbed.      There is no serious insecurity within Kenya as a whole.   Please be careful of what you READ - the media is always sensational and alarmist, and therefore often over states what is happening.       

God Bless and be with you all this coming week.

John and Esther / Daryl and Carol.

 

HULLO FRIENDS!

THIS WEEK HAS FOUND ME TOO BUSY TO GET ROUND 

TO WRITING UP THE BLOG.    SORRY!

Hope to be back on track next week.

Occassionaly this happens, and I just find myself unable to find time.

Have a wonderfull week

John and Esther

THE DEATH OF MONOGAMY - AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!

H.R.H. PRINCE MANGA BELL, was born a well known Paramount Chief in Cameroon.    Born in 1927 he lived well into his eighties.     As may be noted in this photo, he was a Polygamist with many wives - those pictured being only those he especially favoured!   He had a prolific family.    A prominent man in every way, he showed himself a wise and serious leader of his people.   An American film star Yaphet Kotto claims to be his descendant.
WELL, so what?    Not a lot really!  Polygamy lingers on mainly in Africa as a permitted way of family life.   The rest of the World has turned away from it as normal practise.      It could be said that this is mainly due to the influence of the Bible, God's Word.      IN THE BIBLE in Genesis 1 and 2 it is declared that God created Adam alone, and then later took one of his ribs and made Eve out of it.
One man!  One Woman!   THUS, initially, God is shown to be in favour of a purely monogamous pattern relative to men and women.      God may have made MORE than one man and one women if He had wanted to.    He did not.
With the procreation of children and multiplication of mankind eventually, one might say, Man AND Woman were in the position to consider more than one partner.     Having FREE WILL he was able to decide for himself, ignoring God's original plan for Man.    Certainly Mankind have shown themselves to be more than promiscuous generally, either legally or illegally.
RECENTLY Kenya passed a New Marriage Bill which permits a man to have more than one wife (to actually marry more than one wife) with or without his first wife's knowledge or permission.   THIS has opened the door wide to legalised Adultery....into Polygamy.     It is a flagrant slap in the face to the Christian custom as it relates to marriage and family life ......BUT, also customarily, it throws Kenyans back upon their own culture and customs long before Christianity arrived.    Nevertheless not all the Tribes in Kenya or Africa as a whole were habitually polygamous.     AND, where it was and perhaps still is, practised it did not prevent a man from being prosperous, respected and powerful.

I am, of course, a Christian in as much as I endeavour to base my life on the Teaching and Example I find in the Bible  both in the Old Testament AND the Gospels.     I do not see Polygamy taught as a desirable way of life, in any way.     Purely an expedient to please our fleshly appetites basically.   If I were not a Christian - if I were even an atheist - I would not be happy with it for myself.

LAST TUESDAY Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper commenced a double page article on Marriage, commencing it on the FRONT PAGE with the words -

'IS THIS THE DEATH OF MONOGAMY?

The Changing Face of Marriage'

written by one Joyce Nyairo.    She starts off by writing thus -

'Marriage - symbolised by the wedding ring - is seen as an encumbrance, a burden that inhibits recreation.

In the club, on the streets, anywhere where there is fun, marriage is dispensable.

That is why, in their 2006 anthem, 'Furahi Day', Nonini and Nameless say

'Kaa ni Friday na unafua umeoa, pete jo lazima utatoa'

(If it is Friday and you know you are married,

you will have to remove your wedding ring).

One thing is sure, lifestyle is changing in Kenya.      Family life is changing.   Morality is changing. Kenya is a place of declining morality and even declining god consciousness.    But Kenya is not alone in this slide away from God given Standards of living.     Neither is Christianity and its BIBLE alone in being spurned, even done without.      There is generally a turning away from anything that might spoil man's 'fun' and determination to please himself.    Muslims, Hindus and others may be all heard complaining of a drift away from GOD.      Perhaps we are witnessing the DEATH of the knowledge of God in our world - in our lives.

IN THE ARTICLE QUOTED, Duncan Ogweno, chronicler of Urban culture is cited as saying -

'The three most important things in marriage -

sex, companionship, and progeny

are all available elsewhere,

sometimes for FREE, sometimes at a FEE'

SO SAD to read stuff like this - so totally demoralising.     It cheapens life, home and family.  AND it does without God.    The writer of our 'article' commented this way -

'OUR sources of moral instruction have shifted.   Wise grandmothers, doting aunts with proverbs and folklore; austere priests, and stern spinsters waving the gospel of repercussions and guilt long ago lost their authority.'      Yes the sands of time are quickly passing through the Hour Glass.      Is there anything we can do to prevent total loss ?        Perhaps not!    BUT we may still do what we can to save our own family, children, circle of friends and relatives.    

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NOT for your infidelity!   NOT for your unfaithfulness!
NOT for your freedom to break hearts, reducing home and family to harems and collective farms.

In the forty or so years I have lived in Kenya I have come across many children born into polygamous homes.   Not so bad perhaps for the first wife and her children, but for each successive 'fimily' the greater the hardship of being less than those before them.    I have seen orphaned children, with mothers forsaken, forgotten, left destitute by the the Husband/Father.    It did not impress me of parental responsibility or ability to make a home.
A man and a woman are surely meant to come together ALONE to make a home and family in which Love and Care and Faithfulness can be found, felt and known by each member of that family.   A place where each parent can daily teach and hand on what they themselves have learnt from God.
 Definitely not a Communistic Commune devoid of Gods mind or influence.

OUR CHILDREN, growing up in our Homes, long to have and experience what they themselves were denied; a home of their own, a happy family, and a safe, constant, and ongoing refuge for their children.      Many that have left of us have opted for Church Weddings; some have come home to us to be married here, and others unable to afford what can often be unsupportable cost, have applied to the Registry Office.        SOME have just come together in what is commonly referred to here as a 'Come we Stay' relationship.    But even they have generally stuck together and later when times have become more prosperous, have found ways to marry in church with God's Blessing.     All our Team working with us here have that testimony, and in fact it is because of their own marriage that others have hungered for the same.      This is how it should be - to people together learning how to love and care for each other through thick and thin times, learning forgiveness and mercy toward each other.   (The photo is of our houseparents - one couple in each of our four Homes  -Ben is the odd one out being single, and has in fact recently left us to direct a NEW children's work not far from us - They are all romantic couples and good examples to their families)


WELL this must be all for this week.     It has been a quiet week.     The end of May found us unable to pay our salaries, and by the end of the first week of June some of our co workers were feeling a little stressed, but then funds arrived that relieved us all once again.     How Wonderful Jesus is!    And thank you to all of you who helped in our relief in response to His prompting.
It has been an almost dry week again rain-wise.     VERY little.    We have never seen such a DRY rainy season as this one since we arrived here in 1972.
We heard this week that our long time friend and prayer warrior Miss Jean Potts, once a teacher in AIC Kessup Girls School here in Kenya passed on to Glory on 29th March.     She was well into her eighties but a true Mother in Israel,      We shall miss her encouraging notes and letters.
At the end of this month, on the 28th, Tyndale Christian School will be with us once more for about 15 days.     Very exciting for everyone.
BABY ABIGAIL seems to have overcome her Colic which means we all sleep better, BUT her lungs have grown with her length and she still knows how to make the loudest noises imaginable when she decided she is not being noticed as she would like.    We thank God for her healthy progress.
Much Love in Jesus to you all, and grant you peace and protection in every way through the week ahead.

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol