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.