FROM HOME TO SCHOOL

THIS A DIAGRAM of Testimony Faith Homes & School,  is situated in Elgonview Road, Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County in Kenya, East Africa.   It is not quite up to date as (l) labelled 'Basket Ball' is now the Swimming Pool, and the Dairy just below that has now been transferred to the Jacaranda Compound to the right.

We began our ongoing Tour with a look into
Jacaranda Cottage - (bottom right) on the diagram.
THEN back across the road to the left marked (n),
to Testimony House.
After that we returned to the Jacaranda side, and looked at Tyndale and Drakeley Cottages before crossing Elgonview Road once again, THIS WEEK,  facing the School Hall (marked (b) just on the other side of the School's Main Gate.

The School began in 1981 with the commence-ment of a small private Nursery School for our own youngest children.   Local Nursery Schools at the time tended to be more like Play Schools without ANY kind of equipment or facility provided.   Teacher mainly untrained ladies who sat and knitted or dozed.    We wanted to give our children a better entry into Primary School.    It was an immediate success, and soon parents from around us began to request we opened it up for their own children.  BUT we had not at that time considered advancing further into education (or perhaps I should say that I had actually lost sight of that part of the 'vision' God had given me in in 1969.)     When we arrived here in Eldoret in 1972 we found plenty of schools around us, and it seemed natural to let our children attend them.   However, as time went by we found a problem arising.
It culminated   'ONE AFTERNOON in November 1983 when the Headmaster of one of our local Primary Schools rang me up.   "Please come to my officer right away; there is a serious problem facing us." he said.    I went immediately, and settling myself into one of rather battered chairs, I asked him what the problem was..   He looked most upset and worried.  "It is a very heavy matter, and I shall need your help and co-operation."    I began to wonder if he had a 'personal' worry.    But he continued on, saying , " You see your boys Daniel and Joseph have been found smoking cigarettes int he school field.    I shall have to suspend them of course, from all classes."

During the previous month I had to deal with cases of theft, and even drug taking amongst some of our teenage boys;  I am sure that I almost laughed with relief.   Smoking cigarettes!  Why that was the least of the current big time temptations overwhelming our national schools.  The next morning I took the two boys, both 16 years old, to school.       (Primary Schooling is supposed to begin when one is SIX and continue EIGHT years.   But some children start late, as some of ours did, due to some problem or other.  A number of ours came to us up to ten years old with NO Schooling at all.)
Once arrived back at the School (the boys were returning their Text Books whilst on suspension) the Headmaster grabbed them both, and had them taken to the School Parade Ground.    There, in front of 700 students, they were made to lay face down in the dirt.   THEN they were given a homily on 'ungrateful orphans' who having no parents, miss spent public money.   They then received six strokes of the cane each.     Suspended, socially stigmatised, and publicly caned - for smoking a cigarette.  
There were, at the time, and continued to be, students who were known to be taking Marijuana who 
remained untouched.        This incident was one of many others.     The real crime, it seemed to us, was not what our children did or did not do, but simply that they were orphans who were cared for.'
((extracted from my Diary for that year))
AND so in 1983 we commenced Primary Standard 1 - 3.     THEN in 1986 with the unexpected and unsought assistance of TEAR FUND we went ahead and built new classrooms for Standards1-8 inclusive, moving out of where we had begun, and handing over the space to Nursery School (i) on the Diagram.    The NEW Primary double story block plus Staff rooms and Toilets are sited as (c to e) on the Diagram.   From there we have, with God's Providence, been able to continue on so that now we have space in the School for approximately 120 Nursery students, 500 Primary and 240 Secondary students - a School population in total of 860 in all.       Our own 140 or so orphans are provided for in the Public Fee structure  for those attending school from the locality, and thus attend school FREE.     The School does not generate further income for the running of the HOMES.   The incoming fees provide additionally only for the Salaries of Government Teachers, text books, and other consumables. It is not run for profit.

SO here we are - at the FRONT Entrance.    The Building up front (LEFT) is the School Hall.    This can seat approximately 400.    It is used for P.E.,  School Meetings such as Parent/Teacher,  Concerts, and also serves as our Church Hall for Sunday Services. To the right of the photo, as we are looking, there is a new block that serves as a Primary Boarding Hostel for 112 external students.     The Hall is also used for serving School Lunches, parties, and even Seminars.
As you pass on, along the drive, past the Hall you come to the School Reception and Staff Offices, and the Parade Ground.   Then the FIRST of our four double story tuition blocks.  Front view right hand side.
The Driveway carries on past this block, turning to the left to arrive at TESTIMONY HOUSE, and on to the second Gate.       However, the drive, after making that left bend actually carries on making a U turn round a Round-a-bout in order to permit traffic to return the
way it came.    The photo to the right is the School Parade Ground with some of the students on Parade and with a group of our Scouts in the foreground.
The School continues on into the distance with further Classrooms, and also additional laboratories for Computer (we teach computer from Nursery School upwards to Form 4 of Secondary), Home Science, Chemistry, and Biology.     The latter are to the LEFT of the first photo on the above line.     And it is in that area that Nursery School is also sited just to the left of the WHITE building on the left which is currently a Primary Computer Classroom,  and also the NEW Secondary School building and Swimming Pool. In the beginning all the buildings that form a line on the left of the School entrance was once home to a stand of very old Blue Gum trees. -- The had formed the boundary of our property at the time.    Beyond them was open countryside - now our School Field, and thereafter slowly being built upon.  
The  photo to the left above is a view of the School taken from the school field, the Main Gate being to the left of picture.   Then the School Hall, Reception and Staff Offices, and First double story Tuition Block of eight classrooms.    Our land ends just beyond the Tuition Block and turns to the left as the Diagram shows.  
The School has done well academically and also spiritually.   One might say it is well known.   SO well known that it has served almost as a camouflage that hides the existence of the the four Children's Homes.     It has given our children a great opportunity to being seen and treated as children from ordinary family homes.    They have not been known as 'orphans' and have at the same time profited from an upgraded standard of education that has come from our ability to choose our own teachers, provide equipment needed for teaching, and a steady, disciplined, and morally cared for society based on faith in Jesus Christ which is open to all of any colour, nation or religious persuasion.      Here are a few more photos to finish off with.

To the left a group of Nursery children in the School Hall practising for Parents Day. Then to the right a group of Primary Children coming out of Class.
Finally to the left a group of Secondary boys doing private study in the School Hall Foyer.   I would like to have put more but it just seems there is not time or space to do so.      Placing photos has never been my best ability!!!

And , of course, I must add at lease one photo of the NEW Secondary Tuition and Dormitory Block plus the Swimming Pool.
Regretfully ALL these photos are old ones.    We are presently without a camera of any kind between us all just now.   So have to make do with old shots.    Hope to rectify this very soon, and then, at last will be able to refresh ourselves.      The month has almost ended, and then the last month of the Year will rush by, as always with fun and gladness.      You, we hope, will be glad to see, and maybe even remember your part, in lifting these children that live and learn in TFH, from utmost poverty, abuse and hopelessness.      From hopelessness to HOPE.  Do not just see what may seem to be prosperity and ease in your eyes - but see the Mighty Hand of God who is able to save to the uttermost.        Not one of US could have achieved this for the many hundreds that have come and gone, but in joining hands and hearts together with HIM Who Loves us all, we see the IMPOSSIBLE to be possible indeed.

God Bless and be with you all.