THE RAFTERS ARE UP!

YES -  the RAFTERS are up and almost completed.  The ROOFING will be completed by next week.     THEN the windows, and doors, plastering electrics, plumbing, and paintwork and flooring.  Another whole lot of work, but at least it will be in the dry - we had just ONE teeny SHOWER or rain the night before last - but it heralds the end of the Dry Season.      Weather-wise it has gone very well for us.   We Thank the Lord for all of this. It has been a REAL encouragement just watching the house go up from nothing.    BUT next week it will be quite noisy with the roofing going on;  a big team laying and nailing down the iron sheeting that will make the covering.     It comes already painted, and so far we have found it durable and not too noisy in the Rains.    Of course we also put CEILINGS up made of a thick 8x4 ceiling boards that are made locally.  
At least, when all is ready for occupation, we won't have to furnish it, as most of what is in the Old House is still having some life in it, and we shall just transfer it all over to the the NEW House.   This will also maintain the identity and atmosphere of the old house, so that it will STILL feel 'home'. .   

WALKING around this week, I was struck once again by the great MERCY of God.  We have quite a lot of very YOUNG kids just now, but there are still a number of older ones who have grown up from when they themselves arrived here ten to fifteen years ago.      When they needed a refuge, a home from home, and an affectionate embrace, God had already provided a HOME
This drawing of JESUS to the left sums it all up for me.     SO strange in our day to see a child close and cuddled.     We are more and more told to take our hands OFF our children, not just in discipline, but in love and affection also.  It is getting more and more difficult to present God as one who Loves us as a father or as an Elder Brother!      I especially like this drawing because it presents a more acceptable image of a man in his thirties.    A man who is freely able to welcome any one of into His arms.    We are so glad to have been here for Him to love through, and to welcome through,   A very real privilege and Joy.
THIS WEEK being the last week of February I found myself addressing the School Parade on Friday morning.    I visit there every last Friday of every month and give a short Address.      In the Beginning of the School I did this EVERY morning; now others are there to take their turn, but our Principal, Anthony Ndungu felt I should still appear there even if once in a month.
SO, this Friday morning I spoke on the Glory of God to a School of
some 800 students here on Testimony School Compound.
'WHAT IS THE GLORY OF GOD?     It is OBEDIENCE.  It is obedience to God, and to His Word.   The Heavens actually declare and demonstrate the Glory of God in obeying His Word.
When God's creation obeys Him, He is glorified and honoured and shown appreciation.      
DO you obey your parents?  - then you HONOUR them, and bring them to be glorified by those who observe your service and respect toward them.      Our parents are ashamed in front of those who see when we turn away from their council and advice - we dishonour them.     It is the same with God - when we treat His Words with scorn and mockery we dishonour HIM.  We SIN against Him and fall short of bring glory to His Name.    EVERYTHING in heaven and earth is created to OBEY God, and so is MANKIND.  You can be anybody, from anywhere, a believer in ANY religion - but the fact remains YOU were created to obey God and not have your own way.
GOD gave Man only ONE thing to DO for Him in the Beginning.    He told Adam and Eve NOT TO EAT of the THE ONE TREE that grew in the midst of the Garden of Paradise.    BUT the did not listen to Him but to another, and they took and ATE of the very tree He had told them NOT to eat.     They leaned to their own understanding instead of God's and in doing so infected themselves and ALL their descendants (ALL of Mankind) with SIN - so that WE, each one of us, is BORN incurably into SIN.
KING DAVID of Israel wrote in Psalm 52v5 -

'I was BORN in a state of iniquity (sin);

my mother was was sinful who conceived me,

and I too am sinful

David had discovered this for himself, and he knew that nothing could save him from dying in his sin....

BUT GOD DOES NOT WANT ONE OF US TO DIE!     Even though we have sinned and ARE sinners, HE doesn't want us to DIE...He is a loving and MERCIFUL God.     The ONLY TRUE GOD.   He wants to  forgive us, and to help us begin a NEW life.     He says in EZEKIEL 18v31-32

'CAST AWAY from you all your transgressions (sins) by which

you have transgressed (sinned) against Me.

(that is all your rebellious disobedience that took away My Honour and GLORY)

And make you a new mind and heart, and a new spirit

FOR WHY WILL YOU DIE?

I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord God!

Therefore TURN, (be converted) and LIVE.

IT IS VERY SIMPLE REALLY!

We all have SIN in us.    We are all CONDEMNED in front of God who made us because of it.   There is no cure or remedy that can heal and save us.

YET GOD DOES NOT WANT OUR DEATH !!          Because of THIS he has found a WAY for us all to be forgiven, cleansed and made new.     God our Father in Heaven sent His first BORN son into the world to take our Death Sentence upon Himself, and to purchase our Forgiveness upon the Cross in Zion for each and every one who will look there and BELIEVE in what He achieved there.

LOOK - AND LIVE!!

Come to the Cross - to Jesus - Believing in the Salvation He bought for you.

Receive your Forgiveness, and be healed of your sin

AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN..

JESUS always DID what pleased His Father in Heaven

and so He laid down His Life to RESCUE me and you for God's sake.

THAT IS WHY IS WRITTEN IN PSALM 50v2

'Out of Zion (Jerusalem), the perfection of beauty, God has shined.

IT WAS THERE on the Cross,  that JESUS obeyed, even to His Dying, the Will of God.     This brought the greatest Honour and Glory to God, and will also do the same when we also stop pleasing our selves and lay down our life for HIM.

OPPOSITE is a photo of two of our older boys, both having completed their formal schooling, and now out at College - though still resident with us (Zeberdee on the left and Lucky on the right giving a little attention to a young member of  the family at large.    Thought you would not mind seeing a few faces.    

And to the left a couple of our girls.   Very loving they are and I feel that God HAS truly helped us to help our children to care for each other and to actually love each other as members of one family.

TODAY has been quite busy and I am feeling a little tired from a three hour long Parent/Teachers Meeting in the morning from 9-12noon and then a while putting this together in the afternoon.  The sky remains brazen, and the air STILL, and stifling.

This evening Esther and I have a friend coming for supper.  He is our DENTIST!     He tells us he will bringing a fellow doctor (maybe another dentist) with him.  Hope we don't focus on Fillings, Extractions, and dental health..........!

Our LOVE to you all, and keep a watchful eye on events around you.     He will not be Long!

Lovingly - John, Esther and Daryl Green

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