MISCALCULATION

WELL!    THE ROOF IS NOT ON YET!    Yes, my miscalculation - I had forgotten that after putting up the Rafters, the carpenters would also go for the 'battening' between the rafters to which the Ceiling Boards would be fixed.   It is quite time consuming work, and has taken most of this week.    Sorry to have disappointed those who have been following developments.      Hoping to put in a few views of inside and outside again this week, and then NEXT WEEK, hopefully, we should see the roof actually ON.

OTHERWISE ALL IS WELL, and life continues in the heat, under clear blue skies.     SOME clouds did appear at the end of last week, and we did have one ten minute shower of rain, but since then all has continued DRY and dusty.      The river through the centre of Eldoret is now DRY.     Water continues to be rationed.     We shower less, and drink more!      Suppose the RAINS do not come this year?     Well this has happened in many other parts of Africa - the day the DESERT arrived.      Certainly COULD happen here one day - maybe soon!      
JOSEPH AND AGNES Macharia are now settled in well and truly.   I must apologise for having given their son Benson the name of 'Oliver' in a previous edition.

TODAY Testimony School is playing Host to a Swimming GALA at our Swimming Pool.    It is the first time such an event has taken place here.   About 5 or 6 local Schools expected to compete - ours included.   Some three hundred visitors joining with us as from 10a.m. till 4p.m..       They have been going on for about an hour now, and Daryl has just come in to say the place is packed out.      Good to see other schools able to also make use of this installation, and to see so many youngsters having the opportunity to not only LEARN how to swim, but to also get a vision of swimming as a SPORT.   Ideal weather too!!

ON THE SADDER SIDE the Results came in for the National High School Exams.    Our School which had been climbing year by year FELL this year in its Mean Score by 0.3.      The poorest performance was in Maths!      Well it has not been SO low but averagely about 6.     This is an unexpected blow to us, and now there will be an all out investigation to discover where things went wrong.      THIS YEAR'S Form 1V Class in Secondary had a number of students who seemed disinterested in actually learning.   Indolent and without serious ambition to do well.     WHY?    Difficult to say.     Also we have not yet been able to discern if this factor affected other schools as well as ours.     If it appears to crop up generally then we may have to consider the question of how our students see their future prospects.
In the late 1950s/60s in England a lot of my generation were wondering if Russia would invade us and the West generally - whether there was future - a safe future - anywhere in the world.     Many suffered depression and anxiety, and many dropped out of School.        How is it for us here NOW in Kenya?    In the mid 1970s Kenya was in the doldrums!      Idi Amin talking about invading Kenya, and Jomo Kenyatta talking about Calling-up School children if he did!      The economy was bad, jobs were scarce, and made harder to find as Education continually UP graded  the Syllabus and caused College, University, AND employers to demand higher and higher qualifications for a prospective applicant to be accepted.
I think it is WORSE today.    WHY?    Because the 'Qualification' game, as I call it, has only continued with the multiplication of universities and Colleges of higher education.    EVERYONE - in an increasing population - is encouraged to lay hold of education, and everyone hopes to find a place in university many of which offer a low Entrance Criteria.        MORE ARE educated, but to unemployment.    The JOBS are still not there - increasingly not there!      Many are aiming at going overseas!      To think of finding work that will provide enough salary to consider one day having your own house, building your own family, is for the most part less than a dream.      The Economy is worse than it was.    The future looks, for the majority, harder and harder.      Suicides have been increasing once again.    Crime is increasing.     The Poor are increasing.    There is a quiet FEAR in the state, fear based on anxiety for the future.      This kind of atmosphere and opinion increases unrest and depression amongst the young generation, and we have clearly seen this changing the way they look at LIFE and their part in the future.      It is worrying to a degree.
BUT there is a HOPE none the less, and we must not lose sight of HIM!     This would be the right moment to insert a favourite verse of Scripture, which has on many occasions rescued ME from depression -

BE STRONG, and of good courage..

Fear not, nor be discouraged,

for the LORD GOD, even my God, will be with you:

He will not fail you, nor forsake you until you have finished the work.

1.  Chronicles 28v20-21

This verse was first given to me as a personal promise when we began to BUILD the Primary School here.  Some were not very encouraging and felt that we were going too fast, and that we would end in disaster.  Well we DID build, and the Primary school IS now existing and growing.   God IS Faithful.  You can Trust in Him to help you when you call upon Him.

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I can hear the SHOUTS of the children enjoying the Gala 500 metres away at the pool.     Shouts of encouragement, joy and laughter, amidst the splashing water, under the gaze of imposing school buildings built without a cent in hand, all under a Sapphire sky, lit up by an iridescent, golden sun.    And all around are children snatched from abuse, hunger, and anxiety;  children now lovingly salvaged from sinking lives and families;  children who have learnt to see themselves equal with others they go to school with from the locality.       THIS is something we see as a Miracle.   Yea, it IS a miracle in our eyes - in your eyes too I hope - a Miracle we are ALL involved in - God being the midst of it all.

Harold Myra

BUT it is not always so Wonderful, and Exhilarating !       There are days when the sky is dark, and the sun is hid.    Days when joy is silent  and life is serious.     We have our 'ups and downs'.    Days when we are caused to FAST from self comfort and material well-being.     Tight places; even desperate places, where we also are made to CRY out and say, 'LORD!   Don't you care if we die?'      EVEN Jesus, in who WE trust and believe in once found Himself squeezed enough to cry out to His Father in Heaven 'My God, my God, why have you left me?'      YET God is ever near, and never forsakes those who have trusted in Him.

I recently found this poem by HAROLD MYRA called Desire  -  I have liked it

LORD,  will you reach out to me?

Will you touch and lift me,

And say, I love you,

Don't be afraid?

Will you touch my lips and eyes?

And will I say with David,

"I shall be satisfied

When I awake with you Likeness?"

Any second it could happen.

Everything GONE!

Pencils, shoes, shirt, radio, friends - GONE.

Nothing but you

and me

LORD, reach out.   Touch me

Dear Friends keep praying for us.    Pray for Jerusalem, and for Israel, scattered as it still is all over the world.     They need to see Jesus, and I believe they WILL have that opportunity soon.    They are not saved yet, and maybe only a REMNANT will be saved in this Generation.    Their end is not yet, nor perhaps even their suffering - pray for them, and for yourselves for you may be sorely tempted to hate those whom God has loved, and so then miss His Blessing.

Affectionately to you all, each and every one.

John, Esther and Daryl Green