STAYING DOWN TO EARTH..BUT CLOSE TO GOD.

AUGUST 1969 I was living in THIS small cottage 20'x40' made of mud and wattle with a tin roof. when the first two boys (Wilson and his 8 year old brother Zacaria) came to live with me.   When we moved, to a larger house of brick, six months later we had 25 boys in the family,
We still had about the same number in January 1973 when we moved to Eldoret, into yet another, larger still, house, also made of mud and wattle. From mud to mud we have gone.   I shall find myself singing ' MUD GLORIOUS MUD...' in a minute!!   This time the exterior had been given a light plaster so that the walls looked smoother and more substantial,    They were two feet thick walls,    They had stood quietly and strongly since they were put up circa 1910.     Esther and I had moved into this house early January, with 28 boys, mostly between 11 and 15 years old.   We had been in England together for nine months visiting family and friends of mine.    Our first born, Steven Iguru was born there in Truro Hospital in Cornwall, south west England.     Our second son Michael Waweru, and daughter Elisabeth Mugure were born into this pillared palace of mud.    It was to be our extended family home for 28 years, as we brought up our own three children plus 115 more that became part of that first family over the years.      To day Testimony House, as it came to be known, has new Houseparents and a family of 40 odd still living as a family together.
The house stood alone in five acres of land, on a continuing slope of hillside.  On three sides open countryside was untouched, and full of wild life, snakes in abundance, monkeys, gazelle, and wild cats,  but fortunately no lions or leopards.    It had stood empty as a house for THREE years, cared for by an elderly Watchman, who had brought his chickens and goats inside with him at night to keep them safe.   The main sitting room was 900 square feet with an enormous fireplace, and timber floor.
For some reason the Watchman did not think to light a fire in the fireplace, but instead had a charcoal jiko burning in the middle of the room resting directly upon the timber floor - God must surely have been watching over THAT!  
WE arrived from England with less than a hundred pounds in hand to face turning a very dirty and totally unfurnished, and derelict eight bed roomed house, without electricity, water, or sewerage into a habitable home for 30!!!    We had bought 14 steel bunk beds, and 28 cow hide chairs with us for Eldoret where all this had begun.   Nothing else except our Faith in our Father In Heaven to provide.   And He did, and has continued to do so.  WE have never advertised any NEED, but only shared them with God in prayer;  We have never appealed for funds, food or anything else.   Yet 'out of the blue' funds would come our way - oh, not in huge amounts, small on the most part.     Food would be brought at times to the door, as the day the Sikh Community arrived at mid-day with enough cooked and other foodstuff to last us a whole day, and at a time when we actually had NO food in the House, and NO funds to purchase any.    Every day was a new experience, and each experience taught us what it meant to actually WAIT ON GOD for our life to be secured.      And at times we DID WAIT for an uncomfortable time before our prayers were answered.     We discovered we were not just trying to serve HIM by letting Him demonstrate His love and care for others through our labours.      He was also helping us to learn to be what He had made us for; to trust Him and to be faithful to HIM  no matter what the circumstances of our life might be in real time.........   NOT an easy road at times, but in the end fulfilling and satisfying, though of course there were days and moments when humanly we got a little impatient and a little anxious concerning  whether or not God has actually HEARD our cry.!    Hmmmm!    Well we have to say that He always had heard, and He always did Answer us, but He may not be taken for granted, and is determined, I believe, that we should not do so.       After all He did not create us to use Him for our selves, selfishly, but rather to SERVE and OBEY His demands that we might become like Him, and able to achieve His Purpose.

THE YEARS HAVE ROLLED BY;   in only four more years, we shall have reached our 50th year since we commenced this Work.      A Work not merely of rescuing and caring for abandoned and orphaned children, but of revealing the Reality and Faithful Reliability of God who can interact with any one of us in our daily lives.      We have FOUR, not one Home now.     We care for 140 - 150 children instead of only 28 at any time.     We have a School too; a School providing free places for ALL our children in the Homes, and also some 20 others in the locality.    Additionally more than 600 other children from the neighbourhood attend the School on a Fee paying basis.    Thousands of children have come and gone as students in the School since we began in 1981.      The Word of God has gone with them transforming many of their lives, and the lives of own homes and families as well.    A wonderful and blessed tool of evangelism.          In regard to the Homes not so many have come and gone.    We take children generally in between 0 and 10 years, and they stay between 20 and 25 years, leaving only when they are able to find employment and stand on their own feet.   It makes for a SLOW 'turnover'.      Since we began, including the 140 still in residence with us, we have seen only 400 come and go.     But we feel it has been for the best to build small family homes rather than huge institutional boarding hostels.      True we may have been able to reach more, but this way we have help to give each one a sense of 'Family' and Homeliness.        Again not easy for the 'Pareents' to be close to all of the 30 - 40 in the Family, but provided for loving and personal contact and interest.     We feel it has worked very well, and this is evidence by the numbers that continue to come back to visit and remain in touch.        Life in the Homes is not a rich life.    We do not have a lot of anything, but we do enjoy what we have, and we believe that the Children are VERY Happy.

Four of of our seniors about to launch out into the deep.   They finished School and now have to look for digs, and be independent.    They all began in a small way and grew up.   We are grateful to the Lord for helping them and us stay the course.      SOME leave having never really identified with Testimony as home or family; they just want to get out and do their 'thing' their way.    We can be relieved to see them go at times, but our heart is heavy, for we know they will encounter hardships and disappointment.
These four SMILERS are still very much in touch with us all, and are happy to be out on their own and established, but they still MISS home here, and stay close and in contact with family left behind in the Homes, and with 'parents' there grew to be happy with and glad for.      Family Life - like any other family really - just BIGGER, and we want you to know you are part of that family for ever.

GOD bless you.   Yes you are right I did not have much to say this week that was new, but I always enjoy looking back and remembering the Blessings of our growth here together.    It has been a very real Adventure.       Daryl is finding that it CONTINUES as well.     A great LEARNING opportunity.   It is the end of the month, and September is beginning.     God be with you day by day, and keep you READY for whenever He might appear.

Loving from us all - John, Esther, and Daryl.

AT SCHOOL HE WAS CALLED 'THE MONSTER'

                                 THIS IS A 1977 PHOTO OF PART OF THE TESTIMONY FAMILY.

Back Row - Paul Ngugi, Charles Green, Isaiah Sambuli, Samuel Macho, Mwangi Macharia, Michael Rufroni, Hendrik Ajwong, Hellen Chepkoris  

 Middle Row - Timothu Njugunah, Joseph Kipwabok, Anthony Kipkoech,   Christopher Kiptizia, Steven Green.   

Back Row - Michael Green and Nicholas Mwangi, deputy director at the time

On the top row Left you can see an eight year old boy standing.  His name is Paul Ngugu.  (also seen left when he was 15 in his wheel chair).   Paul came to stay with us in July 1974; he was three and a half years old.   On the face of it he was an abandoned baby who had poor sight due to neglected measles;   Someone had also tried to strangle him to death. Having accepted him into our Testimony House Family we discovered Paul had a terminal disease known as Hurler's Syndrome; a disease that would progressively, if he lived, render him paralysed, deaf, disfigured and eventually, mentally, a  vegetable. He would also lose his sight completely.    Life expectancy was up to the age of 10,  over recorded incidents of one in every ten thousand.    Paul lived with us in Testimony House until October 201l, when he died - he was then 40 years old.   When he first arrived he was unable to walk or do anything for himself, but by the time he was ten he was walking, and he could still see colour and shapes, but we then began to see a serious depreciation. He had an eye operation, but it was unsuccessful, and went on to attend two Blind Schools, but had to discontinue because his sickness attacked his skin and muscles so that his appearance rendered him a laughing stock.    He then stayed at home and worked with Braille.    He was very intelligent, well informed in general knowledge, and speaking three languages fluently.

Paul at 40 - kept his hair long as he used
to feel cold around his neck

From then on Paul's physical life was a battle for him and for us.    BUT he never complained, and was very sure that God Loved him in and through Jesus, and that whatever happened to him it was for some special good.    He never wavered from that belief.    And, indeed, Paul WAS to be a blessing all his life, first to those he grew up, and lived, with, and then to all those who came to know him.        He was often in pain, and suffered the frustration of being totally dependant on others, but few people knew this.    He was always the one to pray for others, to comfort, council, and generally encourage those who needed it.       WE could have turned him away on the excuse we really did not have enough staff to care for him, and could not be sure if we would financially afford to support him.    But we did not turn away - we welcomed him into the family, and into the home that would be his till he passed on to a better place.    And the 'Family' rallied around him, loving him, caring for and affectionately being his eyes and ears, as well as his legs.         His funeral turned out to be the BIGGEST gathering of Old Boys and Girls, Family and friends we have ever had.    ((The FULL STORY of Paul Ngugi was printed in the Blog of 22nd October 2011 - just in case you might want to see more))

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The Month of August has been good for all of us. Oh, yes, it has been a rainy month, and the children all home from School has made it quite a noisy month.    Thank God we have all been fed, and in the shelter of each Home, have been loved and cared for.    For Esther and me this is our 44th year together - all of it lived in a very topsy-turvy Extended Family of very different children and young people.   And don't be deceived - Esther is into her 71 this year as well, even if she does look a good decade younger than me in this roguish photo.     Both of still in love, and very glad for all the years that have past, and for the present that finds still in reach of so many of our BIG Family.    God has been SO good, so Faithful, in the midst of every day, even the very darkest of them.   He has been and REMAINS our strength, our Happiness, and our Eternal Hope in and through His Son - Jesus.

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School will open in about a week, so the kids still have some freedom left.   They seem to have really enjoyed the Holiday, and our cows also seem to have continued to settle into their new surroundings and are providing us with plenty of milk.    Looking forward in September to seeing our friends Ian and Diana Hogley, and also Stuart and  Brown who will be coming with them - an opportunity for the latter to see the NEW Jacaranda, although they will actually be sleeping with Joshua and Miriam Mbithi in Neema Children's Homes just a few kilometres up the road.    Always nice to see visitors about to arrive.

Our Love to you all in Jesus Name  -  John Esther, and Daryl Green

LETTING GOD LOVE THROUGH YOU.

THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN AT A SPECIAL THANKSGIVING SERVICE within the compound of the Anglican Church of Kenya's Diocesan Headquarters for Eldoret and area.   I was there at the invitation of the Founder of a Special Clinic for Physically and Mentally Handicapped Children.   Cannon Percia Hutcherson (seated right centre in the photo) a retired physio-therapist, had come to Eldoret in her retirement to offer the Diocese assistance in helping children within the Diocese that might be challenged physically and even mentally.    She must have almost 80 by then, and remained in Eldoret to fund and build a Special Clinic within the Diocesan Office grounds, to be known as The North Rift Rehabilitation Centre.    She was responsible for giving hope and new life to many hundreds of young people AND their despairing parents.   The Bishop The Rt. Rev. Thomas Kogo also attended the meeting (seated on the left), and I shared in part as follows:-

'I FEEL GLAD to be here today

and to see the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for; the EVIDENCE of things not seen!

And to see the outworking, in part, of a VISION that is still ongoing.

GLAD to see the Love and Value God Himself has set, those who are so often neglected,

hidden away and despised.     Those who through no fault of their own

suffer some physical or mental disability.    Those often made to feel OUTCASTS from their own family as well as the rest of society.

There are so many people in our world, both young and old who are often shut away from the community, even from their own families, because others feel ashamed of them; ashamed of their disability.    They live a life of seeming hopelessness, even loneliness and isolation.

IT IS A MIRACLE TO ME

that God should have given a woman in her elder years such a heart, and such a Vision, with Faith to see it come to pass.

PERCIA HUTCHERSON

is an inspiration in herself, and she has inspired many others to catch the vision, and work with her, with God's help, to bring her Vision into being.     We see the First Part of it today, and in SEEING it, we have no doubt the rest will follow on.    What God begins He also finishes!

We need people like her!   We need Clinics like this one.   A Centre where we can bring our outcasts back into the community and the family, with hope;  a Place of Healing for body, soul, and spirit.

I have mentioned the work 'outcasts'     Isaiah 16v 4 in the BIBLE mentioned them too.   I hope I may be forgiven if I take the words a little out of context, and apply them to those with various human disabilities.

GOD SAYS

'LET MY OUTCASTS DWELL WITH YOU

Be a Shelter to them.

I like these words.  I like the CHALLENGE of them, and the implication behind them.

They suggest the very opposite to shutting them up, concealing them, leaving them exposed to ridicule and neglect.     It fits SO WELL with something that King David did as recorded in

2. Samuel 9

IT IS WRITTEN there that King David took Mephibosheth, the crippled teenage son of Johnathon into his own house, after Johnathon died.    It is written that Mephibosheth referred to himself in front of David, as a 'dead dog.'

That is how he probably had been made to think of himself - a helpless, good for nothing cripple.   But David had him to live with him in his own house, and to eat with him daily at his table.

THE KING took him in.

The King sat him down at his own table.

The King let him put his FEET under the table with his own - even though he was a cripple.

I LIKE THAT!     That is what JESUS would - and does - do.   He want US to do likewise.

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THIS PHOTO, taken in 1976, is of myself, and a 12 year old boy who was both Spastic and Epileptic and who became part of our family until he was in his twenties.    We had not had a disabled child before.   His name was HOSEA MWENDO.   He was an 'outcast'.
Esther and I, together with one of our older boys (Peter-John Odeyo), were travelling back to Eldoret from Western Kenya.  We had stopped not far from Maseno, at Luanda Market, to take more fuel into the car.     It had begun to drizzle, and people were packing up their stalls, and slowly dispersing from the Market area together with those who had come to buy.      Suddenly we noticed an ungainly half naked boy stagger into the road in front of us.    One eye seemed to have been damaged, and was bleeding, and one arm, was bent across his chest rigidly.     He had seen us from across the road, and made a bee line for us, drunkenly.    We watched him in some horror, for he looked SO forlorn, and neglected.    On reaching us his left arm shot out toward us with a hand spread out like the talon of some bird of prey, and he croaked, hoarsely ' Pesa!!'  or 'Money!' as it would be in English...   Esther tried to ask him questions but either would not or could not answer her.    Peter got out of the car and accosting a few passers by tried to find out if he was known,    He was told the boy had been in his condition since he was born; he has Fits as well! He had been cast our of his home by his widowed mother,  and ever since wandered aimlessly begging, often spending the night under a lorry with the dogs.    No one had ever heard him speak more than the pitiful 'Pesa'.
The Petrol was in the car, and I had paid the pump lady.       "Well it would be nice to help him", but really we are not equipped to help someone with his kind of disabilities.   And we drove off, down the Maseno Road to Kisumu.    The sky was black with rain clouds, and the flash of lightening and rumblings of thunder seemed to turn the prospect both in front and behind seem very foreboding.
As we drove onwards towards Testimony in the now heavy downpour of rain, Peter quietly asked from behind be as I drove 'What would Jesus have done?'    I said nothing.   I felt very unhappy.

THE next morning I said to Esther, "I have to go back to look for that youngster"     Peter John said "And I am going with you."      And so the two of us got into the car again and drove back to Luanda, some 150 kilometres away    We arrived mid morning, and with the Market all of a bustle around us, we searched for the boy.     Eventually we found him stretched out under a lorry, dogs licking his wounds.     We got a blanket from the car and Peter-John crawled under the lorry, wrapped the boy, still unconscious, with the blanket and carried him to the car.      People actually backed away from him as if he was some kind evil spirit himself.      With the help of a police man we managed to locate the boy's mother, but she wanted nothing to do with him, and told us to take him away.     So we did.   He suffered FIVE fits on the way back to Eldoret.     During that night he had seven more!   Peter John had him to sleep in his room, and each time Hosea was seized with shaking, and screaming, we all gathered around his bed and prayed in the Name of Jesus that the Fit would cease - and it did immediately do so.     Every day the fits became less, until they ceased after the second week.   They never returned, and he never had to take any drug  to protect him.
In the 3rd week we too him to a Dr. 80 kilometres away, in Kitale.  Hosea was still not talking, and he still was unable to use his right arm.     The Dr. prescribed exercise only for the arm, and a single little pill once a day for a week for his muteness.    He said that he had got used to not to speaking over the 11 or 12 years of his life.   He believed the pill would put him at liberty to begin to do so, until we might feel he was speaking too much.     He was right!    In a week Hosea began to talk - not fluently, but a little hesitantly as he remembered words and how to put them together.    It was slow, but in the end Hosea responded to loving security and company.     He did not attend school but he learnt how to count and account for his money after he grew to have a job as a labourer.    He regained the use of his arm.    He talked all the time! He finally went back to Luanda where he built himself his own house from wood and wattle.     And everywhere he went and to whoever he met he told the story of how God met him and pulled him out of the dirt and hopelessness of his life as a young boy, and went on to put him right, physically and mentally, till he could earn his own living, and fend for himself.   "It was all because of God's Love" he was fond of saying.

WE were all very much spoken to by this incident.     We had turned away like the Pharisee because Hosea looked just to difficult to help, too dirty, too sick, too unattractive in every way.   We left him - but the Love of God turned us back again, and God showed the way to persevere and see the Answer to all of Hosea's challenge and problem.          It was not the last time.    But out of hundreds who have come to live with us in our home we did not find more than three physically challenged children come to our door.      BUT the door IS OPEN now to the whosoever.    Open to AIDS sufferers as well.      

Do you think you could also open your door - the door to your heart first and then the door to all you have?     There ARE so many with nothing and no one.     Think about it.

Our loving regard to each and every one you who know and pray for us.

John Esther and Daryl Green

HOME AND FAMILY MATTERS

I REALLY LIKE THIS PHOTO!  If you enlarge it you will see a LOT of people indeed.
In actual fact I published it before, just recently toward the end of 2014.   It is a photo taken at Esther's 70th Birthday!    WHY do I enjoy looking at it?  BECAUSE it's one of the few with so many of our family members crowded into it.   They are not ALL there by any means, but just seeing these enlarges our hearts. Memories begin to flood in, and suddenly who ever came to live in our Home, and even the others, somehow become ONE with us.    So proud of them all, even the ones who may not have done so well at school...... each one was special, and each had special talent and character that we could enjoy and be happy for. They may not always have been 'angles' - some acted like the devil at times - but each was able to be appreciated and loved.  
Just this last week-end Thomas Kioko and his wife and two little daughters suddenly arrived, to delight and surprise us, and our hearts jumped for joy.    It IS always just so good to see one that grew up here, and especially those who grew up in our own Testimony House, no matter how they may have left us - and some did leave joyfully, leaving us low in spirit, and in heart.     Never mind, it is such a reward when they 'come back'!!!  - if only briefly - to let us know they are alive and well.    Faces, voices, and memories from the past suddenly with us again, reviving our faith and our confidence.
Yes each one is precious to us still.      And so much has changed since many of them were here.   The place where they slept, and the chair they relaxed upon may still be in the same place, and the walls may still be adorned with the same photos and wall hangings......but!    Buildings have been torn down and new ones built - the School is always changing its look and fabric.    Even the Homes with Jacaranda now forsaken as a family house, and a NEW one built opposite with NEW parents...NO !! Things are not always the same - except Esther and me, for the time being, who are still here, and able to sit and remember the past, and also to BE remembered.      A privilege for us, Truly - AND a reason for not wanting to LEAVE.

Recently Esther and I were asked to consider retiring a little further - to the U.K. in fact.      Well it would be good to be closer to Steve, Mike and Lizzy with their families; we have missed, and do miss them a lot, and it would especially be so enjoyable to see our grandchildren growing up; we are almost strangers to them.
BUT the truth is we have made Testimony to be our home, and we are parents and grandparents to all that have come and gone.   We are not lonely; we are, even here, surrounded by 'Family' even here Our Father in Heaven provided this house to be ours for the rest of our life if needed.    And it has space for visitors including our overseas family when they are able to come.      We would miss a whole heap of people, and I think we also might BE missed by those calling in to remember the days we all lived together here.      AND the climate here is better!        SO we seem to be persuaded of just being where we are till He comes or Calls, to all those who know Him, to COME TOGETHER to be with HIM.    As I am always saying - 'It could be quite soon.'

TO, DAY, Saturday the 9th August, one of our Girls, Purity Abwona, who came to stay in Testimony House with her two brothers and two sisters, is coming home to Testimony House.     Her Fiancee is also visiting with his parents.   They want to Marry in December, and according to culture the Man has to visit the parents of the girl with his parents so that they know each other.   Quite an occasion.    Purity came to us when she was a very little girl.  Now she is about 28 and working as a Nursery School Teacher with a Diploma in Early Childhood Development.
When Purity came first we were Parents in Testimony House.  The year was 1993.   Then in 1998 we left the house and Daryl and his wife Carol became houseparents there; they became Purity's parents. THEN in 2006 Daryl and Carol moved out to attend to other matters within the Ministry here, and a NEW set of parents moved in - Hesketh and Alice Muli, who are still with us    SO, Purity has three sets of parents!!   She is really looking forward to showing us all off!  Her fiancee  is an I.T Technician working in Eldoret.   She was a sweet child, and a very lovable young lady for whom I have a very soft spot.

SO life goes on for us - even whilst we might be in the Wilderness and Straightened, yet does He watch over and KEEP us, and give us JOYS along the way.     We can only Give Thanks.

God Bless you all and make you precious to one another in each of your family circles.

Lovingly in Jesus

John, Esther and Daryl