LET US WATCH OUR STEPS

THIS WEEK we admitted to Tyndale Cottage a young brother and sister.    The brother aged approx 3 named Gravine, and his sister Mavine aged approx 6 found themselves suddenly deprived of their mother and only parent when she was arrested and imprisoned for what appears to be a

minor offense.     The Children's Office, finding the children alone and at risk brought them to us - for how long we do not know since it is not known whether the Mother will be imprisoned for long or not.    She normally sells vegetables in the market for a living. Otherwise we have not yet seen any factor which might make her unable to take back the care of here children once released from Custody.      Just a little practical help might assist her to establish a small market business on a firmer footing giving her the chance to provide for herself and children. Putting her in prison seems to help no one, effectively orphaning the children.    This is also a rather difficult case for us since we do not know how long they may stay with us, and yet we must lay out and invest in their well-being and necessary provision whilst with us.    They came to be with us on Thursday of this week, and on Friday they had begun to look more settled, though still anxious for their mother.  Altogether, with their Admission, we have Admitted Eleven children this year.        We expect to lose 6 by the end of the year, and have current vacancies for about 10 expected by 31st December.      Our current population 137.

SCHOOL - except for the Primary and Secondary National Examination candidates (some 100 students) - has closed for the long summer break;   we expect to open again the first week of January 2017.   Primary Exams begin on Monday, and end on Thursday next week, and the Secondary Exams thereafter.      Fortunately the sun has reappeared in clear blue skies.     So now the majority will immediately be at home and holiday fun and games AND some remedial studies will commence running up  to Christmas.

ON FRIDAY MORNING, our son Steven and his eighteen year old daughter Tonia, arrived for a week's visit.    Esther and I so happy and excited to see them.    It would have been even better if Anji our daughter in law and son Eric could also have come, but finances are less elastic than ever before and we understand the restraints being put upon all our spending.     Anyway we hope to all make the most of this 'treat'. and I know you will rejoice with us at this special gift.    NB - Testimony House backdrops this photo, and this was home to Steven from when he was just six months until he flew the nest!

NEXT THURSDAY, I have been asked to say a few words at our Primary Graduates Leaving Party.
Very simple.    I thought you might like to see what will be said this year.    Most of our students will have been with us from Nursery School.....    Having concluded their papers they will gather in the School Hall, which will have been laid out with individual tables for 4-6,  together with their teachers and a few others such as Esther and me. Daryl, as Director and a few others.    We will have lunch together and then after a few presentations, choirs and speeches I will stand up..........
A

A man, - a poet called Robert Burns - wrote in 1785 these words

'The best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray'.'

Not everything we plan to happen actually does happen the way we hoped!   Life sometimes seems to go astray, and just does not pan out the way we had hoped or believed for.

This is true for mice and men !

The MOUSE, for example, may be aiming at getting some cheese that it can see and smell, not far away.  But, instead of enjoying an expected feast, it finds itself the guest of a Mouse-trap - DEAD!    All the mouse could see and think about was CHEESE, and it did not consider where it was going carefully and realistically.

ONE DAY, President Daniel arap MOI had planned to fly to the USA.   HE was seated with all his retinue in the huge Jumbo Jet, with the rest of pilots ready for take-of.    Slowly they began to ease out of the boarding area.     THEN SUDDENLY things began to go wrong.   One of the wings, as plane moved toward the runway, somehow became entangled between two huge wooden flagpoles.   Nothing seemed able to be done to safely get the plane back on track without damage, and after more than hour the President had to get up and return to State House, all his plans having to be altered.

In the Poem by Burns a Mouse was busy building a house of straw in a hay field for itself and young.   It was a good day, everything seemed right - but suddenly all changed when the farmer ran over everything with his hay wagon, and the day had changed, and the future too - for the mouse as for the President also!

LIFE IS LIKE THAT !   It might be like that for you also.     Right now you will be thinking of how life will be for yourselves, now that the KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) is over. YOU will be making plans, and maybe your parents also!    Take Care!  Read carefully and prayerfully in the Bible, in the New Testament, and in JAMES 4v13-17.   We have need, in all our planning and human intentions, to first defer God, to find out His Mind about it!
Look at JEREMIAH 10v23 - it says  -  'It is not in man (even in a strong man, or in a man at his best) to plan his own steps, pathway, life.

Without GOD, without Jesus, in our lives, thoughts and plans, we shall achieve nothing at all.  We might try to fly, and be brought down by a piece of wood, or pursue some temptation and end up dead in a mousetrap.   YOU will be planning for your NEXT School.    Make sure it is God's Choice and not only your own.   Trust you NEXT step to Jesus.   Let Him be your guide and your future.
When I was a teenager I did just that, and I have NEVER been sorry.  Without HIM I would have missed my way many times and ruined my life as well.

TODAY IS THE END of a Chapter of life for you all.   Where and how you go from
here should be very carefully considered - both by you AND your parents or guardians.
Some of you will travel far from here,   Some may perhaps stay on in Testimony Secondary School. But wherever you go and whatever you do, make sure you talk to God first about it, and let HIM be the one to finally arrange you steps; your every move; your life.    AND remember He is interested in you, your life, and howyou use that life.  He gives us life, and finally we shall be accountable to Him as to how we will have used it.

May He ever watch over you and keep each one of you safe.   Most of all confirming His Reality and Precense with you moment by moment.    God Bless you - John Green.


Well I am through once more for this week.      Thank you all who have sent to us via AENON over the last month - I shall be in touch personally soon.    And also thank to those who have been updating us with contact information.   Bless you all.

John, Esther and Daryl Green

OUT AND AROUND!

AT LAST OUR THIRD COW, so far unnamed, and here showing off her fluffy ears!   She is the first of her kind that I have seen with ears like this.     She is in calf, expecting any day, and is said to be an exceptional Milker.    We shall see.     So now we have THREE all looking rather like her but without the frill round the ears.     So the Dairy will soon be running on all cylinders so to speak.   We are very grateful to the Lord for finding this addition for us, and I know many have also been praying with us that we might find a really good cow to join our little 'herd'!!

TO THE LEFT  a view of our LAYERS just transferred from their initial premises to larger ones, and you can see they are no longer baby chicks, having now moved on from original fluffy yellow balls to brownish feathery youngsters soon now to be adults.    Still some time before they will commence laying though. We have some 340 of them at present plus 400 Broilers.
AND TO THE LEFT AGAIN, an update on the Tomatoes!     They seem to be doing well, and you can see a few blossoms already showing.

But the WEATHER is quite unstable.   After a week of sunshine and warmth, this last week has given way to CLOUDS and RAIN again!   Right now outside it remains a dull day with clouds, and it has only just stopped raining since early morning.   None too warm either which doesn't please poor Esther too much, as she is struggling to get over a cough and cold left over from the last 'cold snap' of a week or so ago.

Good to see things going on.    Even the Kitchen Gardens are doing well, and full of stuff growing and thriving.    We Thank the Lord for His Favour.

WELL this is getting like 'The Farmer's Weekly'!!     But it has been a rather quiet and pedestrian week here, and we thank God for it.    There are many times when daily routine is enough to actually cope with, without anything sensational happening as well.      ALSO one cannot always be inspired, and since there is very little 'feed back' on how our content is received, or suggestions on how we might improve our style and subject matter to create greater interest, we just plod on.    So far we have also had little response from our Contact Enquiries - only two.    Well we shall in any case continue hoping that slowly slowly we shall be led of the Lord for the future pattern of this Blog.

This week I am concluding with the photo opposite which made me remember that night, when shut outside in our backyard whilst my parents violently argued inside the house, I sat and looked up at the star filled sky, and idly asked out loud to myself  'What IS holding the stars UP?'   At six I had never been to church or Sunday School, but my Mum always made me say my prayers before I went to bed each night, and thus brought God consciousness into my life.     "GOD is holding the UP!'   I found myself answering, and with that settled in my mind, I also found PEACE in myself and in my situation.   If He was there holding the stars up there was no doubt in Him also being able to hold me, and my Mum, up too.      He has never failed to prove it progressively for the seventy years since then.   He has been a true Father to me, deeply etched in my soul by the Life, Death, and Resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Love you all, and have a blessing in the week ahead.

John, Esther and Daryl, Green

WHO HAS A SAY IN WHAT HAPPENS?

A HAPPY FAMILY REUNION,,,,. Yes indeed.   It was taken on the steps of our School Hall in in 1989, twenty years after we began to build homes and families for children who had lost them.  ALL adults in the photo spent a good part of their childhood with us,..  and to day many are now parents with their own children, still in touch with us and glad to have spent time with us without regrets.     More than 120 attended this Reunion out of the 220 that had come to be part of TFH.  In another three years it will be our 50th Birthday, and we expect an even bigger crowd to be with us to
celebrate!
THINGS ARE NOT THE SAME however, mainly due to Government policies regarding Child-Care, and the pressures upon it from World Organisations.       When God spoke to me to notice 'orphans' it was impressed upon me that I should try to provide family homes for homeless kids who had lost both home and family.    The idea was to have married couples with their own family come to be parents in any one of our family units, and to become Dad and Mum to another 30 odd boys and girls who needed home and family, and who were suffering due to the loss of them.    A unified Family extended to include more than ones biological children.       Then a slightly 'expanded' version of the old cultural 'extended family in the Kenya tradition.     We took in boys and girls between 0 and 10 years from any tribal or cultural background, trusting in the Kenya Children's Department, as it then was, to assist us to help only most needy, and completely orphaned.     We were welcomed with open arms and great deal of real interest in those early days.  
In 2015, after having avoided the issue for some years, we found ourselves facing an edict to remove all those of our children, eighteen and over; out of their 'homes' where they were still attending School or College, and into some kind of 'digs' or hostelry in Eldoret Town.      We had resisted because we had disagreed with the idea from the start.     We had taken young kids and infants into family home environments and brought them up together.     We could see no happy, normal reason to now tell them to get out of their family circle.     When we finally did so it was quite traumatic for some,  and even now having tried to make the break in continuity as little as possible, we see, if not heartbreak, at least bitterness in the hearts of many.       In order to comply with the now named Department of Children's Services, we made available two houses on our compounds to be used as Hostels for over 18 Boys and Girls.     When the day arrived for them to be occupied those over 18 left the home and family they had been brought up in and those who had acted as parents to them, and moved away into a sexually segregated and less homely atmosphere whilst they waited to complete their education and find employment so that they could finally leave us with dignity, and a little security.      It is working, but it is not the same as it was, and is certainly not an improvement but rather a setback in now being able to continue following our initial vision.     We are still able to be together, but the idea of 'family' has been raped and torn apart.    
THIS WEEK we have been again warned, with all those also engaged residential child care in Kenya, that we should expect to see all Residential Children's Homes closed down or severely regimented to accommodate Government needs within the possible next few years   -   and instead the oft failed practise of Fostering will take their place.  
TODAY, at the East African Orphan Summit 2016, it is stated that it is   'estimated' that 3.6 million orphaned and vulnerable children are in Kenya - of which 2.4 are orphans, some 350,00 or more on the streets of our town and cities.    Another 50,000 are said to be in 1,014 registered and regulated children's numbered.    'The number of unregulated and unregistered homes is unknown but expected to as high as that of the Registered ones - THUS the number of children housed in these orphanages is much higher than estimated.'     

This seems at serious odds with what the Government is admitting.     Nevertheless it IS saying that this year a million will be cared for through their OVC and Fostering Programmes.    It sounds good, but in practise the issue is a doubtful one, with a sizable number of 'fostering placements' finding their way back to the streets annually.

How do we feel about this?    

We feel that Fostering is not the ONLY way of assisting and securing children adrift in society.   In our own set up we managed to provide an ongoing, safe, and secure environment based on loving 'parent child' relationships.     We avoided situations and conditions that would further disrupt a child's security and normal physical and phsycological development.    Children who are fostered often end up being moved from home to home or just running away..    Children's Homes have been more able to give children an unbroken opportunity to conclude their walk from childhood to adulthood without interruptions of any kind, and FEW run away.  The latter scenario is obviously BETTER for the child than the first.   We shall continue to devote ourselves in assisting true and needy orphans, by finding ways and means of giving them back what they have lost, and sure foundation to begin their own lives upon.   We shall hope to keep you posted on how things develop as days go by.    

Finally as a postscript to the foregoing let me add this extract from a report made by the Institute for Research on Poverty:-
'Some agencies shave no more awesome power than the right -with the due process of law - to take children from their parents for an indefinite period of time and dispose of the as they see fit.   Although no one disputes the need for foster care, no one endorses it as a solution to the problems for which it is invoked.   When children are abused or neglected by their parents, or when the parents cannot - for any number of reasons - care for their children, someone must intervene to see that the children are adequately looked after.   That someone is usually the government, and the intervention is frequently foster care.'

BUT what IS good for the child?     What ARE the effects of foster care on the functioning of adolescents and adults.

'The authors raise the question of what we should expect from foster care..   Is it sufficient that the care doesn't damage children more than they  have already been damaged by the events that led to the break up of their family?    Should we rate foster cares as successful if it produces outcomes equal to those of adults in a comparable group in the general population? Or should we seek to devise a system of caring for these need children that enhances their future chances?'

Daryl spent three days this week attending a special Seminar convened in Eldoret.    He feels the Government is quite determined to follow through with its program but for the intervention of God.

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THIS WEEK,  I have been busy trying to put our Address Lists in order.   I think I have circulated everyone both on and of E-mail.    But let me again encourage those who have received any notice from us to do their best to confirm their contact addresses.       

We also had a Donation from many of you via AENON.    We do thank you all, and may He bless each and every one.

Lovingly from us all,

John, Esther, and Daryl Green

WALKING WITH JESUS

THIS IS THE OLD JACARANDA COTTAGE.   Try to imagine it without the addition of the double story right hand arm of the building, as it was when we took it over in 1975.   When we were given, by the Lord, this cottage, it comprised only the three quaint buildings to the left.    Francis and Elaine Wainaina, who had been with us in Testimony House, had moved into this new place as its first houseparents together with a group of about 15 boys and girls, more than half taken off the Eldoret Municipal Rubbish Dump where they lived!   In September 1976 they were to write  -  'We are now settled very happily in Jacaranda Cottage, rejoicing particularly because it is truly and miraculously 'ours', and we feel that we have grown into a real Family rather than just a collection of individuals.   We would, or course, like to extend our Family, but we need to wait for the Lord's time.   MOST of the boys we have living with us can now be relied upon to help out in daily chores.    We have planted MAIZE in the garden!   We have a GOAT, and a kid!   And NOW we also have a hundred day old chicks.     In the care of the house and the animals we are trying to encourage and teach the boys to help.'
Francis and Elaine were to remain in Jacaranda until August 1981 but the Family they began there continued and grew in same house until they all moved into the NEW Jacaranda Cottage in 2015, exactly opposite the old house.    Since then the 'old' house has become a Day Care Centre, AND the ground floor of the double storey extension has become the new Jean Potts Hostel for Girls.
The photo to the left, taken in the 80's shows the sitting room of the old Jacaranda Cottage, during a prayer time with Joshua Mbithi who, together with his wife Miriam, were houseparents there from 1985-2003.   FORTY + years is a long time to look back and to see God's Faithfulness.    SO FAR just ONE HUNDRED children have found home and refuge in Jacaranda, including the current residents.       We now have THREE Homes on that Plot with 90+ children cared for.    We have a Dairy, a Poultry Project, an Allotment, AND a Day Care Centre and Girls Hostel.   Such progress - SUCH a Blessing in the sight of God.

THIS WEEK, we had a visit from a Team from NEW LIFE HOMES in Nairobi founded by brother and sister Beckenham from the U.K.    'In 1993 Clive and Mary Beckenham became aware of the plight of abandoned babies; particularly those infected with HIV-AIDS.   A year later, as a Christian response to the dilemma, they opened their first baby rescue centre in Loresho, Nairobi.   In 1999 they relocated to our present larger property in Kilimani.
WE rescue abandoned babies (newborn to six months old) and care for them until they can be adopted.   If they are NOT adopted and approaching three years old  then they outgrow our baby and toddler units, and are transferred to Hebron House in Nakuru.

Over the years we, as a Children's Home have assisted New Life by taking some ten children who had outgrown their time there.    They are still growing up with us even now.    And so it was especially good to be able to welcome for a short visit their Team to be with us.    They were indeed very happy to get an opportunity to look round and also to have chance to meet up once more with the
children we have had from them.     We truly appreciate this ministry and we feel very glad to be able, as the Lord allows, to join hands with them.    Thank you Clive and Mary.

LASTLY FOR THIS WEEK a view of our Greenhouse showing our first crop of Tomato Plants beginning to take to the sky! There are a few gaps, it seems in the planting, but there may have been a good reason since the planting has been done professionally, not ourselves.    They look fairly healthy. and we look forward to seeing the fruit.      The planting has been staggered with the most recent to the right. To the Right is a recent photo of our Layers putting on weight and size. They are doing really well.

Reading in Psalm 73 I found the psalmist ASAPH rehearsing his 'backsliding'  and then saying

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

Thou hast holden me by thy right hand.

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,

and afterward receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but thee?

And there is none upon earth that I shall desire

beside thee.

My flesh and my heart faileth:

but GOD is the strength of my heart,

and my portion for ever.

 IS GOOD FOR ME TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD:

I have put my trust in the Lord God,

that I may declare all thy works.

So go into the week ahead dear family, in faith, and in His Strength.      We do pray for you and Thank God for you all in Jesus Name.

John, Esther and Daryl Green

LITTLE CHILDREN GROW BIGGER EVERY DAY

SOME OF OUR CHILDREN ON STAGE ABOVE!   Mainly they are between 4 and 9 in this photo.  Some have been with us since they were much younger.      MANY are not doing well in School - down in the bottom ten in their classes of 36.     We do have one or two who were born brain damaged, but the majority are fine, and should be more than able to be 'average' students.   They laugh, play, and eat well, but present themselves as unable to put their minds to learning.     Of course all children are different, and all of ours have come from different backgrounds and gene banks...... but even so we are currently troubled to see the trend to be growing.      Is it something to do with our School, or is it linked to life in our 'Homes'?    From time to time I have shared how things are in Kenya, and even in Eldoret.    How our population is rising more and more, and unemployment rising with it.  Currently unemployment is over 60% and the majority are young people.    What is the future for those growing up?     The Government has mounted a drive to ensure ALL children attend School, and is encouraging Parents to take a long term look at where their children are heading - increasing awareness of opportunities in Colleges and Universities..........BUT at the end of all that there are less and less job opportunities.       AND at the same time those job opportunities require higher and higher academic qualifications, so that only the very best equipped will be taken.    The number left jobless only increases by leaps and bounds.      And FOR US another possible problem looms.   That of Tribalism!
There is a renewed feeling in some areas that only a particular tribe should live and work there, thus shutting those of another origin out.    So far it is only being spoken about..........but it keeps cropping up, and is becoming an oversensitive issue.

Testimony Faith Homes, (the Homes and the School) entertains more than 12 different ethnic groups among the children and staff.    Our County of Uasin Gishu is among those areas where tribal preferences are often talked about.

BUT out main concern is that WHEN the time comes for our not so bright children - especially those not of local tribal origin - will they
find work opportunity and future.    The RACE is on for the 'job-seekers' -  they must be of the right origin, with the most preferred qualifications.      It looks as if in the future, the way things are going, that even a road sweeper will have to have 'degree' before being employed!
SO we shall be looking into this very carefully in the next months, and we shall not only be examining how our School handles children needing motivation, and perhaps also a special approach, but also into the home family life in our 'Homes' and the involvement and concern of our houseparents in discovering what is causing some of their children to demonstrate any untoward disinterest in learning at School.      We shall also seek help and advice from Christian councillors
and educationalists around us.     Way back in the 1980s many of our Secondary children became depressed, falling away in their School work.     Even then they had begun to look forward, and see little to hope for in their own futures.     But now it is in the PRIMARY section.     Is it possible that somehow even young children have begun to 'give up' on life?  PLEASE feel free to offer you own suggestions that might help us.

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THE FENCE is now REBUILT, and SAFE.     It looks a little untidy still, due to the pointing and the underpinning, but we are told it will soon 'weather' and look like the rest in a year or so.  We hope so!  At least the TREE is safe , and our Grounds in some degree protected.    The cement work in the lower left corner is the main SEWER which is also undergoing minor repairs.

Our son Edward, Daryl's brother, who has been managing the Homes BAKERY,  (sorry no recent photo)  went through an operation on his left leg last Friday.     In his youth he was an ardent footballer, and his reward has been to develop Varicose Veins in both legs.    Additionally he also has been suffering a Tropical Ulcer on the same leg, and after about two years of discomfort he finally went to the doctor who told him if he did not allow him to operate he might lose the leg.    Even worse there seemed danger of a blood clot.    Ed is 45 and he managed to be scared enough to agree to the op.     It was quite successful, but he may have to have a further op on the other leg sometime in the future.    He is convalescing at home with his wife.

It is STILL raining.      Again, to day, even as I write, it is pouring down.    This is not the right time for rain, and the danger to Maize and Wheat harvests are now likely to become a reality.    Very strange weather.     If the harvest does fail then we will face famine to some further degree.

LASTLY just to mention that it was Daryl's 44th Birthday on 27th of September.    He was very pleasantly surprised to be presented with a Cake AND a small Gift by his Administrative Staff.  We also had him (plus his family) all to supper with us in Green Cottage that evening.

And thus another week - though not quite so busy as the previous one - has flashed by here.    Thank God we are all well, and the LORD together with you all in prayer and support have been our provision and encouragement throughout.    God Bless each and every one of you.

John, Esther, and Daryl Green