CHILDREN'S HOMES WILL NO LONGER EXIST
UNDER KENYA LAW
STARTING NOW children in homes like ours, which has been a 'home from home' for children abandoned and forsaken by their own parents and family members, forced out of their own home by abuse and violence in their own homes, and deprived of the Love, Care and Protection which was their right, will now be repatriated to those 'homes and families' from which the Government rescued them. This is the Recommendation of the United Nations, now supported by the Kenya Government via the Department of Children's Service. This 'Repatriation' will only be undertaken after a proper review and investigation regarding the current suitability and safety of the family situation. BUT children taken away from brutality and abuse might find it hard to believe in any change - and afraid to return. As I related last week one such family of four siblings have been returned to us AFTER repatriation when their previously imprisoned father tried to poison them. IF it is found, on 'exhaustive' investigation, that a child has NO blood relative living, willing, or able to be found, then the child will be put up for Fostering, or for Adoption - but it will no longer be able to stay in a Charitable Children's Home. There won't be ANY still existing. Either we agree to change into a kind of 'Reception Centre' where children come to be sorted and then redistributed as quickly as possible will all be closed down, (albeit gradually). Already our Registration, renewable every three years, and which expired in March 2017, together with many others, has been with-held Unregistered we have no legal right to continue, and can be closed down at any time. Our situation is, to say the least, insecure. Either we play ball or we close down. After FIFTY years we find ourselves, and all that God through his people have funded, and developed cast with disdain aside in favour of 'enlightened progress' dictated by another world. Government has even stated that many C.C.I.s (no names or numbers) are engaged in Child Trafficking and Child Abuse, thereby discrediting all such homes. Even as early as 2016 three of our major Newspapers published damaging reports on Children's Homes in Kenya, without identifying any in particular, stating again that they were centres of Child Trafficking, and other abuses. Yet in fact thousands of children have been helped over the years without a word of appreciation or recognition of the worth of what any of us in Residential Child Care have done. Until now we are told - "You should all look to the future and plan ahead, because soon you will no longer be able to do what you are doing. You will be closed down" Children are going to be thrown into countless unsuspected upheavals that will once more set back their lives, and present them with new challenges..
Some, indeed many, of our kids have been with us from when they were babies. Most have been with us up to 12 years. How will they deal with yet another big change? Who cares?
The Authorities say it will be 'Good for them.' Suddenly these children are going to be yanked out of secure, loving, settled situations into initially very disturbing scenarios.
Basically we do not disagree that the best place for any child is at home with its true parents and family. They ought to find the best understanding and acceptance there. BUT it is not always the case. Not every abandoned baby or infant (we have had many of 3 and 4 years just left at a bus stop) will be welcomed by its discovered parents. Not ever aunt, uncle or grandparent will want an extra mouth to feed or have to plan for.
Foster Homes are the next recommended destination for homeless children. But these offer no definite ongoing security to the child since they may still be adopted, or even passed on to other foster parents. In many cases Fostering becomes just a game of 'ping-pong' where children are bounced from one family to another until the state of the child is worse then when it was first found in need. But, again, we do not altogether disagree that a child fostered in normal family home can be better off than lost in an institutional crowd. Provided it is not based on any financial consideration, as a reason to foster.
WE have been told that if we could agree to be a Foster Home, open to children coming and going, as they might be adopted, we could continue to operate. To some extent we could see ourselves agreeing to this in principal, although it would still be the total opposite to the Vision we have toward helping needy children. HOWEVER we are again warned that IF we did agree, we could only have SIX children in any one of our THREE Homes, which currently comprise of a family of THIRTY each. Basically this rules us out, even if we agreed. The COST of running one house for only SIX children would be far above our economy.
We have many Questions. We have many real fears as to our changing society. BUT, our Faith is in God.
Foster Homes are the next recommended destination for homeless children. But these offer no definite ongoing security to the child since they may still be adopted, or even passed on to other foster parents. In many cases Fostering becomes just a game of 'ping-pong' where children are bounced from one family to another until the state of the child is worse then when it was first found in need. But, again, we do not altogether disagree that a child fostered in normal family home can be better off than lost in an institutional crowd. Provided it is not based on any financial consideration, as a reason to foster.
WE have been told that if we could agree to be a Foster Home, open to children coming and going, as they might be adopted, we could continue to operate. To some extent we could see ourselves agreeing to this in principal, although it would still be the total opposite to the Vision we have toward helping needy children. HOWEVER we are again warned that IF we did agree, we could only have SIX children in any one of our THREE Homes, which currently comprise of a family of THIRTY each. Basically this rules us out, even if we agreed. The COST of running one house for only SIX children would be far above our economy.
We have many Questions. We have many real fears as to our changing society. BUT, our Faith is in God.
The way things are going, it as if the desperate issue is to sweep all the kids without home or family under the carpet - almost ANY carpet that will cover up the fact that the Nation has a problem.
This has been going on all around us for some time. Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania have been closing Children's Homes in favour of 'fostering'. Rwanda has done so on a big scale and is held up as a model example of how the future will be. There are negative sides to this, but they do not hit the headlines.
TESTIMONY started of as a family refuge and then HOME to whoever we had room for.
Esther and I became Mum and Dad in our own home to whoever would come to the door. Our own children found us already with children who would be their brothers and sisters. Each new family followed this pattern. We did not see ourselves as foster parents, or our home as an 'orphanage'. We refused publicity, because we saw the need of privacy for every child as if they were in there very OWN home. We refused the idea of 'adoption' out of our homes because we saw each child as part of our own family. We expected to stick with them till they could stand on their own feet. Each of our Homes is in every way an extended Family - Father, Mother, their birth children, and those that needed to be ONE with them. A totally integrated family living, sharing, and growing together. For FIFTY years we have seen this work, and been proud to see children grow up and take hold of their lives with honour and respect. I think it has been better than a foster home. But we are in no way an enemy of those who DO foster children, or adopt them, and if we COULD see every child happily and lovingly united with their true blood parents and family we would be glad beyond words.
More than FOUR HUNDRED (not a huge number) have come and gone from the Testimony 'Family' over the years. We are glad for them all. They were not all easy to get on with all the time. They made us glad; they made us cry; they gave us hope for mankind. Even those who have left us are still family to us, to all of us who have stood as parents to them in the various family homes they have lived in. We are proud of them. We still care about them, and are glad to see them, and come to know their wives, husbands and children. And they are glad to visit and remember the safety and the warmth of having found a home and family with us.
I guess the Government knows nothing about it, since they have lived outside of it and have little idea of it. They must be forgiven if, in doing what they feel is best for the child in a general sense, they sometimes miss the mark, and err. BUT ................
In the mid 70s the then Director for Children, visiting our home, said he thought we might be the only home running as we did - he seemed impressed!?
BUT with millions of children still in need - WHY CLOSE homes like ours? WHY rake up healed pasts and wounds, and snatch happy, settled, and secure children back into more uncertainty. Why turn away FREE aid and assistance and loving care for one's children......Why?
We can Thank God for all the years children have been able to come in and be at home with us, and who have left us with God. We can be thankful for the four hundred plus that have come and gone, and who are for the most part still alive and well, and settled in jobs and with their own homes and families. It has been a Mission that has been successful. Nothing has been truly wasted. Good is still being generated from it.
AND, of course, we may yet see the Hand of God raised against this Plan of Man - it may, after all, 'gang all astray.'
TESTIMONY started of as a family refuge and then HOME to whoever we had room for.
Esther and I became Mum and Dad in our own home to whoever would come to the door. Our own children found us already with children who would be their brothers and sisters. Each new family followed this pattern. We did not see ourselves as foster parents, or our home as an 'orphanage'. We refused publicity, because we saw the need of privacy for every child as if they were in there very OWN home. We refused the idea of 'adoption' out of our homes because we saw each child as part of our own family. We expected to stick with them till they could stand on their own feet. Each of our Homes is in every way an extended Family - Father, Mother, their birth children, and those that needed to be ONE with them. A totally integrated family living, sharing, and growing together. For FIFTY years we have seen this work, and been proud to see children grow up and take hold of their lives with honour and respect. I think it has been better than a foster home. But we are in no way an enemy of those who DO foster children, or adopt them, and if we COULD see every child happily and lovingly united with their true blood parents and family we would be glad beyond words.
More than FOUR HUNDRED (not a huge number) have come and gone from the Testimony 'Family' over the years. We are glad for them all. They were not all easy to get on with all the time. They made us glad; they made us cry; they gave us hope for mankind. Even those who have left us are still family to us, to all of us who have stood as parents to them in the various family homes they have lived in. We are proud of them. We still care about them, and are glad to see them, and come to know their wives, husbands and children. And they are glad to visit and remember the safety and the warmth of having found a home and family with us.
I guess the Government knows nothing about it, since they have lived outside of it and have little idea of it. They must be forgiven if, in doing what they feel is best for the child in a general sense, they sometimes miss the mark, and err. BUT ................
In the mid 70s the then Director for Children, visiting our home, said he thought we might be the only home running as we did - he seemed impressed!?
BUT with millions of children still in need - WHY CLOSE homes like ours? WHY rake up healed pasts and wounds, and snatch happy, settled, and secure children back into more uncertainty. Why turn away FREE aid and assistance and loving care for one's children......Why? We can Thank God for all the years children have been able to come in and be at home with us, and who have left us with God. We can be thankful for the four hundred plus that have come and gone, and who are for the most part still alive and well, and settled in jobs and with their own homes and families. It has been a Mission that has been successful. Nothing has been truly wasted. Good is still being generated from it.
AND, of course, we may yet see the Hand of God raised against this Plan of Man - it may, after all, 'gang all astray.'
BUT we now have to seek the Lord to discover how we will use the Three Homes, and two Hostels we have been using for Faith Homes. They were built with God's Blessing, and we believe they still have to be VERY relevant to His Plan. We need all of you who know us, and who have supported us, to pray along with us all; with Daryl, God's Man on the spot, and all those who currently work with us. There may be a kind of 'transition period' but we have been given no assurance of anything. We have to wait and see, but we must not wait unprepared .
Testimony School
Testimony School
will not close - it will continue just where it is.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We believe that there are exciting DAYS ahead. TODAY all continues as if nothing has been said. The sun shines, the sky blue, and the children of our homes are all enjoying their half term holiday. Life goes on. And GOD walks with us.
NEXT WEEK we are expecting our usual Team of students and teachers from Tyndale Christian School in South Australia to join us for some fifteen days of friendly labour and recreation among us all. Some will also be with Neema Children's Homes just round the corner from us. We are looking forward to their arrival, and to the intertwined 'Adventure' of just being here with us. Their coming is an added confirmation to us, at this time, that God who holds us all in His Hands, is not seeing an end, but a New Beginning, to his Plan and Vision here in Testimony Faith Homes.
We do not want any of you to feel depressed or weighed down by what I have shared here today. We NEED your prayers, for the children, even more than for ourselves. Deep in OUR hearts we know that this ministry was given to us by God FOR Kenya to profit from, and we know it is HIS ministry not Kenya's, and not ours either - it is ALL HIS. And He holds it all together with the children and all of us in HIS hands. The OUTCOME will be of His making and we are not in FEAR or doubt about that. Thus we seek your prayers that we may all lift up our hands together, and SEE the Purposes of God demonstrated.
Our much love to you all in His Name.
John, Esther, and Daryl Green
NEXT WEEK we are expecting our usual Team of students and teachers from Tyndale Christian School in South Australia to join us for some fifteen days of friendly labour and recreation among us all. Some will also be with Neema Children's Homes just round the corner from us. We are looking forward to their arrival, and to the intertwined 'Adventure' of just being here with us. Their coming is an added confirmation to us, at this time, that God who holds us all in His Hands, is not seeing an end, but a New Beginning, to his Plan and Vision here in Testimony Faith Homes. We do not want any of you to feel depressed or weighed down by what I have shared here today. We NEED your prayers, for the children, even more than for ourselves. Deep in OUR hearts we know that this ministry was given to us by God FOR Kenya to profit from, and we know it is HIS ministry not Kenya's, and not ours either - it is ALL HIS. And He holds it all together with the children and all of us in HIS hands. The OUTCOME will be of His making and we are not in FEAR or doubt about that. Thus we seek your prayers that we may all lift up our hands together, and SEE the Purposes of God demonstrated.
Our much love to you all in His Name.
John, Esther, and Daryl Green
1 comment:
We love you all so much and are so excited as we count down the days until we not only get to fellowship with you once again but stand on the ground to pray with you as you seek the Father for wisdom moving forward. See you soon!
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