PANIC !

THIS IS NOT A BAD LIKENESS OF ME!  -  All the way to the ever present 'Tie' and Black Jacket!!!     One of my earliest memories is of a dentist.    I was just six, and he, a grim faced and towering giant in my eyes, had the task of removing an unwanted tooth.    Nothing to hang on to but the chair

After losing two molars when I fell on my face I found myself filled with apprehension about the required visit to the dentist.
Fortunately my Dentist lives on the 2nd floor of a lift less building, and my bruised and painful rib-cage forced me to wait before making the climb, and enduring the 'Chair'.    Both teeth had just snapped off leaving jagged splinters - but no pain.    NO, the pain would come when my industrious friend came to DIG out the remains.      The day before I was to finally attend him I found myself afflicted with a very real 'Panic Attack'!   I was in a dreadful state - and all orchestrated from my 'Imagination' well coloured, no doubt, by that old enemy the devil.

My Appointment was for Tuesday of this week at 2p.m.    Daryl drove me into town and left me at  the bottom of the pile of stairs.     I stood looking at them.    And suddenly the words of Psalm 37v5 'Commit thy way unto the Lord,....' came into my mind.      There seemed no one else going my way, and I continued to look upwards at the dingy staircase.      'Commit your life to the Lord!    Throw yourself, your fear, your apprehensions and cowardly anxieties upon Me, the One who takes ALL our 'infirmities' upon Himself, for the sake of our Father in Heaven's love for us.
OF COURSE I KNEW THAT.      YES, how often the actual knowledge of this Truth is somehow snatched away from us at crucial moments by the gusts of doubt and trembling thrust upon our flesh.
Yes, we KNOW He IS with us, has promised never to leave us, BUT when the TEST comes, as Satan said in Job 1v11, commenting to God in Heaven about Job '...put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.'       This is Satan's insight regarding ALL mankind, but he was WRONG about Job.     Job met his nightmare without losing his integrity, and faith in God's overall Goodness.     He did not let the sudden threat and even the reality of it remove the REAL knowledge of GOD with him.

And there I was laid out in the Dentist's Chair.      Looking at me slightly mockingly, the Dentist, who actually knows me quite well, remarked -  'Well, so now I suppose you are looking forward to me excavating these roots and tortuously digging them out piece by piece.?'      But I had climbed the stair, and resolutely walked with Jesus to the Chair,     'No, I replied, 'I do not look forward to it, but I want my teeth to glorify God, and not be rotting in my mouth.     Do your worst.'
He laughed, and said 'I want to save what I can, and that is what I will do'.    He immediately got to work and in 45 minutes had cleared one of the damaged root platforms and built upon it a completely NEW tooth.   No injections, no pain, and a very REAL awareness of being in the Master's Hands.
He will do the same with the 2nd decapitated tooth NEXT Tuesday at the same time, God Willing.
And these teeth will both look much better than the old ones.     What was I terrified of?  What had robbed me of the Assurance of His Presence, and of His ability  to ACT for my good and welfare?

I know some of you may well have been praying for me, and I thank you.     Wish I could testify to being less of a coward, but I am glad that it is not we who save ourselves, or establish our coming and going.   HE, the Lord of Life, holds on to us, and it a Mighty hold, that will never let go of what has once been committed to His Keeping.

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REFURBISHED, one of two 2 room lodgings first built way back in the 1980s and then sited close to what is now the School Swimming Pool.    They were built from a donation from a dear friend from Canada, Dorothy Wilde, and together were known as 'Wild End' and acted as Guest Rooms and also extra bed rooms at various times until 2013 when they were moved to make way for the Pool.     One became the School Maintenance Workshop and Store, and the other was moved to the Jacaranda Compound to become a small staff house.    It has been a little neglected and run down, of late,  and so recently it was decided to take it in hand again, and and put it to further good use.      It is good to see restoration rather than destruction, and how conservancy can provide ongoing life and usefulness to what otherwise would disappear and be forgotten.    ALSO it continues to testify to the Memory of a dear friend, now away with the Lord, but still very much a part of our family history and experience.    CURRENTLY it is sited opposite Jacaranda Cottage.  It is a simple structure of prefabricated timber, with an iron roof and cement plinth.  Still very mobile should we need at any time to re-site it.

WE HAVE ALSO TWO ADDITIONS TO OUR LITTLE HERD OF CATTLE!    Two black and white Calvs, one heifer born a year ago, and one bull born just three weeks ago.   Each from different cows already with us.   They are both very friendly but we will only keep the heifer.   The bull will either be kept for meat or sold.

We also were able after some two years of waiting on the Lord, to purchase this portable electric Milking Machine!    Such a time saver, cheap to run, hygienic, and a great hit with our three milkers; they all look as if they have been hypnotised into paradise every time they are milked these days.   AND the milk yield has almost doubled.

We Thank the Lord.     Our Dairy man, Vincent is also happy, having long dreamt of us going 'modern' as he calls it.


Well this will have to be all for this week.   Our son Steven will be visiting tomorrow until Wednesday, and then on Friday we will have one of our daughters from the States visiting for some days.      AND CHRISTMAS seems to almost have come, the days rushing by. 
God Bless you all, and constantly walk and talk to you by your side.
Our Love in Him always,

John, Esther and Daryl Green

REMEMBERING YOUR PARENTS

Mum and Dad Green this week

Anthony & Christoper 1975

HERE WE ARE AGAIN, 'Darby and Joan', and interestingly, in this photo, my dear Esther seems as small

Antony (L) me, Esther, and Chris (R)

as when I married her, and I look even bigger,      In snap shot as we were being taken out to lunch at the JAVA Coffee-house in a new shopping mall near by.    A very special and very unexpected delight engineered by our twin 'sons' who suddenly appeared and swept us up and away for a hugely happy and appreciated  afternoon.     Both of them came to us first when they were just five months old, in 1974.    Now grown up, married with children, both were called to preach the Gospel, one in Nairobi and the other here in Eldoret.
Anthony and Christopher grew up with us in Testimony House, and were among the youngest, with our own Steven, Michael and Lizzy.     It has been great to watch them develop and mature over the years, and to still have them close family to us all.    Always so good to see them, and to fellowship with them.        INDEED we are so very much blessed to have so many of those Father brought to us continue to have us in mind, and to see us as their 'Dad and Mum' in the Lord.  And there ARE many of them indeed.    Many right here in our locality still, and some far flung - even overseas.     We are hoping this month to be seeing a 'daughter' from U.S.A, Hendrika, who will be with us later this month.

AND, OF COURSE,  I HAVE NOW RECOVERED from being 'Flat on my Face'.     It has taken two weeks for my rib cage to recover to the point where pain is eradicated - all except for a little place on the left side which still snags from time to time.   I have not been back to the doctor.   I have not yet been to the dentist.........Next week I will be there.      Still I am glad to be pottering around once more.
The Primary Examinations are all over and done at School, and all students are at home romping about and enjoying freedom from their usually rather gruelling and confining time table.   Secondary School also shut, but the Final National Secondary Examinations have occupied every day this week, and for some will continue through to the end of the month - all amid tight security to prevent any kind of cheating.     NO visitors in the School Compound, no mobile phones and so on.    Still it will slowly decrease, though the armed security Guards will continue to control until the last Exam.

Abigail with Helen
& latest puppies!

And Esther and I have our little 4 year old grand daughter, Abigail staying with us, and for the first time alone and not with Helen, her Mother.     Helen was kept in Nairobi for various official Seminars to do with her School.    Abigail has never been away from Helen more than a day in her
life, but she seems to have taken it all in her stride, being well occupied with many little friends here, and satisfied that she is safe us too.      Helen should be back in about a week.     Abigail keeps us both well occupied and wide awake with her chatter and liveliness.    Always a delight.   So good to see her growing up so bright and strong.   

Eunice, Mum of Drakeley Cottage Family, now living in Testimony House right opposite to us, is back again with the family, and she has seemed settled and very glad to back again with her welcoming children.    They were all ecstatic to see her return home to them.     Thank to for all of you who have joined us in our prayers for her during her sudden loss.    Those prayers are truly being answered

Our Love in Jesus to you all.

John, Esther and Daryl Green

I FELL FLAT ON MY FACE!!      Just a week ago, on Sunday morning, as I was walking up from Green Cottage to the office, on my way to the Sunday Service- and WHOOMP I found myself trying to recover my steps, having tripped on the uneven path, and suddenly was FLAT ON MY FACE.    Fortunately I landed on some little scrub to the side of the cement path, but I felt awful.    Blood streaming from my mouth and nose.    I lost two teeth and although I felt my nose was broken I only hit it hard and scraped some flesh at the bridge.    And my rib cage raged with pain.   I am a heavy man, and I went down hard.

Manu came to my aid, and I managed to get up and slowly - very slowly - get back to the house, where I changed my clothes (covered in blood) and cleaned myself up a bit.    But my ribs were hurting, and I just had to lay down on the bed.      Nothing could be done since it was Sunday, but on Monday I went off to the Doctor with Daryl.     Fortunately the doctor examining me felt nothing was in fact broken. and gave me a pain killer and told me to be patient - the discomfort might continue to two or three weeks.     A few more tests satisfied him and me that no damage seemed to have been incurred by any internal organs, I can hope to live for another year or two!      I NEEDED the pain killer, and they did, to some extent relieve the pain I was in, but they also made me feel half asleep.      TODAY, after a week, I am still hurting, but it is less intense, and more general.   Initially the real PAIN was in the region of my left rib cage.    This is still the case, but has eased, and has slowly spread across to the right.  I am able to walk without difficulty, but I cannot bend still without careful attention.     I have not been able to see my Dentist.    Hope to do so Monday or Tuesday next week.   My whole mouth has been very tender since the fall was taken by my denture which somehow seemed to have pushed my whole upper teeth, bruising the gum and so on.      All said and done it was really the SHOCK that put me out of order this week.    Took me a while to just get over it; SO unexpected, and at a time when I was feel better than usual, and very elated in my spirit due to the coming together of the Family at Francis' funeral on Saturday.     

It has been a rather immobile week but otherwise I feel more optimistic and at peace than at the beginning.      I have not been sensible enough to be at my computer and thus once again I find myself late in writing anything until now.

I am not looking forward to the dentist.    I rarely enjoy attending, and this time I am sure he will be excavating and removing what is left of the two teeth I lost.   Not something to enjoy, but necessary to endure.      The Surgery is up four flights of stairs - no lift - so hope I make it.

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EUNICE Lahol has remained this week at her home, where Francis is buried.   She has come through this very difficult time for herself and family very well, and it is clear that the Lord has been close to them all, and able to comfort them and strengthen them in every way.       Eunice has asked to remain as Mother to the children she and Francis brought up and to return to Testimony House as his widow.      Both her children feel the same way, and we (Esther and I) and Daryl feel the same way.  She will resume residence on Monday.     When the 'family' heard of hear decision they were over the moon with happiness, having thought she might leave them as well.       We shall not take further into Testimony House though, at least for the time being, until she has finally had time to assess the future and her ability to cope and maintain control without Francis by her side.     But she is a strong woman, and strong in the LORD.     It has been a HAPPY family all of the preceding years, and we feel it has very hope of continuing to be so.        Please do remember Eunice in your prayers.

May God, our Father in Heave, reach out to you all, and secure you against all the wiles of the devil.

We do Thank God for you all, and all that your prayers support means to us. day by day.

John, Esther and Daryl Green