THIS IS AN OLD PHOTO TAKEN WAY BACK IN 2009, and indeed I had put it up on one of my Blogs for that year.    It is a favourite picture of mine, taken on the spur of the moment as I travelled to visit another Children's Homes about seventy kilometres from us.      It was the Rainy Season, and you can see how muddy the river is.     The chocolate brown of the water, the greenery of the river banks, and the quietness of the scene, with the cattle peacefully indulging in slaking their occasional thirst,- it was SO African a scene, yet it somehow took me back to my childhood in the West of England;   It seemed to speak of such undisturbed rural tranquillity - somehow still unspoilt by the ever encroachment of MAN, and his so call civilisation.      If I had an artists Gift, I would have immediately wanted to paint it, and  hung it on an expansive wall in my home.      Not a very remarkable a scene, but what it evokes in me is deep and arresting.      I took the photo on a little incline with the trunk of an enormous pine just to the left in front of me.    I could have have spent the whole day there........

Well my dears this week has passed very quickly with so many things going on and our scene changing with the close of school,  days of Final Exams, their completion, and Farewell Parties!
AND of course Christmas is now close to us, and preparations already in hand, and demanding a lot of interaction from us all, children included.     The weather is cold for US, and expected to become colder - down to about 58f !!!   The nights even colder than that.    Well at 6,400ft above sea level it seems as if we part of the north of England right now - AND with torrential rain every other day.
FOR US this is not seasonable weather even though perhaps not SO exceptional as in other parts of our wavering world.     But it ought to be having summer in the air by now, and be much warmer - perhaps our part of the world is cooling down?!!

During this last week I have made a careful end of year inspection of our School comprising 24 classrooms, 4 Ablution Blocks, 2 Boarding hostels, Labs, and offices.    A big school of about 175 Boarders, and 720 Day pupils including our own 130 kids in the Homes.     Took me a good three days, and yet again shocked me as I took in the wear and tear of such a daily 'horde' in and out of the classroom.      BUT all well worth the effort as we see the LORD entering so many their lives and also blessing them in Learning ( the School Result for the Primary Section have been very good this year and we believe we shall see the same for our Secondary Section once the results are to hand.

I have managed to send the last Update from my Diary for the year, and a small Christmas Card.  I hope to also be still in touch up to Christmas, God Willing.      SO only a short note this time, but no doubt I will add a little more in the weeks ahead.     God Bless you, and re-inspire you all over again with the JOY of  receiving all over again the Memory of of our Father's Gift, in Jesus, to us all - and not a memory only, but a living proof that He died for us, LIVES now for us, and with us.


Lovingly in His Name

|John Esther, and Daryl Green

LET US PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER..........

HOLIDAYS REALLY BEGIN TODAY, although the School has generally been closed on 24th October -  since then only the Primary and Secondary National Examination candidates have been here taking their respective exams.
This year's Examinations have been done well, and without any major instances of cheating or foul play.    Our School candidates have all been calm and well behaved - most of the whilst also boarding with us during the examination days.
A Weeks duration for the Primary Exams!
AND the RESULTS have not taken long to be released this year!   Great excitement, as usual, everywhere, and OUR school having some 72 candidates, managed to find NINE over the 400 mark, out of five hundred     The majority of the remainder achieving between 300 and 399.    A good result for us, and we have rejoiced.  BELOW is a photo of the NINE top achievers -

AND TODAY the 31 Secondary School Candidates will be finalising their four year course and facing College or University in the New Year.     There is to be a Farewell Luncheon at 1p.m. today and Esther and I, plus Daryl and most of the Secondary School Staff will attend with all the students.
The day is very GREY,  WET, and rather cool.     But spirits are high, and we can say this Form 1V Class has been one of the best we have had. 

ABOVE A PHOTO AFTER THE PARTY at 3p.m.

 I had meant it to be ONLY of the students, plus the Heads of School, Esther and Me

But the photographer called everyone else as well.   Hard to see who is who.
Students are in black blazers or maroon sweaters

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

THIS IS A RECENT PHOTO of  His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, Duke of York.      I personally know little about him, either good or bad.
At 59 he has seemed a rather quiet, man on the whole.    NOW suddenly he is aligned  with another  far more notable man, of infamous moral character and occupation.
The Media has jumped on him, and shredded his reputation and standing, whilst apparently enjoying every minute of it.     Well, there seems little doubt that His Grace made a wrong choice of friend, no matter what his real reasons may have been, but for the rest I find little to really make me glad in seeing his unilateral condemnation without any sign of pity, or consideration for how his family will also be affected - reasoning that at least one or two of them could spare him some little family affection.
The photo reportedly reveals a man who has just discovered his world has been overturned.  Perhaps ! ! !
Of course a great deal has fallen upon him.    The worse must be the knowledge that every one, including his own family, seem ready to see him sink in the mire.      No one in sight to pull him out, or offer a hiding place, or shelter, from the social, and bitter scorn and  self-righteousness of all the other sinners that live with him in this sinful world.
Where can he go?  To whom can he find to turn for real advice, companionship, HELP?  I know of ONLY ONE ANSWER TO THIS, but no idea if HE Himself knows of it.  For me the only place for a sinner, sinking into a sea of iniquity, is the CROSS of Christ, on which a Man suffered and died in the place of all others in order to secure the Forgiveness and Cleansing each one of us needs.    The CHRISTIANS in the Christian Church are supposed to also believe this, and that we are ALL sinners.      We all need to be crucified - BUT they also believe that they should  show God's love and compassion to those who sin just as THEY were shown it - and not stand by like the rough self seeking crowd in front of  Pilate, shouting manically and hysterically CRUCIFY HIM!      Truly each one of THEM deserved die MORE than Jesus did  -  and each of US deserve to be crucified as much as any man living today - even as much as a man born a prince.  The Christian at least should not be seeking for his blood but for his Salvation.  - Obadiah v10-15
BUT of course this once Christian England, is out of touch with God and HIS love for them, except, at times,in a purely selfish greed to cover their own mistakes.       SO the Christian finds himself wondering if he is deluded, and the world,with him,thinks he is too.    Poor ANDREW!   Poor everyone.       There is only pain and hurt in men's heart; revenge and retribution.   Mankind, seeks only to cover their own sins, and to avoid helping each out of the destruction sin afflicts them with,
Do we Cry out for Christ to come again ?   No, and if we did, would we all not join the masses and Crucify HIM again?         My prayer for Andrew is that he finds the faith to hide himself in Jesus and to trust himself to Him Who alone can SAVE us from our sin.      He  alone can MEND us, and REPAIR our damage, and RESTORE or life.      And there is no other remedy, no other way, no other place to go for ANY OF US.        GOD loves each one of us, and has no joy in seeing our life in ruin and we facing death  -  Perhaps he allowed Andrew to fall into this agony to bring him to the Cross, and to build in him a NEW life  - because He is willing  to let us suffer now, rather than see us DEAD for eternity in HELL.       Don't believe there is No hell -.READ the BIBLE and believe it.  

  

We must all remember clearly that

GOD LOVES THE SINNER, but hates his sin,

AND we MUST DO THE SAME

we must remember this clearly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A TRULY BIG 'THANK YOU'

to all those who have contributed and sent support to us through AENON 

in the last few days.     I shall be sending the  UPDATE out very soon

together with our Christmas Card!

WE shall also hope to be in touch again even before Christmas, of course.   We are  all keeping well, and joyful in Jesus.     Our Father watch over each one of you, and touch your hearts and lives with His Love just where the need is.    Our Love to you all....

John Esther and Daryl Green

HERE IS A VERY ROUGH SKETCH of Testimony School Field
- as we hope it will soon become!
At present it is in the process of being put into shape, so to speak, and it is quite a BIG job, and a lot of work - all directed and pushed forward by DARYL our Director.
Instead of sitting in his Office he has suddenly decided to attack the long awaited development of the School Field - NO not quite single handed, but with a large team of workers drawn from our grounds and even cleaning staff!!   AND THEY  HAVE WORKED!\
The field has a very pronounced slope from top to bottom, AND a number of other miscellaneous dips and bumps all over.    It has needed levelling, and  this has meant importing soil and then distributing it by hand in wheel barrows.      We have not completely done away with ALL the slope, but otherwise a great work has been done so that the whole now looks much more uniform, and certainly more able to be put into use as a Sports Field.      Another task has also been to sow GRASS since much of the field was like a desert.     Stones have had to be taken out and all of this endeavour at a time when the RAINS should have ceased.     BUT the Grace of God HAS brought some rain to water the grass plantings and help consolidate the earthworks in general.     Even so it may not be able to actually be put to use before MARCH 2020.      To date the soccer pitch and Track are almost totally in place - though still with quite a bit of manicure work to be done to finalise it all.     The Basket and Volley Ball Courts are still to be levelled.      We shall not put down so much grass but MURRUN  (a kind of sandy clay) which will provide a good dry and stable surface, temporarily.

These photos are of the Field as it was  yesterday.  The left is taken looking down to the School, and the one to right, taken from the same spot, is looking up to the top of the field, and our boundary.  It is hard to convey the huge area, or the difficulty of the terrain !! Three three acres altogether.

IN THIS PHOTO ABOVE I have stepped back a little, to the far edge of the Field where we hope to lay down the Basket and Volley Ball Courts, just in front of the Primary Boarding Block behind me as I take the photo.     You can see almost the entire area under construction.    A VERY big and physically demanding task.       It would help to have one of those lovely earth movers!    BUT it will still get done.     It will be a huge improvement for the School which so far has had to borrow facilities in other school.......

THE NEW AND THE OLD!    This was taken at the Jubilee, in August this year.     I must say Daryl looks the New chapter of events...... and I look ready to pass out!    And indeed I have felt much less energetic this year, and ready to let Daryl prove his strength and energy at 47.  Apart from a few days when life is cloudy, he seems to enjoy doing it all, and as I said earlier, is too busy to even put on his suit, just now.    The suit I am wearing fitted me well on my 70th Birthday, but almost ten years later appears to hang on me, and certainly I am a at least an inch, if not two, shorter that my son in this photo - I think I have shrunk - though perhaps not everywhere!!     

SO this must be all for this week.   I am now tuned in to a Cookery program on the TV - so much more interesting and peaceful than SKY TV and Party Politics.   But in truth I watch little of anything these days - still occupied and busy in my own way.       Keep well, and busy in the week ahead.  Give your time and mind to JESUS, and let HIM fuel your life and living with HIS Vision and Energy.    God Bless you, so very much.

John, Esther and Daryl Green





  

BEING CONSTANT IN YOUR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER

They don't tell you how this will FEEL!!

The REASON?

  it can't be captured well enough by  word, statement, or script.

It has to be LIVED,  to KNOW it 

+++++++++

THIS IS A VERY RECENT PHOTO of one of our sons, JUSTIN, getting first view of the first child of his marriage - a daughter!   

To us a very real 'PICTURE' of unspeakable Joy, Happiness, and Welcome for this beautiful Gift from the Lord his God.  The words accompanying the photo are appropriate. Justin is working for Jesus in Nairobi as a Youth Pastor with Nairobi Chapel.   

TRULY children are an Inheritance from God; they ensure our family's continuance and progression. Thus is our House built up and established - by our children.      BUT much depends on the WAY we bring them up.    The Word of God tells the parents to bring up their child 'in the Way that they should go.'     This does not mean that we bring our children the in way WE THINK they should go, or the way the latest social fashion might be.   In the Way they SHOULD GO.    God's Way.   And if we want to see them BLESSED and assured of God's Blessing, it is for US to point them to God, and to WHAT HE says in HIS Word..........      TODAY this is severely challenged - even in Christian circles as even the Churches are now infected by worldly wise teaching and opinion often very opposed to the clear teachings and admonitions of God's Word.

AND we do not have our children for long!      Even we do not solely influence them by our selves as their parent.      They are educated away from the home, they are exposed to the beliefs and practises and social ethics of the world via the Internet, Television, and the printed media.     THE Christian Parent who wants to be obedient to God, and to point their children to HIM, and His WAY, have to be even stronger and more determined than their forebears - and many are finding themselves questioned and even rejected by their own offspring who now see our faith as totally out of place in this libertine world in which so much evil is more and more being transformed into 'good'

'WOE TO THEM

that call evil good, and good evil;

that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;

that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter

ISAIAH 5v20

WOE to them that muddy and obscure the clear parameters of Male and Female, and the idea that it is our right to correct the sexuality we were born with, into something WE FEEL more comfortable with, or happy with.     GOD made us MALE and FEMALE.     WOE to them who feel THEY have the right to redefine what GOD has clearly defined, and to tear up the foundations of our humanity and species.

It is NOT GOOD that Man should lie with a MAN as he would with a Woman.    Leviticus 18v22 tells us this clearly.   It clearly means that men should not have intercourse with each other; it is not right.    True Marriage can never be RIGHT in God's Sight between two men or two women.
BUT today it is getting almost dangerous to publicly to share that these things ARE wrong, and even more inroads are being made upon the moral and spiritual values Man has proved, experimentally,
RIGHT.   Now we are asked to reverse -without question or disquiet - a trend that world history has already proven erroneous, dangerous, and socially threatening to our existence.   YES INDEED, WOE will come to those who do not turn to God's WORDS for clear definition of what IS truly good, and what is truly EVIL, before it is too late.

SO, what can we say, as we may remember the unspeakable joy of looking at the birth of our children, and seeing them for the first time; the thrill of seeing ourselves reproduced in a son, a daughter, without doubt in knowing who or what they ARE.      My son will BE my SON all the days of my life, AND of his!    My daughter will always BE my daughter, all the days of her life, and of mine.     He or She will never be able to CHANGE it, however much they may be induced to do so, or however pleasurable it may seem to achieve.    WE need ALL to work at being what we were BORN to be, and to measure ourselves by what God's Word teaches us.       Where we find ourselves  born challenged in our physique, our feelings, or some other area, we must face it and accept it, and discover means, by God's Grace, to correct and bring it back into line with God's Will -  NOT ours      LET US BE VERY CLEAR - THERE are ways THAT SEEM GOOD, to mankind, but they will lead us to DEATH.        As you look, at your  new born child; as you remember that day you were overwhelmed with the Gift of receiving him or her into the outside world - DETERMINE that you will do all in your own power, in the love of God, to teach him or her to KNOW GOD,    It is very hard to find your way down here, on Earth, without a Guide.    There is, after almost 80 years of my own life, only ONE that I have again and again discovered SAFE to follow;  One who never led me falsely, and One Who persistently tried to help me out when I selfishly and rebelliously sought to try another way of my own choice.      REJOICE IN, and LOVE your children.  They ARE the future.    PUT them near to God.
God Has a plan for each one - even when, at times, you may think they have gone astray and out of the way YOU had hoped for them.     GOD did not let go of them, the day they left home, or school.
He Will STILL follow after them for His Own sake, as well as for yours.     LOVE them.   NEVER give up on them.    God loves you and me THAT way.    HE will never give up on US.   PRAY for your children EVERY DAY.    Treasure them,  and LONG for them to be truly happy with the knowledge that to please God is to fulfill every deep longing of their soul.

++++++++++++++++++++

THIS IS A PHOTO OF TESTIMONY PRIMARY SCHOOL's Graduating Class for this year.  We had 74 students, boys and girls, all sitting the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E) during this last week,  from Tuesday until Thursday mid-day.    They then were given a special Farewell Party entailing a Luncheon also attended by some of their teachers, and ourselves.    We had a great time this year, and there was a truly joyful and expectant atmosphere.    It was however also sad in a way since we have had most of these kids in School with us for the last EIGHT years, including those from our Homes.    Of course those from the Homes will not be leaving us and will hopefully continue on into our Secondary School.     But many of those from outside of the Homes may be sent to other Schools of their parents choice.     So a few emotional farewells, but not enough to dampen the Happiness of having come to the end of the Primary eight years of being in school.
The RESULTS will probably be announced within the next month.

L-R  Mrs. A. Omobe, H/Mistress Secondary School,  Mr. A. Ndungu, Principal overall,
Mrs. E. Green and Mr. J. Green, Founders, Mr.. D. Green Director TFHomes,
Mr. B. Emajong, Primary H/master.   PTA Representative.

We do thank God for each of these dear young children, and pray that they may carry the Word of God, and Jesus Himself with them wherever they are to go, as they continue on in their Education.    Who knows what He has planned for each one of them.     AMAZING!

THE KENYA CERTIFICATE OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IS ALSO NOW IN PROGRESS, and exams have already begun in our School, and will continue on into this month of November for about two weeks or so.   Our students will then also have a Luncheon before leaving us, and going their way.      By that time some of our College students will be returning to us, and the Christmas Season will be close upon us.     We REJOICE.         The RAIN has eased, although even with cloudless skies and a warm sun shining down upon us, it is still quite cool for the time of year.     We need the sun and dry heat NOW, if the harvests of Wheat and Maize are to be saved, so do pray on for the Country.

JAMES MANU our son has just returned from his latest trip to the Eye Clinic 200 kilometres away.    He has had a very hard six months, and endless complications stemming from his eye problems.   As I have shared before he has also had to begin grappling with what is currently considered to be Epilepic attacks, and which have been increasing.    But his eyes have given the most discomfort due to a further infection.       His Consultant however was very encouraging and positive about his situation, and Manu has returned feeling much better after further treatment.       He has not been able to engage in any permanent employment as we had all hoped might be the case, mainly due to his supposed Epileptic situation.  The doctors are still not really sure it IS Epilepsy - but neither are any wiser as to what else might be causing the seizures.     At 35 he has quite a lot facing him, but is putting a brave face on it all.    We still wait in hope and expectancy to hear or see some sign that he has turned once more to the LORD.    Please do continue to remember him in your prayers.

Have just watched the English Team lose the Rugby World Cup.       It was a great match, and although sad to see the English Team fail to win, I had to also admire the South Africans who did so well, throughout the Competition.    Bless them all.

Our sincere and deep love in Jesus to you all.      It is not yet time to send Christmas Greetings.     Generally we do stand in need of prayer at this time both for the Schools and the Homes.     Our enemy is always ready to come against us, and we do not have much time to polish our shoes, so to speak, before yet another call to action confront us.    BUT we all remain in good health, and the SUN is shining, and there is a most cheerful and invigorating GLORY shining all around us.    We are not dispirited or fearful ......!      God Bless and Keep you all.

John, Esther and John Green

'