Saturday 1 February 2020

HERE once more is a photo of our current TEAM caring for all the children in Testimony Faith Homes - the orphans in particular.   
From the Left you can see, Daryl Green, the current Director,
Grace Mwangi,  Relief Houseparent;   Hesketh and Alice Muli, Parents of Drakeley Cottage;   Esther and John Green;  Eunice Lahol, Mum in Charge of Testimony House;   Catherine (Senge) and Micah Yego, parents in Tyndale Cottage;   and lastly David and Dorris Chumba, parents in Jacaranda Cottage.
I have this photo on my Desk Top to remind me always to pray for us all; our constant desire is to be more, not just team, but integral parts of a family to which each of the children in our care belong.  We are quite a mixed bag of individuals, but all plucked up and brought together by the LORD.

Please do remember us in  your prayers.   Daryl, as Director carries the weight of administration, Esther and I, as being semi retired from official responsibility, are none the less also still caught up in the daily ebb and flow of life, and each of our Mums and Dads, constantly needing the love, wisdom and faith to see each child  brought safely  through to the day they can leave us and stand on their own. 

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Testimony School
I must apologise for not putting anything UP last Saturday, and also for not letting you know.   But I have often said that I may not always be regular.     My previous publication shared a challenge we were facing regarding the cross over from Primary to Secondary Education.     In particular in relation to three of our children who, having concluded Primary, attaining little or no progress academically, now found themselves being forced into four more years of Secondary Education.        We were told they had no choice and neither did we.      We APPEALED and finally managed to get the local Ministry of Education Inspectorate to have the three children we were concerned about Assessed.
The result was that they agreed that it would be better to keep the children back from the need to go on to Form 1 of Secondary School, and rather seek some practical training that might better assist them for the future.        Thank you LORD, and a big sigh of relief.      The two boys will now be able to find trade training and the girl has already joined a Tailoring course not far from us.     A STORM in a teacup?   Yes, in a way, but if we had not stirred ourselves a lot of damage would have been done.
THEN, the Head of OUR school said he would not take 4 of our Primary leavers into the High School because they had not obtained the necessary pass mark the School had set for Admissions!!
They (the children) then faced being sent to an OUTSIDE School of inferior standards.     Daryl felt this was going against what the School had been built for - to provide superior education facilities for needy and deprived children in order to given them the best base for their future.    The object of the Headmaster was to ensure the School progressively improved its overall Grade in the National Exams years by year.    It HAS been improving generally - even though we have been accommodating children who are not especially clever.           Many of our kids in the Homes have had difficult beginnings which have often impaired their scholastic ability - especially early on.    The School was built to accommodate them, and give them the best assistance, and chance, to re cue their losses and face the future with hope.     Some still do not take advantage of this, but many have and DO.       The Headmaster apologised and has now accommodated the four.   Glory to God       Even after fifty years we find ourselves still having to PUSH our vision for our children against the tide of material concepts and ambitions.      These children, if pushed to another, and inferior school, would have suffered, feeling somehow segregated from the rest of the Family- they would not have done better, and instead sunk lower.      Schools should always put their pride and aggrandisement last, and the welfare and success of the child first.      Not MANY wise in heaven!
But many who have been judged below average end up at the TOP,,,, and by God's Grace many will BE in Heaven.

LAST SATURDAY we were all waiting on God;  funds were very low, and as usual we found ourselves looking up, from where our help comes from - from God Almighty, our Father in Heaven.
The weather did help a great deal as it was very chilly for the time of year (usually the HOT and DRY season) and the sky grey and the ground WET!  (Even as it also today as I write.)   And, of course, as with the opening of any School Term, we had found our normal outgoings more than stretched by School expenses ........
On Sunday the 26th, I felt I needed to just be alone with God, and spent the morning in prayer instead of attending the Morning Service.      I was so greatly blessed, and assured during that time.   I had also been enduring some discomfort in my left kidney area for some days, but as I closed my Bible and rose up from my chair every vestige of discomfort left me.       Late that evening, checking my E-mail, I found a message advising us that funds were on the way to us - enough to keep us all going into February.      How very good and gracious is our God, in the Name of Jesus.      We have never been in control of our income in any way - no way to KNOW when or even IF our needs would be supplied or taken care of.     We have only walked with the Lord in trust that He would not forget our sharings with Him, of our life and needs.      God has bent down His ear to hear us, and to answer.   Indeed before we even said a word, HE had known our need, and already set things moving to supply them.       We enter the Year ahead standing confidently holding on to God's Word as it is found in the BIBLE.         And with all the world whirling around us all, seemingly breaking up physically, politically and spiritually there IS only ONE safe place to be - safe in the nail pierced hands of JESUS.         AND He, the KING of ALL, is coming.      Let us not fear His Coming if we know Him, but let us wait with patience, kept safe by His Power.     Let us not look down or around us, but instead let us look up with expectancy  and longing - and let us also recall the words of Psalm 91 and trust in them to be as true and reliable as when they were written to all who will BELIEVE and TRUST in the living Name of JESUS Who is God indeed.

Our love to you all as ever as we cross over into another week full of the unexpected!

John, Esther and Daryl Green



1 comment:

Neil Hickey said...

Loved reading this post .Parts of it remind me of when I read the diary of George Mueller when he described how he would pray and seek the Lord and ask God to supply the needs for his homes and the answers that would come in wonderful ways, but also the way his faith was tried.