YES, EDWARD COLSTON 'S STATUE HAS BEEN CONSIGNED TO A MUSEUM, his shameful image hid, his soiled memory now revealed for all to see and know.    Yet those who judge him now, know nothing of the man himself.    A wicked slave trader they say, who
hid his sins under charitable and civic acts of self esteem.     There seems little doubt that he DID trade and make most of his money from involvement with, and in, the Slave Trade.  In his 70's he was still advocating its expansion in Parlaiment.    He was also a devoted Anglican!
How could he have balanced his faith in God with the Slave Trade.   At that time, 300 years ago, the Churche's stand made slave trading like a 'rescue operation' to emancipate primitive man upwards to  the state of the 'enlightened' modern World of the day.    A genuine 'belief'?   Hardly a spiritual one, in all Truth.  Rather just a very 'bare' excuse to allow a clearly INHUMAN activity and trade, for purely carnal reasons; filthy lucre!   And a missplaced sense of superiority, perhaps.       There seems little reason to think that Colston himself felt unjustified in what he did - but this judgement is based on nothing more than circumstancial evidence.     I have come across no character reference for the man.   When he died he consdered his family, and the City of Bristol - but what was actually in the  heart of this man? -  only GOD, his maker knows,       At the time the people of Bristol seemed to commend Edward Colston, and the Church gave him a proper and noteable funeral.    Today the Church repudiates him as being totally unworthy of praise or commendation, and the City of Bristol has become ashamed of him.    Is Edward Colston in Hell?    Or is he, perhaps in Heaven?    The face of the man scuptored by John Cassidy of Manchester in 1895 depict a man who may been having second thoughts about himself - but of course this is just an impression of mine, based on the 'distant' imaginative impression of the sculptor.   But he may, finally, have found his conscionce troubling him.    At 84 he no doubt may have considered how he would meet his  Creator - and what His judgement would  be.....    BUT he may just have been like so many others, even today, who shrug off God from intruding into their lives, refusing to hear that 'Conscionce', given to EVERY   man and woman of every colour, race, and kind, to lighten them on their way.
NOW YESTERDAY I read that the Church is considering throwing out statues and statuettes that represent the Lord Jesus, and the Apostles that look too white - even a pictorial comment on how Jesus Christ may have actually looked like -  (there are NO drawings or representations of Him anywhere) - and the COLOUR His skin may have appeared to day.      What a very fragmented, arrogant race we humans have become.      We aspire to all be little gods,  jealous, asnd self righteous all.    YES,  we ARE ALL sinnesrs, there is and never was, even one righteous in God's Sight, and that is why Christ was born of a Woman, and came to reveal what TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS is.  DOES it MATTER what shade of colour His skin might have been - He died for everyone, for me, for you too no matter what colour you might have been given.

As for me I wish there were no drawings, paintings, sculptures or statues of ANY person, for none of us were born without the taint of, and inclination towards sin, and evil;   none are perfect, or will be, wthout Christ having found us out, and given the rule over our mind and spirit.
When I was a boy, growing up, England seemed such a secure and safe place.    Our history intact and even we ourselves all intact from being investigated, re-invented, and even forever doubted, suspected, and finally exposed - even after our death.     Where once God was seen and trusted as the final Arbitrator and Judge we now want to do the job for Him, and we do it most imperfectly.   It is a world of restless and wicked intent against whoever and whateve takes our fancy.  An age of pulling down, and letting others drag us all (along with our history, heros and culture)  in the dust.    Has God forgiven us.   If so why can't we forgive each other?

Since I arrived here in Kenya 51 years ago I have lived together with a multitude of black, brown and other 'coloured' people, and married a faithful, spiritual, brown lady from Kenya.   Many people told me not to get to close to the African - they are a different culture with different natures - but Esther and I have found the wonder of discovering that there are no real differences within us, and that though individuals we are individual HUMAN beings made in God's Image, able to appreciate Him and to appropriate Him into our lives together, as more than a brother or sister.      Surely - if we cease to look for, or expect to find differences - there must be hope for mankind to live together.    And thus 'colour' as an argument that should never be an excuse for one to degrade or set at nothing those of us  who are either  Black, White, Yellow or any other variation of skin colour.      Someone once told me that WHITE is of itself a colour, but is of itself made up, ultimately, of every colour.     We SHOULD all, quite naturally and ureservably, be able to co exist together, and trust each othe with each other's imperfections, with tolerance and forgiveness, respecting each other for what we all are, pilgrims needing to find our way together out of darkness into Light, and our Eternal Universally United HOME.       Love is what we all need for each other - not the kissing and cuddling only but the CARING and PROTECTING, kind that will consciously do nothing to hurt the other.     When you start trying to live for each other that way, you soon discover the evil mind within you that forces you to own that, indeed, you are NOT perfect - you are NOT 'like' God.     We ALL need to say sorry to each other, and to try harder to do better.    I have been grateful to find a family so different in colour  and heritage, that has made me, just as I am,  part of it, and indeed, without changing my colour, has absorbed it into their own, so that we see each other equally and in depth, as one.

I am center with Michael and Esther, surrounded Esther's sister's family, our son Steve, Daryl and Manu, and daughter Elizabeth, and a host of other sons and daughters that make up our Family at Testimony

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

  

ME AND ESTHER sharing a memory last year
Next year we shall have been married 50 good years.



===============================================

latest Covid 19 Figures or Kenya
as at 27th June 2020

Total Tested since March  160,684      Confirmed Cases 5533 including 149 as on 27/6/2020
Total Recveries as at 27/6/20  -  1,905       Deaths  137

===========================================================================

Well, dear friends,  once more we send out out Thanks to all those who sent a gifts to us vis The AENON Trust through April to 20th June.    We understand Aneon does acknowledge gifts received and meant for Testimony Faith Homes.    We usually acknowledge as well, once every two months, with an UPDATE from my Diary covering the period, and also a general note to everyone.    SO soon the next UPDATE should be reaching you either by E.Mail or Airmail post.      Until then our very sincere Love and best wishes to you all, as we look for His Coming.     God Bless you every one.

John, Esther and Daryl Green and all at Testimony Faith Homes

OPEN OUR EYES - THAT WE MIGHT SEE!

,

OUR EMPTY SCHOOL.......and it looks very much as if it may stay empty until the NEW YEAR!!
We had hoped that the Education Ministry might decide to open in September.    They are in fact still deliberating - but, the now inevitable 'LEAK' from every confidential Meeting, is saying that the majority of parents want their childen left at home until Covid 19 is no longer existant in Kenya.  Many Government Ministers feel the same, and so...........!?     Well we have to still wait and see what the 'Official' Decision will turn out to be.       Of course the longer they wait to grant us all permission to re-open, the greater the problem will be for us all.      AND even worse for all those who have worked in our Private Schools, and whose salary depends on income from parents sending their children to learn with us.     NONE of us will be able to pay, and thus our teachers and support staff will go UNPAID.     How will they survive.     Nobody quite knows.     Again we look to Heaven and our Heavenly Father  (at least some of us will).

The Government has been concerned in recent days because of what they see as rising numbers of Positive C.19 cases being presented.    As of yesterday 19th June Kenya's figures were as below:-

==================================================

Cases Tested - 133,541  /   Positive Cases - 4374  /   Recoveries - 1550  /  Deaths 119

     

================================================== 

NEW cases - as on 19/6/20 -  117
These cases are now springing up all over the Republic, but WE are still not too pressed, and we have heard of only one fatality in our County.      Our Quarantine is stilll holding, but next week it hoped to bring back some of general staff who had been laid off.    The Cufew still in place, but some business slowly being set free from the severest restrictions.

=================================

THIS IS A RECENT PHOTO
of various mansions that are in process of being built very close to our School Field.
They are beautiful, but somehow I cannot imagine building them so that every football will drop into my front garden.    Even the prospect of looking out at a six foot wall, and the back end of our school would not really appeal to me.      Be that as it may, there they are there, and we were here right before they even bought the land to build on, so they must had wanted to be CLOSE.   You can just make out the Soccar goal post - just to the left of center, in front of the wall.     Hmm!

THIS is a water colour painting,
executed by J.E. Jones, dec, who painted it in the 1950s
He was quite well known, and it was the sale of some of his paintings which he left to us on his death, that allowed me and Esther to help send Steven to University.
He actually left the canvases to his sister in law, my foster mother, but she having died, 
they came to me as her only surviving relative.
At the time we ourselves had not a penny, and it is sure Steven would not have taken his place
in the University if my adoptive uncle had not stepped in, unkowingly, to provide.
Wonderfull are the Ways of God.

oo0oo

Well this will probably be all for this week.       We all remain well, and occupied.   After all that is what He wants from us - to be busy about his business;  gathering others into His Kingdom.   At 50 I had begun to think life was running out on me......but here I am still, thirty years later.......   I wrote in 2003 -  ' Our Lord and King has told us to OCCUPY ourselves until He comes.    He has not suggested ANY should retire, or give up on life - NO!     Jesus expects each one of us to keep busy for HIM, and  for the Kingdom of Heaven.    We should not even be thinking of Death or dying!  That is to give in to the Enemy, who longs to see us shot down in flames into some morbid pond of despondancy and despair, never again to find the courage or faith to continue  the fight.

Are you over forty?  Perhaps youhave actually reached fifty and over.  Tou may be a brother or sister in Christ.   Are you feeling a little dispirited;  a little physically dilapidated, and useless to God?  Are you on the verge of making excuses for not pressing on against that Enemy, and from taking up new challenges, and becoming involved in new ministry?    Come on now RISE UP, and GET GOING.  You are not dead yet!   Let God's Spirit  till He COMES!     Take a new look at Life -HIS LIFE - in you, and realise that you can still have a part to play in it;  still make a difference.   Get some Optimism!    Get some Faith!    Don't end your life like JONAH, all shriveled and shrunken in your own spirit.     I always think of Jonah as a man in his fifties;    God was forever saying to him, ARISE!

GET UP and GO!'

Shrink not, Christian!

Willl you  yield, will you quit the painful field?

Will you flee in danger's hour?

Know you not your Captain's POWER?

Let your drooping hearts be GLAD

March in heavenly armour clad.

LET NOT your fears  your course impede,

Great is your strength, if great your need.

Anon.

Our Greeting to you ALL, and may you  all be establised without fear or anxiety because you have Called upon  God in Jesus Name to be your Saviur, your Staff, your Refuge at ever corner.

Lovingly in Him.

John Esther and Daryl Green

SURVIVING UNDER PRESSURE CALMLY

OF COURSE YOU HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE!

Just a very rough sketch of Testimony Faith Homes and School.   I am sorry the KEY and the actual identification of buildings has come out rather too small to see comfortably, BUT  I hope you will find a way to magnify it.   I also regret that on the right hand - in the Jacaranda Cottage compoud -  the new Jeacaranda Cottage is not 'drawn in'  - it should appear center far right of the compound between Drakeley and Tyndale Cottages.

All that is within the boundaries of the sketch have been Quarantined since 16th March.  Interestingly no 'official' enquirey or visit to us has been made to discover if we are well and healthy.

Since we have children in residence on both sides of the road, we have been given permission to come and go as we please but not to adventure anywhere else, and without allowing any visitors to enter the Gates of either residential compound.

We do not have to wear masks UNLESS we have to go to town on necessary business.

We all live in Elgonview Road, ELDORET, in Uasin Gishu County in KENYA, East Africa.   Eldoret is approximately 100 kilometers from BUSIA on the Uganda Border, and some 360 kilometers from Nairobi.

As you can see, although with a good coastal strip, Kenya borders with many other Nations, all trading with us.     Thus most of the challenge is from those coming in who may turn out Positive with C.19

CURRENTLY the whole Country is under daily Curfew as from 9p,m. to 7a.m. for the next month.

Technically we all remain under Lock Down but some hotels and business are beginning to be allowed to re-open but with the usual 'spacing' demands.

LAST WEEK I shared about our School still being closed down with all others.    A few days later the President announced that it was planned to let School generally re-open as from 1st September - but GRADUALLY.     He did not define more than that, and we are still in the dark, to a large extent, as to HOW school will find themselves opening.     BUT of course they will all need to observe spacing, and all children will probably also have to wear masks.

As of yesterday evening _12th June - the statistical situation is as follows:-

=======================================================================

Total Confirmed Cases to date     Total Recovered      Total Deceased      Total under Treament

since 12th April  -  3,305                        1,164                          96                            2,045
====================================================================== 
ON THE 12 June 2,419 were tested, of which 90 proved Positive     -   34 from Mombasa,  36 from Nairobi, 12 from Bungoma, 3 from Uasin Gishu, and 1 from Kilifi, Garissa, Kisumu, Meru, and Turkans.

I hope that the MAP above might assist in helping you to get an idea of the way C19 is affecting the Country as a whole, and I will also now give a County by County tally of Cases that have proved positive up to date.
=======================================================================
NAIROBI  1,188   /  MOMBASA   929  /  BUSIA   217 /  Kajiando 96 / Kiamabu 72 / Uasin Gishu 54 / Kwale 34 / Migore 24 / Kilifi 23 / Mandera 18 / Taita Tavita 17 / Wajir 16, Garissa 13 /  Nakuru, and Kisumu 12 / Kitui and Siaya 10 / Nyere 9 / Turkana 8 / Homa Bay 4 / Machakos and Muranga 3 / Isiolo, Bungoma, Laikipia, Meru, Kisii, Makueni and Nyandarua 2 / and finally  Kericho, Bomet, Nyamira, Kirinyaga, Embu, Kakamega, Vihiga, Marsabit, Elgey Marakwet, and Trans Njoia  1 each.   
=======================================================================

THREE months have gone by since our first case.   The Government feels we may still have a worse scenario to come, although so far it seems we have not done too badly.     Of course, as elsewhere, round the globe, there are many who want to be set free from all lockdown, and it is yet to be seen how well this Virus will in act be contained, at least, in all Kenya.      WE, in Testimony Faith Homes, in ELDORET, are still virturally untested, and apparently untouched by C19.   The hardest hit areas are still at a distance from us BUT Cases are still being discovered all over, and there is little doubt that more people are being infected that we are actually not aware of .      OF COURSE, this is usually the case with ANY kind of infection, viral or otherwise.      Keep your feet on the ground, and whilst taking notice of all the Medical and Media advice and comment, KEEP CALM, Leave your anxieties at the CROSS of Christ, and TRUST in HIM to bring your through, so that you can live an even longer and better life for HIM.

=============

President Uhuru Kenyatta, soon after last week's Blog, spoke on Television to the Nation, warning us that although progress was being made we still could not take chances, and be tempted to move too quickly in trying to return to life as it was.    It was then that he announced a continuation of the Natinal Curfew.
Our own special interest, was in what he said regarding Education, and the future for our Schools, and of course our School  in partuclar.
He said only one definate thing, and that was the date School would open - hopefully - and in doing this, he also added that they would open 'gradually'.  He did not go into details of what he meant by this, but said that a Special Committe was looking into it, and hoped to let every one know by the middle of August.       School would OPEN gradually (maybe class by class ....) on 1st September
Teatimony School is also a Member of the Kenya  Private Schools Association, and Anthony Ngungu attened a Meeting to discuss these revelatios, just this week.       There was a lot of positive feeling, and we at least see a good posibility of being able to continue, ourselves   -   BUT there will be much to do befor September !       Already Government has agreed to bring forward their discussions intended for August.   It was felt more time would be needed by ALL schools to get ready and C19 prepared.        Government Requirements to meet C.19 specifications will now be delivered before the end of JUNE.      Much better.   But it will still be very demanding.
Daryl, Anthony Ndungu and I have walked round the School together since then to get an idea of what faces us.       We have discovered that we will not have space (after meeting the 1`meter spacing requirement) to have desk space for more than HALF of our previous population.     However we feel  that few, if any, of our parents will want to take their kids to another School - if they can find one~!      SO we are working on a plan to divide into two seperate groups that will come at different times daily - for Example Group A will attend mornings and Group B afternoons.   It will need a lot of planning but it is feasible.      A lot MORE is needed, and we are going to recall some key staff to assist Anthony Ndungu to help get everything sorted out.     This  VIRUS!      Wouldn't it be something if, in the end, it is discovered to be little more than any other, and if left to itself would have just become another 'bug' to contend with - if we got it.     No I am not trying to be flippant or calous, and I am conscious of the thousands that have died.     BUT, thousands die every day and many from colds and influenzas thatm meeting other infections being faught, will cause those deaths  We are not even told how many usually die in an average day - apart from C.19 - we have just blindly lived with it.     The Population has continued to expand.

Testimony High School under construction 2013

I must conclude for this week.    We continue to job along day by day, and like the Widow of Zarapheth we neve come to the end of the oil or the maix barral - as we take the last scoop, more comes in - as with this week - We had needed to puchase necessities that come to an end.    Before we could even consider what we would do, a gift of Fifty Dollars arrived out of the blue from a dear brother and friend we had not set eyes on for many years.      Our Father in Heaven surely never ceases to look out for us in our store, as well in every other matter of our lives.   Keep close to HIM, and do not waver or doubt that HE knows your need before you even ask, and will not ingnore it.  BUT and if you do waver in believing, and miss-trust His Faithfulness, THEN you might receive nothing - not even protection.      HE is SO jealous of our love, and trust.............

Ours Love to you all, with thankful hearts always..

John Esther and Daryl Green

TESTIMONY SCHOOL, our beautiful School is in danger of closing.   TODAY we expect the President to announced possible dates when schools, generally, will be able to re-open, and the changes that will need to be made to ensure continued protection to the students and teachers from Covid 19. 
We do not forsee this to be a smooth and easy practicallity!
For example the School has 24 classsrooms with a total population of 860.   IF we were to re-open with the same students that were
with us before the Lock down, we would have to find as much classroom space again in order to cater for 'Spacing', for example in every classroom.    This would not be possible for us.     
Then again, if we had to REDUCE our intake, our INCOME would not be able to support the salary of the necessary teaching staff.
Then there is the factor of whether or not we would even find parents willing to return their children to school, when Covid 19 is still with us, and increasing.
ALSO, as I have shared before, having had to release our teachers, being unable to pay them, we may still have difficulty in replacing them without a sure ability to discover the necesssary incoming FEES.    So we need parents to comitt themselves FIRST...... 
WE WAIT to see what will be suggested today.   BUT for us, whatever the word might be, it will still present us with considerable problems.     Considerable financial risk, and a need to secure what we have without loss.
AGAIN, if our School remains shut, then our children will have to remain out of school, OR we shall have to find places in other schools that may be open around us - at a cost we have so far been able to avoid.
However we look at it, we are confronted with a challenge greater than any in the past.
WE, from the point of view of our human reasoning mind, are looking at an impossible situation - BUT WITH GOD, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!
YES - and so we hang on;  we STAND, wide eyed and expectant, yet conscious that we still need to enlarge our faith.....AND that, I believe, is what our Father in Heaven is all the while endeavouring to do - grow our faith in us.

ABOVE IS Testimony House, our flagship family home, and a viewe of the whole Family, all locked together, waiting on God, and safe in His Loving Hands.

Beginning in 1969, fifty years ago, with just two boys, and a promise from God that He would take care of us, we have grown to see more than  350 come and go, and a standing total current family of 120, all enwrapped in His everelasting arms.      God asked me to depend only on Him and no other.  This has meant we have done our best not to share our needs, specifically, with any man.   We have not always had a smooth ride in doing this  (neither did Elijah) .   But this is what we felt he wanted from me, and from all of us together,      He has never failed us.    He has increased us, and increased our initial little faith - step by step..       We are now in the process of making another step.   Are we alone in this?  NO!   Father still has hold of our hand.    HE is with us.      BUT, dear brothers and sisters out there, we do feel weak at times like these, and perhaps weaker than usual now, when all the world seems to be in a 'twist' all around us.     Indeed I think we ARE, all of us caught up in a veritable 'WHIRLWIND' of unnerving events.     YET GOD IS STILL WITH US.     We all need to remember to pray - not merely for oursleves either, but for one another, for WE ALL, who believe, ARE one Family in Jesus.

AT TIMES, we have felt we are being prepared for an ending;  an ending, or wrapping up, of this ministry.     After all, what he set before me in 1969 has been accomplished - we have seen four family homes for homeless children and young people come into being, AND a School to prepare them for the world outside.      It MAY have been something transitory to meet a special need for a time.      There has been opposition often, and the world has changed for us.    BUT on the other hand this may just be a time of transition, rather than a complete end in itself.     We must not lean  to our own understanding in any thing, but at the same time we have to take care that, whilst we are here on Earth, we keep our feet on the ground as well.

TODAY

is a cloudy day.   Rain is forcast for the week ahead of us.

Within our compound, in our family,

there is peace and joy in each other.

OUTSIDE

the world waits crazily, impatiently, even rebelliously.

for tomorrow.

And it waits ready to be swomped by human unreasonableness

in every kind of impassioned, lawlessness.

WE THANK GOD HERE FOR OUR LITTLE ISLAND OF QUIETNESS.

Standing with Jesus, our Rock of Security and Confidence

we may be sure that we are not IN this Whirlwind, and not of it.

WE ARE SECURE.

God Bless you ALL, as we continue to pass through the world on our journey Home.  Remember THIS is not our home, we are sojourners, pilgrims on our way further, not residents seeking residence finally were we now find ourselves.     Day by day the scene is changing, and being left behind, as we draw nearer and nearer to HOME......H O  M E at last! ever to Rejoice!      

From us all 

John, Esther, and Daryl Green, and ALL of us here in Testimony Faith Homes.