THE DANGERS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?     Well in modern terminology it is a demonstration to emphasise that 'Black Lives Matter' by going down on one knee.     I must confess, I am not too sure WHAT going down on one knee represents in this.    Is it supposed to be a sign of 'apology' for the past abuse, mistreatment, and even death of coloured people?    What is it?
The nearest, so far, that I have come to seeing a co-herant explanation has been in connection to an American Footballer - Colin Kaepererick who sat on the bench during the playing of the National Anthem as a protest.  He later changed this to just going down on one knee (?).   And since then it seems to have slowly adapted to a general symbol of 'protest'.    Kaepererick himself explained himself by saying "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppressesd black people and people of colour".   I am not sure if this covers every or any colour;  I mean even white is a colour!
ANYWAY, it seems that giving this 'image' speaks mainly of 'PROTEST' - possibly 'allegience' to a cause - in the current use 'Black Lives Matter' in particular.

In the old days of my youth ( and in this I rather sympathise with Dominic Raab )  one might have only associated such action to proposing to the love of your life, or showing allegiance to the Head of State.     It has now had to be commonised to include mass civil demonstrations, often accompanied with rioteous behaviour causing social insecurity.

What is wrong with our World?     There are so many serious matters that disturb mankind, and so many problems affecting civilisation in general.    YET the one that crops up the most - in every nation and tribe, is human discrimination.     It is commonly noticed under the word RACIALISM, but in fact it begins with our human cacpacity to individually peck and pick, and to bite and devour each other in critisism and judgment.     It is a universal and common fault in Men and Women - in MANKIND as a whole.    We find it hard if not impossible to love one another as we love ourselves;  that includes those of our own nationality, tribe or clan, AND those of another religion, political persuasion or colour.     It takes little to set one individual against another in their private opinion, if not in physical conduct.       SO WHY make it worse by finding those likeminded to accuse the rest?    For example Black lives Matter!   Yes they do, and it is true as a colour they have been abused and often marginalised.    They DO matter, and OUGHT to matter EQUALLY with those of any other colour - including, by implaccation, the 'superior', most blind and self-righteous Whites.      And let's face it not ALL blacks get on with each other, or value each other equally - YES, and not all whites speak well of other whit communities, or see them equally without critisism or prreference.       THERE ARE GLARING WRONGS, but they will not be put right by bitter, resentful, and often hate filled, civil (even 'peaceful') action that stirrs up even more disquiet and critisism.     The FLESH (the human selfish desire for justicie) is almost always without  true Righteousness or Loving kindness.    It is often more egotistical and unforgiving.

SURELY, if we all just concerned ourlselves with judging ourselves, individually, and apologising to one another for our wrongs done to one another, day by day, TRUSTING in each other's forgiveness, THEN we might truly learn to be kinder to one another.   After all we ARE all sinners;  we ALL do wrong.    We all make mistakes in our life and living from birth until death.   THUS Jesus teaches us to pray to GOD, our Father in Heaven - 'Foregive us our trespasses (against your law of love) as we forgive them that traspass against us.    Matthew 6v12      .
The harbouring of gievences and wrongs done to us only blocks the way for us to love those who trespass against us; and our unforgiving heart will seek only vengeance.   And, remaining in such a state can only set us up for further damage.   And so the more, regretfully, when this is found in those who have been taught the Christian Way of life as it pleases God.    For knowing the WILL of God they ignore it and act against it.   Created in the 'Likeness of God', we should all take care that we do not seem wiser than He IS, and and, if we say we believe in Christ our Teacher,  we should take added care to be found leaning to OUR OWN wisdom and understanding find and ourselves busy destroying our selves and each other.   We should take time to read and study the words of the New Testament of the Bible, in the Book of Hebrews12 v14-15 -

'Strive to live in peace with everybody, and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will ever see the LORD.      Exerecise forsight, and be on the watch to look after one another,  to see that no one fall back from, and fails to secure God's grace, His unmerited (undeserved) favour and spirsitual blessing, and in order that no root of resentment, rancour, bitterness, or hatred, shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and many become contaminated and defiled by it.' 

I was born in 1940, and lived through that  war to see the British people suffer fear and privation as the their young men and women faught to protect the freedoms of England's friends in  Europe, and their own from jubjugation and dictatorship.    Many faught with them.      At home those left to hold homes and families together, became as one big family, all  reaching out to each other, conscious of each others needs and heart aches, in ways that broke down all social and other barriers regardless of  education, ethnicity, or beliefs.    We were ONE nation.    Not perfect, but united.
Eighty yeares have gone by and I am 80, and Covid 19 Rules the world, and all nations are suddenly threathened with the possibility of extrinction on many fronts.     We now all need each other's good will and understanding.    We all need to pull together regardless of differences of ANY kind. 
BUT will we, can we, achieve it.       I believe it IS possible.     It is possible if your heart wants it.  God has been good to me, and given me a glimpse of how it can be.   I wrote about it in my Blog of June 27th this year.      MY testimony!   The testimony of a White British Citizen, brought up in England and educated in its History, and Politics, and happy that I did so.     I am proud of my Country and of its Flag.     I am one of those who always stood up to sing the National Anthemn at the end of a film at the Cinema, or drama in the Theature (as a mark of respect and allegiance the Queen who has been Head of State since I  was  twelve years old.     I regard the  heros and heroines that have gone before me - not counting their faults and failings for such are all of us.    I stood for Queen and Country  and in some way still do so, though for me has come a moment I have had to Look still higher to finally bow the knee and bow my head in submission, for now I have seen THE KING, the Lord of Hosts, Master of the Inuniverse and the Creator of the Earth we stand upon, and each one of us that walks and lives upon it.      I must honour where it is due down here, for God has even admonished me to do so, but my final fealty is to God in Heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord.    HE is the Prince of Peace.   HE is LOVE itself.    HE is full of mercy, and loving kindness, and it is his desire that I should be like HIM.        So though we all walk yet again in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil - for HE is with me.    COVID 19 should be pulling us all together, and nearer to God.      Can we now in 2020 find ourselves suddenly desiring it - before there are none of left?   THEN it is time we stopping shouting at each other.    We all stand condemned, but we can still help  each other to survive
I   Thank God for His Patience with me, and I thank God for my history - for it has been a learning process, and is still going on now in a very different world to the one I was born into, and a very different location.      My wife and I still live among a crowd of black and brown Kenyans, Africans all from different tribes and backgrounds.    I am English, She is Kikuyu.   We have two of our owns sons.   Both have married Kenyan girls from different tribes.   Our Daughter has married an Indian.  We see that living here has broken down tribe and colour barriers.    They do not exist.   If here in our tiny little enclave in East Africa, why not in the whole of  Kenya,  the rest of Africa, the World?

YES Black Lives Matter!    It is essentially true that this is understood and acted upon.
BUT Brown, Olive, Yellow, Pink and White lives ALSO MATTER. and it is important that this is even MORE understood.     We MATTER  - all of us all together - none more, or LESS  than the other.
LET US SEE people laying down their flailing, threathening arms;  let us cease to hear, any more, the loud, uncharitable chants, slogans, and primitive vocabulary of those interested in nothing but their own notoriety.       There is nothing truly beautiful or humanly attractive in it.   Nothing commendable.    Nothing Hopeful.     I cannot approve it.  It is not of God,  and is not His Way.

Part of the Testimony Family - still growing together more and more.

A WEEK has again gone speedily, and we are all remaining well, Thank God.     But, of course we are still all at a standstill, as it were.    The School still closed and empty of life.   Our teachers still away, unpaid and unemployed, and finding life more than challenging.     We are still supposed to remain on campus with our children, no one in or out except for special needs.   The Weather still rather uncheerful with lots of rain, cloudy skies and cold temperatures.    But we all have found ourselves in high spirits and happiness all together.        It is the end of the month, and we all wait upon the Lord to bring us safely through into the  month of August - our special month.

C.19 figures have been going up, and there has been a kind of hype of anxiety everywhere - though to my mind nothing has in fact changed.      Here at the figures as they were late on 24th July.

Total Cases Confirmed             Total Recoveries   Deaths
           16643                                     7446                274

Number are still increasing day by day, and we are now waiting to see it we peak in August as predicted.      If not then we will all have to think again.       There was to be a further report on Monday next week, but it has been delayed.     It is expected that if numbers do not abate then further
Lock Downs can be expected.      We look to God keep us safe and fearless.

We have you all in our hearts as we pray, and we  believe the Lord our God will hear our prayers and watch over your all.    With our Love and Thankfulness for your continued care of us in His Name, and on His behalf.

John Esther, and Daryl Green, and all with us in Testimony Faith Homes, Kenya

A STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH !

THE GREEN FAMILY IN  ELDORET, KENYA 2020

Daryl, Jeremy, Dad, James, Jesse, Erica, Mum, Helen, Abby and Becky

We do not often get a photo of us all together, and even this photo is minus Edward, Daryl's Brother who was not able to be with us on this occassion. He is employed in our  Maintenance Dept., and lives on the Jacaranda Compound.   Daryl, and his family, live about five kilometers away from us.

Jeremy is in Form 3 in our School,  Jesse is in his last College year in Nairobi, Erica in Primary 3 in our School, and Becky is in College in Nairobi training as a teacher.   Esther and I are still in Green Cottage here on the Testimony Compound, and James ,(Manu), is living away from us on the other side of Eldoret.   He is still  unemployed due his many medical problems, incuding the partial loss of more than 50% of hs eyesight, Diabetis, and Epilepsy.  Helen is teaching Nursery School here with our School, and  her six year od daughter, Abby, is in Class 2 of Primary.      The REST of our Family, Steven, Michael and Elisabeth all away in the UK, and the current Covid 19 makes us all feel even further apart.     BUT we are all in close contact, and we Thank God for it being so.

  

ALL our wider family of children and their |House Parents are all well and happy. We have currently 120 children in the four Homes..    This week one of our eighteen year old boys was sent away by Daryl, due to Theft; he had been found breaking in to the School Store to steal a computer..  This was the second time he had been involved in theft.   He is not the first of his age group to be sent away due to miss behaviour of some kind in recent months.    Daryl's reasoning in this, is pretty well the same as George Muller of Bristol's who firmly believed that to leave a bad apple in the barrel would endanger the rest.      God has not spoken to me in the same manner.      And when I became Engaged to Esther, and after much discusssion, we agreed that the children God brought to our door, we would welcome in as part of our  own family, and they would remain with us till they could leave independently,  and on their own feet.    This was not conditional on their behaviour.    Love is unconditional, and we felt it was part of our Vison to provide a secure and safe base for children to grow up in, and for us to have the patience to endure.      First we have to understand clearly that we are ALL sinners, prone to sin from birth, and secondly we cannot heal ourselves, and cannnot KNOW when any of us will be sorted out and given power to live a perfect life.     I must have patience with my brother, sister, son, daughter, as MY Father Heaven has patience with me,  willing even to 'die' for me.     This is loving my neighbour as myself.j      SO - yes we have not been able to do this perfectly.

We have seen times when patience wore thin, and on three ocassions over 50 years, among some 90 children, that lived and grew up with us, we have said 'Enough is enough' and had three of our children taken to Approved School   -   from which they ran away  - back to US.    And we took them back in.      We have seen some finally leave us still very persuaded of their own way and life style, and one or two have died  in their thieving, drug taking, and alcoholism..... But they stayed with us until they found work, and left able to fend for themselves.     They had no other home and no other parents who cared  about them, living or dead.     We have for the  most part kept in touch with nearly all of them and have been able to be with some who on their death bed, assured us that they had believed in God, and the Love of Jesus in dying for their error and sin.        Had we judged them too harshly we may never have had such joy in seeing even one of their lives turned around to face the Cross, and reach out for Salvtion.      'NEVER, NEVER, give up' said Winston Churchill, and he was right, and will always be right to have said it.     And LOVE will ALWAYS find a way through, to peirce the stubborn heart into seeing and feeling new.    As St. Paul says in 1. Corinthians 13 'LOVE (God's patient care and mercy) bears ALL things, and it will NEVER FAIL.      And that has to be TRUE even if my eyes may not live to see it come to pass down here!!

SO we are plodding on.    Has our original Vision changed!   I do not think so.   Are we in danger of wandering from the path laid down for us here in Testimony, when it began?    If we are, then one day we may no longer be able to sincerely call ourselves a HOME, a shelter and refuge, to those who have lost, or never even known, such a benefit.     We may have just become another secular instituion without a heart.

But the God who started us off, IS still with us, and gives us living proof of it day after day, and HE will in patience and love make sure we do not lose our way -  or our Testimony.    PRAY for us all, for we are needy, and want to please HIM.

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Another week has passed by, and Covid 19 still is taking lives, and infecting more and more.

Cases Tested       Cases Positive     Fatalities
233,641                   12,062                222           as at 17th July - Friday.

This is an increase of some 27,057 Cases tested since last week and an increase of 2,614 confired Cases over the previous week.     Plus 41 more deaths over the same period.
SO FAR only one reported confirmed Case in our Uasin Gishu County.

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THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT COVID 19 WILL AFFECT THE WORLD.
However, it is yet to be seen exactly HOW it will do so.

Most Governments are pushing to lift Lock-downs in their respective Countries, in an effort to save their Economies - and this at the risk of even seeing further waves of Infection as a result.    And, indeed, hundreds of new Outbreaks or 'waves' of this Virus are being reported where lock-down has been lifted or seriously relaxed.    Is the 'risk' justified, if multiplied deaths are to be the fruit?   Either way, in my opinion,  whether we remove all 'bans' or whether we retain them and see greater economic hardship, we will still be faced with more fatalaties than we need to expect. 
SINCE the onset of this Pandemic it seems to me that the World Media, as well as individual Governments have appeared to HYPE the situation more and more.    A kind of universal agreement to brainwash the masses into believing the worst, no matter what.     Or, as one brother, this week confided to me - 'We are being culled!  There is a conspiracy to reduce world population before all is out of control.'     Be that as it may, this would not be the first time that the world population has been threatened with hyped up news forcasting irriversable catastrophe caused by disease.
"In 1997 we were told that BIRD FLU could kill  millions worldwide - it did not happen.
In 1999 E.U. Scientists warned BSE could kill up to 500,000 people - fortunately only 177 died of vCID.    
The first SARS outbreak of 2003 was reported as having a 25% chance of  killing tens of millions, and being worse than Aids.    
In 2006 there was another bout of Bird Flu which was declared the first Pandemic of the 21st century;   the scars of 2003. 2004, and 2005 having failed to meet their body counts."     This gives us a picture of progressive public scare mongering.
"in 2009 pigs replaced birds, and the BBC announced that SWINE FLU 'could easily explode'  and it was suggested that 65,000 in Britain alone might die."  (Simon Jenkins in the Guadian of 6//3/2020)

ON MONDAY OF THIS WEEK - 13th July  - watching SKY NEWS during the evening, still in Lock-down, here in Testimony Faith Homes, Eldoret, Kenya, we found ourselves encouraged by an update on what we could expect should we catch the COVID 19 Virus - and painfully survive.    The presenter was very enthusiastic in informing us that there could be worse things ahead - even if we did come through hospitalisation.  It had now been ascertained that the Virus could seriously affect a number of our internal organs, such as Heart, Kidneys, Lungs plus, plus, and even weaken them, and causing further serious, if not fatal, medical conditions.    The presenter seemed quite unconcerned by any of this, and did a good job of consisely unloading it on the already depressed public.    SKY NEWS is basically Covid 19 these days, and it is a kind of labour of depression and negatism.  DEATH to MILLIONS was surely enough of an inital scare, but now, even if you survive, the lasting affects of having  the Virus might still kill you, or blight your life for decades.   

It is little wonder that the latest hot topic is MENTAL HEALTH;  the world is falling apart materially and spiritually, and it seems more by design, than by accident.    And, worldwide, there is an increase in the suicide rate, especially among the young.    It is as if the bottom has dropped out of life, meaningful life.    Nothing feels secure or permenant any more, as if the whole world is poised and waiting for the NEXT step........
NOW IS THE TIME TO TURN TO GOD, and to bring Him into our lives.

THREE SUNDAYS AGO, on the 28th June, we were visited by the Eldoret Lions Club.  We had just come from our Sunday Morning Service in the School Hall, as they arrived with gifts of food and other provisions.   It was a surprise for us, since they had not visited for more than a decade!  BUT it was a Blessing from God, and we knew the Lord by His Spirit had moved and prompted them to come just at that time.     We were all glad and thankful to see them, and to receive their needful gifts that touched all of us in the Four Homes.
Quite a number of the Lions that visited that day were from the Asian Community, but others also from across our Eldoret Society.    Quite a range of  'colour'   from coal black through to my lonely white!   This was not noticeably apparant!  Just human beings brought together in recognition of our need of one another, and also the value of each other.     Moments like these are always very special to us.   Moments that break through our ethnicity, our cultures, and our many differences that so often can 'dehumanise our attitude' to each other, and suddenly reveal are individual humanity, and 'likeness' to the One God who Created us all, each and every one;  Created us in Love and CARE, and never wanting one of us to perish or die, or be hurt by one another.      We need MORE of these moments in our self centered and self-righteous world.

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A STILL EMPTY CLASSROOM !!

KENYA Government has decided to delay re-opening of all School, Colleges and Universities until January 2021 at the earliest!    And this might still only be stage by stage!     This is not welcome news to us, or indeed to any of the Country's private schools.     Many in this sector of education have had to borrow from Banks, and repayments depend on the regular payment of School Fees from those attending our schools.....    And of course, whilst no one is learning and attending schools, unlike Govnment, cannot continue to pay Teachers Salaries.    Closed for a whole Term, and now yet another, will confront many Schools with the possibility of permenant closure.    VERY few of our private Schools in Kenya have accrued capital in the Bank for times like these.    We are not one of them.  It is quite a daunting time, with huge amounts of money tied up in buildings now unproductive of any revenue.

The Government has said that Kenyan parents are afraid to see their children resume school before Covid 19 is erradicated in the Country.      Our children are more important than Schooling.   This is not a thoughtless argument - none the less, if children are kept from school for too long they will have forgotten what they previously thought they knew!    This is almost a total year lost.   When Schools DO re-open the Syllabus will be resumed from the time classes were suspended - AND there is little doubt some time will again have to be spent in Revision in order to bring children back to the level they were interrupted from learning - a BIG problem for everyone.     And not the only one, since so many have lost their employment, and are now without ability to live as they once did, or have funds available to even care for their families.      AND the Government encourages us all by telling us things WILL get worse, and the numbers of those becoming ill with C.19 will increase!!      AND all this with more and more of the National Lock Down being lifted, and more and more laxity in maintaining careful distancing every day.      Mainly we are all at the mercy of those who see FINANCE and income to running the Country as MORE important than saving lives.      But the REAL Mercy to be looked for must only be from GOD Himself.

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Our Current situation regarding C.19 in Kenya as at yesterday evening. 10th  July -

Pos. Cases    Total Tested  Recovered   Deaths
9448               206,584         2733             181

Cases Tested on 10th July -   - 6,979 P)sitive Cases 473  - a considerable rise.

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THESE DAYS I AM FINDING MY MIND FULL OF unquiet thoughts about our common origen as Human Beings, all Created from Adam and Eve in the Image (Likeness) of GOD.    I do believe this, by the way.      I do not believe in a lot of different ponds producing variations of MAN.    BECAUSE I do not believe THIS, I am able to somehow still look for a way for us ALL, from every creed,and colour, to be able to appreciate, understand, and value one another, as one of a kind.     I have not disquiet about the humany of us all on this planet, but I am altogether dissatisfied with our inability to accept each others value and worth on a parr with our own.
We are a world warped by the individualistic, prideful mind of every man, each one infected by error and a nature set against loving his neighbour more than himself.    In the end this has nothing  basically to do with colour, physical image, or nationality, but rather an internal state of being.  We were not Created to be so, but we, from the beginning, allowed ourselves to fall into it.    And so we have spent much of our varied histories pulling down, and even destroying each other in thought, word, and deed.      It is apparant, as we see and hear of world affairs, that, today, not content with pouring over the details of current sin and evils daily brought to light by the media, we now spend time, in growing numbers,investigating both the living and the dead, in order to bury them under all the discreditable scandle, we can find.    We do this regardless of whatever GOOD these once well remembered members of our race may have also done.   In England alone this has brought about the destruction of  faith in our history, and of men and women of good memory, as well as similar attenpts upon the living, without any pity or regret when proved to be wrong, for the homes and families, together with the accused, who were often brought to ruin and unwarranted distress.
Shakespear, in Julius Ceasar, wrote -

'The evil that men do lives after them;

the good is oft interred with their bones'

BUT in our day, this may be on the verge of being reversed.      Thus we now seek to remove or slander the good, removing the memory of it altgether, whilst we instead self righteously parade the 

evil, the weakness, human error, and hatefilled image in front of all, removing more and more the ability to even recognise what IS good.     But for the Grace of God, there is not one of us that fails and falls into  regrettable and often ashaming error.    But God holds out forgiveness to all who seek for it.     And who are we to determine who Does and who Dosen't seek for such forgiveness in their heart.     Thus it was that Noah's son HAM was cursed for proclaiming his fathers laxity of life after accidentally discovering him, in his tent. naked and drunken ( Genesis 9v20-25)  It is not for me to judge;  I cannot for I too am as much a sinner as the one I would now point out to the world around me.      JESUS, The Christ, warns us, when He said   'Judge not that you be not judged' and in another place He says again 'If you forgive people their mistakes (their reckless willful sins, leaving them and letting then go, and giving up resentment) your Heavenly Father (GOD) will forgive you.

And here I must close.   But I may from time to time continue further in sharing what is pressing on my heart and mind.

All who are with me here, all our brother and sisters who labour with us, and the children, and those other brethren who live near us and encourage us, send their love in Jesus to you all, together with their prayes for you all, that you may be kept safe on the narrow path that leads to life.

Sincerely always in His Love

John, Esther, and Daryl Green, and all at Testimony Faith Homea.