AND THIS TIME it isn't the Government, but those ill informed friends and associates who love to spread news without confirming it IS news, and not fiction, or just straight miss information.
ABOVE IS A PHOTO, taken today of the sitting room of Testimony House, and it is not being destroyed, or ripped apart as some 'gossips' are saying. No way! This is where our Family began, and it was where I and my wife spent twenty eight years of our life building a home for our children; both our own, and those who came to make their home with us. It has remained a Family Home, and it is the intention of the current management of Testimony Faith Homes, that it will remain so.
BUT for the next year it is being loaned to Testimony School for use as a Boarding House for some forty of our Secondary boys, attending our School. It is hoped that as the Covid 19 crisis, and changes that have had to be made, are overcome, that all things will return to normal, by the end of the year
RIGHT NOW - taking advantage of a brief ten day break in the School Year, Daryl, as Director over all the work of the Homes and School, decided to do needed repair and improvement to the fabric of Testimony House, the foundation of all that has come to BE here. He did not just focus on the sitting room but on the whole interior, of dining room, nine bedrooms, toilets and ablution facilities. A lot of work. And, as I walked through it all, this afternoon, I felt a great happiness that the home MY family grew up in with SO many sons and daughters, was still being lovingly cared for, and preserved from within. NO one is ripping up or destroying anything here; we are all committed and dedicated to keeping well maintained and and in working order, just as it has come to be, year by year.
AWAY with gossip mongers, bent on mischief, and alarm, and let us all enjoy spreading the Truth instead, so that we may all walk in the light with each other - that light that is pure and clean and which leaves all things plainly as they are. And to the many of our 'family' who may have been miss led into believing that their old home is being broken up, and unable to be visited or walked in any more, be SURE your home is STILL there, and is still visibly the home we all shared together. I am glad to confirm this to be so.
In these days of mobile phones, tweets and general tittle tattle filling the ether with individual news, comment, stories and general local affairs, if one coughs in Elgon-view, friends East, West, North and South, will hear that someone has T.B. Covid 19. or cancer. when actually all that happened is that someone cleared their throat!. We need to be careful what and how we recount what we see and hear around us. Let us test it before we share it. Let none of us be found idle gossips of spurious facts.
SOME WILL WONDER what is going to happen to the Testimony House Family now that the house is to be a Boarding House for School boys, for the next six month. They have been shared out among our other three Homes, temporally. Almost a third are expecting to leave us this year having finished their education, and now looking for employment.
And our beloved Mother, Eunice Lahol, who has been holding her family together since her husband, Francis, passed away in October 2018 ? Well, she will still be with us, but has opted to be with us as a Relief house-parent, rather than single Mum. She has done well, but feels that now she would like to reduce the responsibility. As a Relief parent she will step in when the parents of the Homes take their weekly day off, and also when they go on leave. She will have a small flat of her own in part of the OLD Jacaranda property, where our Pastor, Mike Kyalo and his wife, Jacinta, also have quarters.
SO we are not losing Eunice - we would be lost without her - and she will not be lost to the children.
A good part of all of this hassle has been caused by Covid 19, and spacing. And also due to a decision to make an experiment to see if our senior Secondary children mighty apply themselves to study more, if they were not at home, but in Boarding. THUS all our Form 3 and 4 boys will be in Boarding for the next six months together with others from external families who learn with the School. In December this will be assessed. Finally, if it works and is seen to be beneficial, it may be that we shall continue to put our senior boys and girls into Boarding with our School. Hopefully we shall then be in a position to use the existing School Boarding facilities, that have currently had to be diminished to make way for teaching space, due to the Spacing Regulations we are still suffering from.
Is everyone happy? Generally, it seems so. The children find it all quite a happy eventuality. Their parents perhaps not so thrilled, but willing to enter into the spirit of the matter. Fortunately by December all will return to normal and we shall have our FOUR families in their four Homes, and the Boarding boys will be returning to their own facility in the School.
By the way! Testimony School has NOT separated itself from the HOMES. The SCHOOL and the Children's Homes are still together under the one Board of Management, and Direction of Testimony Faith Homes & School. I am confirming this here, as we have been asked about it recently, since some have heard differently! Another instance of tittle tattle.
The Weather here is COLD, but we have been enjoying some sunshine most days. Today it is cloudy and looks as if it will rain later. We Thank God for His care of us all, over these difficult months, and we Thank all of our dear, faithful, friends, and family members who are His Channels of Blessing. We are so grateful and deeply appreciative. You are all in the Miracle with US.
God Bless and Keep you safe and Believing
John, Esther, and Daryl Green, and all Family here with us.
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