THIS IS PHOTO OF POLISH JEWS

being herded into Goods Wagons waiting to transport them from the Ghettos to Warsaw Railway Station, for transportation to Concentration Camps, where most would die.  All of this was going on when I was only two years old, in 1942.  I have no first hand of the awful horror these people were going through;  the bewilderment of suddenly being deprived of their humanness; of being seen as SUB human, and being instantly rubbished by those, a day before, they had seen as fellow citizens.   Dragged from theirs homes like cattle; beaten, spat upon, vilified, raped, and robbed. and every last thing they had taken from them.   THEN, at the last, killed off and thrown like garbage into mass graves.  Was there ever anything like this ever before.  Yes, and ever since, for the 'spirit' that got into men in Germany, in 1939 and for the next six years, existed, and still exists on planet Earth.    HOW did I find myself thinking of all this?    Well, I suppose it was what is now happening in that very troubled Nation of Afghanistan.    And then this week I came across the 2002 Film,  'The PIANIST'    A film everyone should see.  A true account of actual events.  If you watch it thoughtfully you will have to consider how it could be that one part of the human race could see another  part as sub-human, or rubbish, worthless of value.     It was the worst of times for the Jewish People, but would not be the last time the human race would find themselves seeing similar demonstrations of total inhumanity.   

Some have suggested that it cannot be honestly said that all those involved in the Holocaust were responsible, that they only did what the Fuhrer and 'Cabinet' told them.   In the Film, 'Piano Man', this is demonstrated in the scene where 'Wladyslaw Szpilman', the pianist, fleeing for his life, as a Polish Jew, from the  Nazis, found himself discovered by a Captain in the German Army who, being moved by his condition, and his humanness, protects the pianist and assists him to  keep  hidden so that he could escape.  His name was never known but his act of kindness and mercy speaks up for a huge number of his Nation who silently did not agree with all their Leaders said and did,  but feared to say so at the time.

This week I also listened and watched, on video, a performance of Beethoven's 5 Symphony performed by The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by the world famous Conductor Daniel Barenboim, now in his eighties. a Jew.

To emphasize his belief that all men and woman should be able to live together in peace and unity,

Barenboim has put together a full Orchestra which he conducts and tours with extensively, and whose individual members are made up of young musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab Countries.   This is the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.    It exists to 'study and perform - in order to promote mutual reflection and understanding between nations.'     Daniel 

Barenboim has also written a number of books,  and given many interviews in which he has spoken a great deal about human rights and equality.    Something that he said in an speech he gave caught my eye.

He was talking about a Composer known as Richard Wagner.       (Wagner lived between 1813-1883. He was an accomplished Composer, and his music was especially liked by Adolph Hitler, and became the backdrop against which all the 'evil' of Third Riech was played against.     Wagner was himself no lover of the Jew, in his day.   His music was brilliant, but was it also able to be manipulated.)

Danial Barenboim wrote-

'Wagner the person,

is absolutely appalling, despicable,

and in a way very difficult to put together

 with the music he wrote,

which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings -

noble, generous.....

BUT then what about Hitler?     HE appreciated Art, loved the emotions stirred by Wagners music.

How could Hitler have two faces, two personalities.      Some say he was a sick man, and that his sickness affected his mind.      Today people buy paintings that Hitler painted.   He had studied Art, and wanted to be a painter.     But he did not succeed to Graduate from Art School.     Did he become bitter, and open up his heart to an evil spirit.    We do not know.   But this ONE man changed the cause of his Nation's thought and life; caused a World War to be fort and lost, and caused six million Jews to die.

Just one man!    This has really disturbed me.    And this same ' spirit ', yes I am calling it a 'spirit' is to be seen at work in our world today.    The most worrying thing to me is that Man's predilections in matters of colour, religion, politics, and even race, can all be used to stir up and enflame individuals and whole societies against each other.        In 2007 here in Eldoret, Kenya, we saw this spirit at work in that so many of one particular tribe (ethnic group) were targeted, and killed.    Just a spark, but even a spark can become the prelude to a forest fire.     There is tribalism in Kenya, and politically there is drift towards keeping those of each tribe in one area, to live and work.    It is not yet totally exclusive, but it is laying  the ground for a disunited society,  part of which can rise against another to assert it's own agenda.     WHY can't humans work TOGETHER, appreciating and valuing each other as true brothers and sisters, REGARDLESS of the shade of colour, spiritual belief and culture.    We ARE all members of one world wide specie of the animal creation.    All of us!    All HUMAN BEINGS.    Is it really impossible to work toward this end, in all we say and do?    Is it really impossible to LOVE one another as GOD loves us.

MAN has no enemy but himself, some say.   But Man DOES have an Enemy, and that enemy seeks the  total extermination of mankind, one by one, nation by nation.     He is the Devil, and it is he and the demons that surround him and do his bidding, that are at work each hour of every day, to enter into men and women, in order to USE them to destroy one another.        We all live in a very visible, material world, but we need to realise that we do not make the world go round the sun; there are powers we know nothing of, and to refuse to accept this is merely human pride and vanity in himself.     There IS a God, and there is a very real anti-god, in whom reposes every aspect of EVIL, and in whom is an insatiable desire to destroy - everything in the universe.

SINCE December 1872 my wife, Esther Wanjiru, and I 

have welcomed young people in need into our home and family'

more than 400 have come and gone, and none are forgotten

THIS  IS A PHOTO of our 49 Anniversary of the beginning 

of what has come to be known as Testimony Faith Homes & School.

Almost 300 attended his function, and there were representatives

from more than fourteen different tribes who had been brought up

in one of our four family homes.

Brought up to love each other, and to be brother and sister

to one another, and see each other as Family - as KENYAN!

If this could have happened, and it HAS, here in Eldoret, then it can also happen all over Kenya, and all over the world;  smashing down every barrier to seeing one another universally as ONE FAMILY together.    If we can see each other equally, then we can consider one another on the same level, and be able to listen to each other without seeking to hurt, injure or destroy each other, be able to solve ALL our differences which may at times want to assert themselves.     THIS is our prayer and desire.

I am not speaking as a Christian to Christians, I am sharing my heart as a Human Being to ALL those who are also human beings of whatever spiritual persuasion or cultural background, or  colour.  It IS possible to overcome all our own opinions and preconceptions, and see each other as family.    It has been demonstrated and continues to be so, here in Testimony Faith Homes, and is spreading here and there as a way of live and living.     I believe that Barenboim, the Conductor is also seeing this as he tours the  world with musicians who once held views that would have prohibited them from even sitting together. Now they sit and play music in the same orchestra, and when the Concert is ended they socialise and mix up together as family, bearing and suffering each other's differences.     In this there is no colour, no Race, no Culture, and no Religion.   PRAY for it happen where you are with those you meet every day - not only  your own family  and friends --------

Your brothers and sisters

John, Esther and Daryl Green, 

and all that live together with here

 in Testimony Faith Homes. Kenya

                 

 

A GOLDEN WEDDING !!

                                            John Green                                      Esther Iguru

 

On This DAY, the 14th August, 1971

this man and this woman

became One for life.

And to day

we Celebrate 50 years

of our ongoing life together

in Marriage

 It has been a Wonderful fifty years.

And I can do no better than repeat here

what I wrote in 2019

'I was born in England, and she was born in Kenya.

I was white, and she was brown.

When we met and fell in love, many warned me, saying

that we would not work out together, because

out cultures were different, and our children would suffer.

We went ahead anyway! 

I had already opened my home and heart to more than twenty youngsters who had no home or settled life.    The day Esther married me she became the instant mother of 28 with ages ranging from eight to fifteen - and they did not all experience 'love at first sight' for her!   

Esther was a High School Teacher.

She was also a sinner saved by Grace.    She had left teaching to be my wife, and the mother of other people's kids, as well as those God would give us as our very own.   She walked out of a settled and reasonably comfortable and secure life, into the unknown.   

Neither of us knew much about trusting God for our daily bread.   I had begun to find out two years before, when I had taken in two boys who were stranded and in trouble.   One was eight and other twelve.    She began when she married me

TOGETHER we leaned on the Everlasting Arms God, in Jesus Christ, and found it possible that He was able to provide our daily bread, and indeed all our need together with as many others HE brought to be with us.   

Yes, we were and still are, very different people and personalities, but our common faith and belief in Jesus Christ has bound us together, day by day, through many joys, trials, and temptations.    It was not always easy, or without offence or disappointment to each other, but God's LOVE always found a way to bind up our wounds, and to bring us to forgive each other, - also 'day by day'.

And so  we pressed  on, in His Name,  to remain faithful and true to each other, and to our promises made in front of God for each other.

We have, today, been married fifty years.    We have grown to love and value each other the more with every passing day,  and He  has used our hearts to become One in reaching out to all those that were brought to our doors, needing care and acceptance.    It has been an experience, and one that progressively taught us, through times of great happiness, and also times of frustration, disappointment, and seven distress, that God is with us, and will never fail those who put their trust in Him.       

It has also taught us both a lot about Marriage.     It improves as we endure, and walk together with God.

We are older now than when we began.    Yet we are still in love with each other; still in love with  the Family that have shared their lives with us as 'Dad and Mum' , and still in love with God.    Dear friends, be willing to love one another, as God loves us, demonstrating it in, and through the life of Jesus, and his Death on the Cross.    Love one another, and FORGIVE one another, always!

John and Esther Green

*****************

The Day dawned cloudy but warm enough

for us to sit on our veranda.

Late morning Daryl called us to the Office.

As we entered a surprise awaited us!

A king size Silentnight bed

AND

a Washing Machine

A Golden Wedding Gift 

from our Testimony Family, represented here by just three of them

all grown up now, and living their own lives

Our old bed had all but collapsed with wear and tear!

We were without a washing machine.

Our dear Sons and Daughters, Thank you,

Thank you for letting us be your parents for a little while

And Thank you all for sacrificing for our Happiness and Joy.

God Bless and Prosper you all

Dad and Mum

14th August 1971-2021

A LEANING WALL

THIS WALL IN LEANING out from the back yard of Green Cottage, outward toward our busy  Elgonview Road.   It began to lean soon after it was built in 1986, and it has gone on leaning - more and more, until now it is ready to fall on the outside sidewalk, and even onto the road itself.    Something must be done about it

WELL, before it actually FALLS we are going to have to take it down, stone by stone, to the existing faulty foundation.  Yes it is the foundation that is weak, and without strength.   BEFORE we do this, we have to protect passers by and traffic by putting up a shield of iron sheets, fastened to a wooden frame; this will also be makeshift protection for our own privacy.   It was started yesterday, and was about finished this morning when a passing County Planning Officer drove by and noticed it.   HE stopped and found Daryl standing at the Gate.   HE asked Daryl, what was going on, and was told about, and shown, the leaning wall behind the shuttering.   'You will need a License for that' said the County Planner.    'What for?' asked Daryl.   'To have permission to put up that Shuttering, of course.   It is outside of your boundary line, and thus on our side.  You have to have a License!'     So he was paid, and went his way.  I am sure it will not be long before this charitable local body will find a way to even tax us for the AIR we breath in our compounds.    And of course we now have to get the License before we can continue - and who knows, they may then Fine us for doing nothing about an obviously dangerous wall.

Does anything come to mind, as you read about this elderly wall?   God clearly came to mine, as I wrote about it, having no idea when I began to write  -  

LEFT TO ITSELF this wall WILL fall.     There is nothing  propping it up!  It is leaning on AIR,   AND it's FOUNDATION is almost non existent and unstable in itself.   . it was BUILT (born?)  was straight and erect  -  but as soon as the first stone was laid it had begun to slowly need help to remain upright - it began, imperceptibly, to LEAN.    The wall was without foundation, without what it needed  to ensure that it would not lean to the right or to the left.     You and I need such a Foundation, or we, like the wall, will be self inclined to go astray from our intended path, and find ourselves bending out of true, with nothing, and no one to lean on.    We will also fall.   BUT REJOICE, for we like the wall CAN, be rebuilt and made again upon a right Foundation.    We CAN be born again!

PAUL writing in 1. Corinthians 3v11 tells us that 'for other foundation no man can lay (for his life) other than JESUS CHRIST.'  - and also in Colossians 2v7 

'Have the roots (of your being) firmly and deeply planted ( in Him;

fixed and founded in Him).

Being continually BUILT UP in Him,

becoming increasingly more confirmed

and established in the faith..

(Amplified Bible Translation)

This verse goes along with the concept of the leaning wall having to be dismantled to its root, and a NEW Foundation set, and THEN rebuilding commenced.       And if the Foundation is RIGHT then the wall will no longer wander off line, but will find itself continually contained in its form, by the fundamental stability of its Base.   

Look at Isaiah 28v16 -  'Thus saith the LORD God, BEHOLD (look at this), I  am laying, in Zion (Jerusalem, Israel), for a foundation, a Stone, a tested Stone, a precious Cornerstone of sure foundation.  he who believes, trusts in, relies upon, and adheres to that Cornerstone will not be ashamed, or give way. or hasten away (in sudden panic).   (Acts 4v10-11;   Ephesians 2v20 and 1. Peter 2v4-6)  (Amplified Bible Translation).

I am filled with gladness, and anticipation at seeing my old backyard Wall rebuilt on a sure foundation, and given a new lease of life, a new Beginning, a new 'birth'.

And if you have loved ones in your family, as I have, who having no real foundation in life, apart from their own mind and judgement, and seem headed for such final ruin as my Wall, then take heart, for all is not yet lost to, or for them; for the Master Builder is yet able to REBUILD them, and give them a NEW beginning, standing on a SURE FOUNDATION,  a SOLID ROCK,    Hallelujah!! - Psalm 40v2-4

But what of the Country Planner?        He is just one of the 'fiery darts' of the Enemy, come to delay, slow down, or even prevent the divine work of Reclamation, seeking to be accomplished.    The Enemy of all our souls is anxious, nay even desperate, to see our individual downfall without hope or faith in our rebuilding.    He will not succeed if I am in the Saviour's mind.     He has no  mind to see us, any of us, stay in our ruin or death for ever.   HE wants us to live.     AND then who will be lost forever; who will be cast into hell?    Only the utterly un-reclaimable; the ones who to the last find no sorrow or repentance in his/her heart for their fallen state. BUT if we who KNOWS the LORD, and make out, stand, upon THAT Rock, our prayers must prevail.

================ 

I am happy  to report that I now feel quite recovered from all my 'flu like symptoms, and give all the Glory to Jesus who lives in us, and  IS our Health,     Esther, too, is well and active, though she does tire more easily these days, and tends to be more absent minded - well she was about the same when we married so I should not be surprised.   Daryl needs a break, and we are encouraging him to take some time off;  he has been feeling a bit physically and mentally tired.    He is a very active person, and finds it hard to be still.  I should probably drop  something in his coffee, and knock him out for a while.  We Praise God for seeing us through, and the path not always smooth or obstacle free, Made  to be passable and a WAY made for us all      

I reported on the State of the Corona 19 Virus last time.   Nothing has changed.    BUT we are still a RED Country as far as the U.K. is concerned.    Why?   We seem to be so much better off than Europe. 

I think this is due to the fact that Kenya is quite far behind other more accessible Countries in two major factors.   First Kenya has only tested   2,166,046  out of a population of approx 52 million, and second, Kenya has only been able to Vaccinate  2.5 of the current adult population.   This leaves a lot to believe for, and lot to be unsure of.       It may take us some time, especially when it comes to international travel for things to return to normal.    

The weather continues to be COLD, cloudy, with light showers of rain, AND a little sunshine.  For us in Kenya it is 'seasonable weather' for the time of year, which is comforting when we see such awful CHANGES in other geographical areas of the world.      I hope everyone on my E.mail, and Air mail address lists are receiving this Blog, and also the bi-monthly updates.    We are grateful for all those who remember us in prayer, and keep  up with our news.    God Bless you all, so much, in Jesus.

Much Love from us, and from all in the ministry here with us, staff and children.

John, Esther, and Daryl Green

     

 Green