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