NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE!

A LOT OF KIDS SMOKE IN KENYA TODAY!  This little man in the picture is being forced to try a smoke by his peers.     TOBACCO has its place today in Kenya, with the many other Substances taken into the lives and bodies of our young people.

Way Back in 2003 I Broadcast on Radio Sayare here in Eldoret.  I had been prompted by a reported case in the DAILY  NATION's Saturday Magazine.  The article described how Eston Irungu Gakunga had lost a leg due to a smoking habit.

He told the reporter - 'I started smoking when I was 16, after I succumbed to peer pressure.  My friends who were smokers made fun of me, calling me a 'woman' just because I didn't smoke!   I finally gave in; I mean who wants to lose their friends.   NOW when I look at my leg, I wish I had lost my friends instead.'    

SMOKING in Kenya has diminished among the adult population since 2003, but young people are still increasingly Users.       I said, in 2003, in my radio broadcast  -  (edited)

'  A good deal of the Western World is now actively waging war against the use of Tobacco.  This has  seriously affected the industry so that they have been forced to seek alternative markets for their products.   They have increasingly turned to the third world.    10 million people annually can expect to die of Tobacco related diseases (circa 2003) - 70% of them from the Third World, and many of them will have begun to smoke in their teenage.    The bottom line is that the Industry wants to SELL Cigarettes, and they do not regard or care how many smokers eventually end up MAIMED, CRIPPLIED, OR DEAD from becoming addicted to their cigarettes.

Listen, this is the Truth about Cigarette Smoking;  these are just SOME of the results that come from this habit.    -     Diminished or extinguished sense of smell and taste;  frequent colds; smokers cough; Gastric Ulcers; Chronic Bronchitis; Increased Blood Pressure; Congestion of the Lungs; Heart Disease; Strokes; CANCER of the mouth, larynx, pharynx, lungs, pancreas, cervix, uterus, and bladder...AND this can lead to other complications such as Gakunga's loss of a LEG!     Cigarette smoking is, perhaps

the most devastating, preventable, cause of disease and premature death.   Cigarettes are highly ADDICTIVE.   One Third of young people who 'try one' end up being addicted, by the time they are 20, or even before.    TOBACCO smoke is as dangerous a substance with more than 500 known poisons.  Every time a smoker lights up he, or  she, is risking self injury by inhaling these poisons.

Many will know the Brand name of MARLBOROUGH CIGARETTES.  Our own Kenya Safari Rally used to be sponsored by them.   I wonder if you remember the man on the horse, depicted on every packet?   He was real person, an Actor named Wayn McLaren.   He died in 1992, aged 51.   At the beginning of his advertising career, he used to brag that he smoked at least 15 cigarettes daily.  Later on he refused to smoke at all!...Just before his death he went from a Meeting of the Shareholders of Marlborough Cigarette Company, and asked them to limit their Advertising.  He was then near to death with Cancer of the lung, and fully believed it was tobacco related.    They did not listen to him.

MANY TURN TO CIGARETTES to bolster their own ego, or to give themselves self-confidence.    A cigarette is said to comfort and calm the nerves and banish isolation or loneliness.  One Brand used  to advertise itself with a picture of a man walking alone down a dark street, in the rain; and putting a cigarette, with a glowing end, to his lips.   The caption read 'You'll never be alone with a Strand Cigarette.'   But the Truth is that the smoking of tobacco releases Epinephrine, a hormone which creates physiological stress in the smoker, rather than relaxation.   Tobacco IS poisonous, and CAN progressively damage, and eventually take you life.     Tobacco is a false crutch that will let you down.   There is no ultimate happiness in Smoking; no lasting comfort, or  profit.

I used to smoke cigarettes - about ten a day.   I had begun when I was about 16, due to peer pressure just like Mzee Gakunga.    One day when I was 22, I was travelling seated in an empty compartment of a train on the way to work in the London City, in England.   I had my Bible with me, and was reading in the New Testament in the Epistle to the Romans chapter 12 v1 ' Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to the world around you.'  A noise made me look up, and through the window saw that we were passing an industrial area with tall blackened factory chimneys belching out even denser smoke, which was spreading itself over the entire locality.     I was actually smoking a pipe of tobacco as i gazed at the passing scene.    Immediately, I seemed to hear clearly in my mind a voice quietly commenting ' You are as one of those chimneys.  You are corrupting yourself, and all around you, with what you are putting within you.     Suddenly my spiritual eyes saw it clearly.     I opened the window and taking  my pipe from my mouth threw it out and away, quickly followed by a leather pouch full of tabacco that I carried with me, AND a packet of cigarettes as well.       From that day I have never smoked.    I suddenly felt CLEAN.

GOD  wants us to LIVE and not to DIE.    He wants us to be filled with HEALTH and not SICKNESS.

Remember Mzee Gakunga once more.     He  smoked to make himself acceptable to his friends, and he finally sacrificed his leg, his mobility, his wholeness.    Looking back he wished he had sacrificed pleasing his friends instead.       Beware of being Man Pleasers at the expense of your LIFE.

HOPE you will all have a A SMOKE FREE WEEK.     God Bless you all, and every one, and prove to you that He Loves you thoroughly and  completely,   with all  His Heart.

SAY NO to DRUGS of any kind, and SAY YES to the REALLITY of the ONE GOD who loves you truly.

Sincerely,   John, Esther, and Daryl Green

and all at Testimony Faith |Homes and School  

WEEDING OUR GARDENS ?

 

THESE ARE NOT OUR BOYS,  but they could be, and right now we DO have some teenagers who are going this way - the Marijuana or BHANGI way, as it is called here in East Africa.      The Kenya National Institute of Drug Abuse has put High School kids as using Bhangi, more than any other Substance;  more than 36% of them.    And it does not arise only among High School students, but even in much younger age groups.    The incidence in our School at the current time is NOT so high, but it IS increasing, and we are determined to wage war against it, and to do our best to eradicate it from our premises.       Every day some 600 boys and girls aged from 5 to 18 are coming in and out of our School, together with 130 more from our Homes.     And Bhangi is being found increasingly!   We do of course take action when we do find this drug.     But we want to altogether  prevent it from ever finding a welcome into the life or experience of even one child.      This will not be easy in a climate which does not take Marijuana seriously.     

Indeed the Government here is considering 'legalising' it altogether - mainly due to two reasons;   first it is considered 'medically' a blessing, an up and coming drug in the treatment of mental and psychological disorders.   And second, it not considered as big a threat to society as Alcohol, Tobacco, Heroine, and other main line drugs.    Thus it is finding little opposition from the Authorities, whilst at the same time becoming a major cause of our young people being tempted away from school, work, and good behaviour, to a  anti-social attitude, careless of reckless, violent, and damaging manners and language.     The Marijuana plant is commonly grown in many gardens and farms!    It can be dried and smoked like a cigarette, or made into a kind of 'tea', drunk, or even chewed like a wad of tobacco.     Marijuana is generally a 'happy' or ' UPPER' that gives an inner ' HIGH' feeling of super wellbeing, confidence, and self esteem - an over dose of which produces a kind of reckless euphoria and even 'aggressiveness'.   There is also a 'delusional' quality mixed in with this, and as it all wears off, then, as with alcohol, self esteem gives place to self pity, despondency, and depression.   Suicide is also being attributed to the after effects of Bhangi.

Most Addicts are attracted to Marijuana in order to FIT IN, with their peers, To FEEL GOOD,  to Feel BETTER,  to DO better,  or just to EXPERIMENT.

WHAT ARE the EFFECTS of using Marijuana?

I have not come across any case of any one using this drug to have DIED as a direct Result.

However, when taken with other drugs the blood pressure, usually  70 - 80 beats per minute, can double. This increases the risk of heart attack.

Short Term effects include the following :-

Altered senses - such as seeing colours as being brighter than usual.

Altered sense of Time.

Changes in Mood.

Slow reactions

Problems with balance and co-ordination.

Memory Problems

Hallucinations and Delusions.

Pshychosis.

Most of these symptoms will be noticed after taking this drug.

We have had to deal with with  situations where a User, has become quite uncontrollable, and has had to be forcibly restrained, and also occasions where the User has collapsed,  and been unable to communicate sensibly; unable to know even who or where he was.

We have also noticed, as the National Institute on Drug Addiction has also noted, that the use of this drug immediately has an effect on School Grades and performance generally,  AND additionally also appears to reduce Life satisfaction which induces finding more difficulties with relationships with friends and family, compared to those who DO NOT use such substances.

We have seen also that together with the above, there is a kind of hopelessness that comes, taking away any sense of purpose or reason for living, resulting in almost total disregard to help themselves.

Some have advised me that 'Taken in small quantities, under guidance, Marijuana, is not dangerous, and may even be helpful.'     Be this as it may WE see only the kind of use that comes from a kind of dull and mindless freedom to get away from boredom, and even humanity itself.      As with Alcohol and other drugs, there can be little doubt that Marijuana is also used  to  block inner misery caused by family, and even individual, personally perceived, shortcomings or failures.     This is also an indication that the User of drugs, of any kind, has not perceived his or her personal strengths to deal head on with the problem, and looks for ANY prop to help them get through.

TO US, Bhangi cannot be put up with.    We must make sure it is presented for what it is - a powerful and potential DANGER, and (to our children), one of Satan's tools to misdirect, derail, and ultimately destroy their every hope of a normal, happy, and satisfying life, with all their faculties unharmed.

We are preparing to CAMPAIGN against it - INITIALLY, here where we are in Testimony Faith Homes and School, and perhaps even into our surrounding district.       We have begun by producing our own POSTER program, making our own posters, and to go with them there will be Tracts explaining the Dangers in taking drugs of any kind - especially Marijuana.      We hope also to have Seminars, and Week-end Crusades in support.      We will let you know how we go.

We don't want ONE boy or girl to end up LOST because of this green WEED!

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AND I AM BOUNCING BACK AGAIN!     It has taken a little while this time round, but I can currently say that I feel truly back to normal, and going full steam ahead once more.

In JULY I had written that I was over what had seemed like the flu, and was feeling quite well from that - only that on checking my heart I was told my heart muscle was too thick, and that I needed treatment.   The 'treatment' amounted to yet another Pill, and I must say I have felt much lighter and brighter since finishing the Course,     But most of all Jesus watches over me, and over all the Alarms and Excursions of the  doctors, Bless them all!  

I have been a bit quiet since then, and during the latter part of August found myself once more facing

problems.    This time with my water works.     Well I have suffered from stones in the kidney, on and off since 1980, and then in 2010 had an operation on my prostate - but all has been well till the first week in August.   On being examined by my doctor he said he thought I might have Cancer.   I was not glad to hear it.     He gave me some more tablets and told me to come back in a month.    Things got WORSE, and this time I went a Consultant, an older man, and a specialist.     He also gave me an exhaustive examination, finally exploding into  "Cancer?  Nonsense!"   Just another stone, he thought, 

and the next day I was as right as rain - having painlessly passed the stone, and all well, with no damage.    However the whole episode had really pulled me down, and I had really felt down, and apprehensive.     I believed the LORD Jesus is with me, and that HE IS my source of Health, come what may, BUT .......    He was walking with me  all the time, of course, and had me in hand.    "in sickness And in health" He has promised never to leave us.     I am Thankful for this Reminder, and GLAD  to  come up from the deep to see the light of day again, and to KNOW that my feet stand securely on the Rock from which we cannot slip or slide..       Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts

DARYL was taking me around the doctors and clinics, and all that time he himself was not feeling himself.      I had mentioned in July how busy, physically, he had been, and how tired he seemed.     He had also been troubled with his stomach, but continued to rush around seeing to everything from A-Z non stop - this last week seeing to leaks in the roofing, with himself on top of the Iron Sheeting sorting it out.

BUT  he was feeling bad inside, and finally downed tools to get solid Advice.

Tests have proved that his stomach has been invaded by an  infection picked up from unwashed or improperly cooked, vegetables!    He has been put on a 14 day course of drugs.    He is still up and about, and has just now popped in looking still a bit 'off'' and saying he was told to expect some unease for a few days.     Please spare him a prayer during the two  weeks ahead of him.

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GENERALLY life continues here as usual.      This last week has been WET and cold;  wetter and colder than normal for September.    We should be dry, and a little warmer, waiting for SHORT rain in mid November - but these days we seem to have neither LONG nor SHORT rains - just a week or few days here and there, mostly out of season.      Eldoret is getting more like Manchester as far as the Weather is concerned.

But the School and the Homes all continue well and happily and still free of Covid 19 and all its mutations!!      WE really have experienced little of it.      SOME doctors are actually SAYING that there is no such thing -  it IS just another influenza, and has taken less lives in Kenya than other killers such as Heart Attack, Cancer, Pneumonia, ++.       Well the Government continues to put out daily figures and here are TO-DAY'S -

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Tested today         9,065     Positive Cases         1,001

Total Tested   1,397,923     Positive Cases     238,852

                                           Recoveries           224,900

                                           DEATHS                  4,757

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And with this we leave you for this week.    God Bless you all very much, and keep you safe and law abiding.    Remember He Who is Coming, WILL COME SEEN.       

Lovingly from us all

John, Esther and Daryl Green,

and All with us in Testimony Faith Home and School