Update

SATURDAY, 26TH APRIL 2008

 

WATCH, ....

for you do not know what hour your Lord shall come!

Matthew 24v42

 

TODAY has dawned with splendour; the splendour of a cloudless sky filled with the sun's golden radiance that touches everything, intensifying the brightness of colour and texture of tree, grass and flower.    I am writing this on the veranda of Green Cottage looking out upon the lawns.    There is a light breeze whispering in the trees, laughter and the joy of small children coming and going in play.     It is such a day of quiet contentment......a day apart, a day easy to make one quite forget the fact that it is, in itself, one of the LAST DAYS....     How easy to forget; how easy to think this day could go on for ever.   How easy to grow drowsy and fall asleep!       But there IS the other side of the coin.

The International Science Congress

has continued to maintain over the last six years

that by 2048 life on this planet will be unable to continue as we know it today.

 

They say that the continuing depreciation of the world's ecology cannot be reversed. Food shortages becoming worse and worse at the source.    Even this week I have heard that the world BEE population is under threat - millions of bees in America and Europe apparently disappearing from their hives without a trace.   This has been going on for some years, but still increasingly!      Without bees to pollinate them, tree and plant life will be themselves at risk of failure and even extinction.     Science thinks the cause could be viral, or pollution of some kind - they don't know.    We live on a planet that WE have made sick.        But then we are sick ourselves, and without applying the cure we are helpless to stop the rot.

 

World Recession?

World news is full of rumour - yea sometimes the very fact - of financial collapse and economic chaos.    So many pressures causing costs and prices to spiral upwards.  And here in Kenya, as I have said previously, things seem to be falling apart economically with the outlook seeming bleak to say the least.    YET Jesus Himself told us to EXPECT such things.     Wars. rumours of wars; national and international strife were to announce ecological deterioration with resultant pestilences, food shortages and increase in seismic and other elemental activity.   This is the very stuff the Last Days are made of - and YES we are living in them.       And in the midst of all this there is to be expected 'A great falling away'   of those committed to Christ and Christian principles.      NOT NECESSARILY empty churches, but because of false prophets and an increase in iniquity, people will turn from God, rejecting His Word.     Whole societies and nations that were once known as 'Christian' are ignorant of GOD today.    This is a post christian world.

Yes things are to wax (to get) worse and worse.!    And the REAL Christian will become more and more a minority if not a 'remnant'.

The sun is still shining, and I can feel its warmth, and am bathed in its deliciousness.   A Wedding is going on not far away; I can hear the rejoicings and singing........BUT all is not well on Planet Earth!

 

Some years ago when I was still on this theme we lost quite a few friends who thought I should not comment on world affairs, or dwell on the negative side of life and living.  They said they had enough day to day problems without being made to see that the world was falling apart, and would continue to do so.       I wonder if any of us can afford to stick our heads in the sand and refuse to SEE where we are all going, and even more I wonder how many of us can afford to SAY NOTHING about it.      The King IS coming, and with Him will come Righteousness, but BEFORE He comes we will continue to see the World and its society SINK into a morass of iniquity and ensuing chaos.     Man himself will not prevent this from happening.     It will take the Return of Christ with His Saints to come and achieve it - by force.

 

WE ARE A PLASTIC CULTURE, and many of us are mixed up in a plastic church as well, were nothing needs to be STRONG or FIRM or UNCOMPROMISING.   We are far from the first brothers and sister of our Lord who laid their lives on the line in order to unequivocally WITNESS to what they believed.      This sunny day is the day that the Lord has made - He made it for us to SERVE Him in.         This does not destroy the fact that we can enjoy the god given joys of the day but we are not, even in the midst of that, to forget that we are to SERVE Him - all the time - by witnessing to Who, What, and HOW He is in and through our being here in this world at this time.

HOW AWFUL to have been a church goer, even a preacher, or sensational evangelist, and then to end up being told that the Lord has never known us, and to be refused as a member of His family - because we never actually LIVED OUT the Life / did not DO the Will of God / refused the WORD of God to be seen and heard in all we are!

MANY SECRET Christians / Empty Christians are without His Spirit within them to make them bold and courageous.    Many compromising Christians are  afraid to stand out and be different. 

 

WAKE UP brothers and sisters.     This is the TIME to be seen and heard.  NOW is the time to be noticed and not be OVERWHELMED by the world around us.   Talk about what you know and have experienced of the Goodness of God.   WITNESS to His Power in a NEW LIFE, no matter how unpopular this might make you in your society / circle of relatives, friends and business associates. 

WAKE UP - For He Who is to come, MUST come, and at a time when we THINK not.      Do not count the cost but be faithful to your heavenly calling.   We need not to be taken by surprise when Jesus Returns.  Neither should we draw back from WANTING Him to return - even before that personal event we  are looking forward to, or the human ambition that lures us always away from wanting to PRAY for His return.       YES my brethren we need to PRAY for His return, and to WATCH for that prayer to be ANSWERED in such a way that WE will ourselves ever be on tip toe with expectancy, and in tip top condition for MEETING with Him when He comes.     This should be a constant daily occupation.

AND at this point the time when REAL Christians will be PERSECUTED will not be far away.      The world is not wanting to be confronted by the TRUTH in us.      Eventually it may seek to suppress the Truth in us.

Do I make you uneasy at such a prospect?         When Jesus comes finally upon the earth to be KING He will come to a world totally antagonistic to Himself.      Hopefully we shall be with Him on that Day - and SOME of those with Him will have been KILLED already for their allegiance to Him and to His Authority.

 

ELDORET

found the BIG THREE in the Town this week.

They were here to promote PEACE.

AND to encourage those who are still displaced from their homes to return and settle down, assuring them of their safety.

 

HOWEVER, when everyone is talking about PEACE, PEACE, there often is no peace!      This may well be true in our situation here in Kenya.     Although we have a Coalition Government of all major parties, the three main movers are not at ease with each other in actual fact.     There remains an effort on all sides to be more than the other in pride of place and position.     This is often publicly demonstrated in ways that shows bad feeling between them all.     NOT very encouraging to the multitude, who may still wonder WHO has the influence on their lives, and who indeed is truly anxious for peace.      I would say that at least in our area the majority of the people are tired of conflict and want peace to reign - but there are others who may well still be for WAR - if only in an undercover manner.       

THERE ARE STILL more than 150,000 Kenyans who have been displaced nationally.          Most of them remain unpersuaded that they will be safe if they return to where they previously lived.     One man from our locality decided that he would at least return to plant his land with seed on a daily basis, as a prelude to considering rebuilding his life there again.     On the second day he was shot by a poison arrow and died.   No one was arrested.    No one has come forward with information.     NOT encouraging for others watching to see how this man would fare whilst considering what they themselves might feel safe to attempt.

 

AT THE HOMES we are coming to the end of the April Holiday and soon our visiting College and University sons and daughters will be queuing up to return to their studies.      The 2nd School Term will start 5th May and we will have embarked on the second quarter of a year that seems to be even faster than any previous one so far lived.       This will end in July with our Open Day.      The rains are continuing, intermittently, and the temperature will slowly cool.      I quite like this time of year in fact.       MUMPS is going around the Homes just now, hitting in particular, and perhaps fortunately, the infant end of our age group.     It does not seem to have diminished their general energy and joy in being alive.       I am still swamped by them all whenever I visit them - lovely little kids.

We have two boys - one in Jacaranda Cottage and one in Tyndale - Reuben and John.     They about 9 years old and a little backward educationally.   Lovely kids.     We have started them off on some remedial studies in addition to their School work, and it seems to be paying off well.    But John has a problem with hearing and we are in the process of trying to discover where to obtain some assistance to get hearing aids fitted for him.  Please pray for us to get the right guidance.  John is a loving and affectionate child, and has a delightful disposition.      He was picked up from the street and taken to the Rescue Centre when he was only five.    He came to us from there, but nothing has ever been discovered about his background.

Watched an old Black and White film about a Catholic Priest called Father Flannigan who founded Boys Town in USA years ago.     He testified that there was no boy that was intrinsically BAD.    His book entitled Boys Town, and the film of the same name demonstrated this 'fact' so that there was not one story of failure.            Well I cannot say the same.     We have had our share of apparent failure and heartbreak and seen some of our kids leave without a saving knowledge of Christ, and without a great deal of change in their nature.     SOME of them have returned later to testify to the TRUTH they heard when they were with us,    But many are STILL away and in need.  Onee or two are currently in prison.     I want to make it clear that we do not have an angelic society here.     Our children are NOT all angels - but we believe they CAN be, even when we might not actually have the evidence to hand to prove it right now.        What CAN change each one?     Your prayers for their salvation.

 

Let's get together and confront the Enemy on every front.      We are strengthened by your Love in Jesus, and we want to Strengthen YOU too.

 

God Bless you all

 

John and Esther