HAS GOD REALLY SAID?

WHAT IS THIS?   It's part of the Wailing Wall, a remnant of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, Israel. Many Orthodox Jews and MANY OTHERS visit here to pray to God - many to pray for the Return of the Messiah.....  Looks as if the brother sitting down has decided to WAIT for as long as it takes - and with a certain definite expectancy that He for Whom he waits WILL COME, and have fellowship!    I really LIKED this photo.   It kind of sweeps all conceptual ideas about what matters in life away having decided once and for all that nothing matters more than just being with Jesus, and WAITING for Him to come into one's life.  Of course I am well aware of this concept.   Nevertheless there have been - there ARE - times when my normal placid and calm exterior conceals disquiet within!   CAN a Christian - and God centred person - waver in his or her faith?     It seems true.    In fact I was reading even today that Mother Theresa wrestled for 50 years with periodic attacks of very real doubt.      I suppose we should not be surprised since Satan started with Eve by attacking her confidence - DID God really SAY..?   So insidious.   So alarming that such a question can be asked and at the same be given consideration.       I have often been poked in this way by the Enemy.      He knows us so well......knows when to nudge us into doubt and even fear. HAS God really said?.....

Did He really MEAN ....?   

Has He REALLY promised never to leave you or forsake you?       And such sudden queries to test what we thought were firm and unquestionable tenets of our faith, usually come at times of pressure and over anxiety. 

For the last THREE months we have stood by and watched (not without prayer and much seeking of the Lord) as Kenya has slowly reacted to World Recession.      Month by month

we have seen incoming funds reduce until now we are almost 50% down on last year, whilst at the same time costs have also risen by something like 30%.       We have tried to cope with this by our own economy, but generally we seem not to have made a lot of headway.     We have in fact had to BORROW from the School (which runs separately to the Homes) in order to get through to the present time.       

SUPPOSE the Lord does not supply our NEED this time round..? What will we do?     We cannot borrow more......    Shall we need to wind up our affairs - say that God is no longer our Provision........?     BIG QUESTIONS.        HAVE we rightly discerned what God has said to us about 'living by faith?'        Is World Recession bigger and more than GOD?'     Nay, God forbid that we should believe such a lie, such a wicked and untrue suggestion.    

AWAY with you Satan; get thee hence!   What YOU say does not have the taste of God.

THIS WEEK, I have been physically challenged (perhaps ATTACKED is nearer the truth) by a friend and colleague of long standing.      He knows the trial and the tightness of our situation of course.      "Perhaps the Lord is showing us that we should stop just WAITING on Him, and get up and do something for ourselves for a change?    Maybe we should get up and go asking for help from others around us?',  he said.

I was quite cast down about this turn of conversation, and rebuked the brother for what I considered discouragement.    BUT it reminded me of the Lord's Temptation in the Wilderness 

(Matthew 4v1-4).   He had been 40 days in that desert place, and He hungered.      His desperate NEED at that moment in a desert and almost inaccessible spot, was for something to eat  - FOOD.        There was NOTHING IN SIGHT.       The Devil took immediate opportunity -

"If you are the Son of God,

command that these stones become bread."

JESUS did not take his advice!    Instead, turning away from His desperate need, He faces back to God. He replied to Satan and said -

It is written,

Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

How easy to be deflected from God and from His Word to us, when our material and physical comfort is put in jeopardy.      Satan never gives up on this very prosperous line of attack.  He is recorded in Job as telling God - 

' Skin for skin!  

Yes, all that  man has he will give for his life. 

 Give me permission now to stretch forth my hand, 

and touch his bone and his flesh- he will curse God to his face!!'     

Yes I know it is a 'free' quote from Job 2v4-5 but I have not changed the truth of it.         

THE ONLY LIFE SAVER, IS THE WORD OF GOD.     Let go of that and we have nothing left to hang on to - and then indeed we shall sink, together with all that we are and have.         BUT I am SO jealous for the LORD, that His Honour is upheld, and that His Praise and Glory are in no way diminished that I am the more straightened, and the more determined to demonstrate our dependence upon His Faithfulness and Truth.     We shall continue to WAIT upon the Lord,  yea we shall take our rest and WAIT upon Him.       Surely He WILL deliver us, and appear before us all Glorious and Victorious against all the force and and lies of the Enemy.

We are coming THROUGH it all!      I love the illustration below on the left showing Jesus and the disciples coming through the storm;   I love the THRUST of that boat's prow, heedless of the waves and lightening, and the general 'feeling' that ESCAPE is at hand.     Really exhilarating and exciting, AND encouraging!!    Praise Jesus!

ON MONDAY MORNING,  I was in my Office trying to calculate how many shillings could be spared on food, and how much if anything on outstanding School Fees.     I needed about 2,500 English pounds for the Fees!    Students from our Homes had already been at home waiting with us for a fortnight.          Suddenly a missionary brother that fellowship with us in prayer strode in and hugged me and said ' Here is a Gift from friends of ours from Germany.  

We want Testimony to have it.  -   It was a cheque for Ksh.280,000/- EXACTLY what was needed to get ALL our College and University students back onto their courses.     It was as if a LIFELINE HAD BEEN THROWN TO US.     I just stared at my brother.       'We would have got it to you even earlier, but there has been a problem with the Bank in Germany!'  he said.           In the midst of the darkness and storm clouds a sudden shaft of SUNLIGHT lit up the world around us.       The darkness and the storm was still there, but God had proved it was nothing for Him to pierce it AND no doubt to actually DISPERSE it.

He is in the boat with us, and we are speeding towards clear sky and sunshine.   Rejoice with us!!  There are many of us in this BOAT!    Testimony is like the ARK - it is built for Salvation, and it is GOD that buoys it up and keep it afloat by His Holy Spirit, and His Strong Right Arm. 

We are SHUT IN WITH GOD.       We are unable to leave or escape.     There is no helm to steer with, no sail or engine to drive us forward. We are in the Hand of God, driven 

forward on a course only HE has charted, empowered and enabled by His Strength.       It can be and often IS a Roller Coaster ride - a mixture of screams and laughter, apprehension and rapturous wonder.       God IS Good - ALL the time.    JOIN US in your own personal 'boat' dedicated to His Service.

Throw out the Life-line to danger fraught men,

Sinking in anguish where you've never been:

Winds of temptation and billows of woe

Will soon hurl them back where the dark waters flow.

We are all, men and women alike, Life-boat people, risking out lives to rescue the perishing but made brave and bold by having Jesus with us in the Boat.   How can we FAIL?

God be with you each one, and lift up your hearts and lives to rise above all the logistics the Enemy can try to ensnare you with and to disturb your peace and confidence with.  REBUKE him - and he WILL flee.

With out Love and Affection in Father's Love always

John and Esther

        

MAN OR MONKEY?

NOW WE ARE TOLD!     The scientists tell us that IDA pictured opposite walked the earth 46 million years ago, and has now been unearthed to assure us that she and we are wonderfully linked - she is now being announced as the LATEST, 'Missing Link' between us and monkeys..   From the photo of the fossil one supposes she went on all fours rather than upright - maybe they just photographed her that way by accident.     So strange that there has been such a sincere effort to establish that MAN is not an original and totally SEPERATE creation.   I wonder why?   perhaps it might be useful in devaluing the place and status of Man above and in comparison to the rest of the animal creation.  I went to Bible College in Sussex within walking distance to PILTDOWN, a small village with a pond which had once been a quarry in which was discovered part of a skull which soon became another 'Missing Link'.  In 1912 a  local lawyer - Charles Dawson -came across the remains of skulls whilst rummaging around in the quarry, which he went on to claim had come from a 'Missing Link' between Man and Apes.    His discovery and claim wrought immediate world interest, but in 1953, forty one years later, his claim was found to have been a HOAX!     Not the skull of an Ape/Man but just part of the jawbone of some lower animal - perhaps a pig!

WHY ALL THE 'HOO-HAH'?  After all even a pig has intelligence. It no doubt hinges on the dogma that Man, being like God, was created and continues to be born with a SOUL, whilst animals are said not to be so endowed.     If we can prove Man has evolved from the lower Animal Creation then we lose immediately a great deal of superiority and value. He is also disentangled from all the 'mumbo-jumbo' of the 'Church'!!  Already Humanity seems to be losing value on many fronts.    Infanticide, (abortion) is on the increase, Child Abuse, Human Violence all a growing world wide problem.      Now perhaps we shall have little compunction in kicking a human being as we might - in some places - kick a dog.         These days, as one listens to the world news, one wonders if, rather than going for evolution, we should consider devolution - maybe Mankind is descending and not rising.    But I believe that God made everything in the animal world 'according to its KIND'.      I could 'maybe' agree to some kind of change within a species, but NOT a progression of one species evolving into an entirely different species. Monkeys are forever monkeys, and Men are forever Men.      I read recently that the latest studies in DNA coding prove this, and categorically state that it is not possible genetically for one species to become a totally NEW species (kind).     BUT IN THE END what does it matter?       In the end we are confronted by the FACT of an amazing Intelligence that is so far beyond our own as to make it almost laughable to try and understand it.          But man wants to prove to himself that HE is as clever as the Mind that imagined him, or the Creator that put him together.    He is full of vanity and foolishness.      He seeks his own glory, whilst refusing to seek the Creator, who alone has all knowledge.    Woe unto them.  They have put the cart in front of the horse once again.   And the AWFUL thing is that He Who must Come, is well on the way, and when they see Him they will at once be confounded and put to shame.   TOO LATE!

IN THE MEANTIME, whilst the world continues  to witness madness on every side WE remain quietly contemplating God and  His purposes.         The RAIN has continued - intermittent, but at least reasonably constant - but the farmers are still mourning over what they tell us will be a lost or much diminished harvest.   

Here at the moment the adage that says 'No news is good news' could be somewhat substantiated by saying ' All news is bad news'.      KENYA government

continues to spend a lot of time and money in wrangles and arguments between themselves, each day the Media reporting more money lost, more setbacks to progress, growing threat of economic collapse.      Food prices continue to rise.    Crime continues to increase.     Today we have heard of more companies laying off staff, and this can only aggravate the already inflated unemployment figures.       It is a strange situation, since the beauty all around us seems to say, REJOICE all is well, whilst in fact the reality is as if the sun were not shining, and world full of darkness and despair.       Sharp, unreal, concepts.

We, as a ministry, are in the midst of all this, and although in many ways we are kept in peace we cannot but be aware of the increased needs and suffering around us.         This term has seen our children and young people seeking College Places, having completed their  Secondary Education, rise to 21.         Up until yesterday we were unable to fund more than three of them so that they could commence their courses.      This year we see

3 commencing University - B.Com

2 commencing Diplomas in Civil Engineering

2 commencing Diplomas in Hotel Management & Catering

2 continuing with Primary Teacher College 

2. continuing/commencing Early Childhood Development Training

2 commencing Kenya Accountancy Training

1 commencing Dip on Christian Leadership

1 continuing Certificate in Electrical Engineering

1 commencing Diploma in Automotive Engineering

2 commencing/continuing Diploma in Information Technology

1 commencing Diploma in Sales @ Purchasing

1 commencing Certificate in Business Management

1 commencing Certificate in Community Nursing.

Quite a program!        We have been and continue much in prayer with our Father in Heaven putting each individual need in front of Him, as well and together with our usual daily needs, and

our dreams of expansion.       Financially things have been so stringent that we have so far had to put all idea of extending Jacaranda Cottage and also even building a fourth Home on hold.   This is not easy on our heart as we see so many children in immense need camping all around us.    

We have had quite a few 'passers by' this year 'not so much friends that know us and appreciate the work done here, but purely curious visitors ....      They have had means to help, but  have not done so, but walked on the other side of the road and passed by not wishing to be too closely involved.        " Yes it is shocking to see the need you are grappling with, and suffering confronting you, but no doubt God will take care of you......"  and they pass by.     It has been a little ironic.        From their point of view it is a little difficult to blame them since for the most part we look MORE than well cared for to the stranger!!       We have 'brushed our hair, and washed our face' and we have played the part to perfection..          ALL the Honour Praise and Glory has gone to the LORD who has and does provide for us.        BUT we are surviving and being maintained - just.          "

TODAY is our grandson Jesse's 11th Birthday.

We shall be having supper at his house later today,  Daryl and Carol having invited us to share  part of the festivity.     He is bright boy and doing well in School - favourite subjects Maths and Science.     He also Loves the Lord, and full of interest in all that God has made.

Esther and I continue to be very busy.    Days whizz by until we cannot believe we are back again to the weekend.   Still it has been good in one since we have been able to do a lot of things we not have bothered about due to the economic situation we are going through.     All the inexpensive occupations like 'Filing' and Annual Statistical Returns!!!!     But they ARE tiring things for all that.    Both of us in good health though, and we Thank God for all His Daily Goodness and Kindness to us.            I (John) got a new upper denture this week and still getting used to them!

Well this is a shorty compared to last week's.      I am not inspired perhaps.   The sun is shining again outside, and the atmosphere is heavy and still, no breeze.    Maybe it will rain again later and so clear the air.           Much love from us all here. 

JOHN AND ESTHER

THIS IS THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL overcoming Satan. Some say that Michael is actually the Lord Jesus, and certainly we KNOW that Jesus DID, and HAS, overcome that old Enemy, and if HE is in US, then we also should be each one a potential overcomer in His NAME - the Name of Jesus.

I wonder why it is that Christians (including the one writing) should for the most part find it so difficult to put this into practice.    Perhaps we live by sight instead of Faith -  or as I heard one brother say recently - we live too much in the dark instead of the LIGHT.    His idea is that we are born into darkness - the whole world IS in darkness - and that we tend to be acclimatised to 'seeing' in this dimness, whereas God has given us of His Spirit, and we should now be walking and seeing in the Light.

A good example might be found in 2. Kings 6v15-17.  The King of Syria had sent an Army to capture Elisha who was staying in the city of Dothan.     His servant, rising early, had opened the door of their lodging to find the city surrounded .      He saw only the Syrian Army.     "Alas!" cried the servant, "What shall we do?"

ELISHA replied " Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them!"  Elisha could SEE more than his servant.     And he prayed and said "LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see"     And the LORD opened  the eyes of the young man, and he saw.     And behold the mountain (on which Dothan stood) was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha  -  (and no doubt also his servant as well).        

We need to remember that the Enemy deals in lies and deceit.    He can conjure up visions that are figments of imagination, or just manipulates our human mind and vision to see and believe in what is not really there.        He is well able to 'pull the wool over our eyes' so that we do not SEE the truth.    I do really believe a good part of his activity amongst us IS to blind our sight; to blot out the LIGHT so that we CANNOT see.           There is a need for us to REBUKE the Devil so that he flees from us and lets the light of God's Spirit flood our inner eye, so that we see and appreciate the REAL and TRUE situation we are in.

Walking recently from our little house, Green Cottage, here in Testimony Faith Homes towards my Office early in the morning I suddenly stopped in my tracks.      The sky was brilliant blue and the sun already blazing down with heat upon  the dried and cracking lawns around me.  We were in the midst of a prolonged doubt - a drought the meteorologists had just assured us would continue - rains were not expected.       I had stopped to consider this, looking up at the clear sky above.      Did meteorologists make clouds?   NO, of course not.  THEY were not in CONTROL of weather, they just read the signs they could SEE.     BUT like all of us they looked through a 

glass darkly - their sight was blinkered, even manipulated to see the dark side.       BUT It was and IS God Who is in Control.    He is the one who creates the clouds and produces the rain, and causes the wind to bring weather wherever He wants.       Hah!    The day WAS VERY BRIGHT, but instead of seeing RAIN I had been considering drought -  I lifted up my voice and said "I rebuke you Satan in Jesus Name.     Let the clouds appear, and let the rain come upon the dry land".     I continued on my way with certainty it would rain.       It was my Birthday and that afternoon the sky accumulated great clouds laden with rain which later poured down upon us - and so far has not ceased to repeat its delivery..........      JESUS said in Luke 10v19 -

"BEHOLD

I give you POWER......

POWER over ALL the power of the enemy.

The People of God, those who do KNOW their LORD, are a great army and will do great exploits in His Name.        They shall go forward rebuking the Enemy in the  Mighty Name of Jesus, and see him RUN before them, leaving the Victory in their hands.        Should we take every setback in our experience sitting down, head in hands, despairing of coming through?     NO, dear friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, we must get up and Stand, and having done all to STAND steadfast until we see the Deliverance that is in the Lord appear in front of us.

Psalm 50v10 finds GOD speaking and saying -

Every beast of the forest is Mine,

and the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know all the birds of the mountains

and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.

IF I WERE HUNGRY I WOULD NOT TELL YOU

for the world in Mine and the fullness thereof.

Having made this enormous statement, He says in Haggai 2v8 -

"The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine", says the Lord of Hosts.

The world and all its fullness is GODS; it belongs to Him, and it is all available upon His Command and Demand to fulfill His every wish and need.         And this is now vested in CHRIST JESUS, and through Him to each and every one of US who Name Him Lord and Saviour.     Each one of US may also say in whatever physical or material need - "If I were hungry - in need - I would not tell you because .........!!!!           This has been the foundation of what we in Testimony Faith Homes have trusted and believed in for this 40 years.      It has been put to the test many times. Satan never gives up in his effort to make us believe a LIE.       We may honestly say that we are still challenged in these matters, YET He has given us strength and SIGHT to continue fending off the darkness that leads to UNBELIEF.          pray for us, as we also pray  for YOU that you may experience more and more that ALL POWER has been given to us in CHRIST, against all the power of the enemy.     PRAY that we shall  all manifest greater power in  our inward AND outward lives as we lean more upon His Word than upon the world's warped intelligence.

0000000000000000 

THIS WEEK I inspected, together with the District Children's Officer and a few others, TWO prospective Children's Homes, struggling to get going and already helping children residentially.       We have been having quite a few conflicting comments about the need for Residential Charitable Children's Homes in Kenya.     The 'official' position remains that Kenya hopes to eradicate the need of them totally by 2020.     They are now concentrating on getting ALL destitute and orphaned children adopted by then.      HOWEVER, the unofficial position seems NOW to be that MORE   Children's Homes ARE needed.       The two we inspected this week were Approved for recommendation to the Minister, for Registration.      BUT it has become a very complicated, demanding, and expensive matter - to get Registered as an Approved Home for Children.  The price becomes higher and higher to help the poor and needy as Governments emulate the 1st world order, and tightly wrap themselves in needless 'red tape' and sociological clap-trap.   Kenya has always tried to run before it could walk in many areas.      Now it is going to lay down even more stringent and perfected Regulations and Standards for Children's and other Charitable Institutions, which will probably make it more and more impossible for Charities to pay for, or even for the Government themselves to implement.      MEANWHILE millions of children remain unattended to.           Searching the Web one can be amazed at just how many organisations, private societies and even individuals are in Kenya right now seeking to alleviate the plight of children.       The entire cost of their operations come from outside of Kenya, and therefore costs the Government nothing.       Surely the Government should be appreciative of all this aid?   Instead they are making it even more expensive to sustain this assistance.     Exemption of Taxation which used to be freely given to any charity is now being withdrawn or made almost impossible to retain.     Currently ours has been withdraw, and we are advised that all income even from overseas will be taxed.       This alone will make it very difficult to make ends meet.   We are, of  course, contesting this action.

SUPPOSE all this free aid were  to suddenly be withdrawn or stop?     Who will then care for these children?       Will they all be immediately fostered or adopted?    Obviously not.  

IT HAS TAKEN TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES 40 YEARS to develop what it has.    It remains costly to maintain and keep up, whilst there are still areas where improvements are needed to provide standards we feel should be our goal.       But development often takes time to put in place.   Rome wasn't built in a day!     The government attitude seems to be that we must match our standards with those of the Developed World IMMEDIATELY.   We need your prayers that those concerned for Social services take into account what is the immediate need of our needy children, rather than its IMAGE as a progressive and up to the minute supporter of the UN Children's Charter and what IT deems necessary provision by any person or persons trying to set up a Shelter for Children in an economically unsound situation.  

I enjoyed my 69th Birthday, and managed not to blow out all the candles on the cake!    

School is open and busy for its 2nd Term of the Year.       Our Buses are also busy picking up and depositing students two or three times a day - now in the MUD as well,  protesting a little as well.           MANU is in Nairobi for Interviews for jobs, but he IS already employed here in Eldoret, so I guess he will only consider something that will be more profitable.      Continue on in prayer for him - we see a few good signs.        We miss him when he is not here!     NO, not like toothache or anything like that.      We just miss him - we love him.       Miss each one of our kids. 

HAVE TO SEEK for a Word from the Lord for Sunday, so must close now.    Be Blessed and encouraged.     THINGS ARE MOVING IN THE HEAVENLIES.       He is on the way!   Spruce up and be ready.....

Love you all

John  & Esther  

EQUALITY ?

ON AUGUST 18TH 1962 a European known as PETER POOLE aged 28, married with two children was executed by hanging in Nairobi Prison.     He made history as the first white man to be so executed in Kenya.     Eight months earlier Poole had been convicted of the Murder of his house help, Kamawe Musunge.       Musunge had been riding his bicycle near Poole's house when two of Poole's dogs  got in his way and stopped him from further progress.   He picked up some stones to throw at the dogs hoping to move them away, but as he did so Poole came out of his house, drew his pistol and shot Musunge dead!       Quite dramatic!     Without doubt Murder had been done.    But   Poole was well known and had fought for the Colonialists against the Mau Mau.     And it was said by the European community that he would never hang - he had only killed a black man!   He owned an electrical shop along Government Road (now Moi Avenue) and was known as being short tempered.    He had previously shot a police constable who was being attacked (once again) by one of his dogs, and had also threatened another shopkeeper who had refused to give him discount on a torch he wanted to purchase!     An arrogant young man!     25,000 signatures were nevertheless collected on his behalf and presented to the Governor of the Day (pre-Independence) in an effort to obtain clemency for him.     It failed to move the Governor, and Peter dropped through the Trap-door on the end of a rope.     His immediate family, parents, wife and children, must have endured the day with pain and distress.      We are told the rest of the European community in Nairobi were in uproar at what they felt was injustice.        BUT HE HAD KILLED A MAN - he had killed a human being made in the Image of God in broad daylight for no just reason.       His case was Tried by Jury.     The WHITE Jury brought in a Verdict of MURDER.      Many hailed him as a 'martyr'.          

Here, clearly, must be seen and understood the FACT that coloured men and women were looked down upon by WHITE people;   nay they were set at naught, as without human worth or value compared to themselves.        YES, of course I have to admit that my 'generality' of reference has to be open to individual exceptions here and there.

It must have been a real BLOW in the face of the majority when Poole was Executed.   All men must suddenly have been seen to be more equal that previously thought!    One London newspaper had written -

  'All men, regardless of colour, became equal at the end of a rope.'

In fact it MAY well be that in the general consensus of opinion on both sides of the community at large, it was more important that a white man had been judged at fault, than the fact that actual JUSTICE had been done!      One in the eye for the all superior and privileged lords of the earth.  I wonder if anyone mourned for the murdered man, Kamawe Musunge.    I could not find anything written about him, his family.......just that he had been murdered by a WHITE MAN.     Even in the NATION this week, there was nothing about the victim of this Murder.     The emphasis and the focus was entirely - even 50 years on - on the question of 'white superiority'.

NOW A SECOND WHITE MAN is in the spotlight for suspected Murder.      This time not just a common or garden 

electrician, but the great grandson of LORD DELAMERE British Nobleman, and Kenyan land magnate.       The case had dragged on for almost three years.    Mr. Cholmondeley had killed another African the year before, but was not convicted.    This second event HAD to be dealt with.        BUT has it been dealt with fairly?      The Accused is not just accused of having Murdered an African, but also of having too much African LAND, too much social prestige and power.   If he were to be found Not Guilty the Government of the Day might be seen as helpless in front of the considerable 'influence' of the Delameres.       The African, now in the majority, might be the ones to riot.      SO is it possible for JUSTICE to actually BE a consideration here?        If our TOM is  found GUILTY it will please the masses, but produce important repercussions in other places - since it may well be considered that Justice has not been done.       There has apparently been little forensic proof of purely circumstantial evidence for example.     BUT I am not out to prove the innocence of Tom Cholmondeley or the rightness of his Sentence.      If he killed then he must take the consequences - that is the law regardless of who he is or where he has come from.       All men ought to be treated equally in the sight of God. BUT in my heart I remain concerned that still today,  46 years after the death of Peter Poole, the REAL interest in  this case is NOT so much JUSTICE, as in striking a blow at the 'white man', his arrogant attitude concerning his superior self appraisal so often bound up with wealth, education, and position.

It may not be TRUE of the white man as much as it once was, but it is still very much a part of social interest and opinion.          Why do Kenyans feel they need to find weakness in the Whites?

Why is it more important to prove white people to be as prone to sin as any other colour?    Why can't we accept that ALL MEN are SINNERS regardless of race, colour or creed.     Why cannot every nation and tribe realise their need of forgiveness, mercy and compassion as much as judgment and retribution.

IN KENYA RIGHT NOW black Africans are murdering each other.      They do so every day.

Our Prisons are packed with men and women who have been found guilty of Murder, yet have never been executed!         What IS so important in seeking the DEATH PENALTY for a man of another colour, just because he is from a minority; even if, in some quarters, a despised and resented minority      Let us hope JUSTICE does lie behind it all, but I seriously WONDER.

WELL Tom Cholmondeley was spared the Death Sentence and judged instead to be Guilty of Manslaughter.    He will be SENTENCED on Tuesday of next week.     Manslaughter might be a compromise in order to save face whilst being seen unafraid to confront the Great White Man.

It might work, but will it be JUSTICE?      It might work, but has it in any way changed the status quo....?           I don't think so....not yet.        Pain all round of course - for the family of Robert Njoya who was shot and killed, and for the family of the man accused.     BUT in the press all the attention is going to the Accused - not to Robert Njoya.       ALMOST a repeat of the Poole affair.

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TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES, does not regard or make any difference towards those of differing tribes, nationalities, or even shade of colour.    Our doors have been open to all since we commenced in 1969.     I was once told that EVERY COLOUR goes into the colour WE call WHITE.      I hope that over the years that have passed God has been improving my whiteness by drawing so many of other colours and shades into my life and experience.    I hope it has made a difference to the 'green' young man that arrived SO white in Kenya in 1968.

IN 1974 a little boy of four years was brought to Testimony House, to me and Esther my wife to care for.     He was brought by a Child Welfare Officer working on the outskirts of Eldoret.

His name is PAUL NGUGI, and when he arrived He could not walk - at 4 years old!

His legs and arms looked like those of a spider all weakly draped around a huge stomach.   His head seemed too big, facial features all twisted into a grimace.  The silky hair of his scalp strangely straight, yellow with malnutrition.   One eye bulged glassily, like some huge fish eye, cloudy with death.    His hands were like Little claws, all  swollen at the wrists, as also were his ankles.    He was a most pathetic sight.

'His mother died you see' 

said the fat and comfortable Social Worker.

'When the father went to the funeral at Fort Hall (hundreds of miles away).

'the child was left alone in the mud hut.   He was alone when  we found him.

He was starving, and seemed to have suffered from Measles. 

He seems to see only partially.

SO I have thought I  should bring him to you!'

My immediate reaction was one of repugnance more than pity or compassion.    As he rested in one of the big arm chairs he suddenly convulsed and deposited a huge mass of heaving round worms as thick a s man's finger, and four to six inches long.    His stomach visibly reduced!

He has been with us ever since!      After de-worming him completely and giving careful attention to his feeding, he slowly regained strength and was able to stand and move about, but at the same time we realised he was still in the grip of some disease we had not diagnosed.

EVENTUALLY after numerous treks to doctors and hospitals where tests and research were carried out it was determined that he suffers from a metabolic disease known as Hurlers Syndrome, or Gargoylism as it is also know.     It is possible he could have been cured through bone marrow transplants, but it would have had to be done before he was brought to us.  Otherwise life expectancy was set at 10 years only, and no cure or remedial treatment was offered us.    We were told his blindness would be complete, and that physically he would progressively regress into almost totally paralysis.     He will be 39 in December this year.   He is bound to his wheel chair now, and has a male nurse to assist him at night and part of the day.   Otherwise he is part of the  Family of Testimony House; a treasured member!     

He managed to attend School until the 5th Grade of Primary, but after that he could not face the audible curiosity and comment his physical condition aroused in his classmates.    He learnt braille and read extensively.     He speaks English, Swahili, and Kikuyu fluently and his general intelligence fueled from listening the World Service is second to none.      He has an extensive sense of humour and seems totally devoid of self pity.    He LOVES God with all his heart.    No relative has come forward to claim him.    Home is still Testimony House.     He is someone who speaks to all by the way he lives and  endures rather than anything  else.        His frail voice rises often from the Sunday Service Congregation to Thank and Praise God for LIFE and his constant thought  centres on the DAY the King will come; the day that he will SEE that King, and at last be made WHOLE.

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Pray for us all in TFH.      Pray for the Children and parents in the Four Homes.   And pray for Esther and me as we stand by our posts in Jesus Name.      Their ARE times when life seems to be a maelstrom whirling around us.       How WONDERFUL though to BE at the centre and to know the PEACE of God.

Our love to you all as always.

John and Esther

NOT LONG AGO A KENYAN WAS RELEASED from one of our unsavoury Prisons where he had been wrongfully held for EIGHTEEN years.    I have often wondered what he got out of the time spent - if anything - on looking back - if he did!    After all it was like starting a NEW life.   MANY people feel the past is best forgotten, and some, failing to forget it, dwell upon

it with feelings that may often be full of self-pity, even bitterness, because of the way life treated them.  What ARE we to do with the past, especially the unpleasant, painful past that caused us hurt and misery, and perhaps even shame in some way?    DO 'all things work together for our good'?    The Bible says that they DO if God is part of our lives.   CAN the Bad and Sad things work good for us.   CAN our sinful past and even our often painful present be put to good use, capitalised upon and profited from?   YES, I do believe they can.......   But it doesn't work for everyone.      The man in the left hand photo had just been released from prison.    

He does not look at all glad or happy about it, and his image somehow does not encourage one to believe he is any different to the man that went in.         But perhaps he was not there for 18 years.    In fact his hairstyle tells us he was probably IN just for a night!

The man in the NEXT photo, (centre) has family or friends waiting for him as he leaves the Prison, and although you cannot see his face, he gives every sign of being VERY thankful to be out.

THE PRESS REPORTED Richard Wambugu, the man actually released after his 18 year ordeal, as being angry at the injustice of his long confinement, and the lost years of his youth.    He looked for redress, compensation of some kind.     DID the experience help him at all?   Perhaps not.      Unless God was with him in the prison, or unless he found Him afterwards, Richard may merely have let his bitterness destroy him....hard to tell...........He could well have blamed 'fate' and or GOD for letting life treat him so badly.      On the other had he may have been filled with compassion for his fellow inmates so that he may have determined to do something about the awful conditions in Kenya Prisons.

Reading in Isaiah51v1-3 I found these words to very apt and instructive -

'HEARKEN to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord!

Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit,

from whence ye are digged.

Look to Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you;

for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her wast places;

and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord;

joy and gladness shall be found therein, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.'

ISAIAH was speaking to the People of God, to those who rejoiced in His Name - and He told them to LOOK BACK to their origins (their past).   To look back upon their unbelieving ancestry, their sinful, godless, beginnings.    AND in looking back to see how far they had come as they had trusted in God.  How that God had made the old waste places and wilderness experiences into something beautiful and comforting.   Out of Darkness and Error God brought Joy and Gladness of heart.

THE FIRST SEVENTEEN YEARS of my own life were very much like the journeyings of Israel through the wilderness.   Rejected and given away by my true parents when just a month old; adopted by a childless couple who were unfaithful to each other; then subjected to a series of situations in which I found myself living with my 'separated' (not divorced) adoptive mother and her many lovers, each of whom had little or no interest in me, or in having me around.   I grew up wondering what was wrong with ME;  what had I done to be so unwanted and so rejected?   Why had I to go through so many very many lonely years - what was the reason?    I think that if I had never been found by my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I may NEVER have found out WHY.   More, I may never have been able to come through into a situation where I could even be GLAD for those years.    CHRIST made the difference in MY life.   He brought the answer to all my questions, and revealed the Great Love of God to me.    If I had not been allowed to suffer the little that I did, then I would never have been able to feel compassion for others who had to pass through similar, or even worse tribulation and rejection.   I would never have been able to assist others to count their BLESSINGS and in doing so turn even their sorrows into JOY.   Nothing that has ever happened to me has been a wasteful or useless experience.    Of course I am NOT saying that I enjoyed it all, or that I would even like to have to through it again!   BUT it has all counted and been profitable to and for me.     Without God coming into my life and understanding in Christ I may never have been left unscarred.    It was not until the night I reached out to help two homeless boys and began what became Testimony Faith Homes, that I realised the truth of this fully and completely.     ALL of my life had been just a preparation ..........

YES indeed it can be a blessing to look back...and to remember ......

Deuteronomy 8v2 reports Moses as saying to the Children of Israel -

'...earnestly remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you

in these 40 years in the Wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you,

and to know what was in your mind and heart, 

whether you would keep His Commandments or not,

and He thoroughly humbled, and allowed you to hunger.'

God ALLOWED Israel to hunger, so that they might learn something; something good about God.  That He was MORE than bread, and is more able than bread to keep them alive.

In Mark 5v19 Jesus speaks to the man who had been delivered from the legion of demons that possessed him.    He said -

'..Go home to your own family and relatives and friends,

and bring back word to them of how much the Lord has done for you,

and how He has had sympathy for you and mercy upon you.'

This man, who had been possessed and manipulated by demons most of his life, suddenly had a testimony that rested on his past experience and suffering.   God in Christ had turned defeat into victory.   What the Devil had intended for evil, God had turned inside out and made it achieve GOOD.

In John 9v3 Jesus speaks to the beggar who was born blind.   He then speaks to the crowd that stood idly around and said -

'It was not that this man or his parents sinned,

but he was born blind in order that the workings of God should be manifested

(displayed and illustrated) in and by him.'

This man had been blind from his birth!   Now suddenly God reveals Himself to him, and his blindness is turned to SIGHT, and the contrast with his past is so much more both to himself AND to those who have known and lived with him from his birth.   How can any one of us say that our past life has had no affect upon  the present?

Thus PAUL writes in 2. Corinthians 1v4 about our Father in Heaven - about GOD Himself -

'God, - who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble

(calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort

(console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress

with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

SO remember to LOOK BACK, back to where you have come from.    Look and be surprised at how God has turned misfortune, sorrow, even pain into profit, using everything to fit you out for His Will and Purpose.      He is truly a WONDERFUL God and Father.

The FOURTH boy that God led to my doorstep in August 1969, and who came to part of our family also found himself in Prison.     He had completed his High School and seemed a promising boy, but after leaving us he got into trouble and was imprisoned for TEN long years.    Shortly after being RELEASED he found employment, and  wrote to tell us of his conversion -

Dear Dad and Mum,

I have always known you both loved me, and that you brought me up

in the knowledge of God.   I would surely have died in sin if you had not done so.

And, if it were not for you and God, and Jesus, I might have died in the Prison.

Because of this I and many others in the Prison

have been Saved and have Accepted Jesus as Personal Saviour.

I am busy now telling others how I have spent ten years in  Prison!

I am also telling them how I found Jesus there.

Thank you for loving me, and for loving God.

Since Jesus came into my life, even immediately as He drew me to Himself,

I have been able to give up the things I used to do and be!

AND YES, if it were not for HIM, I would have died in sin, in the Prison BOUND.

But now I am FREE, out of the Prison, and working.

I am a NEW PERSON

Your son always, - Johanna

He is now married with a child of his own, holding down a job and continuing to witness to the Salvation that came to his life in a very dark place,  lighting up his life for ever.

Have a wonderful Week ahead.     Let HIM turn all your anxieties, worries, heartaches and pain into fuel for a LIGHT FILLED LIFE that will illuminate many.        Do not be pressed DOWN, but be lifted UP by the knowledge of His Love for you, and of His ultimate CARE of you,

Sincerely in the Work of the Kingdom

John and Esther