CHRISTMAS PAST!

I HAD HOPED TO POST ANOTHER EPISODE ON CHRISTMAS DAY! But it was not to be. My day became much busier than expected!.... and my Modem went on the blink, and so I just gave up. Tried again on Sunday but no better, and so here I am LATE. LATE but Blessed and Glad of Heart, since it has been a Wonderful week-end for us all. I have just put up 23 photos on Face Book describing some of the events that have taken place, including a visit from the staff of our Bankers, our Christmas Concert, and a special event arranged for Christmas Eve. TODAY the sun is blazed in a clear blue sky once again, and the children all packed off to a Swimming Pool in the nearby Catholic University! This is an annual event usually reserved for Boxing Day, but since that was on a Sunday this year we have meandered today instead. Esther and I joined them all there with the rest of our staff and a few old boys and girls who like to link up with us as well. A good conclusion; a family day, and what has always been a truly 'family' occasion.

THIS YEAR we focused on Luke 2, and the proclamation of the GOOD NEWS by the Angelic Host to the Shepherds abiding in the fields near to Bethlehem. This began the Sunday before Christmas and carried on through Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. So many find it hard to understand why Christ came as a child - even why He had to come at all! We find so many gaps in what is taught within the Church today, and a lot of things are either glossed over or just not referred to. Why did the Right Arm of God bring Salvation to us all - by becoming a child?

GOD had at one time regretted making mankind - and in fact He destroyed them all with the exception of Noah and his immediate family. It had all begun in the Garden with Adam and Eve as they together stopped listening to GOD, stopped regarding HIS words, and listened to another - even Satan, who appealed to their human nature. They SINNED. and brought upon themselves the Sentence of DEATH. God had thereupon covered their shame by killing innocent animals, shedding their blood and clothing Adam and Eve with their skins, And the killing and the covering went on year after year - did God hope they might improve...? He was disappointed and by Noah's day with a population that may have been well over three million souls, God found the imagination of everyone's heart to be only evil continually - Genesis 6.

BUT NOAH - Noah walked - lived along - with God - and God noticed him and provided for his salvation together with his immediate family. (connect with Acts 16v31) THEY were saved from the ensuring flood which took the lives of every other man,woman and child.

Did God hope that in Noah and through his family the tide of iniquity could be turned and mankind saved from the influence of his sinful human nature genetically modified at the fall to lean always towards having its own way against God?

In ISAIAH 59v16, thousands of years later, we find that God had LOOKED, searched, for a MAN to stand up for righteousness and to be able to pray against the evil.......but he found NONE.

Yes, even as it is written in Isaiah 53v6...ALL we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way...... AND THEN the final despair in the words spoken is Isaiah 64v6....But we are ALL as an unclean thing, and ALL our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we ALL do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. AND THERE IS NONE that calleth (sincerely) upon your name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee..'

What then was God to do? The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New tenth chapter and verse one -

'....(The Law) can never, by offering the same sacrifices

continually year after year, make perfect those

who approach its altars.

For if it were otherwise,

would these sacrifices not have stopped being offered?

Sine the worshipers had once for all been cleansed

they would no longer have any guilt or

consciousness of sin
But (as it was) these sacrifices annually bring a fresh

remembrance of sins to be atoned for.

Because the blood of bulls and goats is powerless

to take sins away.

HENCE, when He (Christ) entered into the world,

He said,

Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired,

but instead You have made ready a body for Me to offer

In burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no delight.

THEN I said

BEHOLD, here I am

coming to do Your will, O God -

to fulfill what is written of Me in the volume of the Book

GOD prepared a body for Christ to be BORN into. A body that would grow to manhood in perfection, and thus able to stand in Righteousness on sinful man's behalf, taking ALL his sinfulness upon Himself and removing the condemnation and guilt from man so that he might be saved from that sin, forgiven his trespasses against God, and restored to fellowship with God.

When God cried out ' WHO will GO for me?'

His Right ARM, replied and said 'MAKE me a body and I will go and do what is needed.'

God's Holy Spirit chose a young virgin called Mary and, overshadowing her, began to create within her a body that would share it's humanity with the very WORD of God.

And when He was born He was called JESUS.

On THAT DAY when He was born, the means of our Salvation and Deliverance from SIN was initiated on earth, culminating on a day 33 years later when that same Jesus was crucified on a Cross in Jerusalem for the sins of us ALL. Truly VERY GOOD NEWS INDEED

'Christmas Day' may not be the right day to celebrate this momentous Act of God in providing means of delivering us out of the hand of Satan; it is of no importance one way or the other. BUT it IS important to consider such a Day, and to devote some effort to Praise God for it, and to Rejoice in what it Advented. Oh Yes! Come! Let us Rejoice and stirr ourselves up to remember the Child born to be our Saviour AND our coming King. Have we RECEIVED Him? Is He already Lord of our Lives?

+++++++++++++++++++++++

ON CHRISTMAS EVE from 7 - 9 p.m. we arranged a outside meeting in front of Green Cottage for all our Children and Homes staff. Almost 160 souls. It was a clear and starlit night, and quite cold like that 'night of old.' We gathered to keep a 'watch' together, to sing carols, to pray and praise a little, and to share the memories of that Night when Jesus was born. We had a little outside lighting, and at the end we shared hot tea, samosas, cake and ice cream. The children really enjoyed it. We had never done anything quite like it before, and we felt the Presence of God very real to us. All part of a renewed effort to bring life and meaning to the Nativity Story in a way relevant to the full story of our Redemption. Esther and I made history by singing a duet together - 'Away in a Manger' - and brought the whole area to a standstill with surprised passers by peering through our garden railings to see what was going on.

On the 17th the children had put on a Christmas Concert with Carols, Praise and Worship and a Nativity Play. It is an Annual Event and open to the public and many from around attended and enjoyed the evening. The children encouraged and produced themselves wonderfully well with help from just one member of our staff. Everyone very excited and happy to be taking part and in 'doing something for Jesus'. No refreshments were provided and the event commenced at 7p.m. and ended at 9.30.

I spoke at the Christmas Morning Service on Luke 13v3 - Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish!~ BAD NEWS! I emphasised the universal inevitability of physical death, and the sudden proximity of finding ourselves defenceless before God to be Judged. BUT THEN the GOOD NEWS of the Child born to rescue us all and to give us LIFE.

Thereafter a light lunch in each house, and then some went on a family walk, played board games together and then at 3p.m. came together to chat and talk about Birth of Jesus.

4p.m. a cup of tea, and later - about 7.30p.m. each home had its own Christmas Supper followed by a Sing Song of Hymns and Carols and prayer before retiring to bed.

SUNDAY was a quiet day. Sunday Service taken by one of our Old Boys now working in South Africa for Jesus, but home for a short visit.

AND TODAY EVERYONE was packed off to the Annual Pic-nic and Swimming event, held at a local Catholic University Swimming Pool which is ours for the whole day. ALL the children and staff were there and great fun and happiness all round. A fitting conclusion to what was an exceptional 'family' week-end for all of us. We thank the Lord Jesus, the Centre of it all, and we thank all of you for your prayer and support. Sorry for this delay and will hope to be back on track again this coming Saturday.

Love to you all

John and Esther

THE CHRISTMAS TREE and all that!

AM I A PAGAN OR AM I JUST AN IGNORANT OLD DUFFER? I happened to be reading an article this week, in which it is said that for the first time ever, the White House in the USA has erected NOT a Christmas Tree but a 'HOLIDAY TREE'. Also, during this week during a Home's staff fellowship to discuss Christmas one of our Houseparents pointed out that the Christmas tree was'pagan' in origin. So I have been looking into various websites and been quite surprised that a considerable chunk of the Christian fraternity is firmly AGAINST Christmas Trees - and also Christmas. I found my personal Christianity put in question just by how I chose to remember the Birth of Christ my Saviour. I had no idea just how many 'spiritual' lawyers there are amongst us all, and how that so many are in fact looked down upon - if not almost 'disowned' as brethren by others of another view. Wow, it suddenly hit me how careful we need to be that we are IN with the right Denomination in case we might be found OUT of the Kingdom of Heaven. Not that I am in any way annoyed by views that are at odds with my own, but merely dismayed that in my innocence I thought ALL those that went by His Name, actually did accept and love each other as HE has loved US! It IS so unsettling when brethren allow themselves to be disunited and put at variance with one another - over a tree, of all things! A Christmas Tree is something I grew up with, and in growing up with it understood it, not as an idol or fetish, but as something that focused us all on the Birthday of Jesus (and it really does not matter whether or not He was born on the 25th December or any other day) and a sense of thanksgiving for Him. After I came to know Him as my Saviour, I have not found it something that I felt I needed to ignore. For my family it also became a way to 'honour and be thankful' to and for Him. All our children, in the Children's Homes, have been taught to see the adornment of the Tree at Christmas as the Beginning of amazing JOY and Happiness in tune with the Excitement of the Angels as they first proclaimed His Birth to the Shepherds in their fields. Every little hand that helps to place a decoration upon this Tree belongs to little children with starry eyes and a wondrous 'Happy Birthday Jesus' on their lips as year by year the Wonder and JOY of God's Gift to us, in and through this Babe, unfolds and becomes clearer and clearer to each little advancing life. NO ONE has ever got the idea that Christmas and Christmas Trees were spiritually risky~ Indeed so many of our children expect Christmas to centre around family and fellowship, and a sense of Well Being. The trees are all up today in our four Homes, AND mine. The decorations have gone up, and a Spirit of Joyfulness is pervading everywhere. Do I feel guilty? Am I anxious that my Father in Heaven is frowning upon my lack of self condemnation? No, I really do not think so. I think He is glad for me, and indeed for all of us that discover His Love for us, and responds to it the best way we can.





Today a friend and brother forwarded an article to me. You may perhaps already have seen and read it, but I think it is worth reprinting here. I found it quite challenging - 'bearing in mind' as my friend prefaces the Article, 'that for the first time ever - the Christmas tree in the White House will be called a "Holiday Tree". (Another way of getting rid of Christmas altogether no doubt?)

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. (Ben Stein was born in 1944 and is an actor, writer, lawyer, political commentator, and speech writer for two Presidents.

'MY CONFESSION: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from, and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show, and Jan Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina)... Anne graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get our of our government, and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events.....terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, and her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, AND love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it....no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My best Regards, Honestly, and respectfully - Ben. Stein

oooooooooo

THIS has been a busy day. The Children all busy with Christmas Decorations and more than half practicing for the Concert that will start 7.p.m. our time tonight. There will be Carols, Choirs and a Nativity Play all done in front of the Family AND a lot of local friends from round and about. Also one of our local Banks arrived at 3p.m. and spent two hours playing games with the kids, and then donated Sugar, flour and other basic and much needed food stuffs. Thank You Lord Jesus.

The Web was down from early morning to 12.30p.m. to-day so that caused me to be late getting to this edition of the Blog. Now I have a Sermon to prepare for tomorrow AND attend the Concert.......wow.

We love you all, and feel your loving prayers carrying us along day by day.

Sincerely in Jesus always

John and Esther

REMEMBER JERUSALEM

ISRAEL IS CURSED OF GOD; JERUSALEM FORGOTTEN AND OF NO ACCOUNT!
I first heard Christians saying such things in 1994 when I was briefly in England. The argument was that Israel had broken the everlasting Covenant and thus was doomed. Jerusalem also was doomed, and not to be desired in any way. I found such pronouncements more than strange - they just did not ring true in my inner spirit, and because of that I went back to the Word of God - and found them to be a total misrepresentation of the TRUTH.

THIS WEEK we (Esther, myself, and all our Homes Staff) were reading together at our early morning fellowship prayer time, Psalm 122.

PRAY for the peace of Jerusalem;

they shall prosper who love thee. v6

It is said that King David wrote this song of degrees, and thus we may assume that the Temple had not yet been built! It may well have been in his mind, for he had gathered material to build it for years before he confided in Solomon his son, who built it after David's death. Yet Jerusalem was already special. David had gone on to say in v.7-8 that we should pray for 'peace within the city walls, and within its great houses.' He exhorts us to pray, for his brethren and companions sakes - to pray for peace in Jerusalem - and for the house of the Lord - in order to bring good to the people - the people of Israel. Here is a King who loves his people, and who loves the City of God - a city that will house the THRONES (plural) of the House of David. A City out of which will go world justice and judgement perhaps, and where all the people of all the nations of earth will go to give Thanks to God. Amazing description! Wonderful description! Should we then just turn our back upon its importance? Discard its significance, to even despise it, and with it the Nation of Israel.

If any should in fact do this, then I feel that person is miss led and is asking for God's wrath to be upon him - 'Christian' or not!

SATAN knows all about Jerusalem. He has always known God had an eye upon it and in it. He knew it was to be a 'power' point in God's plan for Earth and its people. He knew It was where God would sit and rule. Geographically it could be said that it is cited at the very centre of the the world's enjoined land mass. Satan did not hate Jerusalem but he coveted it for himself. In Isaiah 14v13 we read (of Satan) -

You have said in your heart,

I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation,

in the sides of the north.....'

Satan saw ahead to the building of Jerusalem and even the Temple, and he KNEW where it would be - on the slopes of the northern hills of Jerusalem - a little lower and to the south of Zion, on Mount Moriah, (just where the Dome of the Rock - the Mosque of Omar - stands). He lusted to sit there as GOD himself, and to exalt himself over the very People of God. He has thirsted, hungered and painstakingly planned to have it so.

JERUSALEM has been the focal point of trouble down through history, and it's people with it have suffered war and persecution, becoming the despised of the earth. What is it about that City and its people that brings such animosity and bitterness. Some have said it is because the Jews crucified Christ there! But the trouble, the dislike, the ridicule began long before that.

But the City STILL exists, and remains restored (at the midst of this generation in 1966) as the Capital City of a restored Nation of Israel. WHY - if God has cast them off and forsaken Jerusalem because He was rejected in Christ? Of course it is true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, IS a Jealous God; He can get very Angry! But He is also Righteous and Merciful, full of Longsuffering and Forgiveness!

King Solomon built the first stone Temple for God to meet His people in. Nebuchadnezzar warred against Israel and destroyed it. Long years later Herod the Great built another Temple, though not so beautiful as the first, and the Romans levelled it to the ground, enslaving and scattering the people across the known world, leaving their land to the other tribes that lived in the area. 600 years later the Muslims built their Temple on Temple Mount, preventing any Jew to have any right to that site - BUT in 1948 the Jews, the modern nation of Israel, raised a flag there and declared themselves once again as ISRAEL, and Jerusalem their City. The City of there God. And of course it should also be the Christian's City also, for it is written that all those who proclaim Jesus as God and as their Messiah have been grafted into Abraham, and have become as his family, sharing in all God's Promises made to him.. Well well!

Isaiah 11v12

'And He shall set up an ensign for the nations,

and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,

and gather together the dispersed of Judah

from the four corners of the earth.'

ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM ARE FOR SIGNS AND WONDERS. Keep your eye and your mind open and in no way discount the importance of either the People or the Place PRAY for the People and for Jerusalem, and do not be persuaded to do otherwise. The Word of God clearly tells us that those who pray for Israel and for Jerusalem WILL prosper. Take it or leave it - but know that if you leave the Word of God you will NOT in any way succeed.

Yes! The Jewish People are wonderfully conjoined to the Christian Believer as one family, and we need to pray for their Salvation and Blessing. In our time they are again being abused and persecuted, and anti-semitism is gaining ground all over the earth. Perhaps we also, as their brethren will share in some of this. Growing antagonism grows against the Nation of Israel, and we must be ready to hear of serious war against Jerusalem - a war that may well drag in ALL the nations of the earth - and it may be soon. I will leave this commentary with some verses from the Amplified Bible's rendering of Zechariah 12 -

v.2 - BEHOLD, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup or bowl of reeling to all the peoples round about, and in the siege against Jerusalem will there also be a siege against and upon Judah.

v.3 - AND IN THAT DAY I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples; all who lift it or burden themselves with it shall be sorely wounded. And all the nations of the earth shall come and gather together against it.

v.8 - IN THAT DAY will the Lord guard and defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he who is spiritually feeble and stumbles among them in that day of persecution shall become strong and noble like David; and the house of David shall maintain its supremacy like God, like the Angel of the Lord Who is before them.

v.9 - AND I SHALL MAKE IT MY AIM to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

v.10 - AND I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace or unmerited favour and supplication,. And they shall look earnestly upon Me, Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son...

JESUS is going to be IN Jerusalem during this Conflict, and all that have ever known Him past, and present, will appear there with Him. Then we shall see Jerusalem in a NEW way!!

UNDERSTAND clearly that a great testing and persecution IS coming upon Jerusalem and Israel, and that GOD will stand with them against all comers - and that He will WIN. Make sure you are not with the losers. Do not be in any way deceived in this. SO pray, pray as you never have prayed before, for Jerusalem, and the Jewish Nation, for this is the Will of God.

WE are well in His Grace and Mercy. We are glad to be ALIVE, and humbled to be in His Hands. Our hearts reach out to you all in prayer and love - that He may also do and be to you as He IS to us.

John and Esther

40 YEARS - AND THEN?

IN DECEMBER, 1970 a baby boy called Paul Ngugi was born in Eldoret. When he was about 3 his Mother died, and Ngugi's father had to take the body back to his wife's ancestral homeland some 500 kilometres away to bury her on her parents land. He did not come back.
Paul had been left in the care of neighbours, but he was a sickly child, and soon after his Mum died he contracted Measles, and there are signs that not only was he uncared for, but an attempt was made to murder him! He was in any case suffering from malnutrition, and unbeknown to anyone at that time he also had a congenital disease called Hurlers Syndrome. This last is inherited maternally, and about 1 in 10,000 suffer from it. In 1973, when his father took his mother to be buried there was no cure for Hurlers Syndrome. In 1974 the Municipal Council Social Worker brought Ngugi to TFH and we admitted him to Testimony House. He was four. He could not stand or even sit up by himself. His stomach was infested with round worm, and his eyesight had been severely impaired by the untreated Measles. He was a poor sight. It was not until he was six that Hurler's Syndrome was discovered, and we were told it was unlikely he would live longer than another 4 years. The prognosis was that he would lose the use of his legs, and paralysis would slowly claim the rest of his body. This proved to be true, apart from the age limit put upon his life expectancy, and his sight also was taken completely from him, since the Syndrome worked to undo the work of an optical operation that he went through when he was six.
On the 3rd December, yesterday, Paul attained his 40th Birthday. Yes he is still with us, blind, confined to a wheel chair, physically much reduced in stature, but full of humour, faith, and interest in all that goes on around him. He can still remember those early days when for a short time he was able to walk and even run. He remembers so much still of what he actually SAW with his own eyes before sight receded. Now he only has his ears. And he makes a great deal of use of them. God has used him to bless others. God has been his joy and consolation. He still lives in Testimony House, just across from Green Cottage. It is now even more his home! He has no other! He speaks three languages, and is a very intelligent, and optimistic disciple of Jesus. In the black and white photo above Paul is the 3rd from the left. The photo was taken in 1975. The lady standing in the background is Mary Ateku who was our Carer at the time, it was her special function to keep an eye on the 0 - 5s. She actually was able to return to attend Michael and Janet's Wedding last year. From left to right in front of her in the picture is - Charlie Salim (Green) - living and working for Jesus in Nairobi/ Steven Green living for Jesus with his wife and two children in the UK/ Paul Ngugi living for Jesus here in Eldoret with us all/ Michael Green living for Jesus with his wife in the UK. Nice to look back and SEE the faith fullness of God.
Dr. C. Everett Koop, M.D., once wrote -

There are extraordinary gifts that reward those who live with,

and for the handicapped.

Such children teach a greater dimension of LOVE

which is impossible to learn any other way.

The very existence of the handicapped and imperfect,

and the love bestowed on them by those who care,

stand as testimony to the sacredness of human life,

and to our contention that this sacredness far outweighs

and ethic concerned with the quality of human life.'

WE ARE ALL HANDICAPPED you see! Perhaps none of us are truly 'normal' - certainly not whole! Yet we all have something to offer each other, something to give, something to bring - for HE has made us all. AND He has sent each one of us into this world to show forth His Likeness. We only have to start looking for it. We do not know how long Paul might still have to be with us, but we know it will have been GOOD to have shared LOVE together.

GOD, who made and created each one of us, has said "I will that NO man should perish".

'To be or not to be, That is the question!' To be alive or dead; to give life or to kill - to expose to heartache, a sea of troubles, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, OR just not be born; - to out of 'mercy' kill what is alive in order to save from suffering, pain and wretchedness. SOME in this Age more and more find themselves exponents of 'mercy' killing.

Others believe in the institutionalism those who çannot 'fit' or who are a 'burden' to society, home and family. Some of each group no doubt believe they are considering the one who is congenitally defective, or in some other way mentally or physically disabled, incurably ill, and so on. Others are merely thinking of themselves. And it is SO easy to find out if one is pregnant with an unwanted child, so easy to discover if that child in the womb is physically or mentally incapacitated - so easy to arranged to terminate such an unwanted or unattractive life!

WE BELIEVE IN LIFE, and we believe in the VALUE and SANCTITY of every human being no matter what their physical or mental condition may be. We cannot argue with God in this at all. LIFE is a living, meaningful opportunity to reveal God to each other. We are all, regardless of colour, race, religion, politics, or physical mental handicap, made in HIS 'spiritual' likeness. In each one of us is something to be found that is LIKE God, and that reveals HIM. In each of us there is something to reveal and touch off LOVE in another!

In a book jointly written by Dr. Everett Koop and Francis Scheaffer we can read this story.

'One young man, born with a serious physical handicap,

without his left leg, and with no arms below the elbow,

was asked if he thought a person born with such defects

should be allowed to live - wouldn't he be better off dead?

He replied in part by saying -

" I know when I was born, the first thing my Dad said to my Mum

was that - 'THIS one needs our love more.

An individual with a handicap needs our love

and needs us to help him grow into the being that God has made him to be.

I'm very glad to be alive!'

Similarly a girl aged 14 was watching a programme about pre-natal screening and abortion for Spina-bifida - something she herself had been born with and lived with. She remarked - ' I'm glad they didn't do that to me, because I've had fourteen years of LOVE!' (Extracted from the Book - 'Whatever Happened to the Human Race?' Published by Marshall Morgan & Scott, London 1979/80 This is a book EVERY thinking person needs to READ. It is Dedicated to -

Those who were robbed of life, the unborn, the weak,

the sick, the old, during the dark ages of madness,

selfishness, lust and greed for which the last decades of

the twentieth century are remembered.

( and which are being extended even more into the 21st Century NOW )

Are WE swimming AGAINST the tide of human reasoning and society? Yes! We will, if necessary, be trampled underfoot by the maddening crowd, and by the progressively arbitrary and godless political and sociological leaders of our world. We will STAND AGAINST whatever devalues and endangers human life, cheapening and reducing it.

God Bless you all. December has begun well here with hot and sunny days. Yesterday someone came to visit and asked us if we would like meat for Christmas! They offered us SIX goats FREE of charge, fat and beautiful! And we so poor and needy! Of course, with JOY and THANKSGIVING, we said YES! Thank you Jesus. Even here in Kenya there are those that hear His Voice, and act upon it. Wonderful.

Lovingly

John and Esther

WHOSE GOD IS THEIR BELLY?

MICHAELMAS, The Feast of St. Michael and all Angels has past. I always come to it full of excitement - to me it seems the likeliest time of year for my Master and Lord to return in the clouds to call for me. Some might say my head is stuck in the clouds, and that I might do better to keep my feet on the ground! Well it is the generation predicted to scoff and to turn their eyes away from spiritual truth to earthly deceptions. But I LOOK for His Coming with all my heart and soul. Michaelmas has gone by and still He has not come. I am disappointed but have no way given up to still LOOK for Him.

Some years ago, here in Eldoret, I used to do the general shopping in an old style General Store - a left over from the Colonial Days. At the cheese counter where the Bacon Machine that sliced the Ham stood, I would always find a Catholic Priest. He was elderly - into his late seventies, portly, with a fresh pink face, boyish and smiling. He had been in Kenya since he was in his early twenties. He was always perched on a high stool in front of the counter - a little glass of 'something' in his hand. He had a halo of silvery hair around an otherwise bald head making him look suitably 'holy'. I knew him well. He always spied me as I entered, and would raise his glass and shout in his rich Irish accent 'Top of the mornin to yu, John, m'boy! ----- Are ye still keepin a watch for The LORD t'come? Are ye READY?'' HE was for ever looking, and never tired to draw attention to it, and thus doing his best to wake folk up in order that they also might LOOK with him. He has passed on now. The General Store has passed on too, to make away for a modern and ugly looking Bank. By the way for all that he liked his 'glass' I have never known him tipsy. His name was Father Murray.

Times change don't they.............

This week, on the 25th, Esther and I, together with Daryl and Carol were invited to join in with our Missionary Fellowship ( a group of some 60 missionaries USA, Canada, UK, Denmark, Holland, Germany, and Kenya that meets regularly for prayer) to celebrate Thanksgiving with our American brethren. It was a good time of REAL Thanksgiving to God for ALL His benefits, and ended in sharing a truly cosmopolitan meal together - turkey being central to everything. It was a great time. I guess it is a time of year in America and Canada that is almost more than Christmas - yet perhaps the real purpose in celebrating - for the majority - has long been lost. Both are now almost totally secular in application - holidays to play and more especially to EAT in. Not many giving Thanks to God, and because of it, to also appreciating each other!

Read somewhere recently that traditionally the first Thanksgiving was supposed to have been held around 1620 by the early Colonialists in the US. They had previously endured a very hard winter, but with the summer had come a bountiful harvest time, made possible ONLY because of the goodwill and assistance given them from the Native Indians they had found there. In fact those first visitors to their land might have DIED if they had not been helped by the Indians. They gave Thanks together - not only for the crops that ensured the continuity of life, but for the brotherhood and friendship that produced it. It was not a holiday, but just a coming together to Thank God, and each other. To Rejoice with each other over a simple feast - none were left out. THREE years later there was another one, but this time the Indians were not invited - the Colonialists were by this time looking for more land - Indian land - and instead of pulling together and appreciating each other - greed and selfish desire had turned friendship to enmity, and a common cause was lost to personal ambition and vain imaginations. Later Abraham Lincoln announced that Thanksgiving would be an official Holiday........ and many people have forgotten what it may originally have signified! Some now refer to it lightly, merely as TURKEY DAY!

TIME changes things. Things get forgotten.

We live in an age and generation when all the old Memorials that were set up to REMIND us of what we NEEDED to remember are being systematically removed, undermined, and even destroyed by a hedonistic and godless world. The GREATEST Landmark being the BIBLE itself. Often flashing across my mind's eye is the sight of an ever increasing mass of pigs running heedlessly down a steep precipice to ......! 'Seas,' of humanity, mindless of God in their hearts and spirits, rushing headlong AWAY from the only good, the only wisdom. Yes we need to consider the words of Provers 22v28 in the Bible -

''Remove not the ancient landmark
which they fathers have set.''

Forget not the standards set up in PAST generations, the lessons of history set upon God's revealed Will and purpose since the world began. Be not so quick to discard the wisdom of those before you, and bring to nothing all that has been learnt and understood.

As I sat with Esther munching MY turkey on Thursday afternoon, American Thanksgiving Day, I wondered if, in England any took their 'harvest' to the Church in Thanksgiving. I wondered if they had forgotten WHO had given them whatever they had. However little it might be. Every breath comes from God. I always associate Michaelmas in England with the Michaelmas Daisy, and Church interiors decorated with their profusion, amidst the fruit and labour of the land, and even symbols of more mechanical benefits. I always FELT the Presence of a Beneficent God during those Harvest Festival Services; Services that seemed to co-incide with the remembrance of the Mighty Archangel Michael, the Victor over Satan and all his horde. Are their still little hamlets of reverent joy and thanksgiving left I wonder? Or has the noise of traffic, t.v. and secular lethargy overwhelmed all awareness, together with the knowledge of God Almighty? We should not forget. We should not be overwhelmed and shouted down. We should stand up and AWAKEN ourselves to proclaim the Day of the Lord.

I have no more today to say to you. Few of you have had anything to say back to me relative to anything I have shared this year gone by. Perhaps it is so many dried up leaves in the wind.

God Bless you none the less, and enliven each one of you to WITNESS to what you know of Jesus, and through Him, of God The Father Almighty.

John and Esther

THE RICHEST MUNICIPALITY IN KENYA?

THIS IS A VIEW OF ELDORET. A Municipality of approximately 600,000 (NOT the official figure) including its surrounding slum areas. We came to live here in December 1972 when the population was only forty thous-and. A great deal of building has been done in the Town centre since then but very little expan-sion of facilities. Although the majority of its roads are mettled, many of them are in bad repair and quite a few are still pure mud! The Town itself is some 6,400ft above sea level, with a good temperate climate, but it is also a malaria area, and not good for asthmatics and those suffering from sinus problems. It is a mixed society of African Tribes plus Asian, with many European and American missionaries and business people. Not an unpleasant Town to live in, but certainly it has problems. For example Electricity goes on and off at the most unexpected times. Water also can suddenly disappear. For example, since last Thursday, we have had NO water at all in any tap. Not too easy with 154 living on the compound, and another 700 when the School is open, as it has been until yesterday. TODAY the Municipal Roads Dept decided to clean the main highway that passes through Town. They had some of the road roped off, whilst labourers chipped away at hardened dust that had collected over years at the curb-sides, and then washed away with precious water. AND whilst all this was going on traffic piled up to such a degree that EVERY town road was jammed packed with vehicles that were unable to move for well over two hours. Unbelievable! Daryl and I were in the midst of it,,,,,, ESTHER was stuck in a Clinic~ she has been unwell with a bacterial infection of her stomach. General chaos. BUT we are not after all here just for comfort, and the majority have NONE at all. We are here to WITNESS to the Good News that He loves and cares for all souls, and seeks their Salvation and their love.

LAST WEEK we said Farewell to our Primary School Graduates, and this week we said the same to our High School Graduates who had completed their four year course of study up to the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. This took place on Tuesday, and teachers students and Esther and I shared a lunch and fellowship together in the School Hall. Very similar to the Primary function but differently arranged. 74 graduating students, boys and girls.

Towards the end of Term this time, we discovered two or three of the boys importing alcohol into the School. One was Expelled. I was asked to speak on this evil for the few minutes usually allotted to me on these occasions as here below.

'WHERE ARE YOU GOING FROM HERE? Will you make it to College, to University? Will you make in LIFE? For four years you have been making the transition from child to adult. Have you managed it? You are older, taller, and perhaps braver than when you commenced Form 1. BUT are you Wiser, have you put a shine on your childhood years in Primary School? OR have you played around?
MY MATHS TEACHER in Secondary School was an elderly man who kept a bottle of whisky in the book cupboard. He was good Math's Teacher, but addicted to whisky. He died of sclerosis of the liver. When he was tipsy with whisky we thought he was a real joke; we laughed at him.

We laughed at his shame.

IT IS EASY TO GET OFF TRACK, and to find yourself on the wrong road, in the wrong company, and heading for disaster. Partying, strong drink entices many. It seems to be the IN thing for an emerging adult. It looks COOL. But where will it all take you in life?

The Bible in Proverbs 20v1 says - 'Wine (strong drink) is a mocker'

It laughs at YOU. It gets you so disorientated that you do not know what you are doing or saying. It makes you a laughing stock, causing hurt and injury that you can even be unaware of. Whilst you laugh and enjoy a 'hyper-moment' you can become hooked by an Enemy that will slowly 'reel you in' for the KILL. I KNOW! I have been there personally. Before I was 20 I drank a lot - often until I was drunk and disorderly. Not a pretty sight! I lost prestige and my job. I finally lost respect even for myself. Yes Wine - strong drink- is a mocker. He who is deceived by it is a fool.

ONE GLASS leads to another and another. Then drunkenness becomes a habit of life. A habit and state that renders us unable to control our own walk, speech or even thought. And from drunkenness we will easily proceed to a habitual habit of over drinking which will eat away at our internal organs and finally destroy us. I KNOW! I watched my father die in a hospital bed after years of alcoholism corroded and ate away his liver. He took a long time to die - painfully, and it hurt him, AND many others. You will say not everyone that drinks ends up a drunkard or dying of liver cancer. You are right. But 6 out of 10 in Kenya DO. You might be 'lucky' you might not. Exciting? - FOOLISH! if you become one of the SIX! Life is NOT given to us to gamble away - to fritter away - in foolishness.

I knew a Pastor long ago. This is a true story. At a Wedding he conducted (in another church) Champagne and other stronger spirits were being handed round at the Reception. Present was a young eighteen year old friend of the bride who had never tasted 'spirits' and he wondered what he should do if he were offered some. He decided to watch his Pastor, the same one that had conducted the Service, and whose church he had recently joined. Glancing across the room he found the Pastor already holding a glass of champagne. This was his cue, and when the waiter came to him with the drink tray he also took one. He liked it, and took another, and another..........He did not look at again at his Pastor. He went home drunk from that Reception.

He did not continue long in his Christianity.

FIFTEEN years later the Pastor was called to a Prison where one of the inmates had requested to see him. He did not recollect the name, and wondered why he should be so called, and how the criminal had got to know his name. He felt very curious. On arrival at the Prison he was taken to a Cell reserved for those awaiting the Death Sentence. The 33 year old man waiting for him inside turned to him and said -

"I am here for murdering my wife and two children!

I did it in a drunken rage."

He continued to explain that his drink problem had begun at the Wedding I have mentioned. He was the 18 year old looking for direction at that Wedding. He had taken it, not looking back, and it had ruined his marriage, and was now about to take his life. He said -

"I followed your example; that's why I'm here!

I wanted you to know."

The Pastor was already retired from his pastorate, but he never recovered from the shock and horror of that confrontation. You see the fact of the matter was he himself had never tasted the drink the young man had seen in his hand. He had accepted it out of politeness, and soon after poured the contents into a flower pot near at hand. He himself never drank anything that was alcoholic. But his careless action caused four people to DIE. How very responsible we are are for one another.......... How very responsible YOU will be for the rest of your life - or maybe just careless and IRRESPONSIBLE. Each one of us IS our brother/sister's keeper!

I ESCAPED. God was merciful to me, and pulled me back from the brink of the abyss. I had begun to drink because by colleagues at work drank. I thought I was clever. Eventually I just drank for the pleasure of it! Life seemed dull without it. One night having gone to bed the worse for drink I awoke suddenly. I felt awful. I got out of bed and vomited over the bed, myself, and the room around me. I fell upon the floor, and from that place of degradation I cried out to God to deliver me. To take the desire and attraction right away, and to give me a CLEAR mind and a HEALTHY body. And He answered my prayer. This happened in 1962, 48 years ago. I have never touched beer or strong spirits since that night. I was Blessed. I left a VICE that was eating my life away, and put myself in front of God. JESUS became my Strength, my Salvation, and my Consolation. I have never regretted it. AND if you also call upon His Name and put your Life in His Hands YOU will never regret it either.

HE KNOWS where you are going - He also knows where you OUGHT to be going, and if you let Him He will make sure you get there - safe and in one piece.

SO don't make your life to be a JOKE, but secure yourself and let Jesus Lead and Guide you."

And now they have left and gone their way..................

And the week has gone. Esther is just here with me as I write. She is lying on the settee covered with a blanket watching TV. She is now recovering. She really has had an uncomfortable few days, but she looks and sound a little better now. God Bless you all, and keep on praying for us, and for the children and all those working with us. We need you to do just that.

Lovingly in our Master

JOHN AND ESTHER

REJOICING WITH OTHERS 2

THIS WEEK I CONTINUED TO VISIT, and on the 10th went with Daryl and Esther to the Opening and Dedication of a NEW Home for infants called TUMAINI CHILDREN'S CENTRE. It actually began in 2007, but only recently been registered after all the initial building and ground work had been completed. Horace and Phyllis Leister from USA are the ones to have initiated, built and been parents here. They have twenty children (boys and girls) between the ages of just a few months to about 5 years. Their vision is to find adoptive parents to take them by the time they are 6, replacing each one adopted with another child. I cannot begin to tell you the histories of all the little children that are here in this Home - but I suspect that the majority could be called Outcasts. They have been cast out upon the world around them for one reason or another. Some abandoned - some the victim of AIDS that carried away their parents. Others unwanted, thrown away! All born into risk, danger, and to some extent plain rejection. Very much as Ezekiel 16v5 puts it. - 'Thrown out into the open field (the world) when you yourself were loathed (unwanted) on the day that you were born.' But the narrative in Ezekiel does not STOP there. In verse 6 of the same chapter the Lord God comments and says - 'When I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood (life) I said to you LIVE!' How truly Wonderful it is that God wants us all to LIVE; to grow and to prosper. Especially those of us who found themselves alone and homeless. The unwanteds!
He says in Isaiah 16v4 - 'Let my outcasts dwell with you! Be a shelter to them and the face of the spoiler.' Of course, it is the People of God that are being referred to in this Scripture. And to some extent it might STILL APPLY, at least to the Jewish Race, - AND perhaps to US, the Christian? Think about it. But anyway it may also be said that God's intention is that NO ONE however stigmatized or diminished should be just left to DIE, and so we might NOW say 'Let the abandoned and undesired LIVE with you!' HORACE AND PHYLLIS have done exactly that.
At the back of them of course is THE LORD, and also Children of Hope which is the NGO in the USA that sponsors them.
I personally have known the Leisters since 2007 and I personally have been so Blessed by their undaunted effort to reach the lost children here. They have not only built a beautiful shelter for them, (Horace has been the physical builder and designer of the new Home) but given themselves totally to loving them and caring for them. Beautiful people.
SO on the 10th many friends gathered to see for themselves the lovingly built Home and the children and to pray together for its onward blessing and usefulness. A great Testimony.

ON THURSDAY, the Graduating Primary Class of Testimony School celebrated the end of their final three days of National Examinations, and the end of their Primary School experience by attending a Luncheon in the School Hall. Teachers and invited guest also attended. I was also there and gave a short address, as were Esther, Daryl, and some of our Houseparents, and support Staff. A very stimulating occasion, and also a little emotional for some who had attended the School since they were in Nursery. Now many of them will find High School opportunities in other towns and areas whilst some (especially our own) will continue on in our High School section for a further four years.
One of our girl students from outside of the Homes lost her Mother during the Examination. It was the second death during the week - another being the husband of a very dear sister of ours in the Lord. He had been ill with throat cancer for several months and in intensive care in Nairobi Hospital. The cost of his hospitalisation amounts to more than one hundred and twenty five thousand pounds sterling. A truly crippling amount of money for the average person to find. No National Health Scheme of any worth here!! Please pray for the family. They are holding a fund raising to day in order to try to help at least a little.
The Mother of the Class 8 student is also to be buried today, and a bus load of students has just driven off to the funeral, together with Daryl and Carol and other staff members. The ebb and flow of life!

EXTRA / EXTRA / EXTRA

We currently have some 350 names on our Address List. Approximately half of those are able to connect to E-mail and the rest on normal postal service. Those on E-mail we have hoped would be able to catch up with our ongoing news via our BLOG - this blog - and the others we try to service with a Quarterly Update sent by Airmail Post. The next will be sent at the end of November.
Very few are in fact in DIRECT contact with us - about 15%. So we are not sure if the rest ARE in fact receiving or if so if they want to continue to do so. We also have some who from time to time seem to get lost.....? We would be glad to here from any of you who do not usually correspond, and to know you would still like to hear from us. We do not wish to force our attention on any, and we do not want to be a contribute to what some might feel is purely 'junk mail'.

++++ TO John and Alison ATKINS - We Do hear from you via AENON Trust but it seems that neither they nor us have your current physical or E-mail address. If you should read this PLEASE do get back in touch with us.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

For any who may feel led to send a financial donation to us - to the ministry here - we suggest the best way for those living in the UK is as follows -

1. To send a CHEQUE addressed to

THE AENON TRUST,

c/o Mr. A.E. Nicholls, MBE, FRGS., Secretary

137 Belvedere Road, Bexleyheath, Kent., DA7 4PA

E-mail nicholls_allan@hotmail.com

Tel: 020-8303-5216

NB - please enclose a note with the cheque stating that the donation is to be forwarded to

TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES. The Trust endeavours to forward funds they may have received once a month direct to our Bank, and so far no funds have been lost.

2. To send by DIRECT BANK transfer to our Account here in Eldoret, Kenya at the address here given..............................................

KENYA COMMERCIAL BANK LTD.

Eldoret West Branch, Box 5197 ELDORET, Kenya 30100

To the A/c of Testimony Faith Homes

A/c No.110-346-9592

Bank Swift Code - KCBLKENXO22

FOR THOSE living in locations other than the UK it is best to use the 2nd of the TWO methods of sending to the UK.

NB - Donations sent by POST are subject to possible theft or re-direction. They will not be safe. and we do not recommend that you try.

CORRESPONDENCE - The AENON TRUST will acknowledge all gifts received.
WE will also acknowledge safe receipt of same once arrived here.
We will also do our best ALWAYS to eventually reply to ANY letter written to us either via normal post or E-mail. You letters are always an encourage to us as not only do they cheer us up, they also help to feel you have us in prayer and at heart. Thank you for that.

Our sincere love and affection to you all, always, in Jesus our Lord and King.

John and Esther

REJOICING WITH OTHERS - 1

DO YOU REMEMBER? Probably not! However on 27th February 2009 I told of a visit I made with Desmond and Virginia Hales, our friends from Northern Ireland, to a 'slum' area of Eldoret. There a brother and sister in Christ lived with AIDS, and had begun to reach out to others, both children and adults, in an effort to help. The pictures I put up did not really convey the hopeless squaller we found there. Yet these two Kenyans were in no way cast down or defeated for Christ had come in and made them more than conquerors. I Titled the Blog for that week 'A MAN RECLAIMED'. Since then Obadiah and his wife Margaret have reclaimed a great many more. BUT, during that first visit to his dilapidated dwelling - the floors were underwater, the walls crumbling and covered with newspaper, whilst the rusting roof of galvanised sheets was rusty and leaking - hearts were touched, and help began to come into their lives. Not riches you understand - but help. Help enough to improve their living conditions, and lift up their hearts. Two of those hearts that were moved run a small charity in the USA - Discover the World

ON THURSDAY 4th OCTOBER THIS YEAR, I went again, with Esther and Daryl, to witness the Dedication of their recently refurbished kitchen - the latest 'help' from DTW!! Their little home had also been given a mild 'make-over' with a new roof, new walls, and floor, plus some simple redecoration. What a difference. And as we sat together (there were about were about 12 of this time) we marvelled how different a quite modest amount of financial aid and voluntary help had made.

IN ADDITION to the family home, another building which had only managed to flaunt foundations had also been built up and made into a dormitory for the 12 boys that currently make up the extended family tacked on to Obadiah, Margaret and their five children (the third still to be born .....) These Children (apart from Obadiah's own five) all have HIV!!?? ALL of this forms the nucleus of an outreach into the local community running in to dozens of families. It is amazing to consider that SIN brought Obadiah face to face with death - his first wife died as a result - and initially embittered and stigmatized him. A great VICTORY for Satan.......BUT in the midst of this overwhelming DEFEAT for Obadiah, Jesus Christ stepped in and turned him and the DEFEAT right around. Out of what first off seemed certain DEATH has come LIFE. Life for Obadiah, and for the community around him. They call it KIMPLWAS CHILDREN'S CENTRE. Such are the Miracles of God.

Thus I include a few NEW pictures. The rest can be found on my Face Book page if you have access to it. The first is taken in front of the newly renovated home of Obadiah and his wife.

The second two of his kids holding the new sign.

ON THE SAME DAY we also visited other friends of ours who run another Children's Home. Patrick and Ruth Chege (you can find them on Face Book as well) live in and care for this Home, which is only about 4 kilometres from us in a large rented house. They call their project CARE 4 KIDS. They care for about 20 kids (boys and girls) and also babies. In fact they felt led to open a special section of their work just for Babies. They have gone about converting the garage adjacent to their Home, (pictured here)and on Thursday they were welcoming friends to visit and share in Dedicating it. A whole crowd of us were there. The Chege's - just like us in Testimony and the Mbithi's in Neema, - trust in the Lord for all their need. They are not rich - the same as the rest of us including Obadiah and his family. BUT as we have all prayed and waited the LORD our God has heard and has supplied our NEED. Wonderful.

The Chege's have room for about 10 babies. Dozens of babies are being abandoned in Eldoret every week! Heritage Baby Reception Centre will now take in ten or so at a time, and care for them with a view to eventually having them adopted. These are not HIV babies. You have to have a special heart to do this - to give your all for a babe in arms to grow to childhood, and then be

willing to let go of it - again and again and again. As we walked around and SAW what has been done - again with the minimum of financial outlay - we marvelled. What they have is not palatial by any standard. But it is homely, clean, well ordered, and ENOUGH to give a comfortable and safe shelter for the unwanted. We were very much thrilled and our hearts yet again touched by the wondrous Love and Mercy of our God - the ONLY God - well the only ONE that is truly ALIVE and able to demonstrate it in and around each one of our lives if we just BELIEVE in, and reach out to Him. Discover the World has also had a big hand in being a Channel of our Father's Love.

AND TODAY, we visited a third endeavour. OPEN ARMS MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL is something that has come in from outside. It is a Charity based in the United States but with offices also in the United Kingdom. It was founded by David and Rachel GALLAGHER, and it is they who came to Kenya about two years back and initiated a vision they had to provide for a model village to cater for orphaned and destitute children from across Kenya. They are about 12 kilometres from Testimony, and we have come to know and love David and Rachel for their total dedication and love for God and for children everywhere.
They have 70 acres of land plus, and have already built some half dozen 'family' children's homes AND a Baby Centre. Today the Baby Centre was to be opened officially. It was a fine day, and crowds were there from all around. This is not just a Children's Home, but a reaching out, in a very depressed area, to countless poor families in an effort to encourage, provide and draw to Christ the surrounding communities. Walking around with the Guests today it was easy to see that THEY are not living from hand to mouth - there is an obvious prosperity behind the whole enterprise. But then their approach to funding is very different to those I have talked of previously. NO MATTER it is also obvious that from this 'international appeal' has come a magnificent response - and there is also no doubt that it has come due to Faith and Dependence on God to move hearts and lives. STILL a miraculous demonstration of God's Love and Mercy. We REJOICE at all we have seen of His Ways this week. We REJOICE for all the dear dedicated brethren we have shared with this week. AND we REJOICE at the many, many others who could repeat the testimony and re-enforce with proof the knowledge that God is VERY real. The complete set of photos for each of these Ministries will eventually be found on my Face Book page as the week goes by.

We have just got home, and we both feel a little tired. I will select some photos and then I will probably go to bed.

GOD is doing wonderfully. May He join hands with you, and each one of us, through this coming week, to display clearly that He is ALIVE and able to do wonders.

Much Love to you all in His Name

John and Esther