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