UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES

I MUST CONFESS AND SAY that right now I feel very much UNDER the circumstances! I have been endeavouring to hold my ground these recent months and days, but THIS week the Enemy hurled some germ at me that has really attacked every part of me; my head, my chest, my stomach, yes my whole body feels pummeled and bashed around to a pulp. It is definitely much harder to fight when you are sick! Much harder to LEAD and much harder to actually BELIEVE that the Siege will end, and Relief realised. For me these last months have searched me out, and left me feeling taken down a peg or two in my Christian Life. The Enemy really loves a chance to do this to us all. BUT, thrown against a wall and winded by his attack, there is time to look back.... To look back to other times when he seemed to have the upper hand. Time to remember how at the very moment it seemed he would finish us off, GOD stepped in! In my imagination I always know it is JESUS but in my mind I see Him as Michael, Mighty Archangel, with his flaming sword putting the terror of destruction into Satan's very soul. WELL, enough of this 'huff and puff' - THIS house is not going to fall down either, and we trust the Enemy will suffer greater damage than any of us sheltering here, enduring this latest withering blast of his bitter hatred. We shall STAND, and weather the circumstances! INDEED we may not stay a moment more UNDER the circumstances that press us down to the floor, but RISE UP from under them, dispersing them in and through the Name of the Lord. We have done it before! We shall do it AGAIN. For it is not we ourselves that will achieve the Victory but the LORD with us. Hallelujah! HOWEVER, the real and present symptoms of my physical state may force me to be a little briefer than usual this Saturday!! But I did promise you a photo last week, I think. So here it is.

Micah and Senge YEGO with their 2nd child Esther just a week old. Mum and baby doing well, and uproarious joy in their Tyndale Cottage Family. They waited seven years to have their first child, and had almost despaired in their waiting - BUT God stepped in. I actually think God LIKES to wait until we have decided He can't or isn't going to answer our prayer - THEN He steps and chides us for our little faith. The fact is there is never an excuse to give up on God or to stop believing in HIM - hard and grim though the practice of it may be!! Of course it is a very special joy for us to SEE God's hand in this, and ALSO to see the wonderful way God has had His hand on Senge since the very day she was born in Eldoret Women's Prison. It was hard entrance into the world, but she was soon brought to us in Testimony House, to be a precious little daughter - a very stubborn and determined child, who grew to KNOW God and be be a determined Christian wife and mother. Hallelujah to the One Who Rescues!

SOME WEEKS BACK I commented a little on Lord Baden Powel, founder of the Scouts movement. We tend to remember him as a scout, and see him basically in our minds eye dressed as a scout, the Chief Scout in fact. In this picture we see him dressed as a Peer of the United Kingdom. Just this week I received a letter from a dear friend in England who having read the Blog felt a need to also comment. She writes -

'I read with horror your words that Lord Baden Powell is being

accused of homosexuality. It is one of those terrible untruths.

What rubbish!

I was a girl-guide myself; enrolled in Nyeri by

Lady Baden Powell herself!

I was then at Nyeri School!! As my mother was guide commissioner

in Kenya in those days, she had Lady Baden Powell to stay

and she became a personal friend of the family.

She was a practicing Christian and read her Bible every day.

I am very sure that Lord BP was likewise a man of strong and high

moral character.'

ALL of us have our opinions and impressions of each other, and even ourselves. But how little we really know about the people we meet - little we may know even about ourselves. I am more than glad that GOD sees and judges in righteousness, seeing and knowing the truth about each of us inside out. His Judgement will be always RIGHT, and His Mercy available to each one of us. To me that is the most comforting and wonderful things to KNOW deep in my soul.

JOHN AND ESTHER may if they endure to the end of April by God's Grace, may also by His Grace find themselves in The United Kingdom once more. Maybe for about three months. We shall leave Daryl holding the reigns. A step of faith? Perhaps - no it will definitely be that! Our son Steven will be actually arranging the flight for us, and we shall no doubt stay at least part of the time with him and family in Accrington. We will keep you posted as the weeks go by. It would be good to meet up with at least some of you whilst we are at home.

God Bless and keep you from all the wiles of the Enemy.

John and Esther