COWS! CHICKENS! WHATEVER NEXT?

AT LAST THE CHICKENS HAVE ARRIVED! The first 100 arrived this week and have taken up residence in their new home. All very happy and full of chatter. First time round we decided not to buy chicks. So these 100 are 4 months old and probably have another two months to go before they start laying. The photo is of one of the two deep litter rooms they will be staying in. There will be the same space allocated for the broilers as well in the same house. It has taken

us a while to make sure that the House was rat proof, water proof and draft proof (without being too airless). So far so good. It is going to be quite a lot of work, and at least initially we shall try to enlist the help of an experienced poultry man/woman who can train our own staff to take care of them. They certainly never stop eating!

And of course we have to change the Litter weekly and make sure everything is as clean and germ free as possible. And we can see that the 'Trade' will do what it can to make it hard for us to make a worthwhile profit against them. Already the cost of 'Feed' is going up!!

The Chicken House is exactly opposite Drakeley Cottage AND Jacaranda. It is also going to be surrounded by the second Allotment. Right now we are preparing to plant POTATOES on this plot. Still a lot to do and clearing up work as well.

Had to cut down a few trees and also this week we have been trying our luck at making

CHARCOAL - so far it looks good. We still use charcoal for cooking in the School, and it is currently

Ksh.900/- per sack, more than double what it was last year. So far we have produced about 4 sacks with more to come. Every saving is a boon these days, and always quite exciting to see a little profit. Joseph and Beatrice ROP, Mum and and Dad in Jacaranda will probably end up being carers for the Chicken Project. We have to put a cement path from their back yard to the Chicken House about 50 feet away.

ROSIE and Co have settled down and made friends. Rosie supplying still about 15 litres of milk per day. We have also employed an experienced dairyman to initiate the first phase of the Dairy. He is making out very well indeed, and it is obvious that we have needed him. Daryl has truly been a tower of strength and industry in this month and a half, but cannot do the Office Administration AND be everywhere else at once in a responsible way. He will of course still be in the position of General Overseer of the Agricultural Program but with assistance. Maybe after a time as I mentioned re the chickens, we can have responsibility handed over to house-parents

after training. Cheaper!! But also more realistic and homely for us to be doing things ourselves without outside help.

THE NEXT move is to provide ourselves with a Bio gas Plant!! Daryl has all the plans for this, and he and another brother in Christ who used to be a Cleaner on our staff and who now makes a living MAKING these gas plants will probably go ahead quite soon. We will have a ready source of manure and compost, and again can see that it will save us a lot in fuel currently consumed by the School.
The first plantation is growing apace, and is very encouraging to behold. We had not

planted all of the space available as we want to go in stages to ensure a more constant provision of basic veg. Again, so far so good! The weather has been very good to us - still raining. We shall lay drip feed pipes on the Second Plot at Jacaranda NOW as we plant, and then slowly provide the same on the Testimony House Plot as we re-plant. The cooking and Laundry programs are also now working well and showing a considerable saving already. We PRAISE the LORD for all His Goodness to us in Waking us up and LEADING and GUIDING over these last two months.

ESTHER safely returned from Nairobi on Monday, after her four days away - seemed like years. She was visiting a girl friend of more than 40 years who has been ill with cancer. She also runs a Primary School in Nairobi.

And on Wednesday we celebrated Esther's 67th Birthday. It has been a good week, though wet and cold weather wise. And TODAY one of our staff - Isaac Mureithi an assistant in Testimony House is marrying here on the compound one of our School Teachers, Loice Wanjiru. Isaac has looked after Paul Ngugi in Testimony House. PAUL suffers from Hurlers Syndrome and is now 40 years old but unable to do anything for himself. He has been with us since he was 4 years. Isaac will still be working with us but not as a resident.

LAST WEEK, I briefly commented on the London Riots. I had said that I did not hear in the SKY NEWS reports of any Christian Leader actually speaking out. Just political and other notables. Many wrote back to assure me that there were, and IS, considerable Christian comment and action throughout the land, and that the general consensus has been more than encouraging. I must apologise, since I had not believed otherwise, and had not wished to question the general integrity of brothers and sisters in the church as a whole. I guess I was looking for something MORE from our political leaders - something that would point us back to God and show a realisation that recent legislation over the years both in the USA and UK has slowly put God on the shelf - or worse just deleted Him. I wonder how William Ewart Gladstone would have dealt with the situation in his day. Mr. Cameron was very positive and aggressive from a moral and humanist point of view - but I longed to just hear someone in Government stating the case, as it surely is, from God's perspective.

This week I read something written by Retired Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali in consort with other Church Leaders - Not bad at all - It needs to also come from A Christian Leader in Parliament.

We desperately need a Moses, an Alfred, - just a committed and vocal Christian.

Some of you may have read this article as it was printed in the Telegraph on 15th August. But I repeat it here in part since it echos so much how I was feeling last week.

'SIR,

We write as senior church leaders ........

What made Britain great was sense of responsibility, or accountability to one another and ultimately to GOD. It is the loss of this moral framework that has led to the plunge into the new barbarianism.

We must take steps immediately to strengthen the family as a place for moral and spiritual formation where our children first learn about boundaries.

......................What we instill in children today will determine in the future how they govern a nation, influence our polices and ultimately determine the quality of life in our communities.

We each make choices and decisions based on our value systems. GODLESSNESS has only produced selfishness and greed. The well-tried Christian faith has given us hope in the past and can do so again now.'

I know and believe there is much awakening in the UK, and indeed in the world at large within the Church of Christ. May it gather momentum without weakening along the way - a way that may become more and more alarming and arduous.

Esther and I Greet you all in Love, and in Jesus, Who has promised to be WITH US ALL until the End. Keep Him in sight.

John and Esther