FROM MY DIARY!

IT CAN BE GOOD TO LOOK BACK.   It may sometimes be humiliating to remember the past, but at the same time we can learn from it.   At least we can, if we are willing to see our NEED to get back on track!       I have been reading my Diary for January 1970.      I had TEN children with me by then, and we had been together for five months.  I looked to God to answer my prayers alone.  I was without personal support then, as I am still today.  I needed, and those ten boys needed.   Could God PROVIDE?    Well that is what we had set out to prove, and WERE proving day by day.  We were a 'testimony' of 'faith' that God was able to sustain us and our 'home' together.  
1970 - January 16th  -   No post today.   Finances are in a depression.   Gilbert, one of the young men we support in High School, returned home.   The new headmaster is demanding fees.   I sent him back with 300 shillings.    This leaves us with 75 at the Bank and 34 in cash in hand.   Things have been worse.  However nothing is 'expected' since we have had no word warning us that funds are on the way.  God alone IS our hope!
January 17th  -  At mid-day today, Thomas arrived back from his School (he is another boy we help outside of our 'family').   I saw him arrive with some apprehension, but in any case I knew I was not in the position to pay more Fees.   As it was he had a story about having received 'a vision from the Lord' and that he had LEFT School to serve the Lord full time.   I must say I found myself considering other reasons why he might have left!
January 19th  - Pastor Fitzgerald wrote saying a that a UK£5 Money Order had been sent to us from England.    It may take weeks to arrive (it took 3 weeks into the future in fact).
Paid  30 shillings more in School Feees and 52 for maize meal.    We now have, possibly, two shillings left.
We have enough to eat today.    We prayed together.
January 20th  -  A large post today!     Nothing financial though.   Situation becoming rather critical.
January 22nd  -  There was fierce storm in the night, and the rain continued on through until about 8a.m.
We had been given 20 shillings yesterday, and the Note was in my shirt pocket against purchase of bread later in the day.    I felt quite light hearted and happy.
A old gardiner from Siriba College has just come to ask me to help him pay his son's School Fees.  I had to explain that my situation was such that I could not.   He persisted in his asking none the less, and said that even twenty shillings could be a help at the least.   I told him that it was impossible that I could do even that much, and so at last he left - bent and worried.
As I sat on in my chair scribbling a letter, one of the boys came up and sat on the arm.
'Dad!    Dosn't the Bible say that you should give to the one that asks?'
Why, yes, indeed it does!' I replied, quite blind to where I was being led.
'Then why didn't you give that 20 shillings you have in your pocket - I can see it showing through - to that old man?'
I was cut to the heart.   Surely the Word of God is sharper than a two edged sword.    I gave my boy the bank note and he ran off after the man with it.    What NOW, I asked myself.   Now that there IS nothing but YOU, Lord - what WILL happen?
Much later in the morning - about 11a.m. - the morning post arrived and in it was a sealed letter from Denmark which had come by SEA.    It had taken almost three months to arrive!   Inside was a letter from a sister in Christ enclosing the sum of US$45, which translated into a enough Kenya Shillings to keep us all for the next week, almost!     Truly before we call HE answers us.   Comforting and challenging.

In those days we were never in DEBT.      We were often on the brink of WANT, and never with MORE than enough for a day or two ahead.    BUT as we prayed, and as we increased in number, God found ways and means to PROVIDE for us.       HE IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOR EVER.   So how is it we fell by the 'Wayside' and found ourselves in debt after all?
We got tired of waiting longer, and longer!    Our faith fainted!    We decided to save ourselves. One thing led to another - our 'guard' was down, as we looked another way!

GOD never tires of disovering just 'HOW MUCH' we trust and believe in Him.     It is not merely saying' Lord I Believe!     No!     He will always seek to find out to what extent I believe, and WILL believe in Him.
That old mixed bag of Egyptian Refugees trudging through the Sinai Desert, were allowed to weary themselves for FORTY years just in order that God might know what was in their hearts - their thoughts - concerning Him.    God tested Abraham's faith by asking him to give up his ONLY SON by himself putting him to deaath!
With God the faith I had yesterday is not enough for Today, and the faith I might have today will not be enough for tomorrow.    God will always bring us further and test us more.   He is seeking to bring us ALL to a place of TOTAL dependence upon Himself - often by trial and error - but inevitably onwards to perfection.     Without Faith I cannot please Him.      Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED for, the EVIDENCE of things initially invisible!          When I touch a stone in a building once only dreamt about, and when I take the hand of a child now grown to manhood, I find myself confronted with the SUBSTANCE and EVIDENCE of  what I hoped for in Jesus;   the PROOF of  the REALITY of a LIVING and relevant GOD Who hears and answers the cry of a helpless and dependant child!        AND YET, I can still find it difficult to make the NEXT move onwards in a NEW step of faith.      I can still find myself 'anxious' when He takes LONGER than usual in answering my cry for help........ AND my Enemy, or one of his minions, is always near enough to take advantage of those times, to turn my eyes AWAY from Jesus to the world around me and to thus arrest my faith.    
WE ARE GRATEFULLY 'BACK ON TRACK' by His Grace and His Mercy.   We are marching onwards and forward in RENEWED Faith and Trust - our eyes straining, and our hands reaching out to see and touch the SUBSTANCE and EVIDENCE of our very present and believing HOPE.     Rejoice with us for this renewal, and rejoice with us for every man, woman and child here with us that has the daily opportunity to see and partake of the TRUTH of GOD with US.    PRAY on for our Witness and Testimony to remain BRIGHT and CLEAR to all who might pass by us, or look in upon us.          AMEN!!

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THIS WEEK the weather here in Eldoret has been the worst I can remember.    This is the DRY SEASON, and for this past week has been the WETTEST!!      This is the HOT season, and yet it has been and remains the COLDEST;  I am cold in my bones.      The'Time of Year' and  the 'Season' no longer seems SET.  All is at sixes and sevens, unpredictable, almost chaotic.       And this might be said of weather the world over in these days.       The dependable regularity of winter and summer, springtime and autumn,  the content of monsoon and drought, the hot and the dry, are all awry, and the very elements running amok as if themselves distracted and filled with apprehension at the coming of the KING, the JUDGE of all the Earth.

Micah and Senge

Micah and Senge returned yesterday from their few days retreat, after the funeral of Micha's brother.  We are glad to see them safe and sound and no worse for their adventure on the road or the coldness all about us.

Simeon Majimbo

SIMEON MAJIMBO one of our boys from the 1970s, and now gong to be fifty years old this year, and who has worked for us as a Gardener over the last ten years or so, suffered a stroke the night before last.  He woke up unable to move his right side.   He is  now in hospital.   He is married with two children.  Simeon was only 8 when he came to live with Esther and me, and always of a quiet and peaceful disposition, but not very able academically.      He has generally worked as a Gardener, and become quite adept at that occupation.   He worked many years way from us, for others, but then took advantage of a vacancy here ten years back and applied to fill the position.    Unfortunately he then contracted Diabetis, although he has continued to work well and industriously under medication until this week.    Daryl is there in the hospital with him as I type this, and we shall be visiting later.     Please remember him in your prayers.

TESTIMONY HOUSE is beginning to show its age - especially in one corner.     As you remember it is built simply of mud brick baked in the sun, and supported with wooden lathes.    It is just over one hundred years old.      The front outside wall of the wing where Paul Ngugi used to sleep, has begun to crack, and we suspect the entire wall may be ready to collapse.     An exploratory look will be taken next week by our long time friendly contractor, to see what we might need to do.    The weather is not helping right now.   We think it will stand, though with increasing weakness.    It is just not easy to join mud to cement or concrete, and once we start it could be we would find ourselves continuing onwards into increasing repair.    One day we will be faced with demolition and rebuilding - if the Lord delays His coming long enough.     I hope He will come quickly instead, and thus we may get away with a Quick Fix.

THE KENYA NATIONAL ELECTION  will, God Willing, be taking place during early part of MARCH.

Testimony House

The President, Governors, Senators, Representatives and so on will all be elected during that time.  Already they various Parties are on the move with their appointed nominees holding NOISY, excitable and very distracting meetings everywhere.    Unfortunately for us, many of them have come to know that there is a vacant PLOT near us - right next to Jacaranda Cottage in fact - where they can come to hold their Rally.

They bombard the entire community with high powered amplifiers blasting the neighbourhood with the bombastic trumpet of a multitude of Candidates insisting that all should Vote for them - guess we have to ENDURE this for the forthcoming month with greater and greater intensity - and GRACE.

BUT there seems, for the most part a fairly equable and peaceful atmosphere - at least in our part of Kenya.   There ARE other parts that do not seem quite so settled, but again this may not necessarily be to do with the Election.       The nation continues, as we also do, in prayer.       Please also join with us and pray for the PEACE of KENYA.

THIS YEAR is a year of statistical surveys and other administrative matters that crop up every second year. We have both been busy, and this has interrupted letter writing, but our Thanksgiving for all the prayer and support we have received through December and January are in no way diminished and we hope soon to be able to acknowledge it personally to each one.        May God Bless and take care of you all through the coming week.    You are in our thoughts and prayers...

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol