Finally this week the Water Supplier agreed for us to tap into a newer and bigger pipe line to give us a stronger and more constant supply. However this means we have to lay a pipeline of our own to where we can tap into the 6" pipe - about two hundred meters away. Extra work, but it will also mean that the Swimming pool will benefit from water supply from the same pipe.
As you look at the photo the ground floor comprises space for 60 beds plus Warden's bed-sitter. The showers and toilets are on the same floor, to the left, just out of sight. Above are four standard sized classrooms and a new Library with space for about 12,000 books with a study area. - at a cost to the School of some £92,000 at Ksh.135 to the £ sterling. Roofing is of Gal-sheeting, (pressed metal) and the floors PSV and Ceramic Tiling. Generally we can say we are very happy with the way it has gone up and been completed. It is already attracting a lot of positive interest, and the High School population is now growing. We now have room for 288 students in this section of the School, twice as many as we had at the end of 2012. Currently we have thirteen Graduate Teachers with others still to join us as the year progresses. High School comprises FOUR classes catering for four years of education for children aged between 13-17/18 years. Thereafter students are expected to continue on to College or university. IN FRONT of this new building are Laboratories for Physics, Science, Home-science, and Computer. To the right, out of sight, is a another block of four Classrooms, thus making it now possible for the School to cater for TWO separate streams of High School.
Looking from the veranda, above the front door, and forwards one can see the labs in the foreground and then, beyond, the rest of the School which comprises Nursery and Primary Sections with a current population of some 690 children. ACADEMICALLY it is generally doing well, with a very excellent public reputation in respect of its Performance, Discipline, and Moral Standards. It is popular with all cultural and social groups within our local society. Testimony Faith Homes children ( 130 odd) are fully paid for by the incoming Fees from external children attending the school, thus providing FREE education from Nursery to High School for all our children. The School has also, from time to time, voluntarily donated funds to the Children's Homes at times of special need. It also offers up to 15 free places to bright students from poor families within the Municipality of Eldoret. However no PROFIT is earned for any individual or private entity. Apart from the donations mentioned above the School ploughs any surplus funds back into School development; there are no dividends, bonuses, or special allowances made or given to any.
TESTIMONY SCHOOL
FOUNDED
1981
nine years after we moved from Siaya District to Eldoret in 1972
The IDEA of a School as well as cottage homes for homeless children was there from the onset in 1969, but it just did not seem possible until 1973. Perhaps another look into my Diary to get a idea of how it came about .........
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January 1981. We commenced a small Nursery School in the compound of Testimony House. It was begun because we could not find pre-primary school places for our 'homes' children in Eldoret Town. There were 'schools' but nothing was taught in them - just play all day. This posed a problem since all government Primary Schools demanded that new entrants had to have completed a set Pre-primary Syllabus in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.!!!
(Jane Hotham, a young lady from England, was staying with us at the time, and it was she who set up the School and became its first Headmistress. In commencing this 'little' private nursery school the DIE was cast....though we somehow did not PLAN to do more at the time.)
November 1983. Received a phone call from one of the Primary School Headmasters.
"Please come to my Office right away, There is a serious problem facing us!" he said. "Daniel and Joseph have been found smoking cigarettes in the school field - I shall have to suspend them from classes."
The next morning I took the two teenagers to School myself. As soon as we arrived the boys were grabbed and led away to the School Parade Ground where they were paraded in front of 700 of their fellow students.; they were made to lay face down in the dirt, given a homily on 'ungrateful orphans who having no parents miss-spent public money. They were then given six strokes of the cane on their buttocks each. Suspended, socially stigmatised and publicly caned - for smoking a cigarette in the school field. We returned home to Testimony House.
So why not start our own Primary School where students could be treated fairly without getting a public stigma, and where they would not be in danger of missing lessons? We have spare outbuildings to start with - I will apply to the District Education Board.
January 6th 1984 - Received visit from an official of the Education Department. He had come, at last, to inspect our buildings, with a view to giving us the 'go-ahead' for the School! He liked what he saw, and WE began to pray and plan. Of course we had no funds to implement any of our 'dreams' in this direction...... The 'buildings' need a lot of work and renovation.
(a year went by)
January 1985 - school set to open its doors for first time. We have no chairs yet!
Received a gift TODAY from UK, from a Primary School Teacher in Wales, a sister in Christ. A Gift of £3000 - NOW we have CHAIRS for the two classes we will open next week! Thank you Lord!
February 1986 - CRASH! a slow, tormented creaking, and rending filled the air. WHOOSH! the ground grunted at the impact, and a hollow THUD stopped my heart for a moment. That Gum Tree had stood for perhaps seventy years, one of a stand of twenty giants that lined the top driveway of our compound where now we are to build School offices, and classrooms.
October 1986 - All the building is done. Eight new Classrooms, Offices, and toilets all completed and ready for use. NOW I can actually reach out and touch the stones that now comprise the buildings - the 'substance' of things once hoped for - the EVIDENCE of things once not seen.
In ALL of this 'development' we asked no man's help. We prayed to God and HE provided what was needed.......
(In 1987 TEAR fund - offered (without application) to help the School forward so that in 1988 we could build FOUR laboratories, and a School Hall to seat 400. In 1991 they again offered to build a further EIGHT primary classrooms.)
In all the years that have since gone by, we have seen hundreds of young people educated together with our own homeless children. The School has grown, but has never been rich or in any way luxurious. It has always maintained a 'family' atmosphere, and has been a foundation and platform from which the majority of its students have gone on to build solid and prosperous futures and lives. THANK you Lord. Thank you for the good AND the bad!
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ITS EASY to BE THANKFUL for good things after all - though some do forget even then.
BUT what about the hard, difficult, even unpleasant things..? Do we say Thank you for THEM? It is not, of course, that we can be THANKFUL for cancer, injury, loss of what is precious and dear - but nevertheless I am told to be Thankful in ALL things. The words ALL THINGS are wrapped around EVERY thing in life that I must pass through. Thank you Lord, for trusting me with this pain, this sorrow, this trial! I AM your servant, and if this is required of me I will endure it with THANKSGIVING, that in doing so I will declare that I AM your servant, and that you ARE my LORD, and that I DO BELIEVE that ALL THINGS (even the least palatable things) are working together for GOOD for me in Christ Jesus.
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Looking at the SCHOOL today it is easy to smile and be thankful. BUT there were days, there were times, there were false friends, that were certainly NOT enjoyable along the way and did not always bring a ready smile or hearty appreciation. YET GOD in His Grace and Goodness, brought about GOOD in and through those things .......YES we should AT ALL times be Thankful - Thankful that no matter WHAT, God is doing us GOOD; we can be SURE of it. We can be without DOUBT about it.
I say THANK YOU Lord, today, for the CHALLENGES, the heartbreaks of life. I say Thank you for wrapping my fragile life around with your LOVING CARE that saves me from ALL my anxieties and sorrows. Isn't HE Wonderful?
God Bless you all
John and Esther / Carol and Daryl
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