THE WILE OF THE DEVIL!

THIS WEEK in Testimony School, we have seen yet again one of the dangers of the International Web!  It is so easy to create and enable a WEB SITE, and it seems there is very little control of what is available for the informed public to read or see.    THIS IS QUITE FRIGHTENING; the more so because most of the time we might not actually KNOW about it.      I mean, unless we might 'stumble' accidentally upon a Site, or we are given the NAME of the Site and invited to search for it, WE might be entirely ignorant of it.............WELL THIS WEEK, the Headmistress of the Secondary Section of Testimony School received a phone call suggesting she look up a particular Web Site.     It was named as TESTIMONYLEAKS.   We are assuming it was created by a student, or student so far unidentified (but now suspected) within the School itself.     The contents seek to expose the immoral goings on in the School - in particular amongst certain of the Teachers, with photographic back up.     It was an ill written article in English, and the photograph was very obviously a 'mock-up' - a kind of hybrid of more than one photo 'shopped' for from other look alike photos that can be found on the Web.       The 'informer' did not merely tell the Headmistress where to find this material but also reported the same to other phone owners including the maligned teachers!     The immediate furor and distress caused cannot be imagined.      We are now in process of trying to CLOSE the Website carrying this Report.   We have of course searched it out for ourselves.    It is perhaps worth copying out here how it describes itself.

TESTY LEAKS

WHO WE ARE

An underground operation that leads things done in darkness into wonderful light,

by revealing unethical conduct in the School, by heads of the school teachers

all through to the subordinate staff

OUR AIM

To put on the spot what really goes on in Testimony School

and confidently rebuke the vices with full proof.

OUR SCHOOL teaches computer from Nursery through to Secondary form 4.     Children are learning worldwide to grow with the computer, and more and more exposed to the Internet and all that it has to offer, both at school and at home.      And now one can connect to the internet via ones cell-phone!     Of course we are told that there is little or no risk if one uses the Net wisely, and avails oneself of the various control measures that are available.    However, as with the fail-safe Condom, it is amazing how many 'accidents' get through.

In this case of misuse, we believe it came about due to disciplinary council and correction taken upon one of the Form 3 students who had been concentrating more on 'romance' with male students than upon her academic progress.      Just a means of getting EVEN with the teachers perhaps?      And even the very factor of increasing sexual activity amongst High School students cannot be separated entirely from the effect of the International Web, and the open opportunity it presents to learn and SEE graphically ALL to do with SEX.    And if that is not enough to also - through 'Talk Rooms' and other facilities -  encourage sexual thought and activity across space into real time and situations.    One Kenyan recently made this comment in the Daily Nation, our daily Newspaper -

'Why do we act as if sex is everything?

Why do we give our youth the impression that everyone has to do it, or perish?'

Thomas Mundia - Nairobi.

The Television, radio, films and videos, books and magazines are FULL of such things, together with the pursuit of multi-criminal activities, perversions, and abnormalities..     The Internet merely has collected and multiplied all of this, and made its own concoctions and opportunities for Man to indulge himself privately and without council or rational advice.      Can we wonder at the growing CONFUSION and DOUBT the world is in, as to what IS actually Right, Pure, Healthy when it comes to keeping the Human Race  progressively HUMAN rather than bestial and serving its lower nature.    The Internet is a PANDORA'S BOX easily opened and almost impossibly CLOSED.     Indeed it may be TOO LATE to close it;  TOO LATE to reverse the awful damage being achieved, and the terrible plan Satan no doubt has for it.    YES, I do still believe there is a Devil, apposed to GOD, and that he has, and will continually build on each succeeding invention of man in such as way as to FINALLY DESTROY God's likeness in Man.

Well may we ask 'Where is Humanity Going?'      Away from our humanity, away from GOD, and deeper into ignorant darkness, greater than this world has ever known or seen since Genesis 2.

WELL WE WERE STARTLED, but not quite 'floored', and we have already recovered enough to face tomorrow.       What shall we do finally, once the true culprits have been found out?   Shall we Expel them from the School, Cane them, Suspend them from classes?     Not easy to really say - the reputation of the School and of its teachers has been attacked, and also professional and marital conduct and relationship questioned and accused.    Will not reparation of some kind be required?

There are presently FIVE names in front of us for consideration.    ONE of them has just now, as I am composing this Blog, come to tell me plainly that he was the prime mover in setting up the Website.  He has agreed to provide me with conclusive evidence of this, and to put down in writing exactly who assisted him or was complicit with him in the putting UP on the Web the article under consideration.     He will come with it all on Monday at 2p.m.   (we have a Teacher Interview Session in the morning hours).     THEN the matter will finally be discussed and dealt with.

The School will almost certainly want their 'pound of flesh' - at least one Expulsion.     I may be the only one there to want to veto such an action.      There are, and will be, many pros and cons relative to all this of course, on both sides of the matter.     BUT to me it would seem that GOD wants to get the best out of all of us even when we are busy producing the worst.      He made us, watches us grow, sees all our errors and mistakes both on the inside and outside of our lives.    He suffers and bears it all, and waits for a moment when we might SEE it and cry out for mercy and grace........I did, when I was 17, and had to cry out louder still when I was 34 and face to face with what I had tried to hide from myself..........I found God right there, both times, not to chide me, but to SAVE me from falling and failing.    He lifted me up, and gave me the chance once more to GO ON to perfection..............What more can I say?     What words can I utilise to even begin to convey the Thanksgiving of my poor heart to my God, and Saviour?       Nay the more words I look for the more tears come to choke me..............So what shall we do with our student - he is not from the Homes by the way; not an orphan?        He is in his last year in Secondary.    Academically bright and clever.     Well, I hope I may be able to give him another opportunity to prove himself of better stuff.     We talk of the Goodness of Christ here in  my sitting room.............Maybe this can be a turning point; the means of a 'divine encounter' that will do more than save the School's reputation.        We shall have to wait and see.

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THE SUN HAS SHONE THROUGH THIS WEEK, a factor which surely has made life easier to endure with all its many problems and disappointments - and there have been many this week.     Can't share them all with you right now - not life threatening, and most of them just 'everyday' matters.        The latest has been that, after partially filling the new swimming pool with water, two leaks have been discovered.   Well we had been warned it would leak, and told clearly that EVERY pool worth its salt will leak somewhere initially!  Even SO!!    But they have now been found and SEALED, and so we continue on in hope - and how quite wonderful that one CAN seal a LEAK, and believe it is stopped up for ever.

Much love to you all.    His BLESSING be upon and with you all.     Remember me on Sunday as I shall be speaking in the morning service about the Thief who was crucified with Jesus; who turned and to Him and said -

REMEMBER ME.....when you come into your Kingdom...

John and Esther, Daryl and Carol, and all our Staff and Children in the Homes and School

FEAR NOT LITTLE CHILDREN - I AM WITH YOU.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!!   This week our local RED CROSS Branch offered to give two pairs of canvas shoes to each of our kids.    VERY appropriate, since shoes ARE quite expensive and have to be replaced quite regularly.     Not especially attractive as shoes go, but they will after all keep 140 pairs of feet free from dust, earth, stones and even worms!    ALL Gifts gratefully received, and the more so when they are right out of the blue, so to speak
Where were the shoes manufactured?
CHINA of course!

The PHOTO shows just  under half of our children as they came to collect their their shoes outside the Office.  They were, of course, quite delighted by this unexpected gift..      Another 'small' miracle from the Lord our God who hears our prayers and answers them in the most surprising and unexpected ways.   THANK you Lord God, and thank you Red Cross, and thank you China too.    Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
We are always amazed that we are able to clothe the children - not perhaps very luxuriously, but at least basically - with what they need.       Since the mid 80s we have not been able to import used clothes, and with finance also reducing over the same period, funds have not been predictable enough to really budget properly - but as it is written in Deuteronomy 8v1- as far as you might be led to read - even in a desert GOD is able to provide what we need relative to food and clothing, so that we might learn to believe and trust in Him alone for our life.    The TRUTH of this does not, has not, and never will change.  
OF COURSE you might think, from the photo, that we always have something for everyone each time a need is supplied.     But no, when the potatoes and cabbage are bought each day - although they too are a miracle of God's provision, we do not give a potato or a cabbage into each child's hands and take a photo! It is only when something 'special' that highlights God's love and care that we get to notice it in a more particular way.       Grace is said at EVERY meal, and all the children KNOW it is not just THERE;  it has come because The Father in Heaven has heard and answered all our prayers and found ways and means to put it on our table.    They are - with a few exceptions - thankful for that.     AND when EVERYONE finds themselves with NEW shoes - why, THAT is an exceptional surprise that stirs real excitement.

THIS WEEK the weather has seen a reduction in rainfall, but it is still quite cool despite clear blue skies, and today we have very blustery, windy conditions.    The Water will soon be pouring into the new Pool - maybe even later today.    Everyone very excited about it.  But will it ever be warm enough again to actually SWIM ?

Most of our staff and some School children are attending a funeral today.     A previous Headmaster of our High School passed away this week aged 65.    Zacariah Mbatia was a BIG man, with a very big heart.  He was both loved and feared by his students since he had eyes that could bore right into you, and a voice that might have broken boulders.     A good disciplinarian, but with Christian character and spirit that wooed all that came to know him.   Retired a few years back now with a bad heart condition, he has endured illness for some time.    Many will miss him.
In the early 70s he and I would often be ministering at the same Christian Meetings in local schools.  Always seeking out the lost he was well known amongst all his brethren no matter what denomination.   A Brother indeed.

The Conversion of part of the UG County Social Hall in Eldoret into a short term Detention and Rehab Centre for Street Children is going ahead, and we hope that within the next fortnight it might be in  use and able to see up to a hundred youngsters 15 years and under begin their three month stint on the way - we hope - to a new and better future.     The police have continued to pick up groups of up to 25 almost every day (yes EVERY day!) and they are holed up in two Remand facilities, terribly overcrowded and uncomfortable.
Continue to pray for this operation in our Town of Eldoret.   Pray also for me, and those who assist and stand with me on the Task Force, that we might act with wisdom and good sense as we push forward in our endeavours.

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FOR A CHANGE I have managed to indulge myself a little and find time to watch two films!   Hope I am not backsliding!       Esther has been watching back numbers of 'The Little House on the Prairie' which she remembers from years gone by........so I - well I decided to find a few films I had missed.   

The FIRST one I looked at was Brother Sun and Sister Moon, a 1972 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli depicting the life of Francis of Assisi.     I must say I was quite entranced by it; the simplicity of the presentation as a whole; the wonderful and beautiful photography, and the MUSIC played and sung by Donovan.     For me it is a truly great film.       The young man who took the part of Francis amazingly never made another film, but married, became an accountant, and produced a stable family.      This is a film that can bless you, provided you are not looking for the FAST and the FURIOUS content of the modern productions for the screen.       A beautiful, thoughtful and satisfying film.

St. Francis is quite an interesting personage in the Christian world,  and in watching this film I was reminded of a another that I came across when I was just a kid after reading the book, 'The Small Miracle' by Paul Gallico.     Another good story for children.   A small boy in Rome has a donkey which becomes very ill.   Desperate to help her, the boy approaches a priest and begs him to help him to find a way to get the donkey into the place where St. Francis was buried to be prayed for.     It is the story of how it all happened.   Don't think that in being Catholic inspired these films

might offend your faith or spirit.    They won't - I am sure they have both been inspired by the very real Spirit of God.

The SECOND was a film made in 1992 from the book by E.M. Forster - 'HOWARD'S END', written in 1910 about class relationships of that day.     A strange story, but beautifully presented, photographed and acted.

Very SLOW and DULL unless you are interested in period studies, and unless you are interested also in people.     It is not in the least 'spiritual' in the religious sense.    Rather secular and worldly though not offensively.     I enjoyed it and I found it interesting and thought provoking in many ways.     I first read the book when I was a teenager, and found it, even then in the late 50s, quite fascinating.

All for this week.     I am still pursuing after the GRACE of God; that spirit of undeserved kindness and loving mercy with which God bears ME.      Since beginning (yes I must be honest and say I am only JUST in truth beginning) to do this I have been faced with how challenging it is -  to love others as I love myself, AND as HE loves me!       Not easy, but I am not going to give up.      I have started late, and I may not have much time really left compared to the years that have gone by me, and thus I am determined to make what I can of what is left to me.

God Bless and be with you through the week ahead.    We remember you all with love and thanksgiving.

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol.

I WOKE UP EARLY this morning, and sat on our veranda as the sun also woke up!       How wonderful and glorious sunlight is!   It transforms everything,    Changes the aspect of all that its rays light upon.  
And it is my Birthday morning, and I found myself remembering sun filled days in my youth, and even the attitude of people to the sun.     A 'sunny' day was one to be enjoyed, and to find a little fun, laughter and pleasure in more than others.   School, going to work, doing a chore all changed when the sun shone.
One did not fear it in those days - you just enjoyed it whole heartedly.        It made me remember that when I was a child almost everything was good for you with few reservations when it came to food for example.      HAVE A PINT OF MILK A DAY!       START THE DAY WITH AN EGG!     CHEESE, BUTTER, and even MEAT were all recommended.     Somehow, even those of us restricted by poverty, had a more 'robust' and wholesome attitude to life in general.      A world with more to reach out for in innocent belief that it would achieve only good.     Few restrictions - just wholesale liberty after the War.      During the war diet was seriously restricted but afterwards things eased and once again people began to live  .........

NOT quite THE SAME TODAY.     Red MEAT is bad for your heart!   Eggs can give you Salmonella and don't help your Blood Sugar levels!    Cheese, Butter, and even milk all bad for you.     LESS and LESS of the little you might 'fancy' is good for you - keep away from it all..............And DON'T go out in the sun without sunscreen, dark glasses, and considerable carefulness - it will give you SKIN CANCER.    Yes even the joy of the SUN has been dimmed for the generations that have followed mine.    All of life has in fact dimmed!        To compensate for it and to somehow forget what REAL sunshine is we look for the pale palliatives of drugs, alcohol and sex - all somehow (for all the colour we dress them up with) experienced in a black and white world, pallid with dull and unhealthy attitudes.    Where HAS the SUNSHINE GONE?
Behind the clouds of Heart-disease, Diabetes, Hypertension, and a host of others.     Fear, Doubt and Apprehension of what is in store for us dilutes the very brightness of the sunshine......and we are reduced to pale shadows of what we once were......

THEN into my head came this little Song written way back in 1939, before all the sunshine of life began to wane and filter away.....

YOU are my sunshine;

My only sunshine

When skies are gray.

You'll never know, Lord

How much I love you;

Please, don't take my sunshine away!

It was sung to me when I was just a youngster by my Mum (it is me NOW that has substituted the word LORD for dear.     It fits in perfectly with my thought and constant need.    JESUS IS my true sunshine, and his Presence, whenever it makes me aware of him, does to me exactly what the sunshine does when it banishes all my surrounding darkness away.     Yes HE is my true sunshine, and I LOVE Him dearly, and cannot do without HIM in my life.      I need Him all the time, restoring a positive frame of mind and faith in me that rebukes all the fears, anxieties, thrust upon me by the Prince of this World,  setting me free to reach out to others, both children and adults, with love, affection and Truth in the liberty of His Spirit.

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Duchess of Alba, Grandee of Spain

SEVENTY THREE years!        Still just a chicken yet!    
I have been reading up about the Duchess of Alba, a Spanish Grandee aged 87 who has just recently married her 3rd husband some twenty four years younger than herself.     Apart from being one of the richest women in the world, she is probably best known for her many facial plastic surgeries.      She has a continuing zest for life, but personally I have no desire for earthly longevity - just longing for that NEW body to come and replace this ageing one.    And I definitely have no desire to patch this one up until it resembles little of its originality!         In a recent article I read that she is also a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill, and Royal House of Stuart!!       One age-avoiding, fun loving, billionairess who owns a large part of Spain, hidden away from the knowledge of most of the rest of us for the best part of her life.   Amazing!

Well the sun is STILL shining here today - just a few fluffy white clouds in a perfectly blue sky, and I am enjoying myself.    A quiet day - a happy day.     Daryl and Carol and their three children, Edward, Daryl's elder brother, and Manu will all share a meal with us tonight.      THANK YOU LORD for taking such good care of me and mine.     I first consciously woke up to the fact of GOD being there for me when I was SIX and came to know YOU, Lord, when I WAS 17.    When I was 26 you called me to Kenya and here I found my wife Esther in 1971.     Testimony Faith homes had been started in 1969 and Esther and I together have seen  the Lord supply our need, and the need of hundreds of children day by day, up to the present.    HE has kept us both in health and strength.    He has clothed us, fed us, kept us alive.       We have not done any of this for ourselves or by our own effort.    HE is our STRENGTH and our LIFE.     All the honour, the praise and GLORY goes to One who came to DIE for us at Calvary, and who ROSE again to be WITH US, and Who will COME AGAIN SOON to welcome us home and into the NEW Heaven and Earth that He has prepared for us who love Him.


God Bless and be with you all



John and Esther & Daryl and Carol.


PS - Electricity actually WENT at 7a.m.   -   but returned at 9a.m.      Wonderful.    

WHAT ABOUT THE AGED?

MRS. EMMITT JENKINS LITTLE aged 97 was removed from the Nursing Home in which she had been placed in 2007 by a grand-daughter.   Mrs. Little had been admitted by relatives into the Home temporarily after a Hip operation, and  was conveniently just left there not exactly forgotten - but out of the way.   She pleaded to one of her granddaughter to come and re-move.    She lived with that granddaughter for a further four years before dying, happy and mentally alert to the end.
This story caught my imagination.     Ageing can be a very frightening prospect to some, especially those who are without family or friends looking out for them.   There are many LONELY people around us getting older ALONE here in Kenya.      
IN KENYA old age is something of  a problem to many since urbanisation has meant that many families living in the towns just do not have the time or space to care for their ageing relatives.      In some rural areas it can in fact be worse, and if you happen to be aged and losing your faculties, your relatives might just take you to a remote spot and LEAVE you there to die alone -to be even EATEN by wild animals.      Even forty years ago when I first arrived here, and attending the funeral of an African friend, we were afterwards in formed that the person buried was not dead - just old!        The World, fast and selfish, finds the elderly often an increasing nuisance or inconvenience that slows them down.     Thus the Old People's Homes, and other institutions have come to be almost a necessity for many to pass their family responsibility on to.    
JUST THIS week Esther and I had a call for help from an ageing lady passing our compound.     I will not give her name - let's call her 'Lilley'.        She is 70, single and alone in the world.     She was born here in Eldoret but is Goan, her parents being of mixed blood (Portuguese and Asian).      She lived with her sister until she died just two years ago, and has worked as a book-keeper in many different local businesses.      NOW she lives alone with failing sight and a lot of apprehension.       Recently she has fallen down twice and broken her right arm in two places.     The bones are taking their time healing, and her doctor has told her that the breakage is very bad having been in a difficult place and that she may never have the strength she had before in it.     She can drive and has a small car, but finds she cannot now use it since she lacks the strength to control the driving wheel.       She lives about three kilometres away from us on a very bad, mud-bound road.     Her two bed roomed rented  house shares a compound with two or three others.    Her neighbours are unfriendly and last week one of them was broken into by a gang of five thugs.      She is a small, little lady, short and frail.  Every isolated night must be full of fearful listening for an intruder.
When she arrived at our gate she had walked from the Hospital where she had gone for treatment, she felt she could go no further.      We felt very concerned for her.     She has no one to help her, and with the temporary loss of her arm she finds it hard to dress or cook, or anything.       So in a way she is a prisoner now in her small house, waiting to die!      No fellowship, nothing to focus her time on.     By faith she is Catholic but has not been able to attend church since last September.    The Priest has never attempted to visit her.         We are now hoping to find a way for her at least to attend our own Service here on a Sunday.
Esther and I are also growing older - but thank God still able to be occupied and surrounded by so many in our daily life.    WE are fortunate.
There are MANY elderly Kenyans living in drab, poverty bound, loneliness.      Who thinks of them?   Not too many.        WE have BEGUN to pray about it.        Milly is able to phone us, and we her.    A little light of 'fellowship' has come into her life.        GOD CARES about each one of us from the Beginning to the End of our lives.      WE should be letting Him DO it IN us as well.      What is it we are told 'DO unto others as you would have them do to you'.      Think about it with us.

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LAST WEEK I wrote about Street Children in Eldoret Town, and how action was being taken to remove them.        The Task Force which I Chair is still pursuing its one agenda having, with the assistance of the Police and Courts, picked up more than 60 children from the Streets aged seven and under.

Since the the County Government for this County in which WE live (Uasin-Gishu), has picked up a further 160 of all ages, and many of them under the influence of drugs.     These too have been taken off to the already overcrowded Junior and Adult Remand facilities in the hope that each one might be repatriated to family of somehow passed on to some other place!!   THUS the need for other 'holding space' is seen to be the most urgent matter to attend to.

THE TASK FORCE and I had felt the old Municipal Social Hall would be ideal.     So on Monday of this week we made an appointment to see our Country Clerk, hoping to get his good will.     He saw us all in the afternoon, and became immediately interested and concerned about our own efforts.      He got in touch with the Country Governor, The Hon. Jackson Mandago, (left), and we were soon whisked into his presence.     He was very accommodating, and calling Finance and Social Services to be with us all in his office soon gave us permission to use the SOCIAL HALL facilities rent free, agreeing for the County to pay the cost of putting up a new Security Fence, and also the repair and improvement of the existing buildings where necessary.   This was very unexpected, and we realised the Hand of God upon our doings.          We now have to see that repairs are done, and that we are able to provide the necessary bedding and food supplies for up to ONE HUNDRED young people at a time.       The Governor has also given us five social service staff, fully paid for, to assist in counselling and discovering the background of each young person being held, and also in arranging home visits with hope of repatriating as many as possible back to their families.    A big task, and one that might have to go on for some many months.

The SOCIAL HALL stands on about two acres.    It comprises an expansive HALL with stage and toilets.  We hope to use this for Dining, Recreation, and the rest partitioned off for interview rooms.

Adjoining the Hall is a wing comprising three rooms to be used as dormitories - under 10s / 11-17s / those still under the influence of drugs and other solvents.        Of course the last group will also face the most effort from us in regard to Rehabilitation.        We hope to commence the exercise before the end of MAY.

The Facility also has a further five or six small office sized room that we might use late if we see the need.

Quite a challenge.      The TASK FORCE will only be responsible for drumming up support and for assuring the Facility is Managed.      NONE of us are in a position to be 'full time' in our contribution.

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SCHOOL WILL OPEN for the 2nd Term on Monday 6th May.     It has been a good Holiday, and all the children have seemed to enjoy the break from Lessons - even though the weather has continue to be mainly WET each day.    During the period the works on the School Swimming Pool have continued under the heavy rains to go forward.     Almost completed now.       A NEW playground for the Nursery School has also been put in place, and a semi permanent house has been erected in the Jacaranda Cottage Compound for the Cowman who cares day and night for the cows (which are sited right net to him!!     The Dairy does well and we do not want to discontinue it.    However we have had to move it from its original site due to the building of the Swimming Pool.     It's current site opposite Tyndale Cottage may not be final, but we have to wait and see how things pan out when all the current  building is completed.

FUNDS for the running of the Children's Homes had totally run out on MONDAY of this week.   The Bank was empty and so were all our pockets.    We WAITED on the Lord!      On WEDNESDAY we had a Gift from AENON combining all those send by so many of those who read this Blog, and many that don't!  Such perfect Timing - such perfect LOVE -  truly WE are not alone.        Our prayer that each one us will ALWAYS find the PROOF of this truth in our daily lives and experience.

God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all through this coming week as the Holy Spirit Himself binds you all together.     What a Fellowship!   What a JOY divine......knowing WE are not alone!

Lovingly in Him

John and Esther & Daryl and Carol