What IS Going ON?

TODAY children, ALONE, can be seen everywhere in Kenya.   Having commenced clearing our Eldoret streets we see MORE returning every day.     In 2012 the OFFICIAL number of children considered homeless orphans was put at more than 1.5 million.     The number has not gone down.  
No so long ago the Director of Children's Services Minister - Esther Murugi was quoted as saying - 'The Government is supporting over 2.5 million orphans, and its limited resources are overwhelmed!'   She then appealed for assistance from religious and charitable organisations.
BUT TODAY it seems that this scenario has changed - or if not changed then is seriously misrepresented and seemingly unreliable.
This week Testimony was approached by a local Church pastor well known to us.    A family attending his church had suddenly been thrust into poverty and loss.     Never rich, neither husband or wife having more than casual employment to provide for themselves and their five children, income has now ceased altogether. The husband died of AIDS in 2006 and his wife passed away with AIDS just two weeks ago.   The home was grabbed by another poor relative as soon as this woman passed away, and although the boys in the family (17 and 20) were offered shelter by the mother's uncle, no one came forward to help the three girls.
16, 13, and 8, the youngest also with HIV.      The pastor asked for our help.     However we are not allowed by law to Admit children into the Homes without the consent and knowledge of the Children's Department - so I sent him off to the appropriate office saying we had vacancies and could take the children provided the Department agreed.
THEY told the pastor that they no longer favoured or sought for children to be placed long term in the Children's Homes,     They current policy was to have such children fostered - this could take some time - and in the meantime they could not help.    AMAZING!!           I have written back to the Children's Officer for the area and informed her that we shall ADMIT the three girls next Wednesday and expect her department to provide the necessary Court Orders - failing which I will attend Court myself on  their behalf.
For some years now the Government has been intimating that it would have no need of Children's Homes by the year 2020, declaring that by that time ALL children currently homeless would have been FOSTERED.
The United States and the United Kingdom have both followed this kind of policy from time to time, and both have encountered problems relating basically to lock of personnel to monitor and secure children fostered or finance handed out as part of the bargain.
TODAY Kenya has upwards of four hundred thousand families who have - with financial inducement - taken a child into their care.      Within a short period after placement approximately 30% of these children have run away to the street again!      The government IS aware of this but continues to pursue this policy (which though good in part, is difficult to implement.).      
THIS determination to flog what looks already like a partly dead horse, has meant that officially they have had to discourage children being committed to Children's Homes.       With a rising figure of more than 2.5 million children nationwide un-sheltered or cared for, it seems quite amazing.

THE RED CROSS has just recently opened a new 5 star Hotel in Eldoret just a short walk away from us.  Daryl and I went to view it yesterday.     It is well appointed but expensive.      A plate of food costs up to Ksh, 1500/-   more than a weeks housekeeping for a normal labouring family!    The actual difference in price for a plate of similar food is about 1000 Kenya shillings.  It seems again quite incongruous and without reason for a CHARITY (as I understood the Red Cross to be) to plant such a high class establishment in the midst of poverty and beyond the reach of the average Kenyan.      I found the same problem in India where the multi-floor modern malls and apartments are lapped to the doors by the very grime of poverty and even filth. Just to walk through this hotel, so foreign to our surroundings, made us both feel out of place and uncomfortable - no doubt fortunate their prices are SO inflated that we can never be tempted to visit then socially.   Who will it profit I wonder?     Not the Kenyan - perhaps the tourist, though few come this way.........

WITH  the sudden increase in VAT on basic foodstuffs AND an 11/- increase per litre on petrol, the cost of living has shot up and will continue to do so.     The school has not increased Fees for those attending from outside of the Homes for three years, but this year they have notice an increasing termly deficit.  They have therefore publicly proclaimed a rise in Basic Tuition Fees from Nursery to Secondary - generally a hike of between 6.5 and 13.5 pounds at the current rate of exchange.    This not likely to be popular but if we can get it the School may have to close soon.      We would ask you to pray about this.    The hike though heavy enough is in every way fair, and will not gender more than enough to service basic cost of running.     Our Board of Management agreed the matter last night, and today they parents are being told.

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THIS WEEK, we sent representative junior swimming team to Nairobi with our Instructress & Coach.   A Team of SIX including two from our School, who will compete in a national competition.    Quite exciting, and a very quick commencement in participation in such events.       If they do well they may proceed on later in October to the next level of Competition to be held in Mombasa.

We are celebrating Daryl's 41st Birthday this even, and we shall be together for a Birthday Cake!!     We expect him to arrive with Carol and Jesse and Becky by 7.15 or so with his brother Edward too.   But Jeremy and Manu are both away so they will have to miss the cake this time.

BEAUTIFUL weather today.      The first real WARMTH for many months!    Perhaps OUR summer is dawning - or perhaps the weather is as MIXED and unstable as everything else in Kenya just now.

Love you all, and our prayers always going up to heaven for you.

Lovingly

John and Esther

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS - NAME THEM, ONE BY ONE!!!

THERE ARE MANY SCENES OF THIS KIND IN KENYA - EVEN CLOSE TO TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES, here in Eldoret.      On fringes of the Town Centre hundreds of thousands of people tend to exist in mud and squalor most of the year around - especially 2013 has been WET, and the almost continuous intermittent rain storms have things running with water - and even sewerage!   Not a lot of comfort to be found in a mud and wattle hut of some fifteen feet in diameter.    The grass roof may often leak, rotten with age, and floor of cow dung and mud, dried and hardened, can become damp and uncomfortable.     A husband and wife and MANY children will share the space.     All the usual fasilities of indoor sanitation, electric light,  seperate kitchen and so on just not there.   The toilet just a hole in the ground some distance from the house.    VERY DIFFERENT living to that of those of us who have grown up in First World Countries - even those of us who WERE in fact poor!
My own beginnings were lived inside a crumbling terrace house in a small town called STARBECK in the north east of England.      It was rented house costing about eight pounds (U,K,) a month; a house quite neglected by the owner, and infested with rats, cock-roaches and other vermin.     It had one room and a small kitchen downstairs and two small bedrooms above.     The toilet was in a shack at the bottom end of a small narrow yard where we also kept a few chicken and a rabbit or two.    We had no money in those days, and dreaded the knock of the Rent Collectors hand on the door at the end of the month.     It was in the early 1940s and the second world war was still continuing.   Food was very scarce, and very expensive. We had a small radio which crackled and hummed with bad reception.    NO T.V. or other electronic aids such as a phone or even lighting at times.      VERY different from today.
YET happiness was to be found there in the midst of the LITTLE that we had.     One of the factors that helped us was that we lived quite unaware how other, richer, people were living.     Everyone around us were also poor, and even those I went to school with were poor.      We found it difficult to covet what we could not see!     We may at times have 'wished' for more, but on the whole we learnt to make the most of what was there - and made merry with it.      There was love in the house!    There was food, however little and meagre, in the house, and there was laughter and fun in the house!       I am glad to have BEGUN my journey here on Earth in such a situation............       I guess JESUS may have felt the same.
Perhaps I might not DESIRE poverty, but I tend to think that to be rich or essentially well off, without having known poverty and learned to live with it, and to value those around you at the same time, is a great disadvantage.

When Testimony began it existed in poverty, without 'Western' essentials and necessities.     Our first home together with the children - almost twenty of them - was of mud and wattle, giving way to sun baked clay brick - even when we moved to the Town of Eldoret in 1972 we still found ourselves in a house made of mud - mud baked brick and wattle......Our first home was without electricity, running water, or sanitation. The ceilings were not there, and the windows had no glass     It was a warm, open plan, happy house. There was laughter in it - it exuded 'family' and provided security, and a place to find safety in.

HOW are we all here today?       The Town is now encroaching in upon us with all its urben temptations and attractions.     We are no longer secluded from the developing material and technocratic society  all around us.     We can no longer (the children that is) be CONTENT with what we might have - the NEW assets and baubles of the the new age being constantly thrust upon us by those with more money to wast on pleasure and luxury.       THIS is perhaps the greatest problem facing us.       The Lust of the World - its wealth, its power, and its idolatries.      
The House Esther and I moved into in 1972 is still here, forty years or so later.We lived in it with a family of 40 or so for twenty eight years    A MUD house showing wear and tear even in 1972 - it was well
over forty years old THEN!!       Successive owners have plastered the outside with a veneer of plaster but it remains a MUD house.     Everything in it second hand and subject to wear and need for updating and repair continually.         Across the road is Jacaranda Cottage, also a MUD house behind the plaster, though not as old as the other.      Then the two NEWER houses built in 2007, this time of solid stone with good foundation - well their furniture and contents are newer - but still experiencing daily wear.   Each home and family though not always having enough, are never as poor as they might have been.    For the first twenty years of our existence we were blessed with enough without craving for more.   BUT slowly, as the Town grew, and as our SCHOOL grew, and the lifestyles of those richer and with MORE began to affect us, things are changing...........Now we are being absorbed by the Town.     Infiltrated by not only the t.v, but now by the INTERNET via computors, laptops and even perhaps the most devious tool of them all, the mobile phone.  
There is still, for the most part, laughter and fun to be found in our four Homes, but also more temptation to aspire for MORE.        SO these days we are having to concentrate on showing the values that come from just being 'family' and from realising that true contentedness is not dependant on material wellbeing or excess.
Not easy.  

STOP PRESS!!!!!

WELL, today Daryl journied up to our Capital, Nairobi for some business.     At about 2p.m. our time he entered a Shopping Mall at Westlands, on the outskirts of the City and a well known tourist area and shopping centre.        Once inside there was the sound of GUNFIRE, and it became apparent that the MALL was being attacked / robbed / what-have-you, by thugs.         Alarms were ringing everywhere and finally the Police surrounded the entire area in efforts to contain the thugs.       The main problem was on the 2nd floor, which Daryl fortunately  failed to reach, valiantly deciding to leave the building whilst still on the ground floor.  VERY scary that  such a thing could happen - first time in our history.      Carol heard about it from Daryl himself as he was running out of the complex and she immediately phoned us.     Many were injured and some have died.   BUT for the Grace of God.      This is almost NEWS as I am typing.
AS I AM TYPING the Police are still surrounding the
Mall whilst the gang is holed up in the 2nd floor with hostages.     So far it is being said by Red Cross observers that at least 20 are dead and perhaps 50 wounded.     These figures cannot yet be confirmed,  but there is no doubt this was a major confrontation by the Police and will be a set back to the Tourist Trade - we wait to see from where this attack originates, but it would seem to be internal crime, and this will reflect badly once again on our internal security.      We Thank God that He got Daryl safely out before the worst happened AND
before he got to the 2nd Floor where the worst is still happening.      Truly he watches over us, and I am sure many are giving Thanks to night for His Care of them. But our prayers continue for those who may still be being held, and our cry goes up that no others will have to innocently give up their lives to the Greed of Men.
STRANGE that I should be touching on this in the Blog today -    It is truly covetousness that moves men and women to greed and discontent and to CRIME.    It can never be the way to true happiness.

This must  be all for today.      We are ourselves looking heavenward at this time for God's help and notice. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.



John and Esther

THERE REMAINETH A REST TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD

JUST TO REMIND you where we all are in relation to the East African Countries around Kenya, and indeed also ourselves IN Kenya.   ELDORET!!
Approximately 6,300ft above sea level, with a reasonably pleasant climate - though changeable. This year there has not been a LOT of sunshine or even HEAT!   Rather more RAIN than usual and some very cold spells - but right now not too bad.     We have an increasing population in excess of 600,000, -  sixty percent under 20, and unemployed.    There is a sense of overcrowding with so many on the streets, and cars the roads and pavements!   The Town itself is noisy, dirty, and throbbing with activity.   Dozens of Banks, Hotels, Supermarkets, chemists all mixed in with old and shabby shops and kiosks, and crumbling side walks.........Not an attractive town but in the 40 years we have lived here we have felt at peace in it, and happy in it - even having also gone through the 'Troubles' of December 2007.   But apart from high rise buildings going up from time to time there has not been much upward progress in the prosperity or general services in the town.     YESTERDAY, Saturday, I could not write up the Blog due to failure nation wide of Electric Power.       This interfered with access to the Internet.     Also the WATER was cut off Town wide all day...     Not so unusual, and in a week Power and Water can go off a dozen or more times interrupting daily life at home, at school, and in business.     Not too inspiring, or even hopeful for the future....BUT then there are many much worse places to be.    One should not grumble..even though there ARE times!!
No doubt everyone, wherever they are, will find something to grumble and be discontented about.    The child growing up in SYRIA right now, or in many even poorer Countries around us here in Africa, will each one face problems - even despair.
DAVID, one of our young men who is now employed here in our Bakery was asking me only on Friday if I had ever wondered what life is all about, and whether it had any real purpose - and if it was really bearable!
He is 25, still unmarried, earning about a hundred pounds sterling a month, and living alone in one room in Eldoret Town, fending for himself.    Quite a big change from living within a family group of 40 with everything taken care of.         He believes in Jesus, is normally of an optimistic and happy nature, and usually content with what he has.    He wants to trust fully in Jesus, but at times he is faced with a life that seems to be leading and going nowhere.   He is feeling real happiness and well-being are getting further away from him.      BUT he has a job - he is NOT one of the 60% unemployed.    He gets up at 4am to arrive early at his job to bake enough bread for 800 souls for the day.      Hard work!     He will leave at 4.30p.m. and spend an hour getting home to his empty uncomfortable room (it WILL slowly change for the better).   Once home he will cook a simple supper for himself, watch a little TV and go to bed early.   He has little time for friends or entertainment outside of his TV.    This is how his daily life is now - without a wife and children - it is a kind of drudgery, and it seems it can only get worse when he finds his own family, children to feed and educate.      There is a real hopelessness, and even discontent in the hearts of the masses.....and yes I know this is something experienced all over the planet - not just in Kenya.
YET DAVID does himself have hope and generally he tackles his daily life and duties happily.  But I think when he leaves work and arrives at his shabby comfortless room he MUST suddenly feel ALONE.    And within Kenya, and all around in the world outside, anxieties about the future increase...........To live on planet earth seems to be a very depressing concept.

The Syrians have one week to list all their Chemical Weapons - as if they do not already KNOW what they have, and already HAVE a list!!    No doubt they will use the time (whilst they continue to kill each other) to devise a way to deceive those that need to KNOW what they are hiding.    Did not the President of Iraq do the same quite successfully?   And then - nothing immediate will happen.....but later the gloom and shadow of War and Violence - the very stalking-horse of fear of the future - will descend upon the people.
THE WORLD KEEPS AN UNEASY PEACE - and its people have no confidence in it - and thus they try to blot out their fear and apprehension with drugs, with excessive sex, alcohol, and a multitude of questionable and inconvenience pleasures and pastimes.    And their Leaders, the Men of Power RULE recklessly without any real CARE for the people.    Yes indeed, look around you - are we not all jostling precariously upon a slippery slope?    Oh that Jesus would come NOW, and whisk us all away - yet we know that He will not grasp everyone's hand, to SAVE them, and that SO MANY will slide inevitably DOWNWARDS to even worse than what they now fear and flee from in their minds.
WELL, I DO remember feeling like David when I was sixteen in the UK, living under the cloud of Russian Missiles.....but I went on living, and came through to know the reason why.    MANY of our boys and girls, as they grew up with me and Esther in Testimony House, came to such moments in their thoughts. It was interesting to notice the difference in them - in those who had found PEACE from their FAITH in CHRIST, and those who had no faith at all in anything.     The latter would suddenly be found sitting disconsolately staring into space, hearing and seeing nothing - as if the bottom had dropped out of their world.     But the others, who walked with JESUS entered into a REST - a Sabbath - and a respite from all the worries of this world; looking away to JESUS, and trusting in His Promises -  They found purpose to LIVE for God, and in living they found HOPE.......       YES we ALL need to shake of 'dull sloth' and to LOOK up from the daily disappoints and boredom's and get NEW VISION about what REAL life is all about.     We need not to fear, but rather gather great encouragement as we focus on the Coming of the KING of ALL the WORLD.

AND IT IS GOOD TO KEEP IN MIND and understanding the FACT that all that we go through and come to know, as we live upon the earth, is meant to prepare us, and even nudge us on, to be involved in the Great Task that still awaits to be unfolded to us - a TASK that will take us into Eternity, and even Beyond.

Steve & George

HERE IN THE HOMES we look back with thanksgiving as we see the children who have come and gone now entering into the challenge of LIFE with CHRIST.        And we even rejoice when we see those who left us UNBELIEVING come to discover the TRUTH - that is, that if GOD is with you then you WILL find PURPOSE for your life, and it WILL prosper.       The hurts, disappointments and sorrows of this world confront us all - but we do not have to be overwhelmed by them, or brought to despair by them.     We CAN go through - we CAN WIN through, and make our BEING ALIVE count.
Many of our children are now grown up; they are married with children of their own that call us Grandpa and Grandma!    Life is not all roses for them, BUT they have had, and continue to have, times of JOY and HAPPINESS as they progressively discover that they do now walk (live) alone - GOD is WITH THEM, and will rescue and deliver them from AL their troubles.      The KNOW why they were BORN.

To conclude a few photos of children now grown up to be husbands, wives and parents.    FIRST is George, who came to us when he was eight. He is now 37.  He is now happily married with a family.   He is now a small Business man in a nearby town not too far from us.   He is seen here with STEVEN GREEN,  and his first born son.    Steven of course also grew up in Testimony House, now married with two kids of his own.  He and his all are trusting in Jesus - HE is just turned 40

THEN there is Francis posing here with his wife and firstborn son.     Francis did not do too well at school but started out as a Shoe-maker.     Now he is a Security Guard working with a Christian Mission.   Life was a great struggle in the beginning but now JESUS walks with him and his family, and they are confident and sure that they are SAFE in his hands.      Francis grew up in Jacaranda Cottage from when he was 11.      Now he is 40

AND LASTLY here is Wycliffe, our Pastor and Chaplain, with Miriam and his wife (centre) and thier daughter Lydia.     He is now back in service with us all having recovered well from a recent operation and also, just last week, from the sorrow of losing his young sister.    He has two children in High School.       He and his wife trust in Jesus and no matter what confronts them they know HE will be with them as they face the problems.     Wycliffe is now 52, a seasoned School Teacher by profession but with a life laid out for GOD.       NO, these are not just a small handful but a sample of the many, many  others who came - grew up - left us - and continued to GROW with God by their side.     They came destitute, came to know their poverty of spirit, trusted in Christ, and are now waiting in confidence for His RETURN, and for the Establishment of a Kingdom ruled by and with RIGHTEOUSNESS.     A Kingdom that will endure for EVER - no more tears there, no pain or hurt, no fear of the unknown  -  the restoration of that SEVENTH DAY when God opened the door and welcomed humanity to REST with Him........and to those that BELIEVE it will never more be interrupted.  HALLELUJAH!

God Bless you all


John and Esther

ROBBERY WITH EXTORTION

THIS IS A RENDITION OF THE NOTORIOUS 'DICK TURPIN' a Highwayman of the 19th Century who used to hold up at gunpoint those travelling at night on the roads.      He was not the only one of his day, and indeed we have 'Highwaymen' even today.     Those who will stop you, and give you a choice - Your Money or your Life - which will it be.     It can be a HARD choice to ,make at times, since either way your LIFE may be at stake.

THIS WEEK, in Kenya, the Government has passed a Bill raising the VAT on essential items, and even on basic commodities never before taxed, by 16%, thus in a moment raising the basic cost of living at a time of chronic economic depression.     For the MAJORITY already living below the .Bread-line' this is as good as a modern 'Hold-up' by a modern day Highwayman.      The leader of the Opposition Party CORD, Mr. Raila Odinga, has expressed considerable concern about this action.  He is recorded in Thursday's DAILY NATION as saying -   'This tax would lead to a chain reaction in price increases.   "There is no doubt that the cost of transport will go up, farm inputs will increase and those who offer services to make the economy run will put up their costs as well.   Soon Schools will raise their fees because of the growing cost of food and other consumables, students in collages"

Mr. Oginga also critisized the move by Banis to charge Kenyans a 10% tax each time they withdraw money from their bank accounts.   This, he said had also pushed up the cost of withdrawals up.   KENYANS MAY HAVE TO KEEP THEIR MONEY UNDER THEIR MATTRESSES!!

WE certainly feel doing exactly that!   Times are TIGHT and as long as the Government pursues this kind of action then times will have get TIGHTER.      A loaf of bread is already selling in town at 85/= per loaf.  It costs US currently 55/- but FLOUR will now cost more and the spiral upwards will continue upwards and upwards until the 60% unemployable mass will be able to eat less, drink less, and clothe themselves with less.     PAY or DIE seems to be the order of the day.

BUT in reality it may well be people will DIE even if they PAY.   

This is not a policy confined to Kenya.    Governments around the world are more and more holding financial guns to the heads of their citizens in a demand for more and more money to provide less and less service.   AND as I have had to say before even CHARITIES are feeling the pinch since none of us are permitted to BE here, or provide SERVICES here unless WE pay TAXES - for everything, AND are also CHARGED for every thing as well in an effort to diminish what WE have for the poor.       More and more missionaries and other charitable bodies are leaving Kenya in order to reduce overheads paid out to the Government which could be used more effectively, and directly given, straight to the ministries the funds were originally given for.

Kenya is poorer materially than ever - and perhaps morally and spiritually as well.     BUT PRAY for the WORLD.

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TODAY THE SUN IS SHINING,   All the windows are open, and I can hear one of the gardeners clipping away at the hedges below the window near my desk, just out of my line of vision.    The air is warm and light is everywhere of a fresh golden quality. 

A welcome change to the continuing heavy rains and lowering skies.

 

ON THURSDAY, the Area Advisory Council for Children's Inspection Team arrived to look around the Homes to see if they would recommend our Re-registration for a further three years.    There were only four of them; one from the Probation Service, one from Public Health, one from the Registry of Births and Deaths, and also the District Children's Officer for our particularly area.      It took us almost three hours to go round each of the houses and compounds.     They were all very pleasant and very appreciative of what they saw, and assured us that we would have their approval.    This, in addition to the bound 140 page Application which cost us more than forty thousand Kenya Shillings to put together and print, will be sent to Nairobi for a final decision.    Probably another month or so before we get the final Answer to say whether or not we can continue operating for a further three years.       In its own way this just another stone put in our way since it prevents us from feeling secure, and this insecurity is also passed on to the children in our care who also know that we must be reviewed every three years.     Such a procedure has only been going on for the last six years - before that we had lived in the belief that our Original Registration obtained in 1969 was a once and for all matter that could be upset only by us not keeping the laid down Regulations.

WE QUIETLY continue our daily task.    We are grateful for the PEACE of our days, and for sense of security we DO enjoy.     GOD is with us.

AND THE SYRIAN AFFAIR, hovers in the background of our thoughts.     Is THIS going to be the beginning of a wider war, a world war, THE prelude to the END?   Whilst 'prophets' worldwide are as usual predicting 'almost' certainties, we wait on God.      It seems now that the American Congress will be the factor to decide an 'attack' or not.       BUT, consider the time gone by, the lives expended, tormented, dispossessed and even KILLED.     And the more one reads the more one wonders - in all the world IS there ONE righteous man, a righteous Judge who will rule in Righteousness.      NO ONE SHINES OUT in the surrounding darkness of violence, famine, disease and other ecological disaster.     Perhaps that is because SOON the blinding LIGHT of TRUTH shall come in the Person of the ONE MAN who has all the Answers and Who alone is FIT to Govern ALL the Earth,  The One who MADE it, even Jesus.  

Be calm and be assured, He Who IS to come, WILL Come, and we who know and love Him will be found standing with him.    WHAT a DAY that will be!!

Love you all

John and Esther.