EVENT UPON EVENT!

SOME MONTHS AGO, last year in fact, I shared how TFH had become Members of ACCIK, a National Association joining Charitable Children's Institutions together throughout the Republic.
Daryl Green is in fact the County Representative for Uasin Gishu,  and one of our Missionary Fellowship Nellie Wanjala is Branch Secretary.    THIS MONTH TFH hosted, on behalf of ACCIK (who funded the event) a four day Seminar for Child Carers in the County.  Some 75 attended as from 17th to 20th March.  The Meetings took place in the School Hall as from 9a.m. to 3p.m. daily.     Carol, Daryl's wife, was in charge of the Catering, and excellent facilitators also came in daily.       This was the first time anything like this had been attempted in an effort to help TRAIN houseparents and other Carers in residential child-care.    The idea is in fact to provide training for those without, and also to increase qualifi-cations of those who have none,   DARYL was the co-ordinator, and it is hoped further Seminars will be arranged ongoingly.   He coped very well indeed, and there is no doubt the event proved a great success.
This time round we were blessed to have the Seminar opened by Mr. Julius Yator, the County Director of Children's Services.     He also attended on the last day to close the sessions, and also to present Certificates to the participants.       These certificates will be recognised by Government, and will be gateways for individual participants to proceed on, and later attempt to join Diploma and even Degree Courses.   This is very real step forward.  

I personally am still not feeling quite well after my three week skirmish with the 'Flue.   Currently I have no appetite, and still plagued by a persistent cough.    I still believe the extreme DUST propelled by strong winds through every day, and the HEAT have not help recovery.    Still no sight of RAIN - may well continue through April!!     This may turn out to be the longest drought for some twenty years in this region.
Esther seems to have go over her own brush with the 'flu, and is seemingly quite better.     I am very glad for her since she leads a very busy and demanding life.

TODAY IS THE SCHOOL SPORTS DAY.    It is not being held on our premises today but in the Town Sports Club, a little distance away.       Our own field is a pure dust field just now, and with the wind still blowing strongly it just would not have been pleasant for students or parents alike.   DARYL will have been there throughout; he never tires of running about, and enduring all the many things demanded of him.     Hope to have a few photos to insert here.    ((Immediately after writing this we endured a total power Black-out as from 3p.m. until 9.30p.m.!   This meant I could not complete the Blog today, and  neither was able to insert photos until tomorrow morning))       BUT NO NEW PHOTOS OF Jacaranda Cottage - the NEW house this time round.      I will let them get on with internal matters before moving in once more to reveal their progress on that front.


I have been feeling disappointed with E-mail and Face Book of late.     E-mail seems to attract only a lot of unwanted mail from con men and women trying to make money.    Then also a great deal of unwanted business applications.     I guess these days I see only about 1 in 50 letters to me personally.    And Face Books seems to collect more and more people I do not know, have never seen or spoken to - notwithstanding the fact that the majority of those I 'might know' are not actually in contact with me or I with them.     In fact even the few regular contacts I can say I really KNOW and exchange a word with once a month seem to have moved out of Face Book.      A great silence has fallen upon them.    So I may first of all 'unfriend' the vast majority of people that never speak to me directly.     Thereafter, if that does not improve things I may simply dump Face Book altogether and even other similar contact groups.     So be warned - I may soon disconnect myself from electric mail.    I enjoy conversation and exchange of ideas.    On the other hand it maybe that I am a minority age wise in what is averagely a much younger audience.    

Once again I must close for this week.      Trust that those of you still reading this have also managed to get through your week, and that you too can testify to the ongoing Grace of God.     We do pray and remember you all, and will be glad to know all is well for you and yours.

Lovingly John Esther and Daryl Green

STRUCK DOWN WITH 'FLU!

WELL, THIS IS NOT ME OF COURSE,  but I sure feel worse than he looks, and after a week I finally succumbed to see a Doctor, this morning, who first confirmed I was strong enough, and then prescribed a high powered drug which he hoped to bring me through.     The printed 'side of effects' of this drug - especially for the elderly - are in fact more scary than 'FLU itself.
WE have all had influenza now, including baby Abigail, and Esther.   AND the weather is not wet or cold, but in the midst of a drought in the HOT season -  Well I think it is worse in these conditions.   Our worst symptoms have been severe malaise - all strength just GONE from us,  Then a sepulchral cough,  upset stomach, general unsteadiness.     BUT we have managed to be up and about at least part of every day.    TEN days now, and we are told perhaps a further 14 more before we can expect to see a real turn around.    BUT the LORD is our strength - stronger than the strongest medicine.    We look now to HIM,     Just another one of those SET-BACKS that drop in upon us from time to time to TEST our  allegiance to His Word and actual Presence IN us.      Blessed be the name of God almighty,     I have in fact needed time away from the Office; time to think through and meditate many important spiritual issues.      Not the most pleasant way to GET the time, but it certainly works in that it prevents almost ANYTHING coming to disturb me.

A SLIGHT GAP - I repaired to bed and have only just woken up.     Feel a little better, but rather weak and wobbly.  

Of course I have not been moving round as usual, and so today it has been Daryl caught up in extra duties and in taking the weekly photo of the New Jacaranda House project.       The School Parent & Teachers Annual General Meeting was this morning the School Hall.     Always well attended it lasted from 9a.m. to 2p.m.!!     Daryl was there to represent the Management of TFH.     They had a good time, and it was good for Daryl to be there with them for the first time.         THEN he took some photos for me, which I have pleasure in posting here.     THE ROOF IS ON!!     Almost to the day work began in December last year.
NOW work will properly commence on the electrics and plumbing and also the Flooring, plastering,  painting. and glazing/      We are glad for the progress and the standard of work done so far.    It now LOOKS like a house, and is the more REAL.   All Thanks and Glory to Jesus!

THE WEATHER remains static - unchanged, but for gale force WINDS now blowing dust and germs all day long.    We hope this will eventually also blow the RAINS to us.    Temperatures still climbing to upper 80f.    Not so good for the Jacaranda Compound especially relative to the DUST from the building site which is engulfing the other houses and causing a multitude of coughs and colds.

I must end here.        One of my shorter ventures.   Hope you will forgive me if I now crawl back to bed before I actually 'drop off' at the computer.     I feel there is improvement in my condition, and am hopeful I might be able to make to Church in the morning.    God Bless you all in Jesus Name.

John, Esther and Daryl Green

MISCALCULATION

WELL!    THE ROOF IS NOT ON YET!    Yes, my miscalculation - I had forgotten that after putting up the Rafters, the carpenters would also go for the 'battening' between the rafters to which the Ceiling Boards would be fixed.   It is quite time consuming work, and has taken most of this week.    Sorry to have disappointed those who have been following developments.      Hoping to put in a few views of inside and outside again this week, and then NEXT WEEK, hopefully, we should see the roof actually ON.

OTHERWISE ALL IS WELL, and life continues in the heat, under clear blue skies.     SOME clouds did appear at the end of last week, and we did have one ten minute shower of rain, but since then all has continued DRY and dusty.      The river through the centre of Eldoret is now DRY.     Water continues to be rationed.     We shower less, and drink more!      Suppose the RAINS do not come this year?     Well this has happened in many other parts of Africa - the day the DESERT arrived.      Certainly COULD happen here one day - maybe soon!      
JOSEPH AND AGNES Macharia are now settled in well and truly.   I must apologise for having given their son Benson the name of 'Oliver' in a previous edition.

TODAY Testimony School is playing Host to a Swimming GALA at our Swimming Pool.    It is the first time such an event has taken place here.   About 5 or 6 local Schools expected to compete - ours included.   Some three hundred visitors joining with us as from 10a.m. till 4p.m..       They have been going on for about an hour now, and Daryl has just come in to say the place is packed out.      Good to see other schools able to also make use of this installation, and to see so many youngsters having the opportunity to not only LEARN how to swim, but to also get a vision of swimming as a SPORT.   Ideal weather too!!

ON THE SADDER SIDE the Results came in for the National High School Exams.    Our School which had been climbing year by year FELL this year in its Mean Score by 0.3.      The poorest performance was in Maths!      Well it has not been SO low but averagely about 6.     This is an unexpected blow to us, and now there will be an all out investigation to discover where things went wrong.      THIS YEAR'S Form 1V Class in Secondary had a number of students who seemed disinterested in actually learning.   Indolent and without serious ambition to do well.     WHY?    Difficult to say.     Also we have not yet been able to discern if this factor affected other schools as well as ours.     If it appears to crop up generally then we may have to consider the question of how our students see their future prospects.
In the late 1950s/60s in England a lot of my generation were wondering if Russia would invade us and the West generally - whether there was future - a safe future - anywhere in the world.     Many suffered depression and anxiety, and many dropped out of School.        How is it for us here NOW in Kenya?    In the mid 1970s Kenya was in the doldrums!      Idi Amin talking about invading Kenya, and Jomo Kenyatta talking about Calling-up School children if he did!      The economy was bad, jobs were scarce, and made harder to find as Education continually UP graded  the Syllabus and caused College, University, AND employers to demand higher and higher qualifications for a prospective applicant to be accepted.
I think it is WORSE today.    WHY?    Because the 'Qualification' game, as I call it, has only continued with the multiplication of universities and Colleges of higher education.    EVERYONE - in an increasing population - is encouraged to lay hold of education, and everyone hopes to find a place in university many of which offer a low Entrance Criteria.        MORE ARE educated, but to unemployment.    The JOBS are still not there - increasingly not there!      Many are aiming at going overseas!      To think of finding work that will provide enough salary to consider one day having your own house, building your own family, is for the most part less than a dream.      The Economy is worse than it was.    The future looks, for the majority, harder and harder.      Suicides have been increasing once again.    Crime is increasing.     The Poor are increasing.    There is a quiet FEAR in the state, fear based on anxiety for the future.      This kind of atmosphere and opinion increases unrest and depression amongst the young generation, and we have clearly seen this changing the way they look at LIFE and their part in the future.      It is worrying to a degree.
BUT there is a HOPE none the less, and we must not lose sight of HIM!     This would be the right moment to insert a favourite verse of Scripture, which has on many occasions rescued ME from depression -

BE STRONG, and of good courage..

Fear not, nor be discouraged,

for the LORD GOD, even my God, will be with you:

He will not fail you, nor forsake you until you have finished the work.

1.  Chronicles 28v20-21

This verse was first given to me as a personal promise when we began to BUILD the Primary School here.  Some were not very encouraging and felt that we were going too fast, and that we would end in disaster.  Well we DID build, and the Primary school IS now existing and growing.   God IS Faithful.  You can Trust in Him to help you when you call upon Him.

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I can hear the SHOUTS of the children enjoying the Gala 500 metres away at the pool.     Shouts of encouragement, joy and laughter, amidst the splashing water, under the gaze of imposing school buildings built without a cent in hand, all under a Sapphire sky, lit up by an iridescent, golden sun.    And all around are children snatched from abuse, hunger, and anxiety;  children now lovingly salvaged from sinking lives and families;  children who have learnt to see themselves equal with others they go to school with from the locality.       THIS is something we see as a Miracle.   Yea, it IS a miracle in our eyes - in your eyes too I hope - a Miracle we are ALL involved in - God being the midst of it all.

Harold Myra

BUT it is not always so Wonderful, and Exhilarating !       There are days when the sky is dark, and the sun is hid.    Days when joy is silent  and life is serious.     We have our 'ups and downs'.    Days when we are caused to FAST from self comfort and material well-being.     Tight places; even desperate places, where we also are made to CRY out and say, 'LORD!   Don't you care if we die?'      EVEN Jesus, in who WE trust and believe in once found Himself squeezed enough to cry out to His Father in Heaven 'My God, my God, why have you left me?'      YET God is ever near, and never forsakes those who have trusted in Him.

I recently found this poem by HAROLD MYRA called Desire  -  I have liked it

LORD,  will you reach out to me?

Will you touch and lift me,

And say, I love you,

Don't be afraid?

Will you touch my lips and eyes?

And will I say with David,

"I shall be satisfied

When I awake with you Likeness?"

Any second it could happen.

Everything GONE!

Pencils, shoes, shirt, radio, friends - GONE.

Nothing but you

and me

LORD, reach out.   Touch me

Dear Friends keep praying for us.    Pray for Jerusalem, and for Israel, scattered as it still is all over the world.     They need to see Jesus, and I believe they WILL have that opportunity soon.    They are not saved yet, and maybe only a REMNANT will be saved in this Generation.    Their end is not yet, nor perhaps even their suffering - pray for them, and for yourselves for you may be sorely tempted to hate those whom God has loved, and so then miss His Blessing.

Affectionately to you all, each and every one.

John, Esther and Daryl Green