FORTY THREE years back I wrote about a Fig Tree.    ' A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon but found none.' Luke13v6.
Of course, in this story, God is the owner of the Vineyard - the Garden.   It is He who owns the Fig Tree also.   In the same way we might say that the Vineyard is the World, and the Fig Tree a soul born into the world.   And both belong to God. The World and the individual soul belong to God.
AND THE GARDENER - the 'dresser' of the Vineyard?   Who is the Gardener appointed to tend the Tree that was planted in the Vineyard.    To me it is Jesus, the Son of God, given to care for me, and every other soul created by the Living God.  
But the tree planted did not bring forth fruit.  It lacked that for which it was planted; for which it was grown.    The Owner found no fruit - and was disappointed.    There is no evidence as to what manner of tree this Fig Tree was.   It was merely a 'tree'.   It was loved, nurtured and cared for over a period of three years - but still no sign of fruit.   The People of Israel in those days were very like this tree.  Jesus had been walking in it every day, watering with the Word, dunging with the power of God, but still Israel was an unfruitful tree.     And after THREE years there was no sign of change.
AND THE OWNER SAID, "Cut it down!   Why does it take up space in my Garden?   Thus and thus spake the Owner in his disappointment.    Get rid of the tree - it is taking up space, preventing the growth of something else that might yield more profitably.
BUT WHAT OF THE GARDENER -  What has He to say in whom the fullness of God's Mercy and Grace abide?      'LORD, leave it alone for this year also, till I shall dig more around it, and dung it again.     AND, it it bear fruit, well and good, but if not then after that you can cut it down.'    Yes Jesus pleads for mercy, hating to give up on all his labour of love upon the tree - for even He knows that God will not be patient for ever, will not strive forever, with a self willed soul, and if it remains fruitless it WILL be cut down.   Genesis  6v3.

A few of our 1973 boys

AND THERE ARE MANY LITTLE GARDENS within the Vineyard of the World, just as there are many mansions in God's Heavenly Home.   And many      gardeners labouring over seedlings planted; trees            grown - but where is the fruit?         So little fruit
   appearing, so little to distinguish a tree from a                  flowerless, fruitless bush.        But the Owner of the
   Garden has told us that we shall know the tree
by its FRUIT

THIS HOME - this Testimony Faith Home (there was only ONE in 1973) - is also a 'garden'.    Oh yes, and we who have Christ within are the 'gardeners'.  And YOU also are 'gardeners' if so be Christ is alive in YOU.   What of your 'garden' - what of the Trees YOU tend, and care for in Jesus Name; the children God has planted there with you.?

WE watch over the youngsters here, just as the Gardener in the parable watched over his.  We watch with Love and fear; longing to see fruit appear and ripen.   WE watch with fear that it will not come in time - before the Owner comes suddenly to His own.
We have had to see a boy here - whose a life, growing barren and fruitless - had to be cut down, and sent away from  this garden.   It has hurt and disappointed us.  It hurt Jesus to watch the life of Judas go down the sink after three years of care, love and hope.   And Paul watched Demas turn his back on Christ and walk away.   Yes it takes us hard when we seem to fail, and when it seems we are unable to rescue the perishing.
We have 21 children and young people here with Esther and me in this Home. Each has come from a background of difficulty, and many from very bad lives indeed.   Each one is a battle ground on which a victory is being fought, and believed for.   But we can only HOPE to touch those who are willing to come to Christ.   NOT all will be seen to be glad and thankful for a home and Christian Love.     Writing in his book, 'BORN OLD' Dave Wilkerson says - 'Our children are hard to work with, and they weren't likely to thank us for anything we did for them.  'They weren't convinced they needed our love or understanding - not after having done without them for so many years...........Just when we thought we were getting somewhere they might  turn and say 'Thank you Buddy, and take one fast slide back into misery".    

Some of four Primary Girls 2015

BUT some do grab hold, and the are finally the majority.    But its a struggle, sometimes.

WELL that was way back in 1973 when we just had Testimony House! Since then more than Three hundred and forty have come, grown up and gone.   NOW, today, in 2016 with four Homes with 140 kids and young people resident it is no different, but is of course more challenging.      And we still pray for and hope for FRUIT in each and every life.     But YES, there are many times we do not SEE it whilst they are with us. Not that this means they leave here badly or anti-socially, but just without Christ, and thus in a sense dead, and at great peril in OUR eyes.    NEXT month a boy who ran away from us in '83 to spend the next 30 years on the 'Street' before Christ at last found him, and Saved him, will now be getting married in Mombasa where he works for Jesus.  

ALL our Family 2015

Just heard FOUR more will arrive to be with us next week - boys aged five, eight, and twelve.   We shall then be FULL  - for the moment.     Can't believe March has almost arrived, and Easter not far away - the year is flying by again.
ALSO next week we have the pleasure of having the Kenya Revenue Authority visiting our Office to once again assess our current TAX situation!    Please pray for us the Jesus will help see our true position, and that we will not be pursued yet again.

A good number of our children have not yet been able to return to College due to lack of Fees.    Fee structures change annually, and this year they have increased well above our expectations.    These are bright youngsters, boys and girls, and they have worked hard to gain an opportunity to climb higher.

We thank God for no serious illness though Esther has been down with a bad throat, and I seem to be the next to be infected!    BUT, in the Name of Jesus.

The Lord be with you all day by day, and give you insight and discernment in your lives.    With our much Love in Jesus

John, Esther and Daryl.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

ON SUNDAY 14TH FEBRUARY, just a week ago Pastor/Evangelist Stanley Hyde a close friend and brother in Christ passed away in Brixham, Devon, England.   He would have been 92 in April. I first met him in February 1968.   He was standing on the kerbside outside the then Brixham Assemblies of God Church which he had founded not long before.   He  could have been waiting for me. The church was then onlya medium sized wooden hut. I had been sent to him by another brother, Pastor W.H. Newton, retired, and I was to have a meeting in the Church that evening. living in with me. I was28, and still finding my way to obey the burden of God's Spirit to come to Kenya.   I had no backing, and not a very clear view of what I should be doing in Kenya - I had supposed I would be an evangelist.     Stan was 16 years older than I was.     He did not look like a pastor or an evangelist; more like a country bank manager.    He had a rather raspy, commanding, way of speaking which may have been a left over from the days when he was a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy.    He was married to Doreen his wife, and lived with her, their three children and his retired and ailing father in a small rented council house.    The Meeting in the Church that night was not outstanding in any way. I found space to stay with them for the night and the next day was sent on my way to another church where a meeting had been arranged for me.     I did not meet Stan again, or return to Brixham until December 1972

I arrived in Kenya in December in 1968, and in August 1969 we commenced Testimony Faith Homes, and God began to send the first orphaned children to be cared for.   I had no promised income at all, and every day was a miracle, even the provision for my daily life, and then also the children's as they arrived.    By June 1970 I had 28 kids. Only a very few gifts came from overseas, and one of the few was often from Stan Hyde and the Brixham Church.     Out of the blue a cheque would arrive for 5 pounds - always just when we needed it, but never predictably!   Brixham is still 'home' spiritually for us, and they have never forgotten us, in prayer and support into the present.
In 1971 I married my Esther, and in 1972 the Lord provided for us to return to England together.   Our firstborn son, Steven was born there,in June, and in December we went down into Devon and visited Brixham Church.    The Congregation duly gave us the 'Right Hand of Fellowship' and we became honorary members - and Steven was Dedicated there.    My adoptive mother was there that evening, and she gave her heart to Jesus;
she was just 63 years old and had recently remarried, her first husband having died.  It was a very special time for us, and confirmed a relationship that had begun in 1968.
Since then the ties between us deepened, although our visits to the U.K. were sparse indeed.   After that time in 1972 we went back in 1983, and again in 1994, 2003, and lastly in 2011.
BUT Stan and Doreen began to visit US in the late 80's spending weeks at a time with
us.     They would stay with us in what was then a little flat-let tacked on the end of our Mechanics School, where now Testimony Nursery School is.      In 1987 whilst also visiting the Nairobi Pentecostal Bible College Stan and Doreen bumped into Mike and Dani Potter, newly married and from South Australia.   They were coming to work in
Nairobi, and Stan suggested they wrote to us and paid us a visit.    Stan was always a man of great spiritual intuition, and for sure God was leading him in making this suggestion to the Potters, who have ever since grown into the Testimony Family and are the spear point of Tyndale School in Australia's loving interest in us all here.    They remain very dear and precious family members of us all here.

Stan and Doreen became greatly loved by the children.   Stan loved children and
young people, and he was to bring many to Jesus, and also baptised them in Hill School Pool.
His visits were greatly looked forward to.   In later years he would love to sit on one of our lawns, under a spreading tree, enthroned in an armchair, and holding his inevitable hat on against the strong breezes.     There children and youngsters came to him for a chat and counselling. This went on until one time in the late 90s when he had a minor stroke, and after a spell in hospital in Nairobi he had to be flown home to Brixham.  He and Doreen were never to come out to us again.    But our friendship and 'family' relationship was to continue unstopped and unstoppable.      
Even our three children, Steven, Michael and Elisabeth became very close to them both, and when they all three, after High School found themselves in England there were many occasions when they were able to meet together if only briefly.    For example when Elisabeth graduated from I.B.T.I. my old Bible College in Burgess Hill, Sussex, Stan was there for her.     A wonderful man, a wonderful friend and brother.   He and his dear wife are part of all that Testimony Faith Homes has been built upon.   They will always be remembered.      Thank you Father in Heaven for giving to me, to all of us, such staunch and unfailing encouragement and love for these Forty-eight years.

1983 - Stan, to centre, then Doreen to the left

Esther, Steven, Michael, John,

and in front Elizabeth

STAN was always Officer of the Watch.    He made sure he kept that Watch sharp and clear.     First off on the telephone he would say, NOW THEN, SOLDIER!   HOW ARE THINGS ON THE FRONT.    He always spoke like a Commissioned Officer, which he was of course.   But Doreen always referred to him as The Admiral.     He was my brother, and also elder friend.    I admired and respected him; his commitment to God, and to the commission he held from him.      I miss him already, but of course he has only gone a little further - he might even be closer in some ways.   Not gone far, and not for ever parted from us.    I know he will still keep a watch.

Stan leaves behind his dear and beloved little wife, Doreen, his son Robert, (Bob Hyde), and his three daughters, plus many grandchildren.   I hope I am right and if I have made any error I trust I may be forgiven in this.      Esther and I are regretfully unable to travel to be at the Funeral this coming Thursday, but we are hoping our three children, Steve, Mike and Elisabeth will be there.    Please remember the family left behind.

And so this week, I will say no more.   It is enough to remember so valued a friend.

With our Love in Jesus to you all

John, Esther, and Daryl.

BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS

A VIEW of Drakeley Cottage Family, circa 2007 with Stephan and Emily Situma.  They have all grown up a lot since then, but nice to look back.
Just a few photos randomly from the past this time round. The Situmas are still working with children, but in another part of Kenya.   We were recently very glad to hear from them, and to know they are well and happy, and that the Lord continues to watch over them.   Stephen is of course one of our old boys and came to stay with us in Testimony House in 1981 when he was ten.     When he and his wife left us Francis and Eunice Lahol came to be parents there, where they still remain.

The photo opposite is of some of the children in school uniform ready for school one morning.    Now I cannot be sure which year this was taken or even to which Family they belonged to!!   Just shows how good my memory is, but I think they may be Jacaranda children! O.K. if I am wrong forgive me and put it down to rusty marbles.     They look a bright and happy lot though, and I would be proud of them anywhere, and it is a real joy to know they found peace and security with us enough to enjoy happiness, and to GROW.

AND HERE WE HAVE A PHOTO GOING BACK TO 2005.   Joshua and Miriam Mbithi had left and Philip and Roseline Nzomo had taken over as houseparents.
Quite a while back indeed.   And since then the whole family has moved out of the house, and travelled fifty metres to a completely  NEW Jacaranda Cottage. And so life goes on.  

Testimony, like almost any family, is always changing, like the shifting sand.     But we can look back and trace our past here, and so also the children who have lived here, and been part of us all - they also can come and remember their time here, and find history and even continuance.

Opposite is a group from Testimony House who later found themselves in other houses.
A happy group.   Dennis - on the left - is now in College and Mariko next to him is in Form 4 of Secondary.      We feel we have not a great deal to share with you at times, since things are never moving quickly, but day by day over many years. It is only when we look back that we see CHANGE and Progress.     But nothing is ever static or at a standstill with us - we are all moving, ageing, learning, and just living!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Our testimony of life remains the same, and all is well with us.    The road we all tread is often bumpy, but always straight.    He holds our hands even in those times when times might be difficult.      Last week we were in some difficulty and need.  On Friday we ran out of cash.   It was not an immediate problem since we had food in the larders, and we knew we could eat until Tuesday of this week.   All spending stopped, and we waited.     Then on Saturday evening I checked my e-mail to find a letter from some dear and long time friends from Denmark.    They had sent five thousand Danish Kroner to us on the previous Thursday - it arrived at our Bank this last Tuesday, the day our food ran out!!  Blessed be the name of the LORD!     It also happened that I found myself reading another of John Newton's hymns written two hundred or so years ago - No.385 in the Redemption Hymnal -

Why should I fear the darkest hour?  Or tremble at the tempters' power?

Jesus vouchsafes to be my Tower!

Though hot the fight, why quit the field? Why must I either flee or yield,

Since Jesus is my mighty Shield?

When creature comforts fade and die, worldlings may weep but why should I?

Jesus still lives, and still is nigh.

Though all the flocks and herds were dead, my soul a famine need not dread

For Jesus is my Living Bread

Against me earth and hell combine; but on my side is power Divine;

Jesus is all, and He is mine.

Look up dear friends, and with lively faith expect to receive the answer to all your need for this coming week, as we also will be doing with you.     And He never disappoints us or shames us of that Faith, even when unexpected jolts us out of our complacence.

God Bless and keep you safe always from all the fiery darts of that defeated foe.

John, Esther and Daryl.

WHO IS LEADING WHO - TO WHAT?

A VIEW OF RURAL KENYA taken in the Kisumu locality.    Kenya is still a very rural Country; a very beautiful and attractive Country.
To day I have been reminiscing about my early days here, when I was still young and vigorous, and days were full of the new and unexpected.  In 1968 I was living in MASENO, Western Kenya, 2000 ft above Kisumu Town and the Kavirondo Gulf - the backwater to Lake Victoria......
'JUST A FEW DAYS after my arrival in Maseno, I was waiting on the veranda of the Mission House where I was temporarily staying; I was waiting for visitors.  They had promised to pick me up at 8.30a.m.     I was still waiting at 10a.m. and the sun was now well up.   No, I am not impatient. Life is just as it comes here, and it is foolish to bring time into it.
A car swings dustily into the drive, and a wiry African, in his mid forties, jumps out with a huge smile, his hands waving in joyful greeting.   It is  Silas Owiti of the Voice of Salvation and Healing Church in Kisumu.    "Praise the Lord!  Are your ready?" he shouted.
And so we began.  Out of the drive, and down the hill from Maseno, two thousand feet into Kisumu's heat.   There we picked up the wife of this human dynamo, plus a few more African brethren.  We are on our way to a village meeting, miles away on the plain, the other side of the Town.   No raod where we are going, just a dusty, crater-pocked track.   "Hey, careful!"   We plunge down the bank of a stream, fortunately dried up, and shoot up the other side.   The bridge has rotted away!   The plain is hot.  Dust swirls behind us.   Passing a rural market with countless dilapidated stores selling anything from matches to Asian rugs, and besieged by a mass of villagers from all the country around about, we pass on, waving to the many people who recognise us along the way.  Just a week ago many of these people found Jesus as Saviour in a great open air convention not far from where we are heading.
Suddenly we have arrived.   Over an open patch of scrub, and right into the centre of the village.  Around us are the homesteads with their mud walls and thatched roofs.   Cows, dogs, cats, chickens and children are into everything.    People come running to greet us, the women so clean and bright in their gay coloured dresses; the men can hardly compete!   All have been expecting our arrival, and have been constructing a 'church' of branches and rush matting.   We are soon led to a special hut set aside for us to sit in, our of the sun, and where we can wait for the meeting to begin.    Only two windows, and I am made to sit next to one of them, since they are sure I must be suffering from the heat.    Droves of flies descend upon us, but soon go unnoticed as more and more village people crowd in to greet us, each one grasping our hands in greeting as they pray a  special blessing in Jesus Name upon us.    
About noon the meeting begins.   One after another new converts stand up to testify of God's Saving Power and healing touch.    No sooner one sits down, another gets up; more than seventy so testify. There is a choir, and prayer, then at 3p.m. I am asked to preach!   And so I stand unexpectedly to present the Word of God.    At the conclusion many do respond and move forward for prayer, some for Salvation, and others for healing.   Here under ' rush mat ceiling of this makeshift church men and women reach out and touch the One who loves them, and find a Blessing. 


4p,m, and the meeting concluded we are taken back to the hut, and served with the meal prepared for us - tough curried beef with rice and thick greasy gravy.   'Afters'  is sweet tea, and fresh bread and margarin to follow.  Great is our joy together.   No colour question here; no barrier of custom or tradition.  Jesus has been found in everyone made in the image of God.   Night falls, and the mosquitoes begin to bite.   Still we linger on.   The darkness is deep now, so that the stars seem white brilliants in it's depths, and whilst the whole atmosphere breathes with the sounds of night and mystery.   Finally we get back into the car and turn for home.   It is midnight!     All this seemed a long way from Starbeck, North Yorkshire, England.'      (extract from my book 'A Cry from the Street'   ISBN978-184426-861-0 published 2010)..
Silas Owiti and I went a number of outreaches together in the early months of my being in Kenya.   He was always a man sold out to winning souls, a man of endless energy, humour, and commitment.   He visited us here in Testimony more than once.   The third time as our Guest of Honour for our 38the Anniversary as a Ministry.    God sent him all the way to England to be His Messenger to me.
BUT it was not until a year later, in August 1969, that the Lord put orphans on my heart; he brought them TO me in fact, and almost without me realising it Testimony Faith Homes was born, and now another forty seven years has gone by.    Souls continue to be saved.    I continued to roam around with others proclaiming the gospel, and for that first year the Lord put more and more of Kenya upon my heart, and taught me a great many things that finally confirmed to me what HE had brought me to Kenya for

And so many came, and so many Jesus found whilst they were with us here in Testimony.  Now many of them are OUR testimony to the Love and Faithfulness of God.     This photo really says it all in relation to the children that fill our four homes.    All individual lives, looking out for themselves individually and seeking love and understanding individually.   A VERY mixed bag, containing more than the average number of mischevious souls.     But one cannot help  but love them ALL!!  Behind their grins and their laughter are little wills all wanting to have their own way.

MY life in MY hands

A MAN HAD TWO SONS.   The younger demanded of his father that he should give whatever was his, and a few days later left home to live his own life, freely.   The boy wanted independence - was tired of doing what he was told, tired of home, family, and even study.   He is saying LET ME ALONE - I want to live the way I WANT.

And his father, who loved him, and had high hopes of him, LET HIM GO.     He knew his son was making a wrong choice, but he still let him go.   No mention of a mother in the home so perhaps he was a widower.   Now he must work the farm alone - with his elder son.

MOST OS US at some time tire of being told what to do, where to go and how to live.   We struggle for freedom from the authority of home and school - sometimes even of the 'JOB' .    SOME even force issues by just taking no notice of what anyone thinks, and just push off to make their own way, or the way of others that they admire or want to emulate.

GOD, our Havenly Father created and made us.    He loves us too, and when when we PUSH for our own way instead of His, He WILL let US go too.   He will let us go to taste the world and all that is in it.  He knows it may poison, hurt and even KILL us - BUT He will still let us go.      And like all parents whose children disregard their council, He also weeps at the prospect of His Child's hurt and possible dearth.

THERE IS A COST TO HAVING OUR OWN WAY -  A PRICE  to pay for doing things our own way.     Psalms 106v15 says -

He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul'

They got what they wanted, but there was still no peace, but instead an uneasiness of mind, a nagging disturbedness of conscience and self reproach..      It all began with SATISFACTION and a sense of FREEDOM - but it would lead to a wasted life and misery that would be inconsolable.

Is your life in YOUR hands?    Think before you leap!    Only God Himself knows what is good for us - Pray, and put your children's lives in GOD's hands,  and take a rain check on yourselves as well in case YOUR soul is not as FAT as it ought to be.

We love you, and pray for you all.     The DRY season is now settled upon us.    No water, a lot of heat, and beautiful days.      Heavenly.      BUT one can't live without water.    Pray  for us also.

Yours in His Wonderful Love and Mercy

John, Esther and Daryl.