Saturday 29 February 2020

DANCING WITH DEATH ?


TODAY'S DAILY NATION'S front page headline reads
VIRUS !   WHY KENYA IS DANCING WITH DEATH...

This week, on Thursday, 239 Chinese flew into Nairobi direct from China.  They were immediately told to go and Quarantine themselves individually for 14 days.  Today we are also told that there will be MORE such flights from China during the coming week. This is causing UPROAR not only among Kenyans themselves, but also across East Africa.  Certainly it does seem as if the Government is 'dancing with death' -  playing Russian Roulette might also be another way of putting it.   Definitely not helping the people already made nervous and apprehensive by the world media coverage.   The very fact of planeloads of Chinese roaming around the Country, or at the most holed up in some place 'quarantining' themselves rather haphazardly, and even without real guidance or supervision, seems a clear invitation to the  VIRUS  to call on us all.
This has gone against the grain, and OUTRAGE at the casual attitude of the government is growing.
It has even been said that if a serious outbreak of the Virus hit Kenya we will not ourselves be able to treat victims, and that they might have to travel to South Africa.  If this should be the case then obviously the majority may find themselves unable to afford it, and may die.      Thank God that HE is able to be called upon to help and rescue all those who turn to Him in faith.        And today we have heard of a new Case that has been proved positive in Nigeria.     The Media have immediately jumped on this news and added it to all else to do with the THREAT hanging over the world - there is little doubt that the influence of all this is affecting the global Psychological status quo and paralysis of the global mind into accepting the worst.    We are facing a hopeless situation.    Global Warming, and the melting ice cap the ensuing Climate Change affecting weather, rending countless thousands homeless; the Immigration Problem of millions of displaced and homeless. desperately seeing refuge; disease and pestilence, and political unrest and violence -  THIS must mean Planet earth and US, are all facing the END of everything.    Even the  scientists say so.     The Bible has been predicting it for thousands of years.
WELL, and so it may be......but as for me I want to LIVE every day as it comes, looking to the One who I believe made me, loves me, and is  making a WAY for me.     I will not look at the events, or listen to the helpless and alarmist apprehensions of the carnal world; no I will trust in God.  BUT, I am not altogether a fatalist.    I cannot say 'whatever will be, will be' with total disregard to the truth that how I live my life in front of God and toward His Creation, matters.  Consider again Isaiah 24v3-5  'What a man or woman sows, so will they reap', and it is true MANKIND cannot escape the result of being blind or willfully in rebellion and denial of his responsibility under God, for what is happening around him, and how he handles it.       On our own we can do nothing - unless we do it with God in our prayers and in our daily life and thought.   I CAN look to God alone, and cast ALL my anxiety on HIM, but only will that profit me when I also  trust and BELIEVE in HIM, and in His |Overlordship of ME, and the world around me.      THEN, when we restrain ourselves, letting GOD have HIS Way, change be achieved,       Even if we DO face the End of all things, WITH GOD it is only the entrance into a new and everlastingly breath-taking LIFE.      All things will THEN become NEW, and the past forgotten in the Wonder of the Present.

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LAST WEEK I shared about a School in which 39 children were injured and 13 died due to a sudden disturbance as they left off lessons for the day and headed home.   Pushing and shoving like a herd of cattle down the narrow stairways to the outlets.   I also shared that our own school was fortunate in not having more than two floors, and no exterior veranders, or narrow stairways.
HOWEVER,  we did take a second look at ourselves, and we felt we still needed to update a few danger spots.    Our main High School Block contained four classrooms that were on the 2nd floor of the new building put up in 2013.    The classrooms were accessed from a long veranda, open on one side, and giving way to a double staircase down to the ground.
IN THIS PHOTO you can see clearly what I have described.    Daryl, looking at it as you see it here, felt that the verander was still TOO open and needed more enclosure, AND that the main EXIT/Entrance, from the staircase, needed security. A lockable steel mesh gate that could be shut during Breaks and out of class hours, preventing,students from entering, without a teacher, was decided upon.   Over the last 18 months we have suffered a lot of vandalism by students accessing classrooms out of class time.
So Daryl got busy putting into place some remedy, which we all feel will be a definite improvement to student AND material safety and security
 
ABOVE you can see a detail of the new metal grills that have been added to the veranda retaining walls, AND the metal doors opening on to the Stairwell platform.





Here are views of the veranda. 
You can see the new metal grills on to of the retaining wall, and also a glimpse of the double metal gate at the entrance to the stair well platform. 
The next picture shows the veranda again, but looking inside from the opposite direction

Both photos clearly depict the new metal work that has fitted additionally to the veranda.  And of course a complete repaint has been carried out.everywhere.
The next photo shows the interior of one of the four classrooms leading of this veranda which are confined to the use of Form 1 to 4 of our High School section of Testimony School
Population per class is up to 36, but normally set at 30.
Floors of the Class will eventually be tiled with ceramic tiles.  Currently the are painted with a heavy duty industrial paint, on top of  the cement screed.   The exit door,  top right, opens onto the veranda.  Plenty of good window space at the rear, out of sight.
Good, light and airy space.

FINALLY is a view from the  stair-well, looking out over the laboratories.  These rooms had not had their roofing painted for more than decade.  Not a bad photo,, as you can see the school Offices and Assembly ground middle center,  and the  story Primary Block just behind.
Repainting, general maintenance, and upkeep is an expense that has increased on the school side over the years, but we are now putting in place a Five Year Maintenance Plan that will take care of so much Term by Term over five years, and then begin again.     THIS has been the First Term's phase for this 1st Year of the Plan.    We feel it is good for Teacher and Student to work and be part of a visibly clean and well cared for environment.    We feel this discourages depression and encourages a desire to be a part of the image in ones work and personal self respect.     We hope  that the result will reflect this in good academic attainments as well as in the outward  Image of the School as whole.

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OUR FRIENDS Ian and Diana Hogley are with us for the next week.  Great to have them with us
braving the Airways and Travel hazards of the time, and taking advantage of what appears to be a late time of Summer for us.      Kenya is still seeing rain  and clouds more often than usual, and the Locusts are still ravaging parts of the Country without much restraint.    But on the whole all remains the same friendly and beautiful Kenya we have known for fifty years.     We look forward to enjoy the week ahead, and to continue also enjoying working together with Jesus.   
We were VERY glad and relieved to hear of some material aid on the way to us from some of the Children of God.     Truly our Daily Bread for the weeks ahead.     God Blessing upon each and every one who has reached out to us in Jesus Name .

|Lovingly in Him

John, Esther, and Daryl Green

















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