AGING, DETERIORATION - AND RENEWAL!!!

ANOTHER VIEW OF TESTIMONY HOUSE, AND the TREE, recently lopped, and now with  almost half of its branches gone.    It WILL recover in time, but it will look a little forlorn for a while.     The Weather is not helping, since the Long Rains are holding off, and all is dry, and COLD for the time of year.    The first time in MY memory that Eldoret has not been having good rainfall by this time in JUNE.

The Farmers are beginning to cry out, wondering if they will in fact lose their crops, and be denied a Harvest this year.

Immediately to the right of the photo is the driveway that passes in front of Testimony House frontage.  Once this frontage was purely serving the need of the House, but this year it has begun to give room to School needs, and especially for parking space for our School Buses.     Looking out from Green Cottage sitting room window we find a view quite blocking out the sight of Testimony House, and the Buses, instead, seem to overcrowd us.

There are so many parents dropping their children each day for school, that is literally no place left available for the BUSES - which I suppose just underlines how many kids are actually attending the School these days.     BUT it does sometimes feel as if the School is slowly encroaching on the Children's Homes.      And of course the SCHOOL is more and more known than the HOMES.   The Homes now have a resident population of only 123 against the School Population of 800+.

IT IS TIME TO TAKE STOCK of where we have come to after 52 years - and where we are headed to.

===========================

THIS IS A PHOTO SOME SIX MONTHS AFTER WE BEGAN.   Me and a bunch of kids and teenagers, all of them homeless, and away from home and family circa 1970.     Even then there were so many youngsters adrift and alone.   I had come across two of them the previous August.

One was unable to walk and the other on drugs.

At 29 I found myself trying to be 'DAD' to a very variegated group of kids.    It was a beginning but not the full answer to what was needed.   Not until 1971 with my Marriage to Esther was God's full purpose revealed -  to us both.      What did a child, without home or family, need most?   He NEEDED a Loving Home, and Family;  he needed a loving Dad and Mum in a loving and secure Family Home.

Could WE, Esther and I, make our own home a family home for the homeless and unloved?  

The NEED was there then - 1970      We believed we should take the challenge, and let it lead us.      

SINCE then four Family Homes have come into existence, and hundreds of boys and girls have come to be part of those families, the majority now grown up, and away from us, making new extensions to those families.     And altogether ONE,  all embracing, Family has been created, and is continuing to expand, and to have contact and fellowship with one another into the future

BUT the Children, and the Family is REALLY the Result of something else, that almost got lost along the way.     I had been feeling very dissatisfied with my Christian life, and wanted God to show me how to reveal His Relevance in daily life.    The day I took Wilson and his little brother into my care I was literally without a cent.    Indeed for the previous nine months I had no sure income, and I survived by the kindness of God in the hearts of often complete strangers.   God, fed, clothed and housed me.   I was not afraid, BUT as I prayed with those two boys  that first night, I DID wonder how I would feed them the next day.     Reading my Bible before I slept, I found myself reading Matthew 6v6  'But you, when you pray, enter into your closet (private place) and when you have shut the door pray to your  Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly  (publicly).  

Suddenly, what should have been obvious to me all along was made brilliantly clear.    THIS was what I should do.   I should live by faith in God Alone to provide all my need, AND  the need of these children.

I should declare it, and I should demonstrate it - by caring for the homeless and destitute as if they were my own, totally dependent upon GOD's Grace.   We would be an Object Lesson as a Family, an Object Lesson proving God Heard and Answered Prayer.

Our doors were opened, the children streamed in, were loved, clothed, and provided for in every way, purely and simply by sharing our need with GOD alone.    HE shared with those who were listening with their spiritual ears,  and they readily obeyed His Voice and answered our need.

AND NOW, TODAY?

The doors are open.     Our four Family Homes with space for 144 homeless children still here.  We still trust God for EVERYTHING we need.    God still answers our Prayer and supplies our need.

BUT we only currently have 123 residents in the Homes - not an insignificant number, but we are NOT being sought to let MORE IN!!?        AND there are MILLIONS still outside!    And even the Government ADMIT this is so!!      So why the apparent dearth of hands beating upon our doors?

The Government has changed, and moving away from its own cultural heritage and beliefs, is adopting other, alien, cultural trends, listening to their voices instead of to their own hearts.    

The ROT began here in 2000, and continues to change the face of sociological practice and understanding.    The Government say THEY have the answer.    THEY will clear the streets of the homeless.  They will  annul the NEED for Children's Homes throughout the State.      BUT there are still 4.000,000 children and young people in distress in Kenya.

KENYA IS NOT PROVIDING ANY ASSURANCE THAT IT'S CHILDREN, CURRENTLY WITOUT HOME OR FAMILY, WILL BE PROVIDED WITH THE  SAME.     Their Answer is a hollow one, and one fraught with much real apprehension for the children

WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR A CHARITY LIKE OURS WITH AIMS LIKE OURS FOR CHILDREN IN KENYA.

If it concerns providing a Secure Loving Home and Family for children -  NONE.

Kenya Government will have ALL children  - they say  - Fostered or Adopted in homes and families across the State.     We do not believe it will happen without Abuse, and undue misery to huge numbers.

CURRENTLY -  What is the Government telling us we CAN do.

1.   Work with them, and re-plan our aims and

property to co-inside with theirs.

2.   To be willing to have those in our Homes on stand by for Adoption, Fostering, for for re-patriation to their family - if any can be found.

3.   To only handle children between 0 to 12 with expectation of their staying with us short term.

4.   To have Family Group Accommodation for only 15 per home.

THUS WE MAY HAVE TO DISMANTLE OUR 'FAMILIES' AND BECOME AN 'INSTUTION'.

For us to actually DO this would mean reversing
everything we have sought to build.

Our Family Homes were built to take in and help as many children as we could.

Each of our Cottages have provision to accommodate a Married Couple (Dad and Mum) plus no less than 36, including the children of the Parents in Charge.     NOW no house should shelter more than 15 children.      Already more than 50% of what was available is to be reduced, scaled down............

Instead of taking in homeless, parentless children from 0 to the end of their education, and ability to safely leave and enter into the world to start their own lives, we now will expect to have them from between 1 to 6 years  - unable to provide an ongoing stable home, education, or family life.

Charitable Children's such as ours will in future be termed Holding Centers;   children being held, sorted, and finally exiting according to the final  advice and decision of the Authority.

Of Course our views are well known, and we are not alone.    There are many others facing the same issues with the same apprehensions.     SO FAR, all is quiet.    Many of us are STILL unlicensed to continue as a Children's HOME.     Technically we can still be closed down at any time.   BUT right now they seem to be hibernating, and everything is on hold.     THIS may suggest Government is having second thoughts.    We just have to continue on as before, and wait on events, with Faith to-ward God Who made us what we are, and is the real POWER that holds us all in His Hands.     We should not fear what MAN can  do.      We PRAY !  We pray that we shall ALL be prepared and ready for whatever comes.       We do not wait alone,     We so not Prepare alone.   The LORD of Hosts is with us!  HALUJAH!    

===================== 

ELAINE AND FRANCIS WAINAINA,  have just completed their privately inspired Fund Raising for US, and for Neema Children's Homes not far from us here in Eldoret.    Francis and Elaine cycled around England visiting  our Anglican Cathedrals raising Eleven hundred pounds sterling each for TFH and Neema Homes.    They cycled together on a tandem bike.     The are quite indomitable, full of effervescent energy!      Francis was our very first Assistant as from 1995 to 1982.   He married Elaine in 1975 (then teaching at Moi Girls) and they became the FIRST Mum and Dad of Jacaranda Cottage.   They have remained with a deep interest in the Homes, and in all of us who work and labour here, their love and care for children unabated.      Thank you dear Brother and Sister - you are among the oldest, closest, and  most affectonately held family members.    Thank you for your  Love and Care in the LORD Jesus.   Thank you for your undying friendship, encouragement, and testimony.  Thank you for being so  Alive in Jesus - and not just for us, but for ALL who know and are in touch, with you.

  

LASTLY  Esther and I are going on well.     If you can access my Facebook Page you will know already that I am recovered from what began like 'FLU, and ended like 'flu.  It took almost a month to overcome it.    Main symptoms were a very deep cough, and severe fatigue.    IN the course of checking me out my doctor discovered that my heart had a problem - with a 'thickened' heart muscle.  However generally my heart was otherwise in good nick, and he hopes to deal with the muscle positively.   I feel fine today, as I write, and my thanks to you all who have been in prayer.    Bless you all so so much

Esther has also kept WELL, but has had similar but less virulent symptoms around her.    A lesser cough, and unusual tiredness.  But she remains her very active, happy self.      WE think our FIRST Jab in March may have had something to do with it.

We had our 2nd JAB yesterday with no obvious effects of any kind.   Everyone else is keeping well, and NO case of C.19 among any of us.     Generally the situation remains the same in Kenya ------

Cases Tested 26/6/21  6,424     Tested Positive 646      R.10.1%

Total Tested  -  1,933,402   Positive  181,885  Recovered 123,853

Deaths -3,556

(35 new cases in our Area.   Population in our area published as 1,163.186)

God be with you all, giving you confidence, assurance and peace of mind.

John, Esther, Daryl and all in Testimony Faith Homes & School

THOSE WITH AN EVIL EYE

A WEEK OR SO AGO, an article was published here By David Muchui of the NATION Media Group.  The HEADLINE was  'School accused of  expelling pupil, claiming he is demon possessed'.

The student attends St. Agnes Primary School, Marega, Meru.

It seems the student (name and age not given) was called by  his Class Teacher, and several others,  who then commenced 'exorcism' prayers, during which they encouraged the boy to confess that he was 'causing stomach aches in the School.'      They called the boy's mother and advised her of their belief that her son was using evil powers to bring stomach aches to other students.    'They claimed that the evil powers are on a wrist band the boy wears, and in his eyes.'

The Article links this incident with another in which the same boy sent a Success Card to another student in which was enclosed a 'foreign coin'

NO OFFICIAL reason was being given for the removal of this student from the School.   However, the 'Tigania Central Sub County Director of Education had told the Nation that he had advised the pupil's mother to find another school for her son.

The HEADTEACHER of St. Agnes had refused to comment on the matter.   'Leave the issue alone' he advised.  'I will help the child get another School.    Please do not make this an issue for the media.'

St. Agnes Primary School

  

  Of course there may be more than meets the eye in this report. and we actually know little, if any, background about the student's human nature or academic ability OR even if there may be other factors involved in his being removed from school in such a way.

BUT on the face of  it there seems little real common sense being used to  judge this case    Put simply  it looks like a

 matter of a child with a 'difference' being picked upon. - even used -  to cover up a problem in the School's catering hygiene.      What WAS the real cause of  the 'stomach aches'?

WE IN TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES have found ourselves welcoming in children who later revealed that they are being challenged in one way or another; in mind, body, and personality.      We have seen that not everyone can actually DEAL with such a person growing up in the Homes.   The 'unusual' tends to be shunned to some degree - and even 'left' alone.       It is an attitude that has taken many years to change and to bring under the Rule of Love.       I  have heard it said often ' troubled people, are troublsome'.

BUT we all are troubled;   none of us are actually NORMAL (as we are meant  to be).     We all need to be suffered, forgiven frequently, helped, and LOVED - never backed away from, feared, or de-valued 

and even neglected.

The Boy in St.Agnes?   I  cannot yet discover what actually happened to  him.     I have an idea it had been happening already, for some time.   How will his future be.    What will yours, or mine be?   Thank God that in making us, He understands us, and knows how to restore us.     IF He LIVES in us then we have the RESTORER with us;  with us and able to reach out to those less endowed than we might be, and able to be USED to rescue one  that might otherwise perish at the hand of  his own kind.

Esther and I have had to face these issues.    It has not always been easy, and it has found us out,  to be very selfish and self centred at times - quite a few times in fact, and we have had to throw ourselves on the  Mercy of our God, and learn to bare one another's burdens.     THIS WEEK I have been reading in LEVITICUS and some verses in chapter 25.     Verse 35 is the one I want to mention. 

I am reading from the Amplified Bible.

'If your (Israelite) brother has become poor

and his hand wavers (from  poverty, sickness, or age

and he is unable to support himself)

THEN you shall uphold (strengthen, relieve) him,

(treating him with the courtesy and consideration 

that you would) to a stranger or temporary resident with  you

(without property) so that he may live (along) with you.

This Translation then suggests we read   The 1st Letter of John chapter 3v17

But if anyone has this world's goods (resources for sustaining life)

and sees his brother and fellow believer in Christ in need,

yet closes his heart of compassion against him,

how can the love of God live and remain in him?

ALTHOUGH Leviticus points to People of God, the  Israelites, and JOHN in his letter to our brother and believer in Christ,  I feel deep down that we cannot deduce that these words do not also have application to any member of our 'family, tribe, or nation to which we claim to be part,  as well.    We may indeed put the Believer first, but we may not deny loving our neighbours as ourselves.

WHY are these verses speaking to  me?     Well Testimony HOMES are one family.    Our children, came, grew up and went; and also many parents grow old like us, and no  longer able to work and  are faced with difficulties they may share only privately with God, and often seem to go in need.     Perhaps this is not a general situation for those who have passed or  are passing through our doors, BUT one or two  of the children especially have fallen on hard times, with no where to go and no one  to turn to.    But surely, you may think,  surely they can turn to God.     Yes they can but there may be times when He will not hear them.      Not all leave us perfected in Christ.     And even those do may do so, often find themselves away from God.....!      What then?

THEN, surely, they should be able to look back to the 'FAMILY' - the Family of Christ, the Family of Testimony Faith Homes regardless, and find understanding and even help in an emergency.    AND. OF COURSE,  this should in reality be the situation universally in regard to the Believers worldwide.

Over the last year, as I have shared before, we have seen many of are old 'family' members rally to assist one another in need.    The seed of an idea is there, and here again in the verses quoted.    It may not be help for everyone like the 'Welfare State' but it could be help for those who truly  find themselves in DIRE need; help that God would stand behind and sustain.        Am I dreaming?   I hope  not.   Indeed I believe not.   'Family', true family, always stick together..

=========================== 

THIS WEEK we continue to experience an exceptional DROUBT!     In Fifty years we have never seen, in this area of Kenya, The DRY Season extend into JUNE,  and there seems no sign of change so far.

Additionally we are seeing many cases of ordinary Influenza,   with the usual coughs and colds.   It IS very cold as well, even with the sun is shining from a cloudless sky!     I am also suffering from a 'body itch' all over.     Not sure what has brought it  on, but we are checking into everything.    Could be an increase in chemicals being used to cleanse the water supply, or it may something new have been using to do the laundry -  or..........otherwise I am fine, apart from a slight cough.    Even Esther has caught that.       On the 21st of this  month we shall go for our 2nd Jab of Vaccine.     Same one as before.

THE CURRENT PICTURE HERE for C19 in Kenya is as below:-

As at 10th June

To-day   6,728 tested  out of which  624 proved Positive   -     R - 9.3%

ALTOGETHER SINCE MARCH 2020

1,852,612  tested out  of which 174,285 proved Positive

Recoveries amount to 119,247  -  FATALITIES  3362

We so Thank God, and in His Name all those who responded the prompting of His Holy Spirit, for making it possible for us to go through each day, and to rejoice in His Fellowship together.

Our love to you all, as always

John, Esther, Daryl and all at Testimony Faith Homes

THIS IS THE INDIAN MAHOGANY tree in front of Green Cottage, and taken AFTER a tree 'hacker', under pretense of 'saving' the tree from the Parasite mentioned in my last post, and which is invading various trees on our land, including the above, hacked of a few branches.     

The RESULT has been to lose almost a third of the Tree itself,  accomplished with no regard to its appearance.    Whole branches just hacked, not sawn, off with a broad bladed 'panga' or sword,   Instead of just removing an infestation of the Parasite, where it occurred on a branch, our 'tree doctor' just lopped of whole branches laden with foliage, leaving huge bare gaps, revealing the inner skeleton of the Tree, stark to the naked eye.

WELL,  the Parasite has been, for the most part, totally eradicated,  BUT everywhere we look, our trees look as if they have been struck by lightening.       They will, no doubt, recover, but it will take time....!

Looking in the opposite direction, and a little beyond Testimony House, a further Tree, of a different kind, has also been attacked.

And once again desolation seems to have come upon it.

To the left are 'Before and After photos' of this second Tree, which has a kind of fan trunk consisting of four trunks all joined in one, and fanning out.    Well over a hundred and fifty feet high and more than a hundred years old.  You can see that it spread widely - about  fifty meters West to East, with a thick foliage.   It was heavily infested, and our 'hacker' tore into it, lopping off almost the entire left half, as you look at the photo, and also taking some out of the top, AND some to the right.    We are left with about HALF a tree, with some branches and one main trunk quite denuded of any foliage. 

Not the best man for the job, you think?   Yes, but the only one we have found to attempt the dangerous business of climbing at risk, without insurance or any safety gear. We have admired this, elderly man's confidence, but he also seems to have a private determination to do as much damage as he can - just to make it all worth the effort. perhaps.

He has not finished yet!    We will do our best to remonstrate with him, and trust we may even yet open his eyes to  SEE the poetic beauty that God has creatively put into a Tree, as it grows in Praise to Him.

================ 

THIS IS A FIG TREE - a really 'leafy' one.     I was reading today about such a tree, in Mark 11v12-14 & v20.    JESUS was hungry that morning, and noticing the tree he hurried toward it to see if it might have fruit.   But, on arrival, He found it only had leaves..... not a single fruit, for the time ( Season ) of figs was not yet ( had not come ).

And Jesus spoke said to the Fig Tree 'No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for  ever.  (Let no man one eat fruit from you, from now on, and forever.'     And his disciples heard it.  They were with him at the time.

And some little time later, passing that way again, the disciples looked out for the Fig Tree, and found it dried up from the roots.   Peter cried out to Jesus saying 'Master, behold the fig tree which you cursed is withered away.'

NO PLEASE don't run off to find a Commentary!   I didn't - I just sat and thought about it, and  I encourage you to do just the same. 

On the face of it Jesus seems to behave with annoyance.    Yet He had no obvious reason for doing so since 'it was not the time for Figs'.  There was no reason, humanly, to expect one to be found.   But Jesus WAS disappointed, and actually CURSED the tree, AND it withered up and died, within the day.

Was our Lord in a bad mood?    

He  went on his way, and finally we find him entering the Temple in Jerusalem.     Immediately, we are told He began to cast out all those who sold and bought (traded) in the Temple.   The disciple whom Jesus loved, even adds, in John 2v13-16, that Jesus first of all made a 'scourge of small cords' to assist Him in chasing these 'traders' out of the Temple area, overturning their tables and chairs, and even refusing them to carry their merchandise about.    It must have been quite a noisy, pandemonic scene, with the LORD striding angrily about with his flail, scattering and upsetting the 'market stalls,  sheep bleating, doves fluttering about, and money running everywhere upon the ground between the legs of the store holders, who ran shouting in protest.     So sudden, so clamorous, so furious a scene.

HAD JESUS, go up on the wrong side of the bed?   Was He out of salts?    Or was he truly UPSET and even justifiably ANGRY.... angry with the tree, the traders in the Temple, and perhaps with everyone?   It all seemed so out of  character. 

In John 2v17 John writes that at this time His disciples remembered that it had been written of Him that  'The zeal of thine house has eaten me up' - psalm 69v9   BUT before getting to this,  we should first return to the FIG Tree.

The fig tree was doing what came naturally - it was not in season, and was not producing fruit,

BUT JESUS was hungry.    The LORD of Heaven and Earth, the CREATOR of ALL things was hungry!

Should not His proximity and NEED, have caused the Fig Tree to have, figuratively, jumped for JOY, and immediately produced, at least one fruit ?     EVEN out of season?      Did this Fig tree show the readiness of ALL Created things to serve their Creator?      Should we not all be stood on tip-toe with the anticipation of His Coming - and to BE READY?    Consider these first and last verses of a Poem written the 15th Century by Thomas Ford.

'YET if His Majesty, our sovereign lord,

 Should of his own account, friendly himself invite, 
And say, 'I'll be your guest to-morrow night,'
How should we stir ourselves, call and command

All hands to work!  "let no man idle stand!'

Thus, if a king were coming, would we do;
And 'twere good reason too;
For 'tis a duteous thing
To show all honour to an earthly king,'
And after all or travail, and our cost,

So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.

And James 4v17 declares 'Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is SIN.'

GOD is a JEALOUS God; Jealous for His Honour and Praise.   He Will be FIRST, and no OTHER, for HE recognises NOTHING in front of Himself.    He IS LORD OF ALL,  King of Kings!   And ONLY to HIM must we bow the knee.    Great Wrath is kindled when this pride of place, and honour is in any way denied Him.   He expects it IN and OUT of Season, and without regard to our 'reasonable' human excuses.      We should take great care how we go through life.        The FRUIT should have been to hand - and we see this in JOHN 15 v.5 where we find JESUS Himself telling us that if we are In Him and He in us, then we shall bring forth much fruit.  If there is no fruit to hand in our lives, the HE is not in us and we are as good as DEAD already.      BUT many are are not taking the Warning.     Even the 'Temple' is a place not only to WORSHIP in but to TRADE in and with.      Are we blinded by 'bling'?    Look even at JEREMIAH 7v2-11++ which is in many ways the 'precursor' of Mark 11 as it relates to what happened that day in the Temple.  Especially verses 9-11 where God asks via Jeremiah ' IS THIS HOUSE, which is called by name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?   Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD'.

And let us REMEMBER that WE are God's House in a very real sense and how we use and treat it will not go unnoticed.       AND so to the Last Verse of FORD's Poem:=

BUT, at the coming of the King of Heaven

All's set at six and seven;

We wallow in our sin

Christ cannot find a chamber in the Inn.

We entertain Him always like a stranger,

And, as at first, still lodge Him in the manger.

    

The Passage of Scripture in Mark 11 is a WAKE UP CALL to us all.     Wake up. Take stock.  Let us discern our READINESS to receive our Creator..          OUR trees, here in Eldoret, are dying, but if they can have their parasites and sickness removed, then yet they will live.    NOW is the time to review our status.   Now is the time to be serious about our lives, and not to misjudge our Salvations  -  we need to have it in mind that we are encouraged to work out out Salvation - even in and with Christ - with fear and trembling.   Let us make sure HE is before us in all we attempt to do, and to become.     Let none of us be a fruitless tree, surprised at His Coming, seeking refreshment on demand,  nor His house miss- appropriated to purposes not to the Glory of the Owner.     

============================ 

WE here are all well, but continuing to grapple with lack of seasonable RAINS, at least in this area of Kenya.    We pray on.     School has just re-opened after Half-term of our 2nd Term of the Year.  All is going satisfactorily.     Everyone healthy, and no sign of Covid 19.    We praise the LORD.   WE have also sent out Updates to praying friends.

God Bless you all, and keep you safe in an unsafe world.     All the 'signs' speak of the coming of our expected KING and SAVIOUR.     We need to all join together in opening our hearts and lives to Him

who will come..     Thank you all for your prayers, and even for your help and support.

Sincerely in His Love and Mercy, always

John, Esther, and Daryl Green, and all at Testimony Faith Homes & School.