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.

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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!    

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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