UPDATE

THE END OF THE MONTH is just a week away now. It has been a difficult and challenging month in every way, but it has also been a month of great events and happenings. To start with the month of October is usually a very pleasant month weather-wise! The rains have usually stopped and a season of mellow fruitfulness leading up to the high summer of December and hot drought of January/February is providing us with the enjoyment of brilliant, warm and pleasant days. But this year it has not been so. The Rains had been intermittent during July/August, and then seemingly unable to lift. Towards the end of September they increased, until through this month we have had heavy and torrential downpours. Hardly a sunny day, and the COLD on some days, especially the last week or so, enough to chill the marrow in your bones! Not cheerful weather; not uplifting weather. Not very 'equatorial'. It was a month that also dawned upon us when we had spent all that we had, and were wondering how we would actually survive the month. By the end of the first week we had received and spent what we could have reasonably have expected on the basis of monthly tithes - then still considering the 88% we still needed to get us to the end of the month. Of course life goes on - even when there is nothing in hand - and so we also stepped out in faith believing - and our friend and brother from St. Andrews Church, Ashburton, Devon, arrived to spend some weeks with us - and in his hand was a £1000 from the saints in his Church. Oh, how truly wonderful a day THAT was - so very unexpected and unlooked for yet again......AND so much on time and in answer to our need.
Yet it was soon swallowed up and GONE. THEN came a bout of sickness after drinking infected water on a visit to a rural Children's Home. Both Philip Dary and I were laid up for a week. And of course in between all these things the School Office had been robbed twice of more than £400 and there was the turmoil of getting to the bottom of what appeared to be an 'inside job', and the subsequent dismissal of some of our staff; the sorrow and disappointment this entailed, plus the daily apprehension of rising prices (bread WENT UP 20/- a loaf on Monday) and unforeseen expenses - such as the repair of our aging vehicles. YET there was laughter and a great deal of pleasure woven into all of it, and the Lord saw that we were indeed kept by His Power. Then this Monday we received yet a further Help from a neighbour who called in early at my Office to give the Homes £1000 in kenya shillings; he said that he and his friends had been in prayer and felt that TFH was in need, and so they had taken up an offering, and this was it. - and the week's housekeeping that we still had not got in hand, was suddenly right there! We still do not understand how it is that GOD communicates what WE have not even whispered outloud!
Today, the promise of the final needs of the month are also coming to hand. The amazing thing about THIS month is that we have been kept in the dark about how He would provide, and step by step He has brought our need to the door as well as from far afield, and for the most part this month from sources we could never have guessed or imagined - some from sources never before known. Finally - as far as at today's date - I was called from my bed at 11pm. on Thursday to be told that a gift of £10,000 was being sent to us in order to buy a NEW vehicle for the Homes! Our current minibus is about to give up the ghost entirely, and has been in and out of the garage for first aid (and last rights), for months. We have no real idea where this Gift is coming from ! it is STILL raining, and the skies are still leaden. but we find our hearts being lifted, and our faith increased........not by anything that we have done, but by His grace. THANK YOU ALL for your prayers, and for remembering us when you talk to the Lord, the Father of us all. This is something very much to be shared and to be rejoiced about TOGETHER.

THIS IS PHOTO OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. I have a feeling I will probably be writing some more about this man as time goes by. I came across his Autobiography 'Up from Slavery' only recently, and have found it both interesting and remarkable. Booker (1856-1915) was born into slavery in Virginia, USA. Teaching himself to read and write, he rose to be a most respected black educationalist, having the ear of Presidents and Statesmen alike. He died of High Blood Pressure when he was only 59, the son of a slave woman and unable to identify his father. His middle name was given him by his mother as 'Talaifero' which some will say is Portuguese for 'Free land', and thus might hint that his forebears may have come from a Portuguese Colony somewhere in Africa.
By the time he was nine years sold he was labouring in salt and coal mines, but all the time a growing longing to LEARN was taking hold of him, and finally, after the American Civil War was over and all slaves free, at the age of sixteen, he joined Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, and after only three years Graduated with Honours. Later he joined the Faculty of the Institute and few years later in 1875 he was asked to head up a new Teacher Training College for black teachers. This was still within a period soon after the Civil War when racial tensions were still running high. By 1915, when he died, Booker T. Washington had built and expanded what was in 1881 to be known as the Tuskegee Normal & Industrial Institute (now University) into a School of 107 buildings on two thousand acres of land with over 1500 students, and more than 200 teachers and professors.
In all this he maintained a high regard for God, testifying to the fact that he could have done nothing without His Guidance and Support in his life. He was accused of compromise and appeasement when it came to promoting Civil Rights for Black Americans because he chose a less aggressive way forward than some of his contemporaries. Nevertheless he is still a Role Model internationally since what he actually did and attained against all human and natural odds with the help of God was astounding.
On his Monument erected in the centre of the Tuskegee campus it is written -
"He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people,
and pointed the way to progress through education and industry."

Some quotes -
"I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."

"We do not want the men of another colour for our brothers in law, but we do want them our brothers."

This man stands out from many others because of his attitude. I may have to return to him another time, when I have thought some things through, but at this stage I consider his life and example to be well worth looking into, and we may introduce the reading of his autobiography into our school.

Well today is what WE call Spiritual Emphasis Day, and we all, as a staff, join together for prayer and praise in the School Hall. This happens once a term. ALL the teachers, houseparents, cleaners, gardeners office staff and so on attend. It keeps us all together. Later today I have to attend a Board Meeting for another Children's Home running not too distant from us, and tomorrow I am sharing in a Seminar on Marital Relations...... and then it will be Monday again, and another week of uncharted as well as routine events will begin. Praise the Lord!

Our love to you all

John and Esther

UPDATE

THOSE WHO HAVE VISITED GREEN COTTAGE may well see in this tree the one that stands in between it and Testimony House. When we first arrived it must already have been well over 80 years old, and now 40 years later it is beginning to look OLD for a tree that has an expected life of only some eighty years. It is an Indian Mahogany tree, and has all these years added something special to the garden and the Image of Testimony Faith Homes.
It is a tree known for HEALING - it's leaves being used for balms, ointments, and elixirs for the cure and relief of a seemingly endless list of ills. And right in the Centre of everything - it always reminds me of the Tree of Life, and of course of our Lord Himself. It is a spreading tree with hugely strong and sheltering branches. And those branches provide friendly protection and security to great variety of birds both great and small. I fell in love with that tree the moment I saw it, and it has been a 'romance' that has given me so much solace and comfort and even encouragement through the years. It is ageing now. It is shedding bark, its branching sagging and bowing - yet it is still such an inspiration. I hope I might also be an 'inspiration' as I also continue to age, and begin to sag a little here and there. I hope Testimony Faith Homes will also continue be a place of Shelter and Healing to the many that come to seek for it.

LAST WEEK I could not get to the computer to write up the Blog. Our dear friend Philip Darby, Vicar of St. Andrew's, Ashburton Devon, and myself were both laid low with a rather vigorous bacterial infection of our bowels. Not at all pleasant and rather vicious. We think we picked it up from drinking water (unintentionally) from a well whilst visiting a rural children's home that has just been opened some 20 kilometres away. Philip was here 22 years ago, which was when we first met, and we have been in touch on and off ever since. We also met his wife, Joan at that time, and later in 1994 we also visited them at Ipplepen where they then served the Lord. It has been such a delight to have him with us - apart from the diarrhea - and also again, through his friendship, to be in touch with those of St.Andrews who have been encouraged to pray and support us. Our discomfort commenced on Thursday evening, 11th until the day before yesterday - though we are still not quite back to normal.
Philip will be our Preacher tomorrow in our Fellowship Meeting. He was also Guest Speaker at the Eldoret Anglican Diocese 25th Anniversary earlier this month.
When he arrived he brought a gift from St. Andrews. He had not warned us about it, and he did not know that when he arrived our funds were yet again depleted! What a treasure to know that BEFORE we had asked the Lord had yet again spoken to those who could hear His voice and be moved by His Spirit to supply our need. Oh JOY to know such constant care!
Hope you do not get bored with me constantly recounting it and glorying in it.

NOW WHO IS THIS? Not ME, but I do feel like he seems to be feeling quite often. Of course this is an appropriate photo now that the World Stock Markets are all over the place and there is so much financial uncertainty and alarm
"What can I do now? What will happen next? Where is everything going???"
Anxiety, fear and worry, are overtaken by APPREHENSION. The young stockbroker's HANDS give him away. Very expressive hands that convey the growing TENSION as he watches the Board and considers the options and the dire possibilities before him. Tension that might easily give way to desperation and despair.
And of course all this has happened before and we know that in the 1929 Wall Street Crash, people came to the end of their ability to cope with the situation. Men and women jumped from multi storey buildings, threw themselves under trains and cars, and into rivers. Man died. Many were ruined without hope of reparation to face the remainder of their lives in poverty. The world shivered down its spine, and looked for ways out.
Recently I came across this little hymn. I don't know who wrote it; it had no known author. It was entitled FEAR NOT LITTLE FLOCK.

Fear not little flock from the cross to the throne,
From death into life He went for His own;
All power in earth, all power above
Is given to Him for the flock of His Love

Only believe, only believe;
All things are possible, only believe,
Only believe, only believe;
All things are possible, only believe.

Fear not, little flock, He goeth ahead,
Your Shepherd selecteth the path you must tread;
The waters of Marah He'll sweeten for thee,
He drank all the bitter in Gethsemane.

Fear not, little flock, whatever your lot,
he enters all rooms, "the doors being shut,"
He never forsakes; He never is gone,
So count on His Presence in darkness and dawn.

I LIKED IT! Very simple, very plain BUT so true - for those who are called by His Name. If He IS our Shepherd then there is nothing to fear, and nothing to be apprehensive about. HE will walk with us and He will bring us through into a SETTLED place
We have 140 children here with us. NONE of them are disturbed by what is going on in the world just now. They are totally unaware as they enjoy the Shelter, the Food, the Freedom of their lives. Children are like that - and it is their prerogative to trust their parent for everything.. When the parent fails to provide that carefree security something has gone wrong. GOD, our Father wants US (those that say they know HIM) to be children in front of Him, wants us to be SO secure in His Presence that we have not the slightest apprehension for our safety - just quiet, settled, peace to enjoy.

THINGS will certainly seek us out to disturb and to upset us - as that stomach bug came to Philip and me this week! BUT He will bring us through if we turn and consciously yield ourselves into His Keeping. AND having done that, to go away and carry on with life, BELIEVING that He has taken care of the problem, no matter what it is. This is NOT fatalistic - it is FAITH. Without it we cannot wholly please Him, BY it we can jump over the highest wall and run through a TROOP of the enemy!

Have an overcoming, victorious, DARING week.

Lovingly

John and Esther

UPDATE

WELL HERE I AM in my Office surrounded by bric a brac - at least this is my corner! The rest of the Office includes a very large 15 place Board room table, video library and space enough to fit in about 40 people for when we have prayer meetings, seminars and so on. It IS a large all purpose room of some 900 square feet! The Children's Services Forum meets here on the last Wednesday of every month. You can see just a little of the roof of Green Cottage through the window. Most of my daily correspondence is done from here, and a good deal of real administration. BUT it is by no means all that I do, and I cannot say I am chained to my chair. I am out and about in the compound of the School and Homes often in a way that keeps me aware of what is going on, and even of what may NOT be going on! The Government inspects both parts of the ministry here at least three times a year, and it is wise for us to keep tabs on ourselves BEFORE an inspector arrives and catches us by surprise. We want to be up to scratch all the time, and of course this makes sure that the children are also properly cared for and buildings maintained. Additionally I am also in regular attendance upon committees related to other aspects of Children's Services such as Probation, Community Service, and more recently I am an official Visitor to Foster Homes in the immediate area. All this keeps me fairly occupied and sometimes too much so.
This week has been no exception, and I am feeling a little weary. Sorting out the 'robbery' of a fortnight ago has also taken a lot out of me, and two of our staff, one having been with us for more than 15 years, have had to go. No easy to discipline and keep order - even in what is supposed to be a 'Christian' establishment.

TODAY the School has been holding what they termed a 'Book Harvest'! The School has lacked a library and on School Parent's Day this year the Guest of Honour, suggested that parents each purchase one new book and do their best to collect more. On his own part he promised to also bring a donation of new books. Parents all seemed very positive and happy with this idea, and so the date was set for this Saturday, some two months later.
So from 10a.m. this morning the driveway was packed with cars and parents and children con-verged on the School Hall (extreme right front of the photo) Parents brought in about 1,800 books and the Guest Honour, Professor James L. Ole Kiyapi, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Medical Services for Kenya brought Ksh.65,000 worth of new books which he had been able to secure from friends in the Publishing business. Not a bad haul, although parents brought books which were mostly second hand paper editions which will not have a long life in a busy School Library. The actual Library can be spied at the far end of the driveway in this photo, painted white; It can easily contain up to 8,000 hard cover books, and that is our aim. We shall continue to encourage parents, staff and well wishers to think of donating a hardcover book or two when the Lord puts it into their mind!
I was the one chosen to introduce Professor Kiyapi during the occasion, and in doing so described my own introduction to books. As a child of eleven I had been unable to read even three letter words. Perhaps due to my rather disturbed and erratic upbringing. But just before taking the 11+ examination of those days (1950s) I came across a small book with a brown paper cover adorned with the picture of a rather sad looking Spaniel. It was entitled 'A Dog Called Spot'. I remember picking it up and looking inside for more pictures of the poor dog! Only print - and I immediately began to read it! I read it all the way through; a very simple first reader. It was the very first time I had recognised words. It was a read breakthrough for me; it was like a world unlocked, and my life became revolutionised as I became an enthusiastic and avid reader of whatever came to hand - with the help of a junior first dictionary! Reading has ever since been part of my life and has made it possible for me to hold my own in conversation with any man. I never went to University, but I believe that my capacity for READING gave me knowledge and understanding on a par with any University student.
Professor Kiyapi, in rising to speak after my introduction, amazingly shared how that as a child he himself did not BEGIN school of any kind until he was twelve years old. In his tribe, ( he is a Masai ), a boy is first made to look after cows from when he is 5 until when he is 8. If he does well he graduates from looking after cows and is given goats to care, and then after that CALVES. On reaching 11 if he has done well, then he can expect his father to consider sending him to Primary School. He entered the first Grade of Primary School when he was twelve years of age - and learned to READ, and like me hungered to read EVERYTHING that came his way. Reading sped him forward in his education, until he found himself in front of those who had begun their own education earlier that he had. He found himself graduating from High School with straight 'A's and and then taken to University. He became one of the youngest ever to achieve a Professorship. He also is a Christian Believer.
INSPIRING STUFF. We hope it will encourage our children to READ.

It is STILL raining in Eldoret. Dark, dank and chilly with it! Not pleasant, and not cheerful. Could be England just now. or conversely England could be on the Equator! Not a lot of difference.

God Bless and inspire you in the week ahead.

John and Esther

UPDATE

LAST WEEK I wrote at length of how the Lord had provided for us up to date.
I thought you might like to know that He also uses those that hear His Voice in Kenya as well, as this photo portrays! On this particular occassion we had woken up to a 'cent less day' and had as usual come together to pray for our daily bread.
We had just about enough food on hand to provide against lunch for everyone, but no more. Lunch came and went - then a little later two mini buses drove up to the Testimony House front door. Out of them spilled a whole crowd of young adults from Nakuru, two driving hours distance. Leading them was one of our Old Boys, Anthony Kiprotich - then Assistant pastor at Lake View Africa Gospel Church in Nakuru. He was also leader of this group of Christian Young Adults from various churches in the same town. He had shared his testimony with them, and they had been anxious to visit us and actually SEE for themselves where he had grown up AND to bring gifts of food to us!! They brought enough for a WEEK's housekeeping - some of it you can see in the photo. Yet again we were delivered! We still had no cash, but we didn't need it for a week!

TO THE RIGHT is a photo of the very FIRST Testimony House.This was taken in August 1969. It was a fairly small mud and wattle cottage some 20x40 ft with an outside kitchen and bathroom. Three very small bedrooms and a sitting/dining room. No ceiling - just open rafters to the iron sheeting, no internal doors, no glass windows. It had been home to goats before I gook it over; then we cleaned it out, repainted it, put in a rush mat ceiling, and hung curtains in the inside doorways. No electricity! Oil lamps. The Toilet was a 'long drop' a small hut built over a twenty foot hole in the ground covered with a box with a hole in it. The roof of that toilet was grass, and the first time I used it a snake felt from it onto my head. I ran yelling SNAKE!, SNAKE! - to the great amusement of passers by!! The first boy that I helped WILSON, then about 14 (now married with two children and 53 years old!) brought me a photo he had taken of it last week - still being used as a dwelling, but totally run down and ruinous. The roof broken and rusted, and the walls crumbling and unpainted. Worse than when the goats lived in it!! I was sad to see it so - many happy memories crowd upon me of my time there whenever I see this black and white photo. From such a very small beginning has come so much - much more than I then would have imagined.

TODAY is Daryl's 36th Birthday! In the photo he is only 9; just a year after he first came to stay with us, together with his brother Edward. It is a working day for him as well, and he is busy supervising some maintenance work with the School Bus and other matters relating to the School boarding section. He has a busy life these days, but revels in activity and keeping things in good repair and order. Much happier doing this than sitting at a desk. Now I have just received a message from his son JESSE who is now 10 and just joined FACE BOOK! How time passes, and the Grace of God continues to walk alongside of each one of us in patience, mercy and love. We do not deserve such deep consideration. But how wonderful that it is there for us in any case, and that He never tires of looking for our acceptance of it, or for our rejection of all that which at one time or another sought to exclude Him from our life! A loving God? Yes, Patient and Kind also! But His NAME is JEALOUS! He yearns and seeks for our undivided affection and service..........jealously!
Have a wonderful week!

John and Esther


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UPDATE

SATURDAY 20th SEPTEMBER 2008

NO PICTURES this week -  just some remembrances and Thanksgiving.     For some weeks now we have been studying together in our Fellowship Bible Study the Book of Malachi and had reached, this Friday, to Chapter 3v7-18 which talked mainly of tithing.     It was not a particularly encouraging chapter to consider as we had all together been in a financially deteriorating situation, day by day; seeing things get worse and worse.     As we talked and shared some raised the question of WHY God at times seemes to ignore our prayers and even His promises, letting the need or trial continue without relief.       Most of those in the Study were from the Homes, and all knew of the need, and the majority had been bringing the needs to the Lord daily.      It had started (as a test of faith) some months back, but by the commencement of September we found ourselves  falling behind in what daily expenditure needed to be found.     Bills began to go unpaid, and by Friday (yesterday) we had come to rock bottom.    No cash in hand, nothing in the Bank, and a stack of bills waiting to be paid.    What to do?    Go on praying and Waiting on God.

As we shared many brought up all kinds of situations where it seemed that God had left us to perish - like His friends on the lake in the storm, battling against the wind and waves in their frail fishing boat.....'LORD!   Don't you CARE that we perish?'    He seems to WANT us to come to the end of all our own resources.....again and again.

 

NOW PEOPLE I hope you won't get nervous and feel I am trying to encourage finance from you.   The last time I shared a little of how we were feeling here in Kenya relative to the work of Testimony Faith Homes, I had quite a few brethren writing back suggesting we needed more faith.      Well I don't deny that this is true.     I have never said any of us have the Gift of Faith, only that we BELIEVE God wants US to trust Him for our needs.      We have endeavoured to live in such a way that He CAN do this for us - we are not saying we are perfect and that we are always found to be at ease with this commitment.     But we have Agreed with God to live pinning our confidence on Him and Him alone.     Well now, I feel that we need to SHARE honestly how it is sometimes.       NOT because we are trying in a sly or deceitful way to increase your own material interest in us, but so that you know we are human like you, and often needy EVEN THOUGH God is our Provider - and to know this without in any way taking away from God our trust and confidence, or imputing any disquiet about Him.      I find it often frustrating NOT to be able to tell you when things are difficult, and when our own small faith is being attacked and challenged.   And this partly because I am sure that YOUR OWN faith is challenged often, and you might also need the encouragement of knowing that WE go through it with you, AND still LIVE!       At least AFTER a trial we feel freer to share, since it is too late fr our sharing to contribute to our deliverance!

We are challenged often, and since we began this work in 1969 the Lord has continually let us go through often overwhelming experiences.

Deuteronomy 8 tells us that God let the Children of Israel wander 40 years in the desert in order to find out what was in their mind - about Him.     How did their respect and trust stand up under pressure - not too well.      It was something God did again and again - kind of taking a 'Rain-check' on spiritual temperature.

 

In June 1995 I wrote ' We seem to be close to ROCK BOTTOM!  No Cash to hand, day after day......'      So even thirteen years back this was happening to us.      I can bring excerpts from my diaries that go right back to 1970....     AND, in 1995 I had quoted an extract from a Daily Reading I was using at that very time, right in the midst of the trial.    It read -

 

"He delivers magnificently, and showeth lovingkindness."

Psalm 18v50 (French Translation)

SOME one who knew what it was to trust God, once said;

"During the last two years, though I have said little about them,

I have had many a crevasse open up before me.

The ice has seemed to split asunder,

and I have looked down into the blue depths

IT IS A GLORIOUS THING

to have a big trouble, a great Atlantic wave,

 that takes you off your feet and sweeps you right out to sea,

and lets you sink down into the depths, into the ocean's lowest caverns,

till you get to the foundations of the mountains, and there see God,

and then come up again to tell what a Great God He is,

and how graciously He delivers His people.

 

AT THAT TIME WE HAD BEEN ENDURING debt for some weeks.   At the time it did not FEEL quite so romantically 'wonderful' to us to be 'swept off our feet'!    Can you be in DEBT and still say God Provides?      Could we even afford to suggest we had unpaid bills?   Some would then say God had departed from us.     If God was really providing then we should not have debts.     Well WE have, from time to time, HAD to go into DEBT whilst we were WAITING on God to provide - and He always HAS provided.     But in June that year we were once more ROCK BOTTOM, and it was not easy to WAIT.       After TEN days of being there - waiting - we received a phone call to say that £16,oooo had been sent direct to our account.     BEFORE we had shared our situation with anyone outside of our own small community of workers, God spoke to a few brethren thousands of miles removed from us and burdened them to pray for us,    When they got off their knees they had decided we needed immediate help - they were sure.      They went to their church, took up and offering and send it by telex.

Our DEBT was taken care of and the ministry secured for a month ahead.     SURELY God provided - even against the debt.

 

But that is living a little dangerously.     Living on a knife edge?   Perhaps, like the widow and her 'mite'- Jesus said it represented ALL that she had.  COULD she really afford to do that?    Was she being responsible, and sensible   She let go of it and walked away - with her LIFE.     Did she die?  Did she fall into penury?    NO, I feel SURE she didn't - she walked away with her LIFE.       She needed nothing but GOD with her.    Neither do we, but we are not always prepared to see it that way.      We let the material, physical reality limit our LIFE and LIVING, and affect our peace and security.      

In 1969 the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said

"Expose yourself to the storms of life - and I will sustain you"

 

I willingly grasped the challenge but I can assure you that there have been many times when a cry of Apprehension - sometimes of despair -  escaped from me as I was confronted with overwhelming odds, and suddenly wondered where God was...........and sometimes not just for a moment either!

 

Please do not hang all that I am saying on financial wellbeing.     What I am saying has to do with our individual expectations at all levels, finance, health, comfort, happiness, material well-being.       It has to do with losing our life in order to find REAL LIFE, the kind that never ends, and never wears out.        I believe it is written into Isaiah 58v7 onwards where the Prophets says -

THIS IS THE FAST, the going without, THAT I WANT

    It is for YOU to divide YOUR bread with the hungry,

and to bring the homeless poor into YOUR house -

when you seek the naked that YOU cover him,

and that you hide not yourself from the needs of your own flesh and blood.

 

THEN (8)

shall your light break forth like the morning,

and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily;

your righteousness (your rightness, justice, and your right relationship with God

shall go before you (conducting you to peace and prosperity,

and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

 

THEN (v9)

you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.

IF YOU TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR MIDST

yokes of oppression (wherever you find them),

the finger pointed in scorn (toward the oppressed or the godly),

and every form of false harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking.

 

AND (10)

IF YOU POUR OUT THAT WITH WHICH YOU SUSTAIN YOUR OWN LIFE

for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted

THEN

shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom be come

like the noonday

The Lord shall guide you.

He will satisfy your soul in drought and  in dry places.

He will make your bones strong.

you shall be like a watered garden and a spring of water that never fails.

 

IMMEDIATELY after our Bible study the Bank rang to say that they had received a substantial gift of money for the Homes on the 8th September.    They apologised for not letting us know earlier.      ALL the time we had thought there was nothing FUNDS were already lying quietly in the bank.     Whilst we prepared to go under if necessary, The LORD OUR GOD, our Provider had already secured us, and made sure we would not go under.       The donor that had been so used to rescue us and whose gift was so quietly given is now in his forties and a family man..       More than 30+ years ago when he was a very young child, and I was the guest of his parents, I had cause to beat him - just a little!      Hope I won't be arrested for such an admission.    He was not encouraged to love me very much for it.       NOW suddenly here he is rescuing me and all those with me from sudden death - at least it seemed like it!

Are not the ways of the Lord VERY mysterious.

 

AND SO we are Praising HIM, for His never failing FAITHFULNESS.     WE can entrust ourselves to HIM;  we who are here, otherwise alone and vulnerable, and each and every one of YOU too.       We may be tested at times.    The comfortableness of life might suddenly be interrupted and fall apart - security, peace and well being may be taken away.    The sun ceases to shine, the day is grey and gloomy - hope dwindles..........yet all the time His Everlasting Arms are underneath us.     He will hang on to us, and bring us through.    We need not to fear or be anxious.        No matter what is happening around me, no matter how BAD the scene becomes HE IS WITH ME.      Stripped of everything that I might count necessary to life and wellbeing, I will not DIE if HE is with me.     No I shall live.    LIFE is not in material things only.     REAL LIFE is what IS left, after everything else that we have made humanly synonimlous with lit has been done away with.

140 Children,  44 staff, and all that it takes to support, provide, and sustain them is continually being provided moment by moment on an unguaranteed promise of 12% of the total cost.        NOT a very secure situation from a purely normal point of view.   NO, but it is a WONDERFUL and GLORIOUS proof of the FACT of GOD.

 

WELL now perhaps I have laboured too long on this.      I have really been stirred up.

We are not too heavenly minded in reality.      We have no haloes, no wings sprouting at our shoulders.    Just very ordinary folk needing more and more Grace, and Faith.    Pray for us.

On Thursday the School Office was broken into and £250 stolen from the safe.    Looks like an inside job, and may need two of our staff to leave us.    Not a happy occurrence, but yet once more we seek His Guidance in it all, and must not lean only to our own inclination in judgment.     Pray for us as a new week dawns.       We have visitors next week, and we hope to enjoy their fellowship for some weeks to come - in-between the daily chores and duties both of us are still very much embroiled with.

 

Much love to you all in Jesus

 

John and Esther

 

PS  -   If anyone might be interested, or knows of someone who could be interested, to come out to us for three to months or so to re-organise and take in hand our Accounts it might be of great assistance to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE

THIS IS A PHOTO of Christopher Kosgei, his wife Jaqueline, and their 2 year old baby girl Abigail. Christopher is the senior member of our Christian Fellowship Team that is responsible for overseeing the ministry of Testimony Fellowship Church. Christopher is 33 years now and the Lord really uses him to bring relevant and good teaching to the Fellowship, both on many Sundays as well as during Bible Studies. The Fellowship consists mainly of the children and staff of the Children's Homes plus other members of the workforce and some friends and associates from outside of the workplace. A community of about 250 altogether of all ages.
Assisting Christopher we have an oversight of some 6 others of the Fellowship who variously assist according to their Gift. One takes care of matters pertaining to the youth, another music, another Sunday school , and so on. Sunday Meetings are usually from 10 to about 12.30p.m and ministry is brought from quite a varied group of speakers. some from within and some from outside of Testimony Faith Homes. The venue for these Sunday Fellowships is the School Hall, which has road frontage and easy access for anyone wanting to drop in. The Men and the Ladies also have their own sub fellowship meetings on Sunday afternoons, and mid week - on Tuesdays and Wednesdays there are Fellowship prayer meetings, and on Fridays a Bible Study. ADDITIONALLY Christopher assists as Chaplain to the School, running two weekly School Christian Unions, and also ministers amongst the auxillary staff both in the Homes and School with counselling, and fellowship. He has a busy time. Christopher, as I have shared before, is an Old Boy of Testimony Faith Homes, his twin brother also pastoring in Eldoret. It is a great joy to
have him back with us in Service to the Lord.

THE RAINS continue on, even more heavily! And the temperatures also remain cold - in fact very definitely CHILLY at 19c. If that sounds reasonably warm to you, I can only say that for us it is like Siberia at times - I have to wear a jacket and sometimes a windcheater which is VERY unusual for me as I rarely ever feel the cold. We might think we are especially blessed in Eldoret to have so much rain at least; it is not raining anywhere else. BUT the rain is here at a wrong time, and the maize and wheat is rotting on the stalk - the harvest will fail and since this is the main area for farming, we have to consider that food shortage must set in for us all later on. This is the second really bad year for rains. The grass is green, but the rest of the gardens are looking a bit sorry for themselves; bedraggled in fact, and some of our trees seem to be actually dying off. A rather sorry and depressing spectacle. In Town the municipal streets are being eroded and washed away as the rain continues, and traffic increasingly pounds the colonial tarmac laid down in the 50s. Even the Town looks bedraggled and uncared for.
But this is not entirely the fault of the rain - but rather more the fault of an apparently irresponsible Town Council that sees little point in improving its environs. In the last 40 years we have seen little and often NO improvement to roads, sidewalks, or town planning. Refuse is now begrudgingly and only partially collected once a week, with most of it left behind from bins inexpertly tossed and emptied into the Dust Cart. Eldoret is a dirtier Town that it was 30 years ago. Perhaps also a poorer Town.

ANYTHING NEW? Well perhaps not - really!
BUT recently in the DAILY NATION there was an interesting Article on the back page advising us that a NEW GENE had been discovered. One wonders just how many there are still to be found! This one has been designated ' The Polygamy Gene ' - It apparently is responsible for encouraging a polygamous spirit or desire in the majority of MEN - not women. This has - you can be sure of it - been carefully documented and proved by a worthy Medical Research Group, and proves beyond all doubt that MAN was CREATED to BE POLYGAMOUS. He therefore need not fight it - it is just meant to be. And this of course affects almost any and every factor in our fallen nature including bad temper, adultery, theft, and so on. Its all in the genes - we were created this way - no need to fight any of it off or resist its affect - just accept it.
Hope you can see where this is all going. and how totally UNTRUE it has to be in the light of what we KNOW in Christ. It does have just a glimmer of truth behind it though. I mean we have inherited through our Genes ....... but we were not created originally with such genes; they are alien to the Creator's plan and purpose. We may not assume they are in any way reflective of God's Image. STILL a lot of people here are encouraged to know that it is now considered 'unnatural' to want only ONE woman - and completely natural to want and have as many as you like! Pray for us - and for all mankind in a darkening world society.

We love you, and always encouraged to hear from you

John and Esther

UPDATE

SATURDAY, 6th SEPTEMBER 2008

This is the NEW GUEST HOUSE which is situated just behind Testimony House. It looks out across the lawns to the perimeter fence, and has accommodation for forty with TEN rooms providing bed space for TWO, FOUR, or Six to EIGHT in different rooms. It is built as a hollow rectangle around a small courtyard, and has its own bathrooms and toilets. We think it has turned out well, and it is already being used for those of our older boys and girls who are just home for Holiday times from their respective Colleges. It makes a good 'Halfway House' for those nearing the time when they will finally leave home and find employment. They are still in their respective Homes for food and fellowship, but sleeping out in the Guest House. Still space for guests as well. This is a good thing since friends and relatives of the houseparents are now able to also visit whereas before there was little or no space in the actual Homes to accommodate them. Now at least they can have a bed and privacy as well as being able to eat and fellowship with the children in their individual Home. Also useful for giving accommodation to those who may be here for a Seminar or even a Week-end Challenge.

The Term has started. Everyone back to school, and college. It is always a very 'rushed' and almost 'breathless' time. Last minute shopping to find replacements for worn out uniforms, shoes and so on leaves those involved quite weak at the knees! Town is just not a nice place at such a time, swollen with parents and children all hectically squashed into the shops trying to find their needs in competition with each other. I am very glad NOT to be one of them now since I am no longer a houseparent!! But then there is the task of trying to eke out the daily house-keeping that is being seriously competed with by the College and School fees.......... I can be alone in my office sorting out priorities of expenditure and find myself between cold and hot perspiration. What a relief to write the last cheque, hand out the last cash to the last outgoing student..... This year we have spent more on education that any previous year. Since January more than £12,000 has been provided and spent this way. So glad there are not 4 School Terms in a year! We are all left feeling rather like deflated baloons, but glad to be intact, and able to continue . God is good.
Now we look ahead day by day. NEW, every morning, is His Mercy. How very wonderful that is. Great shortage of water in Nairobi, but WE still have gallons of it falling every day! People here are grumbling that it is STILL raining and that this is the DRY season. YET we have not had ENOUGH rain this year, and we NEED more rain. How strange men are that when they should be thankful they moan and groan, and when they have what they really need they cannot see it.

Who is your favourite for the next US President? Its quite a hot topic here in Kenya. It is interesting in many ways. Mr. Obama in his final speech at the Party Convention said
'If you elect me as President, I will CHANGE THE WORLD!' Really made me stop and listen. Not many people would say that. They might say I will change America, but CHANGE THE WORLD - that is quite a boast, quite an aim, quite an Agenda. I can't think of anyone else that might make such a claim about this time - no one, except perhaps just ONE!
Keep praying, and keep watching.

God be with you always

John and Esther