HOME SWEET HOME OR SOCIAL SCIENCE

THIS WAS THE SITTING ROOM OF OUR FAMILY HOME for 28 years.   Yes we were a Family - my wife and me, our three kids, and an average of about 35 others.   It was truly our own home, but it WAS indeed HOME to all who lived in it. It was, and still is, a Registered Children's Home.   More than 170 came and went over those twenty eight years, to that house - coming in sometimes as babes, and sometimes older, and then continuing until they could stand on their own feet as far as life and earning their own living was concerned
We did all we could to make this huge sitting room in what was an old Boer homestead, as homely, and as the centre of 'family' as we could.   We wanted to be able to open the front door, and welcome children and young people in so that they could feel 'at home' right away; children who had either lost or never had a home of their own.    They needed support, and they needed fellowship and to find a sense of 'belonging'.      At least that is what we thought then - and we still think so today.

We do believe that every boy and girl needs a loving home to grow up in.   A warm group of few or many siblings, with a caring Mum and Dad.   An affectionate, secure, and attractive refuge from the world outside.     Of course we understand there are homes and families, of a very different character and quality.    We know that family is often at odds with each other;  parents split up, the home is broken up, and everything seems anything but secure.     My wife and I both are products of such catastrophe, and perhaps that is why we have felt such a desire to help those who have also found themselves alone and even unwanted - homeless.

Children have been part of our family for sometimes only a few years, whilst others stayed more than twenty.   Those that have gone from us still keep in touch and visit us.    Some involve us in finding their life partner, and get married from that same house they grew up in.    We are introduced to our grandchildren - .   It has become an ongoing community - a place to run to, and remember with gladness.     We are glad we decided to expose ourselves to the risks and involvement of family life.
We are glad to see so many of our children building their own homes and families to a similar pattern.      Happy and enduring families are the building blocks of civilisation and nationhood.

RECENTLY, once again, we are hearing that Children's Homes like ours will soon be done away with.    Instead 'Holding Centres' will be initiated to hold children found on the street or elsewhere so that they can be ' sorted, categorised, and passed on to the Foster Home, Adopter, or other 'institution'.    This wisdom has been practiced in my own Country of the United Kingdom for decades without solving the REAL need - which is to provide a sound and SAFE foundation for children to grow up in.    It is not all the governments fault of course.    Family life is seriously challenged today, and the whole 'idea' of  a lasting marriage and family home is losing ground.
What will become of society?   What will become of our world.       Children fostered here in Kenya have a mixed predictable future.   Even with Government incentive Foster Parents are still seen to be more interested in the 'incentive' than in the child they are given to foster - many of these children leave the foster home and return to the street - something none of ours has ever done over 45 years.
The Government also, motivated by external forces as it is, is also insisting that kids that become 18 or over even if still in school or college, MUST leave the 'Children's Home' they grew up in and move into some other 'hostel'.    This is of course very bad psychology, but no matter.

SO Testimony House, and Testimony Faith Homes itself as a refuge for homeless children may soon have to re-think what to do.     A Home from Home, for countless children still homeless out there on our streets, yet unable to open its doors as a home - but only as a HOLDING Centre.  Some cold   heartless and purely institutional peace of social infrastructure.   We have discussed this with the County Department of Children's Services, and even with the minor gods that sit in high places in Nairobi, but to no avail.     Things are changing, and 'you will just have to knuckle down and get on with submitting to government regulations.'      It is a pity.    And it is a proven error in social planning and understanding.       What a sadness to see an error being promulgated so stubbornly in the face of common sense, no less.     When all of us now reaching out to kids are forced out of business I wonder what the government will actually do.      Will they do anything?   And who will thank them for it?

After 46 years in Kenya caring for children and watching them grow up, I have a lot of good memories of seeing them finally LEAVE, having gone through High, School College, and sometimes University whilst STILL anchored to the family home.  Able to return to us, to the family, for holidays and times of waiting when searching for a job.    IF we had turned them out at 18, where would they have stayed, what would they have eaten, and who would have been there for them in a time of need.    NO, it unthinkable to consider taking a child already having suffered the loss of home and family, and even of rejection, and then at a crucial period of life, make them go through it all again.     I personally went through it all when I was 16.     I survived, but not without a great deal of mental upheaval and emotional hurt.      I see no reason to do that to others when instead, with a little real care and concern I can help my children become men and women, able to stand confident and secure alone, with a job to feed them, and a foundation to steady themselves upon.  

I have said all this before on more than one occasion in writing up our other Blogsite (John Green's Notes from Kenya),      It is so appalling and frustrating that all that we have been and built up cannot now continue to be used to heal the pain and heartbreak of children, so that they become restored and happy adults.     My wife and I were able to build our home and fill it with the less fortunate whilst we all lived together as family.    We did it with GOD, and in His Spirit.      I may have just been for our lifetime.     It could have continued to provide examples of the many benefits of a stable, loving, and unselfish family life style.    And I can still say it, knowing that we were not perfect at all, and that we made many errors in our life together, yet without despairing, or giving or breaking faith with each other.     Give it a go - give GOD a change to make your marriage, your home, your family a BLESSING to and for others.     It will be well worth it.

JOB HUNTING

THE PROSPECT OF FINDING A FUTURE is crucially tied to finding work, a JOB that will pay enough to minimally pay for the necessities of life - and MORE, if you can get it!

When I first arrived in Kenya in the latter part of 1968 the population was put at approx. 13 million.   Job opportunities were more varied and less academically demanding.     For example with a Primary Certificate of Education one could be accepted for training as a Teacher or even a Nurse, and even more.   Additionally there were many Village Polytechnics which were open to those finishing Primary School, where trades such as Building, Electrical Wiring, Welding, Animal Husbandry and Farming could be learned.   Today it is a different world with a population that has more than trebled, and where Village Polytechnics have all but disappeared, and the Academic Qualifications needed to follow ANY profession has shut out any but the brighter Secondary School student.      Thus more and more are seeking jobs within a rising population, AND greater academic qualification and competition NOW contribute to what has become an Employment JAM.
There IS work to be had, of course, but usually of an unattractive nature such as casual labour; digging ditches, road sweeping and such like, all poorly paid and lacking in hope for the future; the
only recourse for many who drop out of school with no successful certificate.    Indeed there are some attempting these jobs today who have Degrees!

In 1968 fewer attended School; now Education is within the reach, theoretically, of all!!    And job opportunities have not increased noticeably.     The situation NOW, for young people growing up without wealthy parents, that might themselves set their children up in business or employ them themselves, is more and more frustrating and often hopeless.     This is an increasing problem facing our society in Kenya generally.      I wonder if any parent reading this may also be facing the same difficulties when considering how to get their sons and daughters started out in life  - especially those who are at the lower spectrum of academic success such as the 'average' or even less able student.

TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES has faced these advancing problems since they began, in 1969, being responsible for taking in and helping to grow and become independent citizens, orphaned and destitute children from all over the State.     In all the years up to the present we have seen more than
300 children (boys AND girls) come and go, with some 135 currently in residence.     An Average of say between 5 and 8 in any one year complete their education and seek Independence and a JOB.
No big deal, you may say,    True;  it is slow and expensive to take an infant child and bring it up till it can look the world in the face, and ready to stand on its on feet.     For all that we may not have to assist many of our seniors to find a future in any one year, yet it has become harder and harder to find jobs for them.
We are a Registered Charity, but one that is not endowed or funded by government or other sponsor.     We rely on public interest and giving without our Appeals or advertisement.   We have no influential help, and can be said to face the same challenges of any ordinary and helpless parent wondering how to move his/her child on in life.

THIS YEAR we have here, looking actively for employment only TWO young men.
BENSON CHEGE aged 23 has been resident with us since he was 14.   A smart boy in school, he is Graduating this week with a Diploma in Management from The Kenya Institute of Management.   He is very committed and hard working with determination to do well.  
JULIUS ASARIKWA aged 19 has been resident with us since he was 8.     Academically Julius did not do well,  He is not a dull boy, but his gifts are more physical than academic.    He attended Chepterit Polytechnic form 2013- 14, obtaining a Certificate in Building and Masonry (Grade 111).
He has been working this year as an 'on and off' casual for Mwangi Builders Ltd.     But he is currently out of a job being laid off for lack of work by the contractor.    He is a good, hardworking boy, of a quiet and reasonable disposition.

They are only TWO but so far we have not been able to get them settled, and of course we need to see them leave us and be independent since we are a Children's Home, and not really set up to be a home for unemployed young men - there is a queue of young kids waiting to find a refuge here.
Please do remember to pray for us, and our children, children without their own family or relative to assist or help them.     NEXT year we shall have 9 to look out for !!!  Well, we knew from the beginning we would have to be with them in learning to fly and in taking their first flight away from us.  We do not regret.    

IF YOU are in Business, and maybe Management, can I gently entreat you to consider the plight of our young people.     Be kind and compassionate in dealing with their applications for employment.
They need hope, at the least, to believe that one day someone will take the step of asking them in!

GOD DISPLACED!

TO US A CHILD IS BORN, a Child, who in his Manhood would DIE for us ALL, that we might be FORGIVEN.   And we are used to seeing pictorial images of His Birth as portrayed opposite - Mary and Joseph - centre with the Baby Jesus - the Shepherds and the Kings, all come to worship their Saviour.  Very traditional illustration, with Jesus centre stage, God's Gift to mankind.   The most necessary and invaluable acquisition to and for the life of EVERYONE.  
O COME LET US ADORE HIM..!

No, not in this photo.  No Holy Babe in the Manger here, but a RED BAG!!***   The photo above depicts Joseph and Mary (centre) seated behind the 'crib (table) in the 'cattle shed.' three 'wise men / kings' on the left and the two shepherds on the right all worshiping.   But not worshiping the infant King, soon to come again, but a RED BAG manufactured with the fashionable <Mulberry> label.
One Commercial venture to sell their product - but not with GOD in mind.     Of course the 'Advert' is intended to put the 'BAG' centre stage, and in such a way, to suggest its unique desirability to both rich and poor.    A bright idea?  Perhaps but totally irreligious and without any fear of God, or respect for those that do. Will the 'Bag' provide the need of a guilty soul, or the despair of a lonely soul?   Can it truly be seen as a necessary and invaluable acquisition for my life....surely I CAN do without it, and suffer no loss; surely this BAG is no more than a bag full of air, soon to wear out, and having to be replaced; a bag of wind, vainglorious, and worthless to the salvation of my life, my eternal soul.     How totally shocking and disastrously IGNORANT to put such a BAG, or any other bag or thing for that matter, in the place of Jesus Christ, in place of the Holiness of a Living God.   It is hugely sacrilegious and irreverent.
I pity those who invented this dark picture of commercial acquisitiveness.   I pity their blindness and lack of understanding.

This is the World at its worst.     It is so regardless as it shunts God out of His place and fill the space with material lust and vanity.
Such a GAUDY RED bag.      Did the 'Maker' also want to fake the Blood of Christ?   Well, no cheap piece of plastic or leather coloured red could ever do that, and it is BLOOD, real BLOOD alone that is able to take away the SIN of the world from your life and mine.    And not just any blood but INNOCENT BLOOD; blood without the taint of any evil - and WE have all sinned.  Our blood, in which is our life, IS tainted.   None of US can ransom another.  NO, only the blood of Christ, from Christ bleeding for us on the Cross can avail.
Only His life poured out willingly for us, can save or ransom us out of the hands of the Devil and Evil.      Only Christ is to be worshipped in the Manger - not some flimsy, idolised label on a BAG.

Well but I pray those who put this advert together will one day see the truth that is in Christ, and repent, and find forgiveness.   I do myself forgive them, but am distressed for them, for they encourage an outrageous concept and appreciation of all that Christmas and the Manger stand for; they desecrate and vandalise it with their red bag graffiti.

CHRISTMAS will soon be here again.    Christ's symbolic Birthday.   We should be remembering HIM, we should once more be bringing him some evidence of how we think of him like the Shepherds and the Kings........ Will you be bringing anything to lay before Him?......or will you, as the majority will, hope to get something for yourself, nicely wrapped, beneath the Christmas Tree?    I am sure there will be a number of red bags received....
Much good will they or any other thing, apart from Christ Himself, do for any of us.     Only He will do......and every year I look for Him above all other to fill and satisfy my life.    And HE never fails.     A curse on these abominable bags, and upon the deceit that turns the minds of men and women away from what alone is valuable..more valuable than the finest gold.