Kenya in crisis

World events matter. Paying attention to the news matters. God's in control everywhere, and his people are affected by "stuff going on over there" in all corners of the globe. The world seems to be getting smaller by the day, criss-crossed by fiber optic cables allowing light-speed communication.

Here's an email I just got from my church & pastor. Our church has a close relationship with a network of Nairobi Chapel churches in Kenya, and Pastor Oscar as well as other pastors and worship teams from there have come to visit & preach at our church on a number of occasions.

Dear Grace Family, I just received an insightful and disturbing email from Pastor Oscar Muriu from our partner church, The Chapel, in Nairobi. It is in regards to the growing post election crisis in Kenya. If you are unaware please take a look at this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7166932.stm . Oscar has asked that we not distribute his email. But I have clipped a few lines from it to give you a feeling for his perspective: The country erupted into riots immediately – burning, looting, targeting Kikuyu’s, etc. It was bad in the towns around Kenya, but probably worse in the farmlands where people are isolated and unprotected. The towns are being heavily policed now but already many have died. All business has halted so food items can’t be distributed. Supermarkets are weary and locked down, banks are closed, ATM’s are running dry – we’ve been on ‘holiday’ for 8 days – there is no food in the city, and the slums are almost exploding because now people are angry and hungry. Worse still is that most slum people have only resources for 1 day – they are day laborers, no reserves – so if there was food in the markets but no work – they would still not survive because they are paid a day’s wage at a time. If you were to put the situation on a scale of 1 – 10 with Rwanda at 10, we are probably at a 4, but with the potential to quickly escalate to a 7 or 8. We are not yet at a 10. We’re mobilizing people to fasting and prayer (Sunday is a national day of prayer), we are trying to bring all the church leaders under one unifying banner, and we are going to work at the need for repentance for our extreme partisan politics As you can see this is very volatile and could get worse. I am asking Grace Community Church to do several things… Keep abreast of the situation as best we can (probably internet or through contact with our friends) Mount some concerted prayer for the next several days culminating with a day of prayer and fasting on Sunday for Kenya Thanks and…*sigh*…Happy New Year. Dave Rodriguez Senior Pastor