Kenyan photographer

How are things here? There is violence still in Rift Valley and

Kisumu. Mombasa is much better now. The problem as been tribalism

has sipped in to Nairobi . Last week there was tension near Ngong

hills as communities armed themselves in fear that they would be

attacked. My parents live in Ngong. Most Kenyans are just tired of

all thats going on. Personally I have decided to pray more and to

trust in God. The situation seems so hopeless without God in the

picture. I have stopped being so angry at our leaders and decided to

be the change I want. To be more tolerant of other people and to pray

and trust God.

Our church leaders seem to have stepped up. They have been vocal

about issues of peace and justice. They have even called for people

who were involved in acts of violence to repent. I think most people

are beginning to listen to the church. I believe it the Christians

who will eventually make the biggest difference.

In my work in Kibera I have seen so much suffering. Whether it's the

Kikuyus or Luos. I have seen a 13 year old girl shot dead by the

police. I have taken pictures that have remained etched in my mind.

I have also gotten to understand a little about the complexity of the

situation. There is so much injustice and poverty in Kenya that the

poor feel very hopeless. They don't have any hope in the leaders who

rule us. They have no hope for tomorrow. When someone doesn't have

hope then they have nothing to lose. When you are extremely poor then

you have nothing to lose and fear nothing. That is one of the

problems with Kenya.

At times I guess things get so dark before the light shines through. I

believe that our friends in Chapel Hill are praying with us. I know

that God hasn't forgotten us and he will come through for Kenya.

Caravan of Hope

I had promised to write and let you know how you can help us in these difficult days. On Thursday last week, a number of pastors met asking - "What more can the men & women of God do in our present crisis? What more can the church do?" After much discussion they agreed to do 5 important things within the next 1-3 months.

1. Mobilize the church to spiritually cleanse this nation.
Before the election several politicians engaged the help of a well-known witchdoctor from Tanzania, to come and pray over the towns and provinces they were claiming victory over.  The witchcraft was conducted in Kisumu, Eldoret, Nairobi and Mombasa - the very epi-centers of the violence we have experienced. What demonic influence did that act unleash upon this nation? How do we close the floodgate or portal that he opened up? And what of the floodgates that have been opened out by the bloodletting, the killing and the burning of churches?

Our politicians will broker for peace; the business community to restart business, but only the church can cleanse this nation spiritually. If we do not do so - people will turn back to the old ways, charms and witchcraft for spiritual protection against the evil that has been unleashed.

In preparation for the spiritual cleansing, Christians will be called to a concerted, unified time of fasting and prayer.

2. Mobilize churches to take in Internally Displaced People.
Nakuru is full, and cholera is a real risk. Tigoni got 7,000 new IDP's last week because of new threats to certain tribes. It is the same all around the country. We need to open up our church doors, and allow these houses of God to be 'shelters' in this hour of need. Let people associate the Church with mercy and help. If we play safe with our buildings, or do not want the inconvenience - God may well declare 'Icabod'.

But what if a church is not an ideal set-up for IDP? Compared with where they are staying right now, almost all our churches are much better places. Karura Community Church shared their story. They are in a tent, with prefab Sunday School buildings, but they still took in 250 people. God has blessed them in amazing ways as a result.

  a. A borehole has now been installed for them since
     they did not have enough water for the IDP's.

  b. Someone has erected a fence around their property
     to help define the grounds for the IDP's.

  c. They are not well known in Runda and had intended
     to reach out to the community and increase their
     visibility this year; but because they took in the
     IDP's, the Runda Welfare Association wrote to all
     the homes in Runda asking them to visit Karura and
     help the IDP's. In one fell stroke they are now
     known in all the homes in Runda in a very positive
     light.

  d. The rural villages along Limuru/Banana road used
     to say Karura is for rich folks'. But because
     they took in the IDP's, many residents in the area
     have reviewed their perception of the church, and
     have been visiting to help.

  e. KP&L [Kenya Power and Light?] also installed a
     3-phase electrical connection to help them have
     more power.

We can all try and do more for the internally displaced people. Many do not even want to "stay" in a camp, they just want help to go home squared. Many others are pleading for a little help and capital to rent a room for 3 months, and to restart up their business ventures asap. What can each church do?

3. Use the media to speak a message of hope to the nation.
There are far too many negative stories in the paper, and not enough stories of Christians helping others; stories of grace, etc. We will use the media (even if it means purchasing space) to tell positive stories, give pastoral letters, mobilize the churches to act as one, etc. We shall also work to have a voice in the local community FM stations, especially in the rural areas.

4. Mobilize the church to community networking.
One church told how, when pamphlets started going around threatening people of a certain community, how it had called together all the church leaders in the community and agreed they would not allow the community to be ruled by fear. So the leaders went out into the community and started encouraging people on the streets, meeting places, etc to reject division, embrace tolerance, and actively reach out to one another . . . and it worked. They then teamed up with the DO, Chief, etc and have instituted a community program to make people positively aware on what their community will stand for. We can network other churches and interested parties for peace.

5. Mobilize the church for a Caravan of Hope.
The pastors agreed to mobilize 200-500 pastors from all over Kenya to conduct a Caravan of hope march from Mombasa to Nairobi to Nakuru to Eldoret to Kisumu, visiting all the hot-spots, conducting cleansing services,counseling the traumatized, bringing food and supplies and hope to the displaced, comforting the bereaved, healing the sick.

Because this is a statement by the church, on a national scale, hopefully ministering to the whole nation, the desire will be to mobilize as many pastors as possible, to dress in collars, and to minister together as a sign of unity, doing that which only the church can do. 500 ministers together would speak to this nation.

The caravan will take a week from Mombasa to Kisumu. This is not a physical march, but a caravan of vehicles. The caravan will mobilize the local pastors of these places, and as the church of Kenya, commission them to go after the cleansing, and cleanse other areas in their province, hence covering a much wider area.

We are also suggesting that the "Caravan of Hope" mobilize funds and rebuild the AOG church that was burnt down in the Rift Valley, plus build a memorial for the many who died there as they sought shelter in the house of God.

Secretariat - To make all this possible, it was suggested that a secretariat be set up with the sole purpose of mobilizing the church and planning logistics. The secretariat will be led by those pastors who are willingly giving up their usual church work to focus on this single task alone (because they cannot ably fulfill their church responsibilities AND ALSO run the secretariat, without burning out).

The purpose of the secretariat will not be to highlight any particular church or denomination, but to mobilize the goodwill and participation of as many churches and ministers as possible, so we can act together as the church in Kenya. Once this work is done, the secretariat will disband. Work will begin immediately with those already available.

I will serve as a point person at the secretariat as my co-pastors have graciously freed me to mobilize others. Already 30 members of Chapel have also volunteered to serve full-time at the secretariat. Several computers and office equipment/desks have also been donated. We are presently looking for offices to set up this week.

Can I plead with you to be help us with this effort? Our biggest need will be funds to mobilize the whole church, and funds to care for and feed the displaced people we take in or minister to. We also need you to pray - mobilizing the church without falling into the battle of disunity & personal agenda's will take the Lord . . . but we must try, and we must believe that the church of Christ can rise above that for the sake of the nation. Please help if you can.

[Reader: if you would like to assist the church of Kenya in rising to this challenge, you can send a check payable to the nonprofit (501c3) organization, Africa Rising (PO Box 16964 Chapel Hill, NC, 27516), with "Caravan of Hope" in the memo line. Africa Rising will send the funds in their entirety to the Kenyan pastor who wrote this blog entry.]

A Kenyan woman

Thanks Pastor Jim for the continued prayer for our country, we are truly greatful and know that God will come through for us. yesterday the planned rally kinda did not take place because it rained the whole day till around one pm so people were able to work in the better part of the morning. We pray that the situation will be okay soon.

Kenyan Director of a micro-finance nonprofit

I wish to thank you for your continued concern and support during this very difficult moment in Kenya’s history. We have been a peaceful Country in a generally troubled region and people sort of took the peace for granted.

The country is now battered almost to a pulp and blood spilt with vengeance, senseless killings and wanton destruction. Markets, food stores and shops have been looted. Hospitals are dysfunctional and health centers incapacitated by riots and barricades. The violence, death and destruction witnessed in the Country for the last couple weeks has jolted the Nation into conscience and every body is now craving normalcy.

While peace is slowly returning to all affected parts of the Country, the impact of the riots has been devastating. Hundreds of people have been killed turning thousands of innocent children into helpless orphans and over one million people have been displaced, becoming internal refugees over night.

The impact of the riots is most felt in the micro and small business sector. Over 1 million small businesses were looted and or burnt down destroying the only source of income to millions of Kenyans. Most of the fighting and destruction occurred in slum areas in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Kericho in Rift Valley. These regions are home to over 70% of [our nonprofit's] clients and as you can imagine almost all of our
clients in these regions have been affected by the riots. Only one region- (Mount Kenya) which is home to about 20% of [our] clients was spared the violence. The economy in this safe region is now getting stretched as the residents have to now house the displaced population.

We have recently completed auditing the riot’s impact on our clients and as of yesterday about 4,900 of our clients had been badly affected by the riots:

-- About 1,532 of our clients were displaced and both their homes and business premises burnt down. This population is currently housed in church compounds and police stations.

-- Another 2,479 clients had their business premises burnt down or looted leaving them with no source of income at all.

-- 833 clients had their homes looted or burnt down and about 56 clients are missing and feared dead or critically injured.

We arrived at these figures through a survey being administered at holding grounds, police stations, and through reliable reports from groups and community leaders. Our staff and local group officials have also been committed to conducting field assessments. The biggest tasks at the moment are to feed and house the displaced people, and to finance the reconstruction of the small businesses that were affected in order to enable the people to reclaim their source of income. In addition, [our nonprofit] is now helping other [micro-finance institutions] audit their clients.

[Our nonprofit] has formed the following committees to address the above issues:

-- A humanitarian committee that is working with the International Red Cross to provide food, shelter and medical care to the victims.

-- A business reconstruction committee that is working with the affected clients to re finance and rebuild the small businesses that were looted and/or burnt down.

-- A compliance committee that is studying the legal and contractual aspects of the affected loans to arrive at the best policy action.

Thus, we ask for your continued patience as many loan repayments will be late, and it even may be impossible for some loans to be repaid in full at all. Thank you for your patience as we work hard to address all of these difficult issues, to serve our borrowers and help them recover, and to repay loans as quickly and as much as is possible in the coming months.

[note from Jim T: if you would like to make a loan (or donation) through this micro-finance nonprofit, send me an email and I will give you the contact information.]

American woman living in Kenya

Starting Tuesday-they are/were calling for more rally's-here we go again!!!

So far everything has been fine.

In church Sunday we really focused again on praying for the country and the situation([deleted] is using it all for a wonderful sermon series). Things that we were asked to pray for:
1) unified prayers to the Lord-that we would be heard as one big voice.
2) Power and strength to go on, as people are tired and discouraged, etc. and they serve the displaced.
3) For the church and its leaders so they will know how to lead and be a voice...that they continue to know how to respond.

During prayer time we prayed in pairs and the Kenyan gentleman I sat next to and prayed with-we both talked about the sadness we felt for Kenya but he asked for prayer for "Softening of hearts esspecially Rilia's and Kibabki's. As the talks go on this week....

Kenyan pastor #3

This country never really addresses these issues [tribalism, poverty, and spiritual crisis] but keeps sweeping them under the carpet. Right now there are multiple calls for “Peace, Peace”, but as has been said “Peace that is not founded on Justice cannot last. And Justice at the expense of Peace is a terrible burden”.

But Kenyans will likely sweep this one under the carpet too, and not deal with the real issues. So at the next elections it will resurface again . . . or sooner than that, and tip us over the abyss that was Rwanda.

Anyway – we now have a huge humanitarian crisis we are trying to deal with. As a church we responded quickly, and people were very generous . . . but this will be a long-term crisis because so many were displaced and all their earthly possessions burnt down. Sigh.

A Kenyan man

Thanks for your prayers. There seems to be a glimmer of hope. My prayer is that we get a lasting solution now that there is some peace.

The president named half of his cabinet today evening and that has stirred some violence in Mathare and other areas. Ngong road was clearer today evening at an earlier hour than usual considering its a working day. It seemed that people were rushing out of the city centre.

We still need you to pray with us.

Barikiweni sana