One small step for Anan...

One small step for Anan, one giant leap for Kenya! Well, mostly...

Amazingly encouraging news from yesterday… Many celebrated when they heard that miraculously, the ‘National Accord and Reconciliation Act’ had finally been signed. And it was truly a momentous announcement indeed. Few thought it would happen so soon or so relatively painlessly. But looking at the preliminary nature of the ‘National Accord and Reconciliation Act’ signed by our ‘primaries’, it’s clear that the signing of this document is just one small step; the first of a long journey.

And by all means so let’s celebrate. But let’s remember that we have miles to go before justice can truly be said to be our shield and defender. May God give us the courage to do as a nation and as individuals all we need to do, to ensure that we dwell in unity, peace and liberty, and that plenty will truly be found within our borders.

Living In Uncertain Times

The following are my favorite phobias from website www://phobialist.com that lists hundreds of phobias (editorial comments mine)

• Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth
• Dentophobia- Fear of dentists [hmmm… getting close]
• Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school [I think I used to have that one!]
• Glossophobia- Fear of speaking in public [naah…]
• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words [I just got that one!]
• Isolophobia- Fear of solitude, being alone [I thought that just came from being sanguine!]
• Kathisophobia- Fear of sitting down [that too!]
• Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables [yep, I tried to tell mom I was really sick!]
• Mageirocophobia- Fear of cooking [you know, I still get that one once in a while]
• Novercaphobia- Fear of your step-mother [nah, I’m one of those blessed men that has a great mom-in-law!]

Okay, I know... People have issues! But the last couple of months will probably go down in our recent history as the most fearful and anxious most Kenyans have ever experienced. Fear destroys our relationships, lowers our productivity and causes us to loose focus on the things that really count. Apart from those hard to pronounce phobias, there are also the deeper rooted fears that affect our life plans and limit what we can be. How can we learn to live confidently in such uncertain times? Here are 5 helpful P’s for when you're petrified…

1. Pinpoint – the place to begin is to acknowledge the fears that affect us. There are those we’re already aware of and perhaps also those we don’t even see and yet affect us greatly. For the latter, we might begin by praying, ‘search me O God and know my heart; see if there’s any anxious way in me’ (Psalm 139:23)

2. Ponder - think through the last few times you were driven by that fear. How did you react? How would you have reacted if you knew Jesus was physically present with you? His promise is ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’

3. Pray - begin to pray daily about those fears. That’s why Jesus taught us to pray ‘deliver from evil’. Specifically ask God each day to help you overcome the fears that affect you.

4. Prioritize - learning about God – search His word for scriptures you can memorize about your particular situation. God’s word is something we can hold on to no matter how tough our situation becomes.

5. Practice – Practice God’s presence daily as you face your fears. Remember His promises. One of my favorite is ‘the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?’ (Hebrews 13:6)

Hope In Naivasha

An encouraging story from Naivasha. A week ago, I was privileged to be among a small group of pastors from Nairobi who visited one of my favorite places in Kenya. Our mission: to meet representatives from the different pastor's fellowships in order to share the vision of Msafara (www.msafara.co.ke). Rather late in the day, we realized it was the first joint pastor's meeting since the violence in that town. Twist! The divisions that had happened there had not spared the church, and there was much tension even among the pastors present.

Feeling very inadequate, we challenged those at the meeting to put aside their differences and to work together to take back their city from anarchy. At some point, it seemed we were wasting time - such was the suspicion in the room; I imagine from the pain & injustice many of them had experienced. But then the miracle took place before our eyes; genuine confession and repentance took place among the pastors, and a commitment to work together was made. This last Sunday, most of the churches in town joined in a peace march to pray over their town.

Well, just spoke to one of the pastors. He tells me it went amazingly well. Of all the good things he described, the most amazing to me was; people at the event started to confess about the stuff they stole during the fracas and to ask where they could return it to! The pastors have designated one of the churches in town as a collection center for stolen goods to be returned.

There is hope in Naivasha!

Msafara - How Can I Get Involved?

Give - You could contribute care packs for the Internally Displaced. A care pack is a bag with some helpful toiletries for the displaced. Each gift pack will costs approximately 600/= to put together. You can mobilize your friends to give 10, 50, or a 100 care packs. Or like one of my friends did, you can get your company to donate 10,000! We are looking for 100,000 packs to give to fellow Kenyans who are displaced from their homes (see http://msafara.co.ke/reliefpacks.html for details on what a pack looks like).

Pray - If we ever needed to pray as Kenyans, this is the time! You can plan to attend the National Night of Prayer, this Friday (29^th Feb), at the appointed location nearest you (see last post). Following this is the National Week of Fasting from Feb 30^th – Mar 7^th during which we are encouraging all Christians to fast & pray for Kenya. The fast can be a full-day fast, a 3 day fast, or a total weeklong fast. If you live in one of the 5 towns Msafara will be visiting, please plan to join the prayer gatherings. For example, Nairobi’s prayer gathering will take place on Monday 10^th March at the KICC grounds. The target is to raise up 1,000,000 people to pray nationwide.

Come - At each stop, volunteers will spend a day caring for, crying with and helping the internally displaced people. They will distribute gift packs, bless and pray for the hurting. During the prayer gatherings, they will be on standby to help where needed and also to pray with believers from other towns. So sign up and come! The target is to raise 200 volunteers and 100 pastors to go on the road trip together (see http://msafara.co.ke/wasafiridelegateform.html for details).

Msafara – 10 days to go

Thanks to the many who are supporting the initiative. There are around 40 full-time volunteers at the secretariat’s headquarters, at Nairobi Baptist Church. Different NGO’s and corporations have come on board to help assist with sponsorship. For example, UNICEF has pledged 5M worth of care packs and GTZ has pledged 2M towards the humanitarian effort. UUNET has donated two months internet access to the secretariat while World Relief has donated 1000 L worth of diesel! Many of these gifts have come through as different individuals have taken the initiative to bring the organizations they work for on board. Perhaps you can do the same? We still need as much help as we can get and every little bit counts!

Msafara Website

The Msafara initiative continues to gather momentum. Check out the new website www.msafara.co.ke to learn more about how you can be involved.

Many churches across Kenya have signed on to Msafara and many more are signing on! Churches involved so far come from Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Naivasha, Thika and Voi. In some places, churches are even conducting ‘mini-msafaras’! Yesterday for instance, churches in Naivasha held a joint peace march around town. A great beginning for an urban center that was greatly affected by the violence.

In addition, countless churches across the country will be engaging in a joint night of prayer on this Friday (Feb 29^th). Churches in Nairobi that will be hosting the prayers include International Christian Center, NPC Central, NPC BuruBuru, Good Shepherd Church, Solution Center, All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi Mission Church and Deliverance Church Umoja. We even have a church in Daresalaam joining us in prayer that night (see www.fota.or.tz)!

All this is extremely encouraging. Most of us in Nairobi don’t realize just how polarized the country is, especially in places like the Rift Valley. In areas where militias rule and fear is the order of the day, the Kofi Anann mediation only addresses a tip of the ice-berg. As I have traveled to some of these towns, I have become even more convinced about how urgently we need to mobilize the church to do the work of peace-building and care if we would want to see our beloved nation whole again.

So, why Kenya?

Even George Bush is sending Condi Rice here to - in the words of the NTV anchor last night - continue the ‘carrot and stick approach’ of the international community. He even knows exactly what we need, a ‘power sharing arrangement’.

So why Kenya? Why all this international attention? What makes us merit the kind of attention from Western countries that we are receiving? What makes us worthy of Kofi Anan’s undivided and fully paid for attention for ‘as long as it takes?’

Is it our GDP? 12B USD a year is negligible (in comparison, 5 US banks wrote of 100B USD recently during the sub-prime mortgage crisis).

Is it our population? 30 million is not even 5% of Africa’s population. Is it our wildlife? TZ has more. Is it our natural resources? We haven’t discovered oil like Sudan and Uganda. We don’t have reserves of natural gas like Tanzania. We don’t have the rich mineral reserves of DRC.

Is it because we are such warm people? Is it because they just like us so much?

How quickly we forget the lessons of Africa’s history? That the West has few interests except itself?

When will we stop fighting each other long enough to ask ourselves why?

Sorry Day

On Wednesday, an amazing event happened in Australia, Sorry Day. Kevin Rudd the newly elected Prime Minister officially apologized on live television to the Aboriginal people of Australia for a dark era in their history, when discrimination against them was institutionalized.

For example, the so called ‘stolen generation’ resulted from the legally sanctioned forced removal of children of mixed parentage (white & Aboriginal) from their homes, after which they were handed to white families to raise. This practice, that stopped only 35 years ago, resulted in heartbreaking trauma, loss of language and cultural identity, mental & emotional breakdowns etc. The humble and sincere address, without excuses was something that previous governments have failed to do. It was accompanied by a pledge to work harder for the betterment of the aboriginal population and an appeal to all Australians to work together for the good of their nation.

(for more on Sorry Day, see - www.abc.net.au/perth/stories/s2161838.htm)

Sorry day… sounds like something we’ll need down the road around these parts.

So who’s the real enemy?

Who’s the perpetrator and who's the victim? Is it the Kikuyus, the Luos, the Kalenjins, the rest of the country, PNU, ODM? You can almost predict the answer depending on who’s talking or blogging. As I’ve listened to stories from all over the country though, I’ve come to see how biased we (including myself) all are, and how we tend to gravitate towards news that confirms our biases and to shut out news that confronts them.

Unfortunately, the longer we take to start building bridges towards one another, the harder it will be to ever heal and become one nation. I believe it was Mahatma Ghandhi who said ‘if we all practice an eye for an eye, the whole world will soon be blind’. At some point, someone is going to have to decide to stop the vicious cycle.

It’s only when we come to realize how biased we really are that we can develop the humility to listen empathetically to the other side. To recognize they too are human and have a valid opinion. And to realize that as Kenyans, we’re like a married couple; if you win, we both lose. How can we come to the place where we learn to strengthen those areas where we agree, to dialogue over those we don’t, and to respectfully agree to disagree over the things we’ll never see eye to eye on? If we're wait for the politicians to lead us, we might as well begin to prepare for Kenya’s funeral.

Polarization exists right now in our offices, neighborhoods and even in cyberspace. You can choose to remain part of the problem, or you can decide to be part of the solution.

In the words of a famous prayer, ‘Lord grant me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change, the courage to change those things I must change, and the wisdom to know the difference’

The real enemy is within!

Msafara - We sure need hope!

One of the amazing untold stories in these last few weeks has been the response of the church nationally to the present crisis. Many churches have given tremendously through their people and resources towards the work of looking after the displaced. In some of the worst hit areas, small congregations have labored to shelter and provide for those without. Every day I hear new stories of valor, such as that of the pastor in Eldoret who’s hosting 25 orphans & lost children from different tribes in his small house and sharing all he has with them.

An exciting initiative that’s been recently launched is ‘Msafara – Wheels of Hope’. Msafara means ‘convoy’. The vision of Msafara is to lead 300 pastors and Christians from different churches in Kenya to 5 major towns over 10 days on a mission to unify churches, conduct large scale healing/reconciliation ceremonies and distribute humanitarian supplies.

Msafara is seeking to raise 100,000 hygiene kits to distribute to the displaced across the country. What’s a hygiene kit? Thought you’d never ask! See the list below. If you are able to put together one (or a thousand), please drop it/them at the Nairobi Baptist Church, where the secretariat is housed. Or if you work in downtown Nairobi, you could leave it at the Memorial Park, which is the downtown collection center.

You can contact the Msafara secretariat on 0733-678311, 0722-219330 or info@msafara.co.ke

****

Women’s kit (approx. 800/-)
Bathing Soap (large)
Tooth paste (50ml)
Toothbrush
Slippers
Sanitary towels (2 packets)
Kangas (2)
Whole Bar Soap
Plastic Afro Comb
Petroleum Jelly

Men’s kit (approx. 400/-)
Bathing Soap (large)
Tooth paste (50ml)
Toothbrush
Slippers
Whole Bar Soap
Plastic Afro Comb
Petroleum Jelly Jar

Children’s kit (approx. 400/-)
Bathing Soap (large)
Tooth paste (50ml)
Toothbrush
Slippers
Whole Bar Soap
Plastic Afro Comb
Exercise book
Pencils (2)
Rubber
Petroleum Jelly Jar

edit - there's been a update on the composition of the kits.

Kenyan Heroes – Hotel Bogoria?*

William Kimosop is a KWS Warden stationed in the Bogoria area. In January after the violence broke loose, he helped 865 people of all ethnic groups from the Solai area that were hiding in a ravine. Unable to report to the police or army for fear of compromised officers in both forces, he single handedly hid and protected the group, and managed to send out an appeal for help. The situation was desperate as there was no food and water; several babies were even born to women among the group. A truck from the Red Cross finally reached the group on Feb 1^st. time.

William managed to get all the 865 people out of the ravine to a safer location, with the help of his government pickup truck and a few donkeys. He continued to be involved afterwards in connecting separated families.

If this is a true story, then there truly are heroes who walk among us!

I found this one on a Kenyan blog (ushahidi.com). Can’t vouch for it’s veracity but it makes for an inspiring read!

Kenyan Heroes – Fearless Hospitality

During the chaos that has engulfed much of the country, Pastor Ngari’s church has provided their compound to host around 230 internally displaced people, mostly from the Rift Valley. With help from many concerned Nairobians, they have provided each family with a tent, provided food, toiletries, medicine and clothes, and turned their main church hall into a classroom where volunteer teachers give lessons daily to the numerous children. Several media stations have featured this courageous and engaged pastor.

A less known story about him though. Last week, there were many ominous rumblings from many of the areas outlying the capital city, which have a high Kikuyu population. Leaflets were found in many areas, purportedly from vigilante group Mungiki, with threats for non-Kikuyus to leave the area. This was followed by a mass exodus by many into nearby police stations and chief’s camps. Pst. Ngari realized that he needed to take action.

With the help of a friend, he mobilized a group of pastors of Kikuyu origin from some of these areas. His challenge to them… it would be tragic if they allowed their communities to become guilty of bloodshed. The pastors took the message to heart and mobilized fifty fellow pastors, challenging them to commit to become peace-makers in their communities and to protect all minority groups. Many of them have been actively working on a counter-propaganda campaign, challenging young men in their areas to resist outside influences that seek to divide their harmonious communities.

Oh that many others would follow this pastor’s lead.

Truly, there are heroes who walk among us!

Kenyan Heroes – When Leaders Lead*

Kimani was born and brought up in Lugari, near Eldoret, an area mostly inhabited by the Luhya and Kalenjin people. Kimani grew up speaking both Luhya and Kalenjin, and only learnt Kikuyu in college! After the major eruption of violence on Dec 30, his mother’s two buildings including the granary with the year’s produce was burned and her 8 cattle and 20 goats stolen. This act of terror was carried out by neighbors whom she had lived with harmoniously for 42 years.

Their local member of parliament, Cyrus Jirongo however decided to give leadership to his constituents. He put away his limousine and rode a bicycle to every village speaking to the people and showing them the folly of what they had done. They took the cue! They invited back mama Kimani (as well as others who had been chased away). Different members of the community, in remorse and as a sign of their repentance, took from their own produce and animals and restored what the she had lost!

We need more such actions from our leaders! Pray for an event in Nairobi on 9^th Feb where a Christian organization is bringing together 200 key leaders from across the political divide to commit to healing and re-building Kenya.

In Kimani’s words, ‘my mother is now overwhelmed by the kindness of the people she has lived with for 42 years. On a phone call to her this morning she told me that she wants to live the rest of her life with them and express her gratitude to this community where love and sacrifice for each others sake has always been the way of life’

Many politicians have spoken about peace and reconciliation. Kudos to a man who chose to lead instead of talk…

Truly, there are heroes who walk among us!

*As narrated by two different sources, one who knows the MP and the other who knows Kimani…

Kenyan Heroes – Joy’s Journey

I want to share a few great stories that have recently come my way...

........................

Like all middle class Nairobians, Joy (32) was troubled by what was going on in her nation. But unlike most of us, she found it impossible to take shelter in her house and watch the nation burn on TV.

Around the 10^th of January, we heard with horror about the church that had been burnt with almost 200 Kenyans in it. Joy and three other friends could take it no more, and they hurriedly filled two cars with supplies, attached makeshift flags & stickers to disguise themselves as Red Cross workers, and drove off into some of the worst areas affected by the violence!

The next few days will forever be etched in their minds. Along the way, they met with groups of armed young men, many of whom had participated in the atrocities. They also had a chance to help the soldiers who were working to dismantle the roadblocks (!) They prayed with and comforted villagers who had been evicted from their villages, and watched with some as their homes burnt down. They shared all they had, until all that was left was their empathy and prayer. Joy talks of hugging crying people, sitting silently by their side, crying with them…

Incredibly, they found themselves at the smoldering ruins of the church that had been burnt. As they stood looking at the white ashes, they met a young man, Stephen, the son of the woman in the wheelchair. He had discovered about his mother’s death along with the rest of us when we watched the story on national TV. This was the first time he had made it to the church. The charred wheelchair was easily visible among the ashes. Stephen was clearly dazed. It was people he knew who had done this to his mother. Joy and her friends once more gave all they had – they hugged and mourned with him, prayed for him…

I heard from Joy about many brave pastors… of tiny, unknown churches on the ground… who chose not to flee even when they could. Not as long as there were people who needed to be cared for.

Despite all the fear and danger, not a hand was laid on any of the team members, and they returned safely to Nairobi, having been to the epicenter of the violence, including Eldoret.

Most of us by now would have felt we’d played our part but not Joy. She then helped organize a team from several churches and mission organizations together and once more led them into great danger, as they delivered a truckload of food and clothes to displaced people’s in Burnt Forest. On the way, their convoy was stoned at least once. When they got their, they spent time with the people and also organized a multi-denominational church service, where people for the first time were able to process what they had gone through. Many of them committed to not continuing the cycle of violence…

Truly, there are heroes who walk among us!