Back from Rwanda

hello, i hope you are doing great! i have had a busy 10 days traveling and attending a conference. i was able to attend to a conference in kigali, rwanda for about 6 days. the sixth day actually was a visit to the city and the memorial center, where the remains of the genocide has been put aside for historical purposes. the visit to this site is scary, for those who are light hearted. this was my 4th visit to this place and so i was a bit hardened [prepared].

the greatest question that most folks need to ask ourselves is where were we in 1994? that [question] came back and forth in the conference. Brian Mclaren encouraged us to ask ourselves what we can do now in rebuilding the lost glory of neighborliness in our society...since what happens in your backyard, it ripples far and wide and the society needs to come to terms with that.

the conference was awesome. we had so many people from diverse backgrounds, some of them highly educated. sometimes u could feel out of place in front of all the phd's and masters degrees, but we were all serving our creator in one way or another. i face this reality when i presented a case for the post elections violence in kenya and what the church did. it was a frightening moment to answer for the whole country .....but i was glad to get God's inspiration to be able to present the case that was agreed to by the folks from home and there in Rwanda. The painful truth was that the church was divided, and we had little or no training on conflict management. Thank God we could pray.

The hardest part of the journey was travelling as we took the whole 2 days to arrive home. it was so tiring, i had to rest for a day or two so that i could continue with my normal duties again.
thanks alot for your prayers......

Because He lives
Jonah
p.s. enjoy the pics. there was a report about the american indians as well.....it was so nice.

Sigilai's Story

hello,

i hope u had a great day. today we had a visit to a home, headed by their old father named Sigilai. he is about 80 plus years old. in the early 40's he was working for the British settlers here and was given a big land as a reward for fighting in their army as well as being a good servant to them.

[Photo caption: Sigilai is the one with the "hanging ears"]

prior to the election last year. he was in his farm in Nyahururu. the farm is about 60 acres large. he had over 200 cows and over 300 sheep and goats. he also combined harvesters, tractors, house and many children from his 2 wives. he narrated to us, that he was rich and had never thought of getting help from anyone before. he considered himself that the Lord had given him favor, as he had no problem with food, and he had children as this is seen part of the blessing here. he told us he had gone to the Red Cross ..but his name could not be called several times for him to get what they need there...and so he left for his son's house here in Kericho.

his story was touching. sometimes we would laugh. but at last he said that "All things belong to God who gave us His blessings to use His hands for His work". though he felt sad, we feel that he still needs some counselling and prayers and felt encouraged too that he is coming closer to admitting that he needs God.

we continue to visit the home of many people like Sigilai every now and then to encourage them to depend on God and leave vengeance to Him. I hope u are encouraged by this.

have a great week
Jonah

New Beginnings

Last Friday I went with a team of Christian leaders to take food to the displaced in Eldoret (see my January 11th post). The next day I attended a wedding and it was a great break. It was also great because it is a demonstration of the blending of western and African cultural backgrounds. Not only that, it speaks to the love of God for all his people and how christians should be able to transcend racial divides.

The bride has been a missionary here in Kenya for several years and has been running an orphanage that cares for 29 children. The groom is from my tribe, the Kalenjin tribe of Kenya.

In Kalenjin culture, the family of the groom must pay a dowry to the family of the bride. In this case, the father of the bride is "planning" on taking the dowry (of cows) back to Ohio, USA. Dowries can also include sheep and/or goats.

Life is not yet back to normal here and the political situation is still tense. Please continue to pray for peace here in Kenya so that celebrations like this will continue and peace for all Kenyans will prevail. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Pastor Jonah

Grace Home, Rwanda and Me

Hi everyone,

I am so excited to report to you about what the Lord has been doing over here in East Africa. The Lord has continued to be with us at this time, though I can call this time, a hard time for us as we were attacked in all ways by the evil one. Here is a small report of what has been happening over the past few months.

Grace Home
The ministry at Grace home has been ongoing and we thank God for this opportunity to serve Him there. Grace has been going through some hard times during this past month as she has recently lost her dad. This was really the hardest part of it as the children had to be taken care of by someone else during this time.

Here in Africa, someone will not be burried until all the family members arrive. This was the most significant part for this family as they had to wait for their relatives who live very far apart to arrive. We thank God that they were all able to come to the funeral. We also thank God that Grace's father gave part of the land required for the contruction of the church for the church denomination that I serve with. Hopefully this will be finished soon and the people will be able to go there and worship.

My travels - Rwanda
I was fortunate to travel to Kigali, Rwanda to preach. I was really lifted by the way the country has changed over time and learned to accept the conflict that happened in that part of the world. We saw so many skulls and body bones that were spread everywhere in one of the churches that has been kept as a memorial center. This was really a
touching experience and you need to be the one who can to see it before you can really feel it and tell the story of what happened there. While we were there we were treated to a performance by Rwandan dancers. Here is a photo of the dancers.

My home and kids
The kids are doing great. Some of them are sitting for exams now. Please continue to pray for them. The Lord has continued to be their strength and I love the experience of watching them grow. We do pray that the needs here now can be met in one way or another by God's grace and provision....otherwise enjoy your day!!
and God Bless
Pastor Jonah