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Some beautiful flowers in Kenya.
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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.
Finally there is good news from Kenya. The politicians have a greed to work together ...we are so excited, everyone is talking about it.....and the economy is expected to pick up again, although we hear there is some kind of recession in the world economy. Nonetheless we are a happy people. atleast everyone is thinking the same way....and that is the country we want to build.
We also give our thanks to you for your prayers ..and not forgetting the former united nations secretary Dr. Koffi Annan, Former president of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa and Nelson Mandela's wife Graca Machel. They all spent their time seeking peace that was almost going to be elusive for us here in Kenya.
am just sitting here at cybercafe..and i am hearing ODM ... JUU and Raila JUU.
this is the scene happening here..right now, people are wishing each other happy new year.. and it seems it is a start of a new chapter.
the two protagonists finally accepted a power sharing deal between their two parties. Kofi Annan is the man of the moment. he has led the negotiations from the start, and we are really so excited.
The former UN Chief has had dilly dally moments when he was here. sometimes the two negotiating teams could not agree, but he stood his ground, and made Kenya to be a one united Kenya again.
we are happy that this deal has been appended with signatures, but we are sad that it took so long for them to see this..... a lot of damage has been done already.. about 1500 lives lost, over 350,000 displaced, what a country this was.... but we call that [violence], an accident. we will start mending the country again.
This week schools re-opened in Kenya for younger children but many schools have yet to open due to lack of teachers and students caused by continuing tensions in the country. Also, some schools are being used to house the displaced.
In this environment it is challenging to have business as usual and to care for the orphans and widows here. Since my first post on this blog, the numbers of children in our care has grown from just under 40 children to just over 200 children in and around Kericho village. Please continue to pray for our ability to help the helpless and also for opportunity to do what we can to assist the displaced. If you can support us financially in this work, I would be happy to hear from you. May God bless.
Because He lives, Pastor Jonah
James 1:27 (New International Version)
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
We covet your prayers for peace and unity in Kenya, for godly wisdom for all the leaders, for food and shelter for the displaced, for our team's efforts to help them, and for our on-going ministry needs to help the orphans and widows of Kericho. May God bless you.
I wanted to briefly let you know of the situation here in Kericho, Kenya (my home city) and the work I have been involved in this week .....feeding the over 30,000 displaced people and offering a hand in helping in other situations caused by the post-election violence here.
We, as the Church in Kenya have challenged ourselves to save the situation because if the Church cannot do this, then who can???!!! Please continue to pray for peace here. We really value your prayers for our country and our people.
Note: Presidential elections were held in Kenya on December 27, 2007. Kenya's Electoral Commission declared incumbent President, MwaiKibaki as the winner. Subsequently violence broke out over belief that the election outcomes were rigged. Since then over 500 people have been killed in violent clashes across Kenya and many businesses ravaged in various parts of the country. What follows is Pastor Jonah Kipkorir's update after returning to his home in Kericho, Kenya after being stranded in Nakuru (several hours away from Kericho) due to lack of safe passage on the highways.
Hello.
I just wanted to update you that calm is slowly returning to Kenya and we are truly so excited. We thank God for what He has done for us. God's hand has been seen in this and we are really so grateful.
I am personally thankful to God for allowing me to travel home as I was held up in Nakuru for 4 or 5 days. I could not travel back to my home in Kericho since there were no buses. The day after the 27th (election day) was very hard for us and we feel as if months of violence has occurred since then. There are a few specific cities that are still under immense burden of displaced people but overall we feel that calm has returned to the country and people have started to travel and start their normal duties. Goods too are moving from the Port (in Mombassa) and people from the neighboring countries, have I believe, been able to get gas and medication that is needed at this time.
We truly thank God for you; for praying for us. At the same time we thank the governments of the west and Africa, especially Britain and US, Canada and all other great countries of the day for their insistence on a way thru' in this hard moment.
Please continue to pray for the displaced people that have camped in Eldoret, Nakuru and my hometown of Kericho. As I write to you now, I have been involved in counselling and distribution of food to the displaced. We believe that the Lord will guide us and we will be out of this situation even stronger.
