Praying for Kenya

A dear friend of mine, Henry Oyer, sent this to me earlier in the week. Henry is a leader in our local church, with an incredible kingdom perspective. Henry is from Nairobi, Kenya. To read more about what's happening in Kenya, click here.

Jambo!

Most of you are familiar with the situation on in Kenya. After spending a good Christmas party with the homeless kids, this was immediately after the election, most part of the country turned into a battle zones, I was there when everything just started. I could tell from the people that they would love to switch their positions with me. I remember a gentleman at the airport stated to me that "you are lucky you are leaving, it's going to be really bad here, and where are we going to go?" he asked. I didn't know what to tell the gentleman, I was just as confused as he was. Of course going to the States was so much better than staying in Kenya.

I will never forget the sadness and uncertainty I saw on the people's eyes there. Here I was, with my ticket heading back and the plane was leaving in a few hours. It was tough and still is. I think of everyone at home, I spend so sometimes trying to reach them but the phone would be ringing some but no one will pick it up. When I wake up in the morning I don't hear gun shots like I did in Nairobi, we used to watch the 7 o'clock news at night in Kenya and we would see people on the streets shooting each other in countries like Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan but never thought it will one day come this close to us. I probably don't have the right words to express the feeling of my people who are there right now, I don't worry when I drive down the main roads M-59 or I-75 that I maybe stopped or pulled over by the militia group to check what tribe am I from (NOTE: those are two major thoroughfares in Metro Detroit).

You all have probably heard that the government and opposition are working with the former UN secretary general - Kofi Annan to come up with a solution to end the violence. Both parties (government & opposition) appointed 4 members to represent them at the Kofi Annan's mediation group. Whatever they discuss in this meeting, they are therefore to go back and discuss with their parties and agree before coming back to the Annan's group and move forward. This last week Kofi Annan proposed a coalition government that will include the opposition to be part of the government. The mediator’s argument is that the government will not be able to run any business since it is a minority party in the parliament. The opposition won most of the seats in the parliament. Meeting continues this next week. The opposition felt cheated on the vote counting. They are working on a transitional government so that in 2 yrs from now, the country will go for a general election.

There is still hope; especially if the opposition agrees to be part of the government that they feel was unconstitutionally formed. Let’s keep praying that the lord will humble both parties and put the Kenyan people first and not their own interests.