Ironically, the last date I posted an entry on this blog was the day the turmoil in Kenya began--election day, or close to it. As you probably know, the election was a disaster. The results were announced after a lengthy delay of several days, and then were contested by the losing candidate who accused the incumbent of "rigging" the election. Consequently, violence reigned for weeks in Nairobi, especially the massive slum of Kibera, and spread throughout the Rift Valley. As in Rwanda not too many years before, the root of the killing appeared to be politically motivated pitting the ruling tribe against another populous but oppressed tribe. When will the story end? Hundreds lost their lives as gangs of youths took to the streets with machetes and torches destroying property along with innocent people. Hundreds of thousands are now added to the homeless population.
It was hard for me to endure the news reports, both from the press and from my fellow missionaries in Nairobi. I had spent a day in Kibera, worshipping in a small church nestled in the center of the maze of the slum. It was a joyful & spiritually uplifting time of praise and dancing and Bible studying--one I will never forget. To this day, I don't know if the people I worshipped with there are dead or alive...
I realized at the time I was there last spring that tension was building among resident Kenyans and expat missionaries in anticipation of the first election in 5 years. I had no idea it would erupt into ongoing murder and mayhem, day after day, week after week.
You can imagine the bewilderment and frustration that I felt knowing I had frequented those very streets and neighborhoods where people were being slaughtered. I was furious with the competing politicians who seemed more bent on clinging to power or inciting riots than on the health of the community for which they sought to lead. It made no sense. It was Rwanda all over again, but this time in my Kenya! It's been said by some that the chaos and catastrophe had been simmering to a boil for many decades, as an unfortunate byproduct of generations of British colonialism which pitted tribe against tribe as part of a "divide and conquer" strategy for maintaining British rule & power. I actually heard that from my last tour-van driver whom we hired for one final hiking safari in the lovely Rift Valley setting of Lake Naivasha. Those very towns we drove through and even stopped in to shop were decimated during the uprising after the election. How could this be??? It seemed surreal.
After many pleas by diplomats and national leaders worldwide, Kofi Annan helped broker a tenuous power-sharing post-election government in which both key rivals for president--incumbent Kibaki and opposition leader Odinga, finally now appear to be working as co-leaders. This "peace agreement" took months to create and is still under construction it appears. I have received numerous letters and updates from Kenyan friends and fellow missionaries at Rafiki Village, but I don't feel privileged to relay them here without permission. I'm told it is safe for tourists to return, that the violence is internal between the two main tribes, not directed at foreigners. No one that I know over there has abandoned ship.
Imagine my dismay when I learned that this election nightmare is now being repeated this month in Zimbabwe, another one of the 10 countries in which Rafiki is planting a village/orphanage/school. When I checked my email this morning, I was alarmed and saddened, indeed heart-sickened, to find this forward from my friend Mercy, the beautiful 30+ year-old daughter of a former Kenyan diplomat. Mercy has sent me spiritually uplifting devotionals on a regular basis from various sources, of which she seems to have many. This letter she forwarded on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe, reportedly written by a 16-year old victim of poverty and despair, came as a complete surprise, and totally out of character from Mercy's usual cheerful forwards. I feel comfortable sharing it here because the email asked us to share with as many compassionate prayer warriors as we could. I can't check "snopes" to verify the authenticity of the author or contents, but I'm afraid it doesn't matter. This could have been written by anyone living in the Kibera slum of Kenya, or Sudan, or Rwanda... the list goes on. The struggle for resources, survival, and power throughout Africa is simply repeated decade after decade.
The question thus becomes, "What can I do?" The answer I believe is at least to pray regularly for this continent. What happens over there affects all of the planet. We are globally connected environmentally, economically, spiritually, and humanly. We can no longer pretend that it's not our business, or our problem. These are people, just like us. They just want to live simple, healthy, peaceful, normal lives. Prayer is the least we can do for them. Happy reading and PLEASE PRAY for God to intervene and bring His good to His people, for His Church to shine and be the source of healing.
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 10:11 AMSubject: Fwd: Zimbabwe - Please pray - 8am, 1pm & 8pm
----- Original Message -----
This is quite a powerful letter - please read!
ZIMBABWE
24-hour Solidarity Vigil
This is from Margaret Kriel's Morning Mirror, please try and pass it on to as many people as you can,
Many thanks
Dear World,
I am a 16 year old person living in Zimbabwe . I think the time has come
for a more direct appeal, and so I am writing to you, the world.
Maybe, just maybe, there might be someone out there who can help us...
It's tough here now. The inflation rate is so high that if you don't
change money within 6 hours you could get half the amount of foreign
Currency that you would have originally received.
We're starving now; people die around us. In the last year alone at
least ten people associated personally with my family have died despite
the fact that they were only middle-aged. Other people don't make it to
middle age. They don't even make it past childhood.
Our once-proud nation is on it's knees. We flee or die. This beautiful,
bountiful once-rich land has become a living hell. We have dealt with it
until now; we have made a plan. That was the Zimbabwean motto: 'MAKE A
PLAN'.
But now we can't make a plan. We're too tired, too broken, too bankrupt.
We can't afford life, and life does not cost much, not really. We cannot
afford to eat, we cannot afford to drink, and we cannot afford to make
mistakes, because if we do we die. We don't have the capital to support
ourselves, and those few who do, have to deal with the horror of watching their friends and family fall into absolute poverty as they cannot afford to help them.
We're waiting desperately for a great hand to pick us up out of the dirt because at the moment we are outnumbered by Fate herself, and so we close our eyes and pray. We have fought for too long, and have been brought to breaking point. We simply stand, heads down, and bear it. Our spirit has gone; we are defeated. After a valiant struggle of over fifteen years, we have been broken.
There is no will left, no spirit. Like a horse that has been beaten until it cannot fight anymore; we are the same, and, like that horse, we stand dusty, scarred and alone, with dried blood on our sides and lash marks along our flanks. Our ribs too stand out; our hide is also dull.
Our eyes are glazed, our throats are parched, and our knees struggle to support us so that we stand with splayed legs to bear the brunt of the next beating, too dejected even to whimper...
This is my plea. The thought of picking ourselves up again is sickening; one can only take so many blows before oblivion is reached, and we are teetering on the rim of the bottomless void. One more push will be the end of us all...
There must be someone out there who can do something.
There must be someone out there who cares!
We are a destroyed nation, and the world sits back and watches, pretending they cannot hear our cries. I appeal to you all...
HELP US!
A 16 YEAR OLD ZIMBABWEAN......
DEAR FRIEND,
IN WORLD WAR II WHILE HITLER WAS BRUTALLY TAKING OVER THE WORLD, THERE
WAS AN ADVISOR TO CHURCHILL WHO ORGANISED A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO DROPPED
WHAT THEY WERE DOING EVERY NIGHT AT A PRESCRIBED TIME FOR JUST ONE
MINUTE TO COLLECTIVELY PRAY FOR THE SAFETY OF ENGLAND , ITS' PEOPLE AND
PEACE.
THINGS DRASTICALLY CHANGED AND WELL, THE REST IS HISTORY
GOD IS THE ANSWER AND PRAYER IS THE ONLY WAY FOR ZIMBABWE !
IN VIEW OF THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN ZIMBABWE WE ARE ORGANISING A
DAILY ONE MINUTE PRAYER TIME AT 8 A.M. OR 1 P.M. OR 8.00 P.M. AT ANY ONE
OF THESE TIMES, PLEASE STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND SPEND THAT ONE
MINUTE PRAYING FOR GOD TO INTERVENE IN THE AFFAIRS OF OUR COUNTRY.
SOMEONE SAID IF CHRISTIANS REALLY UNDERSTOOD THE FULL EXTENT OF THE
POWER WE HAVE AVAILABLE THROUGH PRAYER, WE MIGHT BE SPEECHLESS.
OUR PRAYERS ARE THE MOST POWERFUL ASSET WE HAVE. TOGETHER. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
IF YOU KNOW ANY OTHER CHRISTIAN BROTHER AND SISTER WHO WOULD LIKE TO
PARTICIPATE IN THIS POWERFUL EXERCISE, PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG.
THANK YOU,
