Missions to the World, Kenya, Africa

We hope this newsletter finds each of you in good health and prospering in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have returned to Kenya and are still attempting to find some sort of similarities to what Kenya was like before we left. We have had so many questions about what is going on, so we will attempt to let you know what we know and what we have seen here in Kenya.

On the day that we first arrived, the tribal clashes and some of those causing conflict came to our town of Nakuru as well. Some came to harass those who had been displaced from other towns to our town. Those who were involved in tribal and political clashes in other towns (burning each others homes, stores and business, etc) came with some political activist called Mungiki, and stirred up the same problems in our town of Nakuru. This put our town as well as a few other towns on a curfew. There were missionaries injured as a result (Picture right: Missionaries who were recently attacked in their compound), not to mention many homes that were burned to the ground.

The curfew was lifted a few weeks ago, but we hear of towns in Kenya that are still almost completely under police special authority. There have been millions of shillings lost each month since January of this year due to the extreme violence here in Kenya. This has hurt the economy drastically, but the end is not yet in sight!

The town and it supplies, like other parts of Kenya, seemed to get worse day by day in the first 3 ½ months of this year. There were very few trucks traveling on the roads due to the hijacking situation of different transport vehicles. This has caused, to a great extent, the prices on everything going up here in Kenya. The mail system came to a stand still and we still are not receiving some mail that was due two months ago.

Things seemed to be heading in the right direction when the international community stepped in and tried to arbitrate and bring a peaceful resolve to the situation. It seemed that things were going to change and it appeared that we could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

As of late, the light that brought a glimmer of hope has disappeared once again because the two political parties cannot agree on anything. This has also brought a very dismal picture to most of the peoples minds here in Kenya. This has had an impact on all those who live here; Not just the Kenyans, but others who are working as missionaries or other peace keeping forces within the country.

Those who were displaced from their homelands are no better for all of the political talk. They are still without jobs and many without sufficient food, water and clothing. Just in our town alone, there are about 15,000 in temporary camps who have been there for going on 4 months now. They are all in tents. It may not seem too bad to those of us who camp a few days here and there, but this is now 4 months! It is extremely cold at night and early in the day. The rains have now started coming to some parts of Kenya, but that only adds to a more frigid and unbearable situation for them.

Their needs are great, and are of a great variety. They need wood to keep warm at night and early in the morning, not to mention for cooking on. This also presents a problem as they are going on to public and private places (like the Nakuru Golf Course) and cutting down everything that they can. The management has given them several truck loads of wood, but it doesn't seem to even affect the need as it is so great at this time.

There are many who barely get enough food each day to live on. There are some agencies such as Red Cross who have helped, but they alone can not do it all. There is still the water problem and diseases that are also causing a lot of problems in these IDP camps.

The children in the IDP camps have not been able to continue their education, and all are becoming very restless in the camps as they hear there is not much resolve in the political heads of the government.

The rest of those who were not forced out of their homes are also trying to cope with the crisis here in Kenya.... The extreme gas prices at $5.75 per gallon, the water shortage in most of the country, the food and supplies that have gone up 20 to 25%, as well as the fact that the hope some people had of a better future has now become increasingly and hopelessly lost for the most part.

Janet and I have had our times also but nothing to compare with most folks here in Kenya. We have not had water pumping into our tanks in our ceiling so that we can get showers for over a month. The only way that we could get showers was to borrow some jerry cans and fill them some place else and then bring them up to the 3rd floor of our apartment and then again take some of the water and go up a ladder to the attic and put them manually in our water storage tank. It was a lot of hard work, but at least we had water to bathe with. We do not even get water in the sink taps very often. In fact, I was up at 5:00 am this morning when I realized that water had come. I began to fill everything up that I could so that we would have water to flush, boil for drinking, and some to wash clothes with. It stayed on for less than 2 hours, but we hope that it will come again tonight. The pump was not fixed, so we will have to continue to make the journey up the long flight of stairs, and then up the ladder to put the water into our water tank.

We have to 'bucket brigade' (as we like to call it) when we go to the bush or rural areas, but when we come home to the apartment we really enjoy a hot shower. It has been a little tough, but we also have had the problem of not being able to flush the toilets, wash clothes and keep up with our drinking water when all of this started some 5 weeks ago or so now. We have heard so many stories about why we do not have any water or enough pressure to get the water up to where the tanks are that we do not know what to believe any more. The landlord told us recently that they are having to replace a part of the pump, but we really have our reservations about the real fact of the matter.

The cost of living here has gone up from 20 to 25% as well as the dollar dropping in Kenya. These two factors have been costly for us, but we know who our source is and that really helps a lot in these types of situations.

When we first came to Kenya in late January, because of the tribal clashes, it was not safe to go very far from our town of Nakuru. The ministry was almost non existant except for the local folks in our town and other missionaries.

Gary ministered on the 3rd of February at All Nations Worship Centre, on "The Afflictions of the Righteous". The Lord seems to be saying to them that He had not forsaken them or forgotten them. The whole congregation came forward for repentance and for prayer.