Pray For Africa

Sometimes I get blind-sighted by a real world happening outside of my little bubble. It’s pitiful how often I get upset by the smallest of things. Especially when you juxtapose it against this email I just received from our friend and missionary in Kenya this afternoon…

Please, PRAY and please I will understand if you do not respond to this message, I would rather you spend your time in prayer just now. What you are reading or seeing on the news about ethnic cleansing in Eldoret, Kenya is true! The Kalenjin tribe is killing the Kikuyu tribe. For you who do not know, my wife is Kikuyu. We are reading from CNN webpage of about 300 dead!

When the election results were announced, instant rioting and killing took place. (The current president is a Kikuyu, while the main opposition party is represented by the Luo, Luhyia and Kalenjin). We have an area close to our house (about 1 a mile as the crow flies) that is mainly Kikuyu. They were attacked. A barn full of straw went up in flames, about ¼ mile from our house. The next day on the 31st we heard that 10,000 other Kalenjins were on the way to help defeat the Kikuyus. We decided to leave in the afternoon. We had to come with police escort and passed three road blocks of stones in the road.

We feel safer in this part of town, even though we can hear the gun shots. We did stand in line today and 4 ½ hours later came out with some food from the supermarket. The fighting is taking place on all sides of us and we hear the road to the airport is also blocked.

We are not in as bad condition as some of the brethren. They are sleeping in the forests at night. One brother provided a place for three Kikuyu families last night that were having their homes burned. They said that they would burn his house down tonight. Another family is also hosting a Kikuyu family at their home. Pray for these Kalenjin brethren.

The average Kenyan does not want what is going on, but there are gullible people willing to do wrong at the instigation of certain leaders.

As I said, please, what we need now is prayer.

Please pray for Africa.

Filed under: Africa, Evil, Faith, Missionaries, Politics, Prayer, Violence

11 Million

So I’ve been watching the Band of Brothers series with a group of guys every Tuesday night for the last couple months. Last night we watched Episode 9: Why We Fight. It’s the point in the war when the American troops discover the Nazi concentration camps.

This is the second time I’ve worked through this series, and both times I get to this episode and it stops me in my tracks. I can’t fathom how something like this could ever happen. How one person, much less an entire group of people, could be so evil. And it always angers me to realize that there were people looking the other way as this was going on, simply to save their own skin.

But would I be any different? Easy to say while safe behind a computer screen. But what if I was faced with this type of decision in my lifetime. What would I do? I hope that my convictions reach a point where that won’t be a hard decision.

Let’s never allow ourselves to forget that this happened, and be aware that these things are still going on.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” —Edmond Burke

As a Christ Follower, apathy is NOT an option.

Filed under: Apathy, Band of Brothers, Darfur, Evil, Good, Holocaust, Humanity

I Don’t Own A Gun

I didn’t really want to post on this with fears of being insensitive, but timing is everything and now is the best time to post on this.

Nobody in America is unaware of what happened at the campus of Virginia Tech yesterday. And I dare say nobody in America is without sympathy for those involved. The problem I have is that this incident allows the anti-gun people to rally for their cause by stirring up reactionary and knee-jerk responses.

How soon people forget that our right to own a gun is directly responsible for our freedoms. I’m not even talking about us verses other nations. I’m talking about us verses ourselves. The main reason for our rights to bare arms is so that we can protect ourselves from our own government. What foresight our founding fathers had. (Not really, they just went through it themselves).

No, our problem isn’t the guns. Our problem is that evil exists in this world and always will. Our problem is that we don’t love enough. Our problem is that we don’t educate enough. Our problem is that we are self-centered as a society. Our problem is the church is spending more time fighting amongst themselves and not enough time reaching those with real, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. We failed that kid at Virginia Tech on so many levels. Don’t think taking away guns will fix that.

The next time you come in contact with a troubled soul. Get to know them and show them the love of God—in any and every way possible. That would be a good start in preventing these types of occurrences from happening.

Filed under: Control, Evil, Guns, Virginia Tech