As I sit at home this evening I feel almost guilty for having a normal day when my friends in Kenya are hoping that they will make it through another long night. We have been trying to keep up with people to let them know we are praying for them and to know how to help the most with the funds that have been donated to help those in need. It has been both encouraging and very hard. It has amazed me what an encouragement it has been for our friends in Kenya to receive a phone call and to be prayed with from half way around the world. But on the other hand it is so hard to see my friends who are normally positive and trusting take on a hopeless or at least melancholy demeanor.
After two calls today I had to call it quits. It was getting late in the evening in Kenya and I didn’t know if I had another call in me anyhow. I was able to get reports on what had been accomplished with some of the funds we had sent over and that was very encouraging. Yet there are so many more needs it seems like we were running a race we couldn’t win. I had to remind myself often of the phrase, “You help the ones you can.”
Let me share with you some from my conversation with Pastor Steve. He is a Kikuyu who lives in Kijabe and pastors a couple of churches in the Rift Valley. I have known him for years and I have never seen him as somber as I did today. Here are just a few comments from our conversation:
“This isn’t the Kenya you knew!”
“You feel like you could die any day”
“We are living a day at a time wondering if morning will come”
“IT’S WAR SCOTT! It was war here.”
When commenting on the fact that there are over 300,000 displaced people in the Rift Valley Steve said:
“You can’t help everyone.”
“Now I am ok.”
“Today we are hopeful.”
I left the conversation broken and yet encouraged because for some reason his spirit had picked up from a simple phone call from a friend who loved and cared from him half way around the world. I told him we are praying! Will you join me?
I want to share with you some of what Pastor Steve is doing to help those in need. They have formed a pastors committee in the area he works that is hardest hit. There are at least 2,000 refugees in that area and more are coming every day. Many of the families in the area have taken in others and they are camping in their yards and staying in their small homes. They are trying to feed and clothe those they can. To help with medicine and any other needs that might arise. But it is overwhelming. We are doing what we can to help pastors like Steve. We pray and we send as much money as we can to help.
I want to close with another story about Pastor Steve. He wouldn’t tell you this unless you specifically asked but some of his family is in the hardest hit areas. One of his brothers and his family is living with them because they have lost everything. Three others from Eldoret are camping in a squatters camp because it isn’t safe to be at their homes. They won’t know until they can return if anything is left for them to return to.
With all of that the hardest story for me to hear today was Samuel’s story. He lives in Nakuru and is like a father to Steve. I have met him and benefited from his hospitality and kind spirit but today his hope is gone. Samuel is, or should I say was a rich man. He lived in a beautiful house with his family and had done very well for himself. Yet in the midst of the chaos his house was burnt and he lost everything. There is no insurance, no large bank account, most of what he had was in his house and now it is all gone. He has lost all hope. Steve said he wasn’t in his right mind. I asked if there was anything we could do to help and his response was, “what can you give him, you can’t replace it all.” I thought about it and he is right, all his worldly possessions are gone. I don’t have the resources to replace it. So tonight I sit in my house and pray to God that my security isn’t tied up in what I own. I pray that God will bring me hope and I ask God to show me how to live my life content in Him and not in what I own. And I pray for Samuel that God would restore his hope. Not in what he owns but in the Lord. It is a tall order for one who has lost so much, I can’t give him hope but God can.
If you wonder what you can do, pray! If you feel led to give toward the relief effort that is definitely needed and appreciated but your prayers, well, those are the only thing that can really turn things around. The money we send can help a few but only God can restore hope.
Thank you for interceding for our friends in Kenya,
Sincerely,
Scott
