Baptists Awaiting Relief Food on the Alabama

“Somali pirates attempt to hijack a container ship, the Alabama, carrying relief food to Kenya’s port of Mombasa.” When I first heard this news, I did take a moment to pray, but then I moved on. To be honest, ships being hijacked by citizens of our northern neighbour, Somalia – a poverty stricken country in total turmoil – is a daily occurrence in our part of the world. It did catch my attention that the ship was carrying relief food and that the crew were Americans.

I now know that I should have prayed with more nguvu (en/gue/vue, Swahili for strength). Do you remember praising God in February* for dehydrated food that Baptists distributed in Ukambani, one of the areas where thousands are hungry? This food was shipped by SERV Ministries International, a Christian organization that receives emergency dehydrated food from USAID and ships it in containers that can hold up to 1 million meals** to Kenya. In the following e-mail, Shem Okello, the Associate in our Volunteer Office and an officer of the Baptist Convention of Kenya, shares the additional need for prayer for this ship: “I got a call from the Shipping line Maersk Kenya Limited informing me that the vessel, the Alabama, that was carrying the two containers of Serve Food that we had anticipated to take to the hunger stricken regions has been hijacked. Please pray for the Crew and that they will release the Vessel so that the food can be taken to the people who need it most.”

Please do join Shem and others in praying for safety for the captain who we now know has risked his life to save his crew. Pray for the negotiators who are seeking solutions in handling this problem. Pray for peace and progress in Somalia that will lead to her people not resorting to hijacking ships. Pray also that when the ship arrives, hopefully this weekend, the relief food can be unloaded quickly and without any hassle, including payments of bribes and high custom charges. Pray for those planning and carrying out the distribution of food so that the food will get “to the people who need it most.”

Rains have come to parts of Kenya, but rather than reducing the need for prayer, it increases the need to pray for those needing food. In Nairobi, we are having only limited rain, but there are reports of flooding in other places, which leads to new problems including increased illnesses and the inability to access and deliver relief food. So … PRAY WITH NGUVU! Bert Yates
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
* http://omba4kenya.blogspot.com/2009/02/famine-leading-to-frustration-hope-and.html
** http://www.servintl.org/where-we-serve/kenya/kenya-feeding-program


This also appears at Omba4Kenya/Pray for Kenya - http://omba4kenya.blogspot.com/