If you have been keeping up with East African news you know that things are tense in our part of the world at the moment. In recent weeks, Kenya’s relationship with our northern neighbor, Somalia, has been tested, which has led to Kenya entering into a military offensive against the terrorists based there. Kenya hosts many refugees from Somalia and the majority are good people fleeing the problems of their homeland, but some are a part of the terrorist activities. Due to all of this, there have been retaliatory actions in the last few days within Kenya and there are threats of future problems.
I often share prayer nudges under the category of “IF you don’t know how to pray for missionaries today, pray for …” – Well, most of the prayer nudges I’m sharing today fall into this grouping. Did you know that many of your missionaries serving around our world know that they may face danger every time they leave home? They cannot always freely share these threats with you – threats of car-jacking, kidnapping, getting caught in disturbances, etc., some the result of the inequities and poor governance in their countries, sometimes due to retaliatory actions, and other times simply the bad guys knowing that it is unlikely they will be caught or punished. Things are unusually tense in all of Kenya at the moment, but this tension is the norm in many other countries and even in certain locations within Kenya. I will add this note before I continue: Do pray for Jack and me, but we are OK, just being extra alert and cautious these days!
So how can you join us in praying? Pray that all of us will find the balance of going about our lives while being cautious and alert to what is happening around us. Pray that we will be wise in the where/ when/ how actions that we take. Pray that those in tense situations will not become lax due to their situations becoming ‘kwa kawaida’ – Swahili for the norm! Pray that we will not be so overwhelmed by our precautions/ fears that we cannot know how God is at work around us and how He wants us to join in this work. Pray that our fears will not limit but increase our ability to be ambassadors of His love and salvation.
Once again this update is longer, but I must end by sharing our experiences last Sunday. Before we left for church, we read in our newspaper that a slum near where our church meets was in the midst of being demolished. Many people in our part of the world cannot afford the housing in the cities, the place where there are jobs and opportunities, so they live in areas which are not safe in the quality of housing, clean water and sewage disposal, but also due to their living where there should be no housing – this time directly under planes landing at our international airport, other places near train tracks (we’re talking inches, not yards), or near hazardous waste, etc. As we arrived at the rented spot where our new church meets, we spotted a young man sitting in the middle of the path with his meager belongings looking very confused. I will jump ahead a bit and share also what we saw as we left church after the service – simple household items loaded on trucks, cars, handcarts, and people’s shoulders flooding out of the road that led to this slum.
During our prayer times at church, always long and intense, there were prayers for those affected by the demolishing of the nearby slum (we learned that some of those affected attended our church) and prayers for the economic situation of Kenya. There were also many prayers for the situation with Somalia and the recent events in Egypt and other parts of our world. What stood out most was the love and concern expressed in the prayers for the hurting people in all these situations. As the realities of the problems were acknowledged in the prayers, requests were made that Believers would use these situations to share our Father’s love and salvation – the true answer to finding peace in our world.
Thank you for bearing with my thoughts today. We do rely on your prayer support – so I will add three more request: Pray for us as we travel with friends tomorrow through Sunday to a Bible School in the countryside. Pray for Jack and our friends as they teach a group of pastors truly committed to serving our Father. And do join us in praying that the situations we encounter will not leave us discouraged, but praising our Father for the opportunities we have to be His heart, hands and voice in our hurting world. BERT YATES
*** Don't forget to check out this past week's Prayer Nudges from East Africa at: http://easternafrica2011prayernudges.blogspot.com/
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