FAMINE: Leading to Frustration, Hope and a New Blog

Rather than focusing on the millions of Kenyans who are starving, today’s headlines were about graft, corruption, and which disgraced persons are running for national office. Two articles “Food Crisis” articles were found on page 14 of today’s Daily Nation, but neither are on their internet site. “The hungry turn to charcoal” shares: “With the choice of starvation or going to jail, villagers gladly choose the latter and take to the hills to fell trees for fuel, hoping to earn a few shillings,” so they can provide food for families who may not have eaten in days. Providing charcoal is not only illegal, it is also difficult – a bag (not the compact bags sold in American supermarkets, but wide sacks that are up to the waist of most adults) sells for only 100 KSH ($1.25) and the person may have walked 37.5 miles to find the wood to “bake” into charcoal. “Children now orphaned as adults flee famine area” shares that the school feeding programmes upon which many parents relied is no longer functioning as the government supply ended last year. So the children are relying upon wild fruit which only makes many kids sicker.

My frustration increased as I found one internet article from today’s Mombasa Daily Nation edition – “Starving people in Taita to wait even longer for relief food … More than 100,000 hunger stricken people in Taita district may have to wait longer before the delivery of a huge consignment of relief food.” Why? Lack of transport from Mombasa! Taita is not is in the western or northern corners of Kenya, it is just inland from the coastal city of Mombasa on a newly restored road!

Yes, this is discouraging, but I know there is hope. First, I know that some groups such as the Red Cross are providing relief to the starving. I also know that the representatives of the Baptist Convention of Kenya are partnering with SERV Ministries International, a Christian organization that receives emergency dehydrated food from USAID and ships it in containers to Kenya. A large truck load of this food was distributed last Saturday in the Lower Eastern Province (Ukambani, northwest of Taita) where the drought is also leaving thousands hungry. For a report on this feeding project which includes a modern-day miracle, read the latest prayer update of the IMB Legacy Team in Kenya at: http://bertandjackyates.blogspot.com/2009/02/february-11-2009.html

I’m also not discouraged because I know prayer works and that many of you are praying for the famine in Kenya and other parts of our world. To strengthen and encourage your prayers, all the recent Omba4Kenya famine prayer updates are now “grouped” at a new blog: Praying for Famine: Lifting Our Hearts and Our Hands to Heaven. In addition to the prayers and updates, there are pictures from the current and passed droughts that you can copy for use as you enlist others in praying for the drought. Thank you for the assurance I have that you are lifting your hearts and your hands in prayer! Bert Yates
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“Starving people in Taita to wait even longer for relief food” – http://www.nation.co.ke/Mombasa/-/519978/527872/-/mo8omh/-/index.html
Report on last Saturday’s feeding project in Ukambani: http://bertandjackyates.blogspot.com/
Praying for Famine: Lifting Our Hearts and Our Hands to Heaven – http://prayingforfamine.blogspot.com/

February 11, 2009

Jack and I really try to work from planned schedules, but often the greatest (for Jack) and most disappointing (Bert) experiences are the unexpected ones. I didn’t ask for prayer last week for what Jack would do on Saturday simply because it was not yet planned. I’ll let Jack share now:

SERV Ministries International is a Christian organization that receives emergency food from USAID and ships it in containers to Kenya. It is estimated that a third of all Kenyans are currently experiencing famine and I had been bugging the Kenya Baptists who receive this food to disburse it to the critical areas. USAID food is dehydrated and requires a short lesson in how to prepare it without waste. It is a great reminder of how Jesus fed people after blessing and multiplying the food. So after plans were made suddenly, I and several others left Saturday morning with the “Big Blue” Baptist Mission truck on a six stop, 17 hour drive throughout Lower Eastern Province known as Ukambani, the home of the Wakamba People. As we left food at each of the Associations, I could not help but thank God for many things:
1) To be here at this time with these resources (food, truck, people).
2) For cell phones that allowed all of this work to happen like clock work! Every Baptist leader was on time, his people prepared and waiting.
3) For those IMB Kamba missionaries who worked so hard to establish churches in such remote areas in every location.
4) For safety especially on the three hour drive from Ikutha to Wamunya at midnight!
5) For my car to continue going for 100 kilometres after the fuel light had come on! A modern-day Biblical Miracle - There was a petrol shortage in Kenya this past weekend leaving many places without gas, including where I needed to refuel.
6) The 1,000 hungry families who were touched by God’s love as they received food.

Jack explains well why – other than just now catching up on his sleep from getting to bed at three last Sunday morning – this was such a great experience. My disappointment came from not being able to go as I had developed a really bad cough. We weren’t sure if I was contagious, so I stayed home, not for my sake, but for the sake of others – hungry people are weak people who can catch illnesses easily. I am also praising God for cell phones – which meant I wasn’t surprised when Jack arrived home so late – and for the safe travel Saturday evening of the group in our RAV and the Big Blue Truck. We rarely drive late at night – it simply isn’t wise in Kenya between bad roads (one stretch was under construction with 50 metres completed followed by 50 metres of no road, and of course with NO notice boards!), bad drivers, broken down vehicles, bandits and animals on the road, plus this trip was definitely not on the beaten or well marked paths! I also have a praise for SERV based on a memory of when I met many of those involved with this program – over half based their love for missions on having WMU Moms!

To help you experience all we’ve shared, you can find pictures from last Saturday at: http://picasaweb.google.com/omba4kenya/UkambaniRelief?feat=directlink
To view larger pictures, simply click slideshow. And thank you also for your love of missions and your desire to be a part of God’s work as you pray and are involved! Bert Yates

February 4, 2009

Flags are flying at half-mast this week in Kenya. Last Wednesday as I sent our weekly update to you, Jack called to say their coastal survey trip had been completed in record time and he would be in flying into Nairobi by the time I arrived at the local airport. As we drove home, we spotted a spiral of black smoke in the city centre. The downtown Nakumatt (Kenyan version of WalMart) was on fire. The first radio announcements were hopeful saying their might be few casualties, but the media now reports that 29 bodies have been recovered, at least 17 others are missing, and many people were injured.

Then as Jack collected our newspapers on Sunday as we left for church, I heard him moan. The headlines told of horrible fire outside of Nakuru, the town where we lived for many years. As people siphoned off the petrol from a wrecked petrol tanker in the Molo countryside, a fire began leaving 120 dead and 150 or more injured. The newspapers are filled with questions of why people took such a risk, but all know that the poverty and desperation were a part of the problem.

The Molo fire has especially touched us as Jack helped the local association begin and build a church in the area where the fire occurred. We have not learned if any of those affected by the fire are Baptists, but we are certain that some are. Please join us in praying that Christians in the area, some who have been well discipled, will be strong ambassadors of their Father’s love and comfort at this time. Join us also in praising God for a bit of good news that we heard as prayers were lifted on Sunday morning at our church for the Nakumatt fire victims. The management of the store had allowed a pastor from our church and others to lead daily devotional times at this Nakumatt. As the pastor led our prayers on Sunday, he praised God that many of the Nakumatt staff who died were Believers.

I read the third chapter of Lamentations during my devotions this morning and it reminded me of a praise/request that should be offered. Many Kenyans do question if this week’s tragedies are related to their need to seek forgiveness for sins (v.42) and they question if this has led to God covering himself “with a cloud so that no prayer can get through” (v.44). Please join me in praying that those who are who are unsure of the one who hears their prayers, either because they are not Believers or because they are “baby” Christians, will come to truly know and claim the love and salvation of the true God.

We do have some good news to share this week. Jack was very pleased with last week’s coastal survey trip that he made with Baptist Convention of Kenya leadership and two Southern Baptist volunteers. He asks that you join him in praising God for these signs of strength that he viewed during the trip:

<>Mombasa Baptist High School, begun by IMB missionaries and now owned and managed by the Baptist Convention of Kenya, is experiencing great interest in enrolment for the first time in nine years. The headmistress, Millicent Omondi (there are no longer any missionaries on the staff), is doing a marvellous job.

<> The number of churches continues to grow on the coast despite the absence of IMB staff, divisions in the convention and the local leadership, as well as the impoverished nature of the region. Associations are finding their way in the midst of a poor economy and famine and a growing strong leadership is evident.

<> Malindi and Magarini Associations hope to partner with IMB volunteers to reach the whole Tana River area in the next ten years!

<>The LifeWay discipleship program has the potential of making a defining impact on the coast. Join us in praying for the volunteer group made up of pastors often considered mission pastors, pastors of Hispanic churches in North Carolina, who are leading the training on the coast through this Friday.

I do try to keep these update short, but this week there is simply too much that needs your prayer support – and we do depend on your prayers! Bert Yates