May 22, 2008

the poor wanderer
Kenya is starting its “resettlement” program after the recent post-election violence. There are Kenyans living in Uganda, the neighboring country, who don’t want to go “home”. Can you blame them? Their neighbors turned on them, wielded machetes, and burned their houses.

The CWS (Church World Service) says we live in an “era of displacement.” There are 40 million displaced people worldwide. Fourteen million of those are refugees (living in other countries) and the other 26 million are displaced within their own countries. How many of those are children? And women? i don’t know the answer, but i imagine – the majority.

i try to picture their faces. And imagine their feelings. How must that feel to be displaced or uprooted from your home?

Internally Displaced Peoples – or IDPs – is the international euphemism for homeless. No government wants to say they’ve got a problem with homelessness. But displacement? Sure. Displacement sounds like a temporary problem with a quick fix. But is it?

Sudan – Kenya’s neighbor to the northeast – has the highest number of IDPs in the world with 5 million. Imagine half of Los Angeles – homeless. That’s the situation in East Africa today. And current reports from Kenya estimate that there are now 250-600,000 IDPs.

This disturbs me.

God asks –
“Is this not the kind of fasting
I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice…
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked to clothe him,
and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

from Isaiah 58:6-7

God watches the poor wanderers. He doesn’t turn away from them as i’m tempted to do. He’s mindful of their comings and goings. He sees the camps they squat in. He sees them fleeing from conflict. He sees the stagnant water breeding malarial mosquitoes. And He says to those of us who are not a part of the 40 million poor wanderers – Dive in! What’re you waiting for? You want to experience true worship? Fight injustice. Feed the hungry. House the homeless. Clothe the naked. And watch your light break forth like the dawn…and your healing quickly appear…

Here are the latest prayer requests from Kenya for the humanitarian relief efforts being carried out by New Life Homes/Barnabas Ministries Africa:

Pray for:
● The displaced children being supported by NLH/BMA at Ruiru, Webuye, Burnt Forest, and Kikuyu.
● Finances for displaced children programs. It is estimated that over 500,000 people have been displaced through the Kenya crisis. This is an on-going problem that will not be solved in a few months.

baby Jacob
Those of you who traveled on the last few Rock the Baby teams will appreciate baby Jacob’s progress. The “little lump of love” has grown! He’s now moved from the Crawlers to the Toddlers. i’ve attached some recent pictures from a team from Ft. Wayne, Indiana who just visited our Nairobi Children’s Home in April. Their senior pastor, Kelly Byrd, loved Jacob, too. Easy to love.

As always, thanks for remembering our friends in Africa.

With Love,
Janay