4 Miles

Well, a decision was made by Grace Community Church's leadership to postpone the trip.  Here's a portion of the letter sent out:

Obviously the last couple weeks have been an extraordinary time in Kenya’s history, and none of us could have predicted or envisioned the events as they have unfolded.  We have been burdened as a church for our dear family of Nairobi Chapel and Mavuno Church, and all the other relationships we have throughout Nairobi.  We have been praying, and are grateful that things have not deteriorated any further, and seem to be moving toward reconciliation, albeit slowly.

We don’t have any protocol for political insurrections in our short-term trip preparations, and have never faced a situation quite like this before.  We have tried to walk through this prayerfully and with understanding towards our friends in Nairobi and the commitments you have made as a team.

Our original plan was to wait until Friday to make a final decision. But after further consultations, I have decided that no other information will change the decision at this point and we need to postpone the trip until the fall or next January.  The situation in Kenya will not be stabilized enough for us to be comfortable with the risk we would be taking for your safety.  I know that this is difficult for everyone involved – the people receiving the team, each of you, your families, your workplace.  We want to trust God, follow Him, and take risks for God’s kingdom.  But this risk seems to great, especially since we can reschedule the trip for a time when the situation has settle down, and you can accomplish the purpose of the trip then.

Our team leader added:

We are planning a meeting this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Grace Community Church to discuss our options for re-scheduling for later this year in September and/or early January 2009.  Because of new information and conflicts with September, we are considering another alternative of January.  Grace has agreed to cover the ticket change charge of $ 300.00 per person and any increase in airfares. 
 
Please continue to pray for the people and leaders of Kenya that they can reach a peaceful solution.  We realize these last two weeks of uncertainty have been an inconvenience for you, but it is small compared to the suffering our Brothers and Sisters in Kenya are experiencing and we want to keep them foremost in our prayers

I want to echo that last paragraph.  Thank you all again for your prayers and support.  At this point we are feeling relief over just knowing. The uncertainty of everything was making me dread the thought of going–and I did not want to go in that mind set! This is something I have wanted to do for YEARS and I want to go wtih that excitement in place! 

Today Alex was pushing Will's buttons. Literally. He'd run over to push the button on Will's fire truck and then run away as the siren filled the room.  And Will would fuss. I tried telling Will to ignore him, he was doing it to get a reaction. I tried telling Alex to stop. Neither worked. And I, personally, didn't care enough, so I ignored it. I figure he'll only be doing it more and more in the next 15 years.

Alex has had some issues falling alseep lately.  Many times, he wakes up wanting to "nuggle Mommy". I've been trying to help him find ways to comfort himself, so I've not only reminded him of his blanket, but started pointing out a soft bear he has in the bed with him.  Last week I asked him if his bear had a nap.  He said, "Nap".

So, the next time he was fussing, I went to ask "Do you want Nap….Bear?"  I couldn't just ask him if he wanted a nap! Of course he didn't–that's why he was crying!  I asked him again, another time, "Alex, what's the name of your bear?" He again repeated, "Nap!"  So I kept finding myself saying "Alex, do you want to snuggle Nap…Bear?", "Here's Nap….Bear". I just could not call that bear Nap!  So now, if you ask him the name of his bear he'll tell you "Nap Bear".  Whoops. Sorry to influence the naming of your animals, kid.

Last week James came home to the boys playing while I was making dinner. They were playing "Night-Night Wake Up Train". (Based on the name, I'm assuming they were pretending they were on a train and they were sleeping and waking up on it). James walked in to see Alex covered up in Will's bed, with a duck Randy and Shari gave to Alex when he was born.  When James saw the duck he asked Alex "What's the name of your duck?"  Alex replied "Duck Bear!"

A pause from the serious things for a few Will quips:

Today we were driving on the freeway. As we went around a curve he said "WOW! Look at all those cars we need to pass!"

Then, as I was driving, I was told "Faster, Mommy! We need to get to the front of our line!"

We got a note from our leadership team today–here's part of what it says:

(Note: ISAR is a confernce center with housing on the campus of NEGST (the seminary) we were going to use to stay for the week of actual teaching, the rest of the time we were going to be staying with people in the city who attend Niarobi Chapel, a near-by church Grace partners with.)

We plan to make a final decision on Friday, January 11th, and let you know.
Here are questions that are being considered:

• Can we stay the whole time at ISAR (housing) at NEGST (seminary), instead of with host families, so we are not a burden to them (already housing the homeless in this crisis)?
• Would we be a distraction or a help to NEGST students at this time? (Note:  NEGST has postponed classes one week to begin 1-14-08.)
• Do ISAR and NEGST have or expect a shortage of food, water, fuel,and would we be a drain on their supplies?
• Would our mission trip be a better service to Niarobi Chapel in distributing humanitarian aid, than to NEGST (VBS & computer training)?
• Can our ground transportation company give us safe transportation around the "hot spots" from the airport to NEGST, to the safari, and back to the airport?
• Has or does our airline (NWA) cancelled any flights to Niarobi because of safety?
• Is postponing the trip to use the airline tickets later (fee of $250) an option for the schedule of people at NEGST and the mission team?

Please continue to pray for wisdom for the team leaders, as well as for the country itself.

I wanted to share part of a note from a Kenyan Missionary in our Sunday School class who is home for the year. It's a positive view. Please be in prayer for our leaders, they are making a decision tomorrow. We should fine out more on Saturday.

JOE'S THOUGHTS ON VISITING KENYA

I do not see this unrest lasting for more than a week or so.  Right now gasoline supplies are disrupted in some places and there has been a run on the grocery stores for food.  Soon the citizens will turn on the politicians if they don't visibly work for a solution.  Additionally, Kenya is the transit site for all of Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda's fuel and imports.  The longer the unrest stays the more pressure neighboring countries will put on Kenya to find a solution.  Kenya is not Rwanda circa 1994.  Kenya has nearly fifty tribes to Rwanda's two and all those tribes have an economic interest in seeing the unrest solved quickly.

It would not be wise to travel to Kenya in the next few days.  The airport is on the far southeast side of town and you have to travel near the city center to get out to quieter suburbs like Karen where NEGST is.  But my guess is by this time next week the situation will have calmed considerably.  The Kibera slum that houses so many of todays protestors is in the challenger Odinga's district.  He is their elected politician and they will listen to him if he tells them to stand down when a compromise has been reached.  Yes, you will always have a few opportunistic thugs but, by and large, the violence is committed by unemployed youths who feel that the politician who has the best chance of improving their lots has been cheated out of an election victory.

Once things calm down in the center of Nairobi then business will continue as normal.  These are my thoughts only. It will be up to the organizers of the Grace/FMC trip to NEGST to decide to continue the trip or not.  But it is best to view the current situation as a dogfight between two seasoned politicians over the results of a questionable election. As Africans say, "When elephants fight, it is the grass that is trampled."  So far more than 300 have been trampled to death.

We ask you to please pray for the leaders of Kenya.  Pray that they will push for peace and that some resolution will come from the election.

 

If you've been following the news the last few days, you'll have heard or read about the unrest/violence in Kenya following the elections.

Here is the most recent email from the Vice-Chancellor of NEGST:

We flew back into Nairobi yesterday morning.  There was an uneasy calm as we drove from the airport to NEGST, but no serious incidents of violence. Most of the violence appears to have been restricted to certain parts of the city and to some hot spots in the West of the country, two hundred miles or so from Nairobi.

What we have at the moment is a serious political crisis that has been attended by some severe localized violence and widespread uncertainty. Church and other leaders are making efforts at reconciliation. We are praying and hoping that the situation will not degenerate and a peaceful solution will be found soon.

We are monitoring the situation and should be able to advise more appropriately before your meeting on Saturday.

Do keep us and Kenya in your prayers.

So at this point our team is taking a wait and see approach. Please be in prayer for our leaders, as well as for Kenya!  We do have a meeting on Saturday, I'm sure we'll know more by then.