Please Keep Kenya in Prayer

My dear friend Edna forwarded me this email from a Kenyan friend:

Hi Friends,
Hope this correspondance find you all safe, well and healthy as we are.
I have been in touch with my famliy in Kenya and so far all but one have been spared the harsh reality there... my brother Emmanuel.

He has been robbed by policemen who beat him with those big sticks they carry for no apparent reason at all. He has been robbed at gun point but all in all he will live to see another day. Right now am unable to keep intouch with him over the phone because that to was stolen... That is the scary news yet we still pray for peace and common sense to return to Kenya. He will be okay. Pray earnestly for peace and calm to return to Kenya. I am trying to pretend that I am okay and do what i have to do.
I also pray that one day our leaders to be held accountable for their actions and utterances of insighting others to voilence. I wish that Justice to be cherished in Kenya. Right now the one thing many Kenyans long for the most is Justice. A system that gurantees every Kenya there legal rights. anyway...

Anyway....

Anyway i found this educative article on BBC website that i request you all read to comprehend the reason behind the chaos and voilence in Kenya. I am encouraged by such article because it does not protray Kenyan as other articles have. This one tries to shed light on the root cause of the problem and some solution to the current problems. And the danger of Democracy in a communal society.
Go to the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7168551.stm

Julius

Julius is a person in turmoil. "Anyway ... anyway ... anyway..." To know that his brother, on the other side of the world, has been beaten and robbed; to wonder if others in his family will be safe; to visualize his home being torn to shreds by senseless violence - we cannot begin to fathom what it must feel like.

Edna wrote:

Dear Andy,
I am so sad and discouraged. I knew Emmanuel had been robbed but I didn't know he had been beaten. Emmanuel is brothein-law of Sarah who was at church with me Sunday and father of Francie that I recently wrote about in my blog. Maybe it will all be settled in some distant future time but my friend had been beaten and I can't help but be very, very sad.
I keep praying.
Edna

Please pray with Edna and Julius a prayer for peace. Please pray for Emmanuel and for Sarah and for Francie. Please pray for justice and peace and calm to prevail in Kenya. I feel like Julius sometimes, like I have to "pretend that I am okay" and just go on with life, you know?

And honestly I feel like sometimes I wish that I just didn't know Edna, so that then I wouldn't know people she knows, so this issue would remain an abstract, other-side-of-the-world news article that I hear vaguely mentioned every now and then. It would be so much easier then, so much neater, so much less intrusive. I could just categorize "Kenya" in a list of "global concerns" that we ought to stay aware of and wring our hands about.

But damn it, I do know Edna, and she does know people who are scared and hurting and almost frantic with worry about what might happen next. Because they hurt, Edna hurts, and because Edna hurts, I hurt. I saw her last night at church. I asked her how she was and she said, "Pretending."

I guess one good thing is that we can all hurt together while we pretend everything's okay, huh?

picture above is from the website of Soulfari Kenya

Addendum (1/18): To clarify, I love Edna dearly and do not regret knowing her in the slightest! When I reread this post this morning, I realized there may be room for misinterpretation there. It may have been clearer to have written: "Sometimes I wish that I could pretend I just didn't know Edna..." I am so happy to know Edna, and I am a better person because I do. (Love you, Edna!)