Edna just sent me an email, and when I read the subject line, "Really bad news from Kenya," I braced myself, and opened the email.
Earlier, I had read this news report - click here - describing an assasination in Kenya, really just one more act of violence among many, I thought then.
Edna's email relayed the terrible news that Julius's brother Melitus had been shot and killed in Kenya. (Last week, I posted an email from Julius regarding his brother Emmanuel - click here.) Melitus was the founder of an orphanage where she had been this summer, and as her email mentioned, had recently been elected to parliament.
Suddenly, the news story I had read earlier took on new significance. Amazing how things change when a generic news story suddenly gets personal, isn't it?
Julius and his wife Sarah were here in North KC in worship on Sunday morning. Now, two days later, his brother is killed, the rest of his family are in fear for their lives, and they are confronted with enormous decisions that will have to be made under extreme pressure. He wants to be there with his family; they are terrified of what could happen if (when?) he goes; the rest of his family is in danger and he wants to protect them; there is a great risk to his own well-being if he goes; Kenya is his home and great violence is being done to it - I cannot even begin to imagine what they must be going through.
I told both Edna and Sarah today via email that my prayers this morning when I read the news were not very pleasant. How much richer would our Christian liturgy be if we could cuss? This morning, I did my best to find out. Please pause and say a prayer for Kenya as you read this.
For Julius, Sarah, Emmanuel, Juliana, and for all the rest ...
How long, O Lord?
How long?
I cry for help ... nothing.
I see violence, blood, death ... and still nothing.
How long, O Lord?
How long?
(borrowed from Habakkuk 1)
Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent, Feb. 18, 2024
9 months ago
2 comments:
Again, I don't know how to leave a comment other than anonomyously but it's Mamaedna here. Julius leaves tomorrow and I second the request that everyone pray specifically for the safety of Julius and his family. I ask prayers also for everybody in Kenya to individually make the decision to desist from violence. That wouldn't be a bad choice for this country, now that I think about it.
How little I knew when I met the beautiful people of Kenya lat summer that their situation to disintegrate to this level. I didn't fully understand how fragile their young democracy really was. I thought I had seen the terrible poverty but that it could erupt into such violence is incredible. I looked at my blog from last summer the other day and I see that I wrote something about there being "great beauty and death at every hand." Who knew how ugly it could get? When I wrote about the glorius beauty of Lake Nakuru that I wanted my father to see I could not have imagined that the town of Nakuru would now be overrun with refugees and having people being hacked to death there daily. Who could have imagined that my friends would now be at risk because they are of the "wrong" ethnic group and, worse yet, related to a prominent opposition politician. I have reached this advanced age only to be continually amazed at what we are willing to do to each other.
How long, indeed?
MamaEdna
Andy & Edna - I'm guessing you may have seen the article on the front page of the KC Star today.. http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/467057.html
wow... :(
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