Julius In the News - More On Kenya

This link (click here) has a video story featuring Julius and Sarah.

Julius is on his way to Kenya to bury his brother and care for his family. Please pray for his safety and for Sarah's peace of mind. And while you're at it, throw in a couple for an end to this craziness.

This picture, which was in the Kansas City Star this week, is of Julius holding a picture of himself and his brother.

Soulfari Kenya's blog is a place you might go to hear about ways you can help.

The United Methodist Church is there, too. Click here to read about our denomination's response and here is another little blurb. I am interested in the sentence that indicates some church compounds have become safe havens in the voilence. I wish I knew more about that.

Prayers for Kenya - Terrible News

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)

MLK Day - How Big is the Dream?

Click here and here for news about Kenya. There are informative stories and also video posted at both sites.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, right? So I'm asking myself today, "What would he say about our world if he were here?" Would he call us to contentment and satisfaction at how far we have come, or would he continue to challenge and push us until the dream of peace and justice and reconciliation that he so powerfully announced was realized around the globe?

How is this picture, taken recently in Kenya, different from the pictures of police just a few decades ago, responding to marches and protests led by Rev. King? Different uniform. Different straw that broke the camel's back. But the underlying causes are pretty much the same, aren't they? Injustice - oppression - intolerance - hatred. The powerful wielding their power without any thought or concern for the powerless.

"I have a dream..." is too fluffy for me today. Instead, let's go with this:

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime -- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth, and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation, and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. (King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963)

May we be extremists for love on behalf of Christ in this bruised and broken world.

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!)

Prayers for Kenya

The violence in Kenya has a face for us here in North Kansas City. Last summer, a member of our congregation travelled there on a mission trip to serve at the Missionaries of Charity home for disabled and abandoned children and women and in the autism unit at an elementary school. She kept a blog and you can read about her experience there.

Edna has been in contact with some of her friends in Kenya, and they are alive, but it is very dangerous to leave the house still. 300 people are reported killed and 70,000 have been displaced, according to the BBC. We are asking for prayers for all of those innocent ones caught up in between the combatants, and for a just, peaceful resolution to the fighting.

There is such power in relationship, isn't there? Without Edna, the violence in Kenya would be just another abstract news story about a political/ethnic conflict on the other side of the world. And we would still pray for peace and for the safety of all the people, to be sure. But since Edna was there, knows people, has been in contact with them, and has shared and continues to share her experiences with us in the congregation, their story is our story, and their suffering is ours.

Life in Christ is a mystery. How is it that my connection with Edna means that I am also connected with her friends in Kenya? It kind of shrinks the world a little bit, no?