Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Missions Wednesday: Kenya

Kenya is one of the countries deeply affected by the famine in the Horn of Africa. Thousands of Somalis have fled to Kenya for relief from the drought and famine that is plaguing this region. Now Kenya is burdened by the amount of people seeking relief at their borders. One of the saddest stories I have heard about the people coming into Kenya is that many women are being raped as they journey to relief camps. This is absolutely horrific. These women are escaping death by starvation and in the wake of this tragedy are faced with horrible sexual abuse at the hands of rebels in Kenya. For many of them, death would be preferable. The Kenyan police are so overwhelmed by the population surge from the famine that they are unable to fight off these gangs of criminals attacking desperate Somalis.

Even worse, Kenya is considered a predominantly Christian nation. According to Operation World, a little over 82% of Kenyans classify as Christians and 48% of that number are evangelicals. This has staggering implications for refugees coming from a Muslim nation. Obviously, many countries (like America) claim to be majority Christian and atrocities happen within our borders all of the time. All the more reason to pray that the name of Christ is not maligned by these unspeakable actions.

Ways to pray:

- Pray for the Kenyan government. They have their hands full trying to provide help to Somali people while their camps are over capacity. Pray that they can provide needed relief and execute justice for the oppressed.
- Pray that these attacks against Somali women would cease.
- Pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ would go forth and many Somalian people would be exposed to the healing and saving power of Jesus while in Kenya.

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