Around Town

So we went to Eldoret yesterday to attend the Msafara prayer meeting. There were maybe 1,000 or so people in the park at the local city hall, some probably just lured by the music, some, sincerely gathered to pray for reconciliation in this country.

"Those are not our prayers," my one colleague overheard two men saying. "It is only people who are guilty who've come to pray..."

Far from it. Somehow, I don't think the young men who did most of the damage were there. The crowd was mostly made up of older men and women, and a large group (6 busloads) from Nairobi. We were led in prayer by several pastors, both from Nairobi and from Eldoret. We worshiped together and asked God to restore this nation.

The prayer meeting of pastors the day before was especially powerful. According to the Msafara blog, "The kind of healing that the Lord performed in Eldoret is beyond our wildest imagination. Pastors across tribal lines brought repentance to God and to one another, forgave each other and washed each other’s feet. We crowned it with Holy Communion. It was awesome! The Lord gave us a sign of rain in the evening as acceptance of the prayers that were offered to Him."

The Msafara team has moved on to the last city on their prayer tour: Kisumu. After Eldoret, Kisumu had the highest rates of destruction during the post-election violence.

Please continue to pray for restoration and revival in Kenya.

After the prayer meeting, I made a quick trip to Ilula. I had to go and visit with Silas Sifuna. He had decided to drop out of the program on Friday. I met with him and he promised me that he'll be back in the program today. Please join me in praying for a breakthrough in his life!

Though most of the bigger kids were still in school, I got to see the little ones for a short while before I had to return to town to pick up my colleagues for the trip back to Kipkaren. One of the moms told me how her 3-year-old came running to her earlier in the day, crying hysterically that, "They have come to burn our homes again!" He had seen some men walking on our compound (they were staff, nothing to worry about) and saw some smoke from people who are burning their fields in preparation to plant this week. But in his little mind, he thought for sure that trouble had begun again, and his heart was pounding in his chest. The children are certainly still traumatized by that which had transpired around them for the first 2 months of the year.

Later, as I drove the very dusty road back to town, I passed all the bigger kids. They were on a Friday-afternoon run, and a long one, at that! I gave them all high fives as I drove by, my hand burning after the hundred slaps! But my heart was singing. I love those kids, and I love seeing them!

Back in Kipkaren, the rains are slowly starting. I just ran outside to bring my laundry in. I'm hoping for some heavy rains this afternoon. Power has gone out and I don't know when it will be back on.

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The rains had come. We had a shower for a good half hour or so, even with some large hail. The thunder is still rumbling in the distance, and I hope it will rain some more. It's still very hot and dry. But the rains have made a difference. The birds outside my window are singing loudly.

Sometime later. The power is back on. Oh, I discovered today that I have no water when there's no electricity. It has something to do with the electric pump at our well. So, now with electricity and thus water and Internet back on, I can finally post this entry.