Experiences in Kenya

In the above left picture you see a picture of Michelle and Barack Obama. I believe this was made at a meeting in Kenya. Above right is one of our Missionaries and Kenyan Pastors watching a United Nations vehicle unload emergency supplies at one of our churches in Kenya during the crisis right after Kenya's December 2007 elections. This church is in Western Kenya just a few miles from Kogelo, Siaya.

Barack Obama, an African-American whose father is from Kogelo, a small village near the small town of Siaya in Western Kenya, East Africa, has been elected president of the United States of America. This is a Most Exhilarating time - especially for Kenyans and also for all Africans. It has been of particular interest to me because I have spent many pleasant nights in the home of some of my friends in the village of Agoro, in Siaya District, near Siaya Town. Pastor Tomas Obadha, his son Paul Obadha and Pastor Patrick Oduor always were very gracious to me from the first time I stayed with them in the village of Agoro in 1987. Some of my most pleasant memories with them are of sitting outside the hut, playing guitar and singing together, eating sugar cane, smelling the wood smoke as the ladies cooked our meals, eating goat and chapati and drinking Chai (Kenyan Tea). Even more exhilarating was being in Church with them and hearing the Luo brothers and sisters singing songs of praise to Jesus, their Messiah. Yesu Opaki! Opak Ruoth! Nyasai Okonyi!!! These DoLuo words still ring in my ears. They mean, Praise Jesus! Praise the Spirit! God Bless You!!!) What gentle, kind, considerate, loving people they are. Having a Kenyan-African-American as our president will (I believe) strengthen our ties with Kenya and with all of Africa.

However, we must never slack up in our prayers for the United States, that God may guide our new president and that He (Jehovah God) will ultimately save us. We need God now more than ever. You do remember the horror stories that came after the last election in Kenya don't you? Churches were not respected by the thugs and bullies who burned them and killed numbers of people in them. These were Kenyans who were fighting other Kenyans because they were dis-satisfied with the results of their election. Thousands of Kenyans who were business people with a great entrepeneurial spirit were driven from their homes. Prosperous people, Christian people, loving people became angry hate-mongers against their neighbors. Multiplied hundreds became displaced persons overnight in their own country. Our Churches became refugee centers. Food and blankets were supplied for thousands through our pastors and missionaries.