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The Maasai Creed

Milton Brasher-Cunningham got through to this hardened heart again this morning. He has a deep love of Kenya, having spent a significant portion of his adolescence there.

Milton heard this creed on Krista Tippet's NPR program this week. The program was a repeat from earlier this millennium and featured the late Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, a noted church historian. He and Tippet were discussing the role that creeds have played in Christianity.

Tears welled up when I read the Maasai Creed a few moments ago.

"We believe in one high God, who out of love created the beautiful world. We believe that God made good His promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left His home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and [humanity], and showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by His people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch Him, and on the third day He rose from the grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.

We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen."

Milton responds,

When the Maasai speak of Jesus always being on safari doing good – always traveling – all I could think of was the sense of connection those nomadic people must of felt with him. He traveled all his life just as they did; he knew what it was like to be them. And when he died, the hyenas – the filthiest scavengers on the African landscape – didn’t touch him. I love the imagery.

I love it too, Milton. Thanks for sharing this.

Sad Notes from Kenya

Via my friend, Soul Pastor.

UPDATE: Gerry (Soul Pastor) has advised us in the comments that Soul Sanctuary (the church where he works) is making it possible to support their ministry friends in Kenya. Here are the instructions:

If you would like to help financially you can by sending a check payable to Soul Sanctuary and mail it to:
Soul Sanctuary
187 Henlow Bay
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada
R3Y 1G4
Mark on the check KENYA
Or you can use PayPal on our website
If you use PayPal, please email me ([email protected]) with the amount so that our accountant will add the amount for aid in Kenya.
ALL DONATIONS OVER $5 will be issued a tax reciept.

A Kenya Plea

Please keep praying for Kenya. The violence continues - as power hungry men are willing to sacrifice lives in order to achieve their goals. (Read MT's post here.)

I have spent a total of a half year of time in Kenya since 2000 - and, like Mike, my heart is breaking.

Please also read my brilliant son Liam's post, Let Africa Sink? Liam, along with his siblings spent six weeks in Kenya with Imbi and I in 2002. He has a deep love for Africa - especially East Africa.

Sonja on Kenya

Sonja @ Calacirian continues to powerfully blog on the Kenyan Crisis:

So why should any of us care what happens in Kenya, or any of the African nations? Or the Middle East? Or Asia? Or anywhere but our little neighborhood for that matter? What does it matter to us? I can think of a million different answers to those questions. I think they’re different for different people. But I’m interested in answering them from the perspective of a Jesus follower. Why do I care? Why is it important for someone who follows Jesus to care what happens in the lives of people half-way around the world?

Kenyan Crisis Continues

The crisis in Kenya is far from over. Talks have broken down between African Union Chairman & President of Ghana, John Kufuor and the opposing sides in Kenya. "President" Kibaki has appointed a cabinet - further enflaming the passions of the opposition. Raila Odinga, strongly believing the victory was stolen from him, refuses to meet with Kibaki - unless Kibaki is willing to step aside. And the people are pawns in this game of politics.

My friend, John Stanko, who has been in Kenya as often as I have wrote;

One of the lessons for Kenya and the Kenyan church at this time is that they must be more intentional and proactive in bringing people together as an agent of reconciliation. Reconciliation must be preached, and it must be a specific, conscious topic of prayer and discussion for some time to come. Kikuyu Christians must reconcile with Luo Christians and vice versa; there is no option on this. Kikuyu Christians and Luo Christians are first and foremost Christians and then members of their tribes. I am not against tribal identification. We must, however, remember what Paul wrote:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

Numbers of other bloggers are talking about Kenya. Read Mike Todd, JR Woodward, Sonja @ Calacirian, Brother Maynard, Len Hjalmarson. Also read Adam Taylor of Sojourners. And please pray...and then pray some more.

A Response from Amani ya Juu in Nairobi

I have not been doing a lot of blogging of late as I've struggled to understand the lack of response in much of the Christian blogosphere to the crisis in Kenya. It would seem more important to argue over a particular blogger's new book, who has a better understanding of the Sovereignty of God or the elevation of the latest denomination president - than it would to ask for and offer prayers for weaker brothers and sisters who are in danger of experiencing another Rwanda. God help us all.

UPDATE: Amani has PayPal set up on their blog - which helps those of us to support their work who don't live in the U.S. You can also view this brilliant photo essay from The Walrus Magazine on the situation in Nairobi. The Kibera slum, where many of Imbi's and my students live, is shown dramatically during the violence.

Here's a note from Imbi's and my friend, Becky Chinchen, the Director of Amani ja Juu,

First we want to thank you for your overwhelming, generous response to the needs of the Amani women during this post election crisis in Kenya! The women are extremely grateful for their Amani friends around the world who have shared with them during their time of need.

Over the weekend we were able to complete a full round of food distribution to 68 families in various parts of the city of Nairobi.

We will begin with another distribution on Wednesday if possible. Country wide rallies are being called by the opposition party on Tuesday which could turn violent. If there is calm on Wednesday the food distribution program will continue until the women can get back on their feet again and return to work at Amani.

The contents of the food package to each family:

* 4 bananas

* 2 head of cabbage

* 4 oranges

* 2 kg of potatoes

* 1 pack of salt

* 1 kg of sugar

* 1 pack of tea

* 8 onions

* 1 kg of beans (for protein)

* 3 tins of charcoal (for cooking)

* 1 bar of soap

* 8 tomatoes

* 8 carrots

* cooking oil

* 2 packs of corn flour (to make ugali)

* 1 kg of rice

The core values of Amani are to live in peace and reconciliation. This is the training the women have received while at Amani.

Below is the letter that was put in each food packet to encourage the women to live out love and peace in their volatile communities.

Dear _______________,

Greetings of grace and peace in the New Year. We are so saddened by what is happening in Kenya. Our hearts are heavy with news of people being killed, displaced and property destroyed. May the Amani ya Juu in our hearts prompt us to reach out in love, peace and forgiveness to those around us. May we remember all the resources we have in Christ – love, grace, peace, forgiveness and prayer – helping us to stand firm in our faith and give us the stability we need during these difficult times. May we rise above the evil that is gripping the hearts of those involved in the violence so we can be a light of God’s peace during this dark hour of Kenya’s history. This gift of food was provided by our Amani friends from around the world. They are also praying for us. We thank God for His provision during such a time of need as this. Our love and prayers to you and your family.

Thank you, on behalf of all the women of Amani.

Becky Chinchen

Director, Amani ya Juu

From Other Friends in Nairobi

From good friends of mine who adopted me when I first arrived in Nairobi in 2000.

Dear praying friends:

Thank you for all your emails of concern. We appreciate your prayers for our safety and for the country of Kenya at this time. Our family is fine, and, like most of Nairobi, not in danger. Caution is still needed, however, and we continue to watch the political situation and how it affects the passions of the two sides.

Think of the Rodney King riots or the riots after Martin Luther King Jr.¹s assassination. There are underlying historical grievances and conflicts that are fueling the fighting now. Western Kenya is the worst affected by violence targeting ethnic groups. Please pray that the gangs will stop attacking and killing, that those targeted will be able to get out safely, that food supplies will get through to the people. This is all 200 miles and more from us, but it is still our Kenya.

Here in Nairobi, the fighting has been in two major slums - Kibera and Mathare. The borders of Kibera are about a kilometer from us and also very close to Daystar and Nairobi Baptist. Much of the video footage shown of rioters and police trying to get to Uhuru Park for the opposition¹s rally is on Ngong Road across from both institutions. Young men come from there to demonstrate and then are chased back into the slum. Inside the slum it is almost a war-zone. Rival tribal gangs are fighting each other and anyone suspected of being sympathetic to the "wrong" side. Anne, our househelper, lives there and is once again trapped in her home. Her sister insisted on coming in from their rural home to check on Anne, meaning Anne had to go get her in Kibera. At night, her area was attacked and the attackers have been sitting there all day keeping the people in the area from leaving. Please pray for her safety.

The rally called for by Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, yesterday did happen but was stopped by riot police half way through. The leaders disbanded the march but only postponed it to another day ­ supposedly today, tomorrow or next Tuesday. Nothing happened today, thankfully. Most supermarkets were open and fairly well stocked, although fresh meat and vegetables are scarce. People were able to get out and about.

The city¹s businesses and institutions are mostly shut down, and have been for a week. School openings have been postponed for at least a week. Kenyans are growing increasingly impatient with both Kibaki (the president) and Odinga and their failure to talk to end the violence. The Daily Nation newspaper says, "Despite the words of concern by both sides about the dangerous situation in Kenya and public statements that they are ready for dialogue, belligerence is still drowning out voices of reason." If the leaders don¹t dialogue, the people on the ground continue to suffer.

Please pray for the following:

1. That the leaders of the two opposing parties will both let go their grasp of and desire for power and talk together to resolve both the current violence and the issue of the election. Odinga claims rigging, but neither side is likely completely clean of that charge. We can¹t see a good alternative to the current governmental situation, but God can. May His will be done.

2. For continued safety for, not just us, but all in Kenya, and particularly those in the heavily affected areas. Pray for Anne.

3. Pray for the boys. They are doing fine, but the tension is subconsciously affected them and their emotions are a bit on edge. Being cooped up in the apartment doesn¹t help. Pray for us to find enjoyable things to do together.

4. Pray for Bill and myself. The tension of the situation is making us tired and giving us headaches. Pray that we will completely release the situation to the Lord. We share the frustration of the Kenyans.

5. If you feel the need to help in more ways than prayer, you can send donations to our ACT account marked for KENYA RELIEF and we will use it to buy food, clothing, blankets and anything else needed to help those displaced by the violence. (ACT, PO Box1649, Brentwood, TN 37024). Nairobi Baptist is one of the churches working with the relief effort.

Thank you for your continued prayers and concern. May God¹s will be done in this situation and his supremacy known in Kenya.

Bill and Julisa Rowe

A letter from Amani ya Juu in Nairobi

Some of you have seen the video on YouTube that Imbi and I produced with our Daystar Students for Amani back in 2002. I just recieved this update from Becky Chinchen, Amani's founder and director.

UPDATE: Amani has PayPal set up on their blog - which helps those of us to support their work who don't live in the U.S. You can also view this brilliant photo essay from The Walrus Magazine on the situation in Nairobi. The Kibera slum, where many of Imbi's and my students live, is shown dramatically during the violence.

January 3, 2008

Dear friends of Amani –

Greetings from Amani in the New Year. We never dreamed we would meet the new year with violence in Kenya over the disputed elections. Kenya has always been a haven of peace for refugees for many years. Never did we imagine that Kenyans would become refugees in their own country. Hundreds have been killed, 75,000 people have been displaced, millions of dollars worth of property has been destroyed – all because of tribal differences.

We are on the brink of a civil war. The images seen on TV are frighteningly similar to Rwanda and Liberia. Kenyans are carrying machetes, wielding clubs with nails and burning people inside churches as they carry out their ethnic cleansing rampage.

Some of you have asked about the Amani women and we thank you for your concern. Many of the areas around the city where the women and their families live have erupted into violence. A number of the women are afraid to venture out of their homes for fear of being caught up in the mayhem.

Ruth*, who works at the Amani Café, was robbed at gunpoint when she left her home to look for food. The thugs told her to give them all her money or they would shoot her. The husband of Simprosa, who is the sales clerk in the Amani Boutique, tried to go to the local market to buy food but was accosted on the way. Thieves threatened to beat him if he did not part with his watch and money. A sister of Mary Karanja, Amani’s finance administrator, had to move from her house in the middle of the night. She had received word that gangs were going door to door killing people of her ethnic community. We have not heard from Mama Alice, an Amani cook, who lives in Kibera (a slum area on the outskirts of Nairobi where heavy loss of life and property has occurred) and are very concerned about her well being.

Fuel and food, if available, has skyrocketed in price. A head of cabbage, for example, has jumped from 25 cents to $1.25. The women can not afford to buy food at these exorbitant prices so many have gone for days already without food in the house. We need to get food to them urgently not knowing how long this crisis will drag on.

We have put a food distribution plan together and are collecting food from the productive farms north of the city, where it is affordable and available, and transporting it to the Amani center in Nairobi. Today, with $100, we were able to buy enough food to feed 10 families for two days. If you would like to help in this distribution program you can send a gift to:

Amani Foundation

P.O. Box 28133

Chattanooga, TN 37424

*please write "food distribution" on the memo line of your check.

Or donate on-line

The whole purpose of Amani is for the women to learn how to work and live together in harmony and become promoters of peace in their communities. During this darkest hour of Kenya’s history may the women shine as lights of God’s peace.

In the power of God’s peace,

Becky Chinchen

Director, Amani ya Juu

*UPDATE: Imbi has just made me aware that Ruth, who Becky writes about above, is actually someone we know well. The kids, Imbi and I spent a lot of time together with Ruth in 2002. She is a wonderful woman who is the primary breadwinner in her family. (She is married and has a daughter.)

Please also check out this post on the situation in Kenya from one of my favourite bloggers, Milton Brasher-Cunningham @ Don't Eat Alone. Milton lived in Nairobi as a kid.

Please Pray for Kenya

My heart aches this morning for the East African nation that won my heart in 2000. Violence has erupted as it appears the election may have been stolen by supporters of Mwai Kibaki, the sitting President - backed by the inordinate wealth of former president Daniel Arap Moi. The BBC reports that scores have died in clashes between supporters of Raila Odinga and Kibacki supporters - as well as between Odinga supporters and the police.

Kenya is a nation that views itself through tribal eyes. There are over forty different Kenyan tribes (like the clans of Scotland). Kibaki is a Kikuyu, Odinga a Luo. The Kikuyu are the largest clan in Kenya and spent the years of Moi's presidency watching the nation being run by his much smaller clan, the Kalenjin. (As one example, the post-office in Kenya when I first went there was completely controlled by members of that tribe - to the annoyance of many of my Kikuyu friends.) Some of the election violence is directly related to clan power.

I remember chatting with a Masai anthropologist while spending time at Amboseli in 2001. This very well educated man informed me that he had no trouble with the tribal nature of Kenyan politics and would expect that when the Masai had power, he would benefit greatly. Being many generations away from my own MacKinnon clan history, I had little understanding of this tribal motivation. (Though I do see it in operation much too often in the church.)

Please pray for this beautiful nation. Pray for governmental integrity. Pray that the church, in a nation that professes to be more than 50% "born again", will speak truth to power. And pray that God's Will will be done in East Africa, as it is in heaven.

UPDATE: I am stunned by the news of folk seeking refuge being burned in an Assemblies of God church in Eldoret. My first experience of Kenya in 2000 was in shooting a medical missions documentary that began in this city in the west of Kenya. It is the city (at 8,000ft of elevation) where the famous Kenya long distance runners train. It is not a place where I would have expected this to happen - which only shows how little I understand of this African nation I love. Please pray more fervently.

Nairobi Based Women's Sewing Project Video

Imbi and I have had the distinct pleasure of teaching at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya almost every year since 2001. (I taught by myself in 2001 - although Imbi and I had both been in Kenya in 2000 - Imbi with Daystar, me shooting a medical missions documentary.)

This video was sitting on my hard drive and I thought I'd put it up on YouTube. It's a 9 minute documentary on Amani Ya Juu, a refugee women's sewing project. We love what the project does and had students of ours, from both the 2001 and 2002 classes, produce this video. Some footage was shot by me - most was done by our students, who also did the editing (with a little assistance from me - although the graphics make me cringe today, five years later.) This project provided a little of the impetus for the Beacon of Hope project - another of the videos I've uploaded to YouTube. Please let me know what you think - I'll pass it on to the students.

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