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pray for Kenya!
Kenya has been the launch point for missions and relief efforts for decades because it has been the most developed and stable country in East Africa. While it still is probably the best place to be stationed, the country has multiple things making life hard for Kenyans these days.
Most notably, the post-election violence of a year and a half ago shocked the world with how quickly a stable country fell into chaos. Tens of thousands of Kenyas became IDPs and were never able to return to their homes. The negotiated power-sharing government that led to the end of the violence can best be described as fragile. The papers every day tell of political jousting over the future leadership of this country. Currently, there is a drought and resulting famine in the country that will soon be considered severe, if it is not already. The lack of rain in Kenya’s bread basket areas is having a harsh effect on the whole country. As of last week, the exportation of food is not allowed. (Which means we need special permission if we are to be able to do some of our relief flying out of Kenya into Sudan, DRC etc.) Finally, the external pressures on Kenya from the border with Somalia are becoming more and more pronounced. The level of instability in Somalia is hard to keep contained within Somalia.
Please pray for the people of Kenya and for the leaders of Kenya. The land that has long been thought of as the launchpad is in need of help herself!
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Liam’s birthday party
Liam and his friend, Kolby, had a birthday party over the weekend as they both turned 2! Here are some photos from the great day: read more
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5 funny things Liam says:
5) Sings “Happy Birthday to me”
4) “I’m going to take a little nap”
3) “See you later, crocodile”
2) “Stop it” and “I said ‘don’t'” (when he doesn’t want to be tickled)
1) Yells, “What are you doing!” (when we are driving and honk the horn)
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no more faith.
(This morning I led our chai/chapel time here at AIMAIR. As my thoughts for this morning kind of summarize what has been going through my mind over the past two weeks, I thought I would throw them up on here as well.)
Faith and hope are two words that we have no doubt talked about and thought about a lot in the past few weeks. Hebrews 11 uses the word ‘hope’ when defining ‘faith’ as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hope is often thought of as a ‘confident expectation’. In my mind, my faith is my convictions or beliefs, and hope has to do with how I act in relation to what I believe.
Most of the time, our faith is something that is simply expressed to ourselves and others. However, sometimes it is ‘proven’. When God allows us to go through difficult times, we are given the opportunity to evaluate or test our faith and practice our hope. read more
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How much does the UN ’spend’ annually?
It is hard to work alongside the UN here in Africa without coming to the conclusion that the UN is in the business of spending (many would say ‘wasting’) money. There are more than a few countries, NGO’s and individuals making millions as the recipients of loosely monitored UN contracts. So how much does the UN ’spend’ annually? In their own words , $15 BILLION USD (EXCLUDING that which is spend on the IMF, World Bank and Fund for Agricultural Development.)
