Friday, February 1, 2008

From Rwanda


Stonic---Allen

Folks, oh how my heart was overwhelmed with joy when I heard the amazing news (detailed below by Steve) of the way our Lord provided safety for Allen and Stonic! Let us forge ahead, fervent in prayer and steadfast in hope in our Lord as our hearts cry out to Emmanuel for Kenya.


-Megan


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I was sitting on my flight from Nairobi to Kigali, Rwanda and thinking...."How messed-up are things in the world when I'm fleeing from murderous tribal clashes and escaping to the safety of...RWANDA."

When I get back home, I'll look the definition of IRONIC and it may just list this scenario.

I'm sitting in my room now, in Rwanda, SAFE but definitely NOT SOUND, trying my hardest to sort through the events of the last few days...and where God has led and how He has answered prayers.

GOOD NEWS...no GREAT NEWS...

Stonic and Allen patched together another pass at a back road passage to Eldoret and MADE IT SAFELY. They were allowed on a transport plane to Nairobi, filled with terrified families, but made it back to their wives after 2 days of 'riding out the storm' at our compound in Kitale. A 90 minute drive under normal conditions turned into 6 hours of roadblocks and side journeys.

THANK YOU ALL FOR PRAYING FOR THESE GUYS....

Each of these faces and voices have flashed before me in the most dramatic last few days, and then suddenly I'm sitting here at 3 am trying to make sense of all we've been through.



Sister Freda
Geoffrey from Oasis of Hope
James
Juma
Ben and Christine
The kids of Tumaini < Tumaini
Moses and Margaret
Butaki
Jason
Andrews mom, in the ditch (some things just never change)
Baby Moses
Patricia Sawa
Stephen Mairori
Peter
Lilac
Jacinta
Charles and Thomas...and Joseph
The inmates at Kitale prison
The kids from Mercy
And many, many more...



Pity Jeff Blum, who Dan Hamer brought to observe the plight of two GLUE BOYS, Charles and Thomas. This was Jeff's 1st mission to Africa and a few times, when we were surrounded by angry mobs with bows and rocks and machetes, I wondered if Jeff would venture out of the OC EVER AGAIN. Jeff is a champ. When Dan Hamer called from Nairobi last week and asked, " uhm, Steve, is it really safe to go to Kitale right now?" I didn't honestly know how God would get us through to Jeff and him, but I knew Dan wanted in the worst way to see his kids.
Stonic was unbelievable at every turn and crisis.



I had intended for this blog to be a couple paragraphs whenever I could splice together a message to Megan, and she has turned out to be such a blessing to me (and all of you).
Thanks Megan, I know how much you wanted to be here and how much effort and time this took in the midst of your last semester of your senior year of journalism school...I owe you big time...



In the next couple days I'm going to link a YOU TUBE entry to this blog so you can see some of the places the Lord has taken me in the past few day..And we'll all get together and pray for the future of Kenya....God save her...



" to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power, ...to Him be GLORY" Ephesians 3:20



Now I'm going to try and sleep for the first time in a few days.





-Steve