Rob and Sue Martin - Kenya |
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September 2009
Dear All,
Here is a flavour of the variety of churches we have attended over the past few weeks. August 9th: Merile,120kms south of Marsabit, but still part of the parish, hot and dry – I confirmed 7 Rendille youngsters all prepared by our evangelist Augustine. August 16th: Kubibagaza, another dry place, 20kms away on the mountain. The road is so bad it may be impassable when the rains come. Some of the Borana living in the village moved there for safety in the ethnic clashes a few years ago. August 23rd: Nyeri, with the Kikuyu, in their cathedral church, in one of the Mt Kenya Dioceses down south. It was drizzling and so cold Rob had to buy a jumper! I talked about our situation in the North and I pray one day they may take some financial responsibility for our mission area. August 30th: Maikona, in the far desert, among the Gabbra nomads. You drive for an hour through scrub desert, then an hour through sandy desert and suddenly you come over a ridge and below you is a little town, beside a dried up lake, and underneath is WATER! Thousands of camels come to drink as there is no other water for 50 miles. I went for Communion and fellowship and was asked to confirm 8 candidates and baptise two children! Fortunately I had packed the full Swahili prayer book. They had just finished a mission, showing the Jesus film around the homesteads. September 6th: St. Francis Karen, a wealthy suburb of Nairobi, where the Christians support our evangelist at Karare on Mt. Marsabit. I preached on the parable of the talents and shared about the need for all of us to use the gifts and resources we have, and not claim God has dealt us a raw deal – like the 3rd servant. Maybe in England we reckon we cannot share the gospel because it’s not “the done thing” in our culture – that is the 3rd servant attitude!
In the past 5 weeks we have been in 5 totally different cultures, and in each place we have seen the Lord at work in all his marvellous diversity. September 13th: Marsabit, I preached on unity in Christ and our need as Christians to transcend any differences and be the people of God, seeking peace, and refusing to be tempted by ethnicity or greed. Why did I preach on that? Because.......
Insecurity is a major problem at the moment. Our Archdeacon, Abraham, was leading a mission to Merti, a mainly Muslim area in our far south east corner. On the way back they were attacked by bandits. Bullets were freely fired, driver Mike nearly lost control, but managed to keep going and get away - miraculously no one was hit, except Abraham, who was shot in the leg. The bullet missed his bone, but splintered as it went through the land rover door – the hospital removed 2 bits, but there is still one to be removed, so Abraham is temporarily out of action. The violence is partly caused by lack of resources because of the famine, so people use lawless means to survive. That road is now a no go road, until the Government regains control – some 70 people have been killed this year in that area. Near Laisamis, on our main road south, a gang of 500 armed raiders (surely an exaggeration?) attacked a village and stole hundreds of cattle and goats
On Wednesday, here in Marsabit, a Burje herder was murdered in the forest and his 2 cows taken. The Rendille were blamed. A demonstration on Thursday protesting outside the District Commissioners office degenerated into riots, police fired in the air to scare people, looters caused chaos and fear in the town centre, and Rendille set up road blocks to stop lorries and rob them. We were on our way from Nairobi, but delayed and by Friday things were calm again. So you can see, all is a bit fraught at the moment, though you don’t think about it until you jump into the land rover and start travelling! Our next journey is on 19th September to Moyale in the far North, then on 23rd we head south for Provincial meetings, where we will discuss our future status and finances.
And still the rains delay and the famine bites ever deeper. The Met says El Nino type rains may come soon and that may cause flooding! We plan to send out more relief lorries this week.
Rob and Sue
You may also be interested in looking at the following link about Northern Kenya, a little to the east of them but exactly
same problems. Moyayle is in their zone but Turkana to the west.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/13/drought-kenya-nomads