PERILOUS TIMES FOR MISSIONARIES!
January 5, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
II Timothy 3:1a – This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
PLEASE PASS THIS ON!
I don’t recall ever asking those who view our two daily Blogs to pass one on to others, but I am asking you to pass this one on, because it asks for the readers to pray for all God sent missionaries in these troubled times, particularly at this time for those in Kenya.
When the trouble first broke out in Kenya I contacted Ernie and Cissy Hopper, two of my very dear friends who are
Missionary Baptists doing mission work in Kenya. Our church has supported the Hoppers with monthly financial offerings and prayers as well as Joel Cobb and his wife, who are also dear friends, and Missionary Baptists doing mission work in Western Kenya. Dardanelle Missionary Baptist church has supported both families from the beginning of their work in Kenya, and are very concerne
d about their physical welfare.
Joel Cobb and his wife left Kenya early in the chaos following a crooked election by the current ruler of Kenya. The trouble first broke out in its greatest intensity in the home providence of the current ruler, which is in Western Kenya. So Joel and his wife had to get out of Kenya quickly. Please pray their home and the seminary, which they built there, will not be burned in their absence.
Ernie and Cissy decided to weather the storm in Eastern Kenya, but the chaos has been steadily spreading into that area. The first answer I received to my initial query to the Hoppers when the trouble started was as follows:
ernie hoppererniecissy@yahoo.com> wrote:
Yes, we are fine but need your prayers. We have been staying in our house. Ernie has gone out today to see about getting food. The situation is bad. The preachers have been calling and they have been stuck in their houses and have no food. That is what concerns us.
When people get hungry there is no telling what they will do.
The violence has been bad but not in our area. That too could change. We talked this morning about what we need to do. We have decided to stay put but will prepare to leave before it gets really bad and we can’t leave. I don’t know that we can get plane tickets out but will try to go to Tanzania by car. Right now that is all I know.
Will try to keep you informed. Just pray for us.
Thanks for your concern.
Love Cissy
The most recent e-mail from Ernie and Cissy is from yesterday (Jan. 4). It shows how much the situation in their area has deteriorated since the trouble first began.
E-Mail of January 4 From the Hoppers
Things here are unlike anything I’ve seen in the last 20 years. Things are very tense all around the country. The election was rigged. The evidence is overwhelming.
Even the local election officials are admitting to bowing to pressure from the president to rig it. Riots got close to home yesterday. GSU round-about Eddie.
One was killed there. Then they spilled out onto the Thika road from Mathare Valley there at the Utalii Hotel. They were looking for Kikuyu’s. So far the Kikuyu’s have been silent. If they decide to retaliate??? They are a rough tribe.
Kibaki is an entirely different kind of person than I’ve ever seen him. He said last night on TV that even if he remains with only 10 people, he’ll be the president of 10.
Bob Clark and Jonathan Mouler are hiding and feeding about 20 Kikuyu’s in Mouler’s compound.(these are Bible Baptist friends of our’s in Eldoret). All lorry tr affic is
at a standstill.
Uganda and other countries east of us have no fuel now.
Ten buses of Kikuyu’s under military escort were brought to Nakuru from Eldoret yesterday. World Vision pulled all it’s personnel out today and sent them to Tanzania for at least three weeks. Luo’s burned the largest AIC church in Kibera yesterday. Luyah’s and Kikuyu’s are camping out at Yaya(our pastor at Soweto is one of them).
The American Embassy hasn’t issued quit orders but
is telling us to just lay low for now. Bob Clark is having his passports flown in from Lodwar on Monday via MAF. I’ll pick them and hold them for him just in case. He’s in Eldoret and says Lodwar will be out of fuel and food by the time you get this because no vehicles are running. Joseph Ngure had to hide at Julius Kalande’s. His family has been camping at the Kakamega police station since Saturday. 4 were killed in front of Kalande’s church on Sunday. Odinga said that Kenya will be another Ivory Coast if Kibaki doesn’t step down. Fat chance of him stepping down. You know how African’s are about saving face. We have about a weeks worth of food here.
Cissy sensed that it would be like this. Praise God for her. This has been really good for me. I’ve drawn closer to the Lord than I’ve been for a while. I had a wreck in my Pajero and its in the shop. The engine is out of the Trooper.
We have Cissy’s car. I could go on and on but Desmond Tutu came in yesterday and met with Odinga. He meets Kibaki today. We’ll see.
For now things are ok for us but I’m very concerned about our people, especially in Kibera. Evans and family have been indoors for one week. Their food is gone and water too. All men must stay awake at night with machete’s ready. They even carry machetes to the out-house. Pray for us. Its funny how things have turned so quickly. E.D.H.
I have made two trips to Kenya and presented prophecy lectures for two to four weeks for Joel and Ernie in Eastern and Western Kenya in their Seminary. I was privileged to preach in many of the villages where Joel and Ernie had established local churches.
I have never known any missionary families for whom I have as much respect. I stand in awe of their dedication to serve God, and feel like an ant among spiritual giants when I am with them. Please pray for them, and for all those African pastors they trained, along with their flocks, especially in this time of great danger.
Begin BBC New Article
Violence scars Kenya town
By Karen Allen
BBC News, Burnt Forest
January 5, 2008
Up until Friday, Burnt Forest, a large settlement some 30km (20 miles) south of the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, in west Kenya, was completely cut off by fighting.
We travelled by helicopter and from the air could see the charred remains of villages, people’s homes razed to the ground.
More than 100 people died here in clashes last week.
In the hospital I saw patients with burns, gunshot wounds and gashes from machetes and arrows.
They had been targeted because of assumptions about which way they voted in Kenya’s controversial presidential contest.
Awaiting burial
Bodies have still to be collected from hospitals.
Police say they will offer security guarantees to families wishing to bury their dead.
But the psychological trauma of the events of the past week is beginning to show.
In one camp I visited – a police station turned into a refuge – a man who couldn’t afford the bus fare to join his family who had fled further south was found hanging by a rope last night.
He had taken his own life.
The agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been assessing needs here.
They say it is an emergency and the next 10 days will be critical.
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