My heart is in troubled Kenya

Several people have asked me about the recent turmoil in Kenya, and it indeed is in some of the very areas where I worked on short-term mission trips in 2004, 2005 and 2006. There has been violence in the Kibera slums outside Nairobi, which is where I was in 2004, and in the western part of Kenya, which is where I was the other two years. I've even seen news reports related to Kisii Town, which is the largest city near where I worked in 2005 and 2006 and which is where we stayed during our 2006 trip.

My last report was that the founders of LEAMIS International Ministries haven't been able to get a hold of the Rev. Paul Mbithi, our contact in Nairobi, since the violence began -- not necessarily because "Pastor Paul" was in any sort of situation himself, but just because of the general impact the violence had on outside communications.

I solicit your prayers for all of the people in Kenya, including those I worked with for three years. I've recently been working on a novel based on my Africa mission trip experiences, and because of this the sights and sounds of Kenya were fresh in my mind even before the recent election and the unrest which followed it. I know of several other groups and churches here in the county that have been involved in Kenya in one form or another in recent years, and I am sure they would join me in that request.

The ironic thing is that Kenya has, for many years, been considered an island of stability -- the strongest economy in the region, and seemingly immune to some of the tribal violence that has disrupted some of its neighbors. But when the incumbent president held up election results for several days, and then claimed to have won a close election, the opposition accused him of fraud and emotions boiled over.

Whatever flaws our own election system has -- and they are many -- we can take pride in America's tradition of peaceful transfer of power. Even in 2000, when a razor-thin election was accompanied by claims of fraud, power passed peacefully from one party to another. In the end, our system works.

My mission trip plans for this year are still up in the air -- partly because of the change in my job responsibilities here, and partly because the group with which I make my trips has been late getting its plans firmed up. But I do want to go back to Kenya at some point, after all this has settled down (and I hope it will).

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com.