WertBlog

I found this intiative started after the violence that engulfed Kenya after the elections to be of great importance. You can visit the Msafara website at msafara.co.ke and the blog at msafara.wordpress.com . Just something I got from their site: Hope In Naivasha from Pastor M's Blog by MW An encouraging story from Naivasha. A week ago, I was privileged to be among a small group of pastors from Nairobi who visited one of my favorite places in Kenya. Our mission: to meet representatives from the different pastor's fellowships in order to share the vision of Msafara (www.msafara.co.ke). Rather late in the day, we realized it was the first joint pastor's meeting since the violence in that town. Twist! The divisions that had happened there had not spared the church, and there was much tension even among the pastors present. Feeling very inadequate, we challenged those at the meeting to put aside their differences and to work together to take back their city from anarchy. At so...

Teresa Neumann (February 7, 2008) "God must have been so pleased with Lee's outspoken endorsement of Him because the divine entity blessed Lee in his running for the presidency. Otherwise, how else can Lee—a person who attributes all matters of life to God's divine providence—explain his victory?" (Beijing)—The new president-elect of South Korea, Lee Myungbak, is a committed Christian. As mayor of Seoul in 2004, Myungbak declared: "I declare that the City of Seoul is a holy place governed by God; the citizens in Seoul are God's people; the churches and Christians in Seoul are spiritual guards that protect the city...I now dedicate Seoul to the Lord." (Photo: Wikipedia) Reporter Sunny Lee noted that Myungbak was born into a devout Christian family and later became an elder in his church. He also noted that upon winning the nomination from the Grand National Party as its presidential candidate, Lee visited the Christia...

Teresa Neumann (February 5, 2008) "Everyone, including politicians, expects the churches to play a big role in terms of reconciliation, healing, resettlement and trust building." (Kenya)—Churches across Kenya, once considered Africa's most stable country, are being asked to play a key role in bringing peace to the violence-torn nation in a desperate attempt to prevent all-out genocide. (Photo: AP Images / Bernat Armangue) "Everyone, including politicians, expects the churches to play a big role in terms of reconciliation, healing, resettlement and trust building," said Canon Peter Karanja, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK). "We will need sustained and committed engagement of our international ecumenical partners if we are to fulfill that role." According to a Christian Post report, Kenyan churches are seeking a long-term h...

Teresa Neumann (February 5, 2008) "Music is a form of sensed continuity that can sometimes break through the most overpowering disconnections in our experience of time. There is something spiritual about music, and something musical about the human spirit...God is the composer and librettist. We are each called on to be voices in the choir, singers of God's song." (London)—A touching Times U.K. report has addressed the profound effect music has on us. As an example, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks quotes from Oliver Sacks' book, Musicophilia, which in turn tells the "poignant story" of Clive Wearing, an "eminent musician and musicologist, who was struck by a devastating brain infection," resulting in amnesia so acute that he was unable to remember anything for more than a few seconds. Though we are often admonished to "live in the present," Wearing's wife described her husband's shattered life this way:...

Michael Ireland (February 1, 2008) "I have been clinging to the verse you gave me. I shared it with a Kenyan friend who was on the verge of suicide because of the chaos. It literally saved his life, giving him hope to go on." (Kenya)—More than 30 days after the presidential elections in Kenya, political tension remains high. As a result of the violence, 650 people have been killed, and over 250,000 have been displaced. The latest edition of Missions Catalyst reports that all of the SIM (Serving in Mission) missionaries in Kenya are safe, and that God is using them to encourage their Kenyan brothers and sisters. One missionary, serving on the SIM Sudan team based in Nairobi, wrote, "We grieve for friends like Lydia, who fled for her life from Eldoret. She and her husband have lost everything. We wept together as she shared their trauma." "I wrote Psal...

Amazing Scene as 200 Kenyan Children, On Their Own Initiative, Pray for their Country and Get Miraculous Results Michael Ireland (February 1, 2008) Ever since the children started praying together, the pastor says there have been no deaths, houses burned or even violence in their section of this slum. Adults recite this fact in amazement. The children, however, don't even mention it because it's exactly what they expected to happen. "Pastor told us that there is power in prayer. He said we can change the country through prayer," says 12-year-old. "So that is what we are doing, changing the country." (Kenya)—In the latest edition of Missions Catalyst , Sue Sprenkle, an overseas correspondent for the International Mission Board, who has been reporting from Africa for 10 years describes a scene inside the small, tin shack of a Baptist church filled with children. "After three weeks of post-election ...