Urgent Prayer Request

Thursday- December 4th, 2008

I am able to break the technology fast because we need your prayers now more than ever and I know many of you are already praying. This may be a long email …so I apologize now. I will go back about a little over a week ago. First, one of the girls on our team was flown out because a cut turned into a systemic issue up her leg . She left before thanksgiving with our team mom…which meant Thanksgiving was not the same. The next day after thanksgiving we were all feeling the pressure of Culture stress and we spent a long time praying because we felt like Satan was attacking at every angle. We had just received a letter from the Land owners that they no longer want us to use parts of the landing strip. This family had become our friend and we didn’t know what to do with this news. Then we were having issues with the community because they were wondering why we hadn’t opened a school or a clinic. Before we ever came and the community asked us to come it was clearly stated that our soul purpose was to share Christ …first and foremost. Also, they were told the first 6 months would be completely dedicated to learning…the culture, language, etc. This apparently was not made clear to the community and we were feeling the backlash from that. That day at our team meeting a woman came to our compound. She was 6 months pregnant and a drunken man had beaten her with a machete. This man had cut off her finger while she was blocking a blow to her head. Her head was slit from front to the back all the way to the skull and it had taken place on Thursday night around 9 and she didn’t arrive at the compound (which she walked to) till 4:00 the next afternoon. My roommate Deborah with two other girls trained in nursing sewed her back up..with God’s help. By the time they had finished there was a whole group and David shared the gospel. He explained our purpose for being there. A man who had been slandering us suddenly spoke up and said that he could see that God had sent us and that we were here to give them hope. We were all encouraged as we had spent that whole afternoon praying and assisting with this woman. We were then planning on leaving for 4 days to Loki to get food. This was our first time leaving and when Sunday came we couldn’t go because our pilot John got malaria. We hung out at our team leaders home and when two of our team members went home one found that someone had smashed through the wall of their hut and had broken in and our lower house girls locks were bashed in. This was not the first time this has happened. Before we came our houses had been broken into and so had the Miller’s home (our team leaders). They had pressured the Chief to take action but he was too scared of the community and didn’t do anything with the thieves. After this, we spent Monday in prayer and decided that we couldn’t not do anything. This tribe is more dysfunctional then most. Most tribes have Elders and Chiefs that they respect and who hold authority. Here it’s like the wild west without a sheriff. It has broken our hearts to see how lost they are and we know the only thing that can fix this is if God changes their heart. We decided that we would call the commissioner down and they needed to take action if they want us to stay…first, they needed to take the thieves to Chukudom and have them put in jail. Next, they need to have a community meeting and ask the community if they really want us there and make it clear that we are not an NGO here to give them things but that we need time to learn the language and we are their to share Christ and it is their choice if they want us there or not... and so now we are in Kenya. We are here until they decide. The commissioner has already had soldures down to arrest some of the thieves but some have fled. This is a big deal. The Government is getting involved and now we are waiting on the Lord. We know that ultimately only God can make this go well. We all realize that there is a strong chance that we won’t return and it breaks our hearts. There are people there who are not guilty and yet they don’t stand up for what is right. They allow women and children to be beaten with no consequence. Nothing will happen to that man who attacked that women with a machete. Please know we are not there to establish a government but we also know we can’t turn a blind eye to this as it effects everything we are doing. So here are the prayer requests…

1. Pray for the hearts of the Didinga. They know what is wrong and what is right…pray that they would stand up and not be passive

2. Pray that they would desire the hope Christ brings

3. Pray for the Commissioner. He is a great man and is fighting on our behalf..pray for his salvation

4. Pray for Dario and Laboy- they are the two believing Didinga who are working with us and believe that we have done the right thing- pray that God would give them words to speak as they work with the Didinga community while we are awaiting their reply. These boys are 20 and 23 and are respected and have a huge task at hand- Pray for strength, direction and boldness

5. Pray for our team- We are exhausted, bruised and hurting. We love these people and want so badly to share and don’t want it to end this way.

6. Pray for our team leaders. David has a lot to work through and he needs your prayers for where and how to go next.

Please know I have full faith that God is going to do something here. I just unloaded a lot at once and I’m working through all this myself but I know that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here being used and being stretched in ways I never thought I would be. I feel your prayers!!! Especially now… It was so encouraging to read your emails and I would love to reply to all of you and I hope to soon!