Kenyan Peacework: Jan 24, events in Kaimosi, Teresa Johna

From Friend's Theological college Kaimosi, Kenya
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------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: TERESA JOHNS <teresajohns@verizon.net>
To: richmond-newsletter@lists.fum.org
Subject: [Richmond Newsletter] January 24 Newsletter from Ben and Jody
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:50:09 +0000
> Thursday, 24 January, 2008
> Friends Theological College
> Kaimosi, Kenya
> Dear Friends,
> Since our last newsletter, a lot has happened, so we are writing again to update
> you and to ask you to redouble your prayers for Friends in Kenya.
> FTC opened this week (as you will remember, we delayed opening for a week due in
> hope that the situation would normalize). Today, about half of our students are
> back on campus.
> We last wrote that Kaimosi remained an island of peace. Shortly after sending
> out that newsletter, clashes began in our area. Houses have been burned just
> the other side of Cheptulu, our nearby market. Quite a few have been injured
> with arrow and panga (long, sword-like knives) wounds, and are being treated at
> the Kaimosi hospital just down our road. Some of the kiosks at the junction
> were burned the other night. (Those of you who know Alex, will be glad to know
> that his kiosk is okay.) Two people have been killed in the area: one, the
> uncle of a recent graduate. One of our groundsmen is “sleeping out” meaning
> that he and his wife are sleeping in the forest because homes near their home
> have been burned. Other staff members are caring for relatives who have had to
> leave their homes.
> We should reassure you that the college and the mission compound in general have
> remained safe. Last night, according to reports, things were calm in our area.
> Perhaps, this is a good reaction to the Kofi Annan mediation efforts, and the
> response of the opposition leadership which called off plans for mass
> demonstrations today.
> Tuesday was scheduled to be our first day of classes. Instead, the faculty
> decided to cancel classes and devote the day to sharing our stories and praying
> for one another and the general situation. Those students who had been able to
> travel to the college, together with faculty and staff, gathered in the Dining
> Hall, and for three hours recounted the impact of the clashes in personal
> stories. Some had experienced terrifying moments at roadblocks. Others told of
> neighbor’s houses burned, or people killed. Several pastors recounted how they
> had given refuge to members of targeted tribes. Others recounted how family
> members had had to flee from their homes in the face of threats. One mentioned
> that gunshots in his vicinity became so common that they almost began to seem
> normal. Others reported that calm prevailed in their areas, but all were
> affected by seeing “a Kenya they had never seen before in their lives.”
> Jody led that session, with Pamela Igesa, the College chaplain. Ben preached
> from Luke 4 and Isaiah 61 about the healing power of the spirit and contrasted
> the heresy of a “gospel” that pretends God’s love is only for “our community”
> with Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom of God that embraces all communities. One
> member of our staff shared an incident of this lived out, when a vehicle
> carrying refugees from violence-torn areas came through his village in the first
> few days after troubles began. He was amazed and touched to witness a number of
> market vendors gave food to them freely, never asking for any money. We’ll
> remember the image of street vendors tossing avocados into a truck full of their
> hungry “enemies”!
> Ben preached again the next morning, at our regular daily worship, carrying
> forward the story in the Gospel of Luke to the sermon on the plain in chapter 6.
> He drew on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1957 sermon on loving your enemies, in
> which he said, “So this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of
> all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to
> you, ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’” Later in the day, we held
> a convocation at which Mary Lord, a Friend from Baltimore Yearly Meeting with
> vast experience in peacemaking work, spoke. She rooted the Friends’ peace
> testimony in our experience of the power and love of God, and Jesus’ Sermon on
> the Mount. She then recounted stories to illustrate many ways in which Quakers
> have lived out the peace witness to demonstrate what a vast toolbox is available
> to peacemakers. In the question and answer period, one of the teachers asked
> Mary to
> talk about the biggest obstacles she has faced and overcome. Mary responded
> from her own experience the need to forgive violence she experienced as a child;
> and then told about how God had, unknown to her, used a conference she had
> organized in the 1980s about the effects of nuclear weapons, to impact Ronald
> Reagan and start the beginning of Reagan’s pulling back from nuclear
> brinksmanship. Today, Mary spoke to Jody’s class on Peace and Conflict
> Transformation about the cycle of violence. Students and faculty have been
> deeply engaged.
> In Quaker Theology, we have modified the syllabus to begin from an experiential
> basis to ask what theological questions rise out of our experience. Ben and
> Jody have invited the students to think over the last weeks and ask what mental
> images come to mind, and then share why they are important. Some of the images:
> “people being slashed in nearby homestead; young kids, displaced from their
> homes in Eldoret walking by my place to find refuge; people burning down houses
> and looting; members of parliament on TV pouring out their anger, seeking power;
> a young child in the hospital with an arrow sticking in him; a member of the
> church, home from Mombasa, asking for prayer because he was being sacked from
> his work in a hotel, and facing an unknown future; women being fallen on by
> soldiers, and young men and even old men (“wazee”) and being raped.” One image
> was of “a man being slaughtered, the way one would slaughter a hen.”
> Even if the Annan peace efforts succeed today, and peace returns to the land,
> and all the hundreds of thousands of displaced were able to go back to their
> homes (many of which are, of course, burned), there would still be a tremendous
> need for trauma healing. There is fear, distrust, and deep uncertainty because
> people who seemed to be friends so easily became enemies. What theological
> questions does all this raise?
> This is a testing time for the church in Kenya. Will we be able to be bearers
> of Good News that is deep enough to bring healing and hope to those who have
> been traumatized, and reconciliation to those who have experienced the reality
> of enmity? Will you pray for a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit?
> In the midst of these extraordinary circumstances, normal life also continues.
> We are making progress on the design of a new administration building, and
> wrapping up final details on the new Meetinghouse. To continue to pursue
> “normalcy” is a part of living the Kingdom of God in these times—proclaiming
> hope that God plans for a good future for Kenya.
> Thank you for your prayers, and support.
> Jody and Ben Richmond