Philippines Flood Update

October 6, 2009

From one of our partners in the Philippines:

“Thank you for your email. It is encouraging to know that our country is in your prayers and you are concerned about the effects of the recent wide spread flooding in Manilia. We have helped mobilize some resources from our member organizations and distributed it to those who are doing direct relief operations. The devastation is so widespread and has affected both the rich and the poor.  The relief operations are still on going but the more long term is the need for rehabilitation in areas livelihood and properties can still be recovered (there are places where the only alternative is to move out of their former homes and be relocated in safer places).

Pray that the government agencies directly responsible for relief and rehabilitation operations will have wisdom to do the right things and not waste money on short term solutions and worst, that money may not go to the wrong hands but will really be used to address the needs of those devastated by the typhoons and flooding.”

Crisis in Orissa

September 23, 2008

This past month, a slew of atrocities have ravaged Orissa. According to the EFI, thousands of persecuted Christians are in relief camps. Between 40,000 and 50,000 fled to jungles or have been unaccounted for. The international media has barely seemed to notice. But, as a friend writes, “Worse than the faces missing in the news, worse by far, are those now missing in Orissa: the mothers and fathers who won’t come home” and the many child casualties. Persecution has also taken place in Karnataka, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) and in Delhi. A musician friend in Bangalore tells me that many pastors in Bangalore are also in hiding. Since the persecution hasn’t been in the media very much, it seems that these believers are not as important to the world as entertainment, presidential elections, and the latest on the global economy.

According to the BBC, up to 500,000 people were stranded by the recent floods in the Indian state of Bihar. They could spend the next 6 months in temporary camps (read, “homeless”). Thousands more have been displaced in Assam and Bangladesh. And, hundreds of thousands of displaced Indians and Bangladeshis are threatened by disease and starvation. In all, more than 3 million have just become displaced by the flood (news.bbc.co.uk). This is Bihar’s worst flooding in 50 years… UNICEF has reported that there is now an outbreak of diarrhea in many relief camps. Reuters has seen fighting break out by people who fight to “lay their hands on air-dropped food”.

Earlier this month, Vogue India came under fire for using some of India’s poorest for a luxury fashion photo shoot. The August Issue’s feature used these rag-clad “models” (aka Dalits/untouchables) to display items such as a $10,000 (400,000 RS) Hermes Birkin bag, a $200 (8,000 RS) Burberry umbrella, a Fendi designer bib (on a poverty-stricken infant), and more. Vogue India’s editor defended the shoot; she was captured by the “immense beauty, innocence, and freshness” of the subject’s faces; others have called the shoot “complete callousness to genuine suffering”. P.K. Varma, author of The Great Indian Middle Class, stated that the Vogue shoot highlighted “how India’s increasingly wealthy elite enjoyed its privileges without sparing a care for the poor around them” (independent.co.uk.nytimes.com).

In 1 Corinthians 12:26, we read that if one part of the body suffers, all the other parts share its suffering. Let’s “join in the suffering” by lifting up those who suffer in our prayers.

Prayers answered in Kenya

March 24, 2008

The last two months were a major test for Kenya and all Kenyans. I tried to update you on the events asking you to pray as it was difficult sometimes for me to pray intelligibly.

It was frightening because for 8 years, I prayed daily and fasted regularly against similar circumstances in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and the list goes. On several occasions the call of duty/ministry brought me face to face with the impact of such crises on the continent while serving at the Association of Evangelicals in Africa. There was no doubt the Kenyan crisis was going to be likened to or even supersede those that had come and gone. All the signs of what drove Somalia into the present failed state were imminent. A determination and resolve for self destruction that still shocks me was cut in stone as no one seem to care; not even our leaders were willing to listen when some of our neighboring countries were urging us not end up like them! The destruction of lives,properties and essential public infrastructure that I witnessed personally leaves me wondering if this was not the work of the foulest, wild and wicked evil spirit that took over our hearts and minds? It was totally unnecessary to unleash violence on ourselves not to mention that we are already paying for it now through a high cost of living as prices of virtually everything have gone up…!

Thankfully, with your prayers, God used Koffi Annan to pacify the parties who have now reached a political settlement. You also prayed for me, Aaron and Kaarli when we embarked on the Caravan of Hope, a risky adventure which has now been embraced by the Kenya church ( see www.Nationmedia.com ; Sunday Nation of 23rd March 2008 article “ How clergy took battle to Grim Reaper”). Msafara is swahili word for Caravan! They renamed it “Msafara wheels of Hope”.

Sense is coming back to Kenya as many (and hopefully everyone will) remorsefully look back at what happened and seriously ponder why it happened! Before I left Kenya for Burundi on the 3rd, I had to urgently cut shot my trip in West Pokot-Webuye to avoid being caught up in a planned mass action called by the opposition. I made it in time for a peace follow up meeting in the most troubled part Kibera and here is how Aaron Sundsmo described the meeting:

We met with around 40 youth leaders (age 18-25) and a few other older community leaders who are also interested in participating in the process. We had a good 6-7 hours with them to talk through the practical steps that we could take to start rebuilding their communities.

I was happy to see that we met with the “real” youth. One of the members had been in a militia/gang and recently left. One currently occupies someone else’s house and wants to give it back to the rightful owner. Each one had a remarkable story to tell. Unfortunately, almost all were unemployed and not in school. All of them were full of innovative ideas that the rest of us had not thought of before. We decided that they after the meeting on Saturday they would talk to people in their community during the week and we would meet again next Saturday to decide whose home we should rebuild first.

Lives need emotional and physical healing, reconciliation and restoration. Physical aid is needed to start again. The figures have been put at around 300,000 families displaced. We are glad that the coalition government has committed herself to help rebuild. No details of how and when and to what extent this is going to be done. In the meantime families continue to shelter in IDPs’ camps. In the meantime the rain and planting season is back… Again City Harvest has no capacity to handle all these needs but we shall do all we can with God’s help to catalyze and move the church into action. Please note that Kenya needs you now more than ever! It is possible that with the outbreak of violence many who had planned to come and be part inevitably canceled their travel plans. May I appeal to you to reconsider and please come? You will help us first hand in restoring broken and hurting lives…the need is not only great but urgent!

News update from our friends in Kenya…

Violence rocks Kenya again

January 29, 2008

…Update sent from Oakseed friend in Kenya…

This update comes to you when shocking violence rocked and led to partial destruction of otherwise peaceful towns of Nakuru and Naivasha. One of our staff wen on official duty to minister to the displaced in Burnt Forest and together with a team of 20 conducted the first ever Sunday service for the displaced yesterday.

They are now stuck in the area due to the countless roadblocks that have seen the death of a Catholic priest and close to 20 others forcefully removed from Public transport vehicles and killed. Last night was difficult for them as raiders attempted to raid and kill the displaced close to the police station where the team is putting up. The police thankfully repulsed the raiders. It is now official that the roads are unsafe without police escort and the situation has worsened since Friday last week… worse than when the caravan of hope went out… The team expected back today is trying to get to Eldoret before they can be escorted back to Nairobi, ironically via Burnt Forest again. The police in Eldoret are who are expected to escort the convoy are reportedly overwhelmed by violence further north west near Turbo town towards Webuye. Over 20 or so roadblocks have been erected for ethinic cleansing…

Peace gathering in Kibera…

On Saturday, (19th), there was a meeting with 22 leaders in Kibera, who met to discuss how to restore peace by critically examining the impact of (past) conflicts. Some of the worst violence continue to be experienced in Kibera especially around Fort Jesus. It is around this area that churches were razed by arsonists.

Several pastors, community elders and two aspiring civic leaders from both divides of the conflict were among those who attended; one a very eloquent young man who cadidly explained why he lost the election. He claims his supporters told him that he was too young, still single and had no money. The other civic leader’s ward has been ordered to hold fresh election due to anomalies at the just concluded election. The two hour deliberations saw the leaders make interesting proposals: that we meet again in about two weeks time and hold similar conversations in the hotspots and have as many of the inciters of violence attend. Thankfully our young civic leader has contact with a number of inciters and promised to not only host the meeting but also to invite the inciters of violence. Our mediation plan will include engaging warring parties to carry out joint reconstruction of homes etc as a way of rebuilding peace and trust.

Please pray that we shall see calm return to Kibera through these efforts. Pray also that the ongoing mediation talks led by Koffi Annan will yield lasting peace and reconsciliation. One major concern is that the violence, if it continues (and if it hasn’t already) may head into an irreversible gear; that of personal/tribal grudge and revenge militias which the two leaders may be unble to contain regardless of who is or becomes the legitimate president. IT will be remembered that many conflicts on the continent started as small feuds that then escalated into decades of bloody civil strife by not being contained early enough. Pray for my work that has so far been put into a neutral face but recently been personally examined as to who I am and my tribal affiliation which is now a very sensitive issue.

Hope for Kenya – Report from the field

January 15, 2008

Over the past few weeks, a pastor friend has been reporting some of the civil unrest that has been happening in Kenya. It has been a stressful time for them, but peace has started to take hold throughout the land.

They have sent us a full report with lots of pictures, which you can download below. Here are a few of the highlights from the report.

• The took on a mission to assist with humanitarian aid and to make themselves available to engage gangs manning roadblocks in conversation that had made travel impossible.
• A small town that used to sprawl over both sides of the main highway is now just a smothering ruin of ash. Buildings and hotels were burned to the ground.
• They found that those who defied the roadblocks earlier in the weeks were met with fury. Several cards belonging to the elite police detective squad were burnt and tossed over the bridge.
• Desperation has driven people to commit suicide, many more are suffering from pneumonia from being outside.
• As their convoy went deeper into the country they found churches, schools and homes burned to the ground.
• Prices for everything have shot up and the calm that was returning is threatened by uncertainty especially this week as more rallies are planned for Wednesday and Friday. These rallies are NEVER peaceful.

Hope For Kenya Report

Kenya begins to see some peace

January 8, 2008

…from our contact in Kenya…

“Dear Praying friend,

God is answering prayer! Thank you all for responding to our political crisis whose ramifications have traversed every Kenyans life. Peace is returning and the City regaining her normal life. The slums are still scarred and may take a while as people still live in fear and suspicion of the tribal tag. Loss and damage of property was felt most and affected everyone in the slums as these were the centres of bloody feud. Half a million are now displaced. Thankfully God is saving Kenya from this self destruction.

Road blocks are temporarily vanishing at the appearance of military escorted convoys and immediately reappear behind the convoys. As a result people still can’t travel freely and hundreds still holed up in the villages for fear of being attacked and killed at those points. This is the very reason the caravan will depart Wednesday 0900hrs not just to deliver the much needed aid but also to make contact with the youths manning the road block. With our God, our vulnerability, our prayer and conversations we shall prayerfully urge them to stop this lawlessness. Yes it sounds senselessly risky, unthinkable and shocking to both police and government officials here and maybe to you too. Blockades have potential to turn into extortion traps, militia controlled territories as is the case of Burundi where I fell victim and may scar Kenya for the rest of our lives spearing no one in the years to come. It may mean the end of safe travel on the Great North Road and spell death to our initiatives of training pastors and advancing peace work in West and Northern Kenya along the Uganda boarder.

Please pray for our safety and for God to use us to touch lives along the way.”

Kenya continues to burn

January 5, 2008

Posted from our Kenyan contact

Thank you for praying for us here in Kenya. I believe it is your prayers rising up to the throne of grace that have seen calm restored. I have personally been overwhelmed and anguished by the suffering of our own people who reside in Kibera, Mukuru, Mutumba and Fuata Nyayo among the slums that were affected. I often lacked the strength to pray as texts and phone calls of untold suffering came through especially families with little children going without food for days in no-go zones I the slums.

Houses of some our members have been torched and everything destroyed. Many are spending nights in the cold in Kibera. For the rest too they spent their nights outside for fear of being burnt inside their houses at night. No one sleeps at night any more as they have to keep vigil all night.

The last two days have seen calm restored into the City of Nairobi and many of the troubled hotspots around the country. This is what Kenya is crying for! The city is beginning to bounce back slowly and momentum may increase as parents get into the new school term purchases and preparation this weekend and early next week. A sigh of relief is breaking forth.

Kenya at a crossing point

January 3, 2008

From our Oakseed contact…

My contacts tell me that Kibera Laini Saba side is calm. I am aware though that Kibera 42; adjacent to Ngong Road is where skirmishes are going right now. Kilimani and arpound Yaya centre have seen street battles. I am concerned that more venting of anger may be experienced tonight in the slums with more houses being torched after the meeting aborts. I see us responding to a huge humanitarian crisis. We are in fact late for our people in Kibera and late for the over 250,000 displaced internally. No access to the slums due to tension. The Red Cross is overstretched. My thoughts go out to the churches outside Nairobi in the North Rift my home where people have taken refuge to escape ethnic cleansing without food and blankets. Road blocks have been erected along the major Kenya-Uganda hihway and vehicles are being stopped and people asked to produce IDs which of course betrays ethnicity. This is a repeat of Rwanda if we don’t stop it right now. Please pray for my beloved country.

Kenya Explodes in Civil and Political Unrest

December 31, 2007

From an Oakseed friend in Kenya….

Kenya is at a civil and political crossroad this 31st December 2007 morning as we wake up to a day of uncertainty after a night of violence in Kibera; the home of KTDP among other slums and the major towns of Kisumu and Mombasa. This followed the announcement of Kibaki as winner of the just concluded otherwise peaceful elections.  The nation was largely prepared for a Raila win as early returns indicated so until the last central Kenya votes started coming in to tilt the scale. Claims of rigging were voiced by Raila’s team and a committee put in place by the Electoral Commission to scrutinize the returns.

The tension and unrest resulted to no church services in the city yesterday as public transport was paralyzed.

We do not know what the findings of the above committee were as they worked all night but what we know is that both Raila’s and Kibaki’s teams claimed victory by making all sorts of press and counter press announcements right in the ECK’s premises and podium. This made the work of the ECK difficult resulting to the announcement of the winner being made behind closed doors.

Riots followed immediately after the announcement as a swearing in ceremony was hurriedly arranged to avoid a constitutional crisis following the expiry of the president’s term at mid night 30th Dec 2007. We now have a president who many don’t consider legitimate and have to make a choice between peace or chaos and riot to demand justice. Sadly the injustice of seeking justice in this part of the world is that it is the poor in the slums who suffer and die as they already have by battling each other while their leaders go around with high security around them. Secondly, the reality of the battles in the slums is not political but rather a hive of lawlessness to cover up for looting and theft of private property.

What Kenya asks of you is that you pray for restoration of calm and unrest to dissipate. That torching of houses in the slums will stop and that Kenya will wake up to a sense of responsibility and stop destroying a nation built over 44 years as leaders haggle over a 5-year term.

Peru Earthquake Update – August 23rd

August 23, 2007

This letter was sent to Oakseed Ministries’ Director, Dr. Edward Bradley. We invite you to read this letter to better understand the needs in Peru at this moment.

—

Dear Dr. Bradley

As you well know, here in Perú we have been living hard times since we had an earthquake whose magnitude was estimated at 7.9 and we have counted more than 140 aftershocks, we thank God we have not had any personal damage or any major injuries among the people we work with or our staff.

In Lima the most damaged areas have been the old multifamily house buildings located in the downtown of the City and in the periphery zones, where the house buildings are not built with concrete. Our Child Center in San Genaro located in the south of the city, in Chorrillos district, was blacked out because power lines were down. It remained without electricity in the first days. In the Center the computer equipment fell to the floor, but there is no reported damage in the building.

We are still surveying the condition of houses were the children we work with live, primarily in the unprotected zones of San Genaro.

In the Child Center in Socosccocha there are some cracked in the classrooms, the kitchen, and the bathroom. We are in the process of calculating how many damages we are going to have to repair in this structure; as well as gathering information about the earthquake damage in the houses of the children we work with all around the zone.

The zones that have been mainly affected are in the south of Lima in the Department of Ica, Pisco and Huancavelica, where we estimate in some areas there are almost 70 percent of the houses are destroyed, where the hospitals did collapse, and the people are sleeping in the middle of the street with a temperature of 8 degrees at night.

In the present time there are an estimated 500 deaths, more than 30,000 homes collapsed, and more than 90,000 people left homeless.

Facing this reality MISIUR is developing a plan of intervention like in previous disasters with the target to develop a project of Reconstruction of Homes. This project will mainly focus on the zones far away from Ica and Huancavelica that would not have access to Government help or public charity.

We are now gathering all the possible information that would give us an exact description of the most damaged and devastated areas. We NEED financial support to prepare this study and to send structural engineers to make feasibility study for the rebuilding project.

For this main reason we are developing a Plan of Action with the cooperation of other institutions, and MISIUR will keep you informed as we move forward. We thank you for all the prayers pf the Oakseed family, and for the support that you will send to us.

Sincerely in the love of Christ,

Miguel Torres Vela
Director de Proyectos
MISIUR

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