The Peace Corps volunteers have all left Kenya. That doesn't seem good. With all the American primary election coverage, you don't even hear much about Kenya on CNN these days. It feels like we've stopped watching. At least 1,000 people have died. Somewhere between 300,000 - 350,000 people have been displaced or become refugees. (Kenya is usually the country African refugees run to, not from.) And beyond the horror of neighbor against neighbor violence, each day that this situation continues Kenya's tourism industry loses more and more money, plunging the country deeper into poverty and desparation. What does an unstable Kenya mean for the continent of Africa?
Threatened people often turn to violence to solve their problems. What can we really say to the Kenyan people, as even without the motivation of hunger and oppression, we have done the same. We look down at them as uneducated folks because their village elders and even churches have often condoned and encouraged their violence -- but then again so have ours. War is war is war. If the churches don't speak Jesus into it, the rocks themselves will cry out. The blood of many cries out to our God and we respond, "Am I my brother's keeper?" all over again. We need a real "peace corps" more than ever.
you have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. ---Jesus
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