This weekend, Jim was on a three-day photo safari with some other missionaries. The group was awakened in the middle of the night by a team of robbers. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt (a miracle considering they confronted the robbers, who had weapons). It's shaken them up quite a bit, so please be in prayer for Jim, Heather, and the other missionaries. Please also be in prayer for their kids, Joel and Faith, that they would not feel unsafe, as they have heard a bit about what happened. You can read all of Jim's account here, but here are his concluding thoughts:
Looking back a couple of things strike me:
God is Good:
So many things could have gone much worse. Suppose I had said something that translated from English more easily than, “They’re going through our stuff.” Suppose their attention hadn’t been mostly on me when Brian began his charge. Suppose the rungu, which gave Brian a nasty bruise on his hip, had actually found its mark. Suppose they had gone first into the professionals’ room next door, where well over 60,000 dollars of camera and computer equipment was. At our orientation school in Machakos we were told that waking during a robbery in progress is one of the most dangerous scenarios we might face. God’s hand in the words spoken and actions taken were almost immediately evident to us.
Kenyans Are Desperate For A Future:
Poverty is everywhere. These men probably live in one of Nakuru’s slums. They’ll probably sell the full-sized refrigerator/freezer for around 120 dollars, the half-full gas cylinder for 100. My 15 year-old watch for four or five. The camera and lenses for maybe ten dollars. Different priorities are found here. People are poor. We have really been blessed. These thieves felt they had nothing to lose. They were so desperate they cut through an electric fence to enter a game park – some of the most heavily patrolled areas in Kenya - walked through an area in which only a couple of hours earlier we had seen an enormous herd of buffalo bedding down for the night and in which we had that morning photographed 7 lions, in order to steal a refrigerator and some cooking fuel. People Need Hope. People need a Savior. (Jeremiah 29:11)
