The decision to leave Kenya during the elections came quickly to us. It was weird, I’ll admit - but certain. First, Brian felt like God directed him to take the family out of Kenya a week or so before the election. No one was predicting any violence, actually, so he didn’t have any idea why this leading seemed so strong to him. He was out in the bushland of Pokot doing church-planting training with Musa and he said it was really, really strongly put on his heart that he needed to take the family out of Kenya.

    But he knew me.

He knew that I was hard-pressed with a lot of ministry projects going on and that this was a busy time for me. He also knew that I didn’t want to leave Kenya at all. In fact, about a month earlier - a friend from the States had written to us totally out of the blue and told us that God put it on his heart AND his wife’s heart that they were to offer to fly us back to the States for Christmas. The gesture was kind and we were tempted BUT - like I said - my focus - all the Legacy kids - were in Kenya and we are in the midst of some major projects for them. School starts for them on January 8th for 2008 and there is a lot of prep-work that needs to be done to bring in the new kids - register the high school students at a boarding school, shopping for uniforms, enrolling new members - etc. We were also in the midst of a few business start-ups.

          We thanked our kind and generous friend from the States after getting his offer but told him that we really needed to stay in Kenya during the holidays.

     So with that history - Brian didn’t feel very confident coming to me a few weeks later and saying that now --- all of a sudden --- he feels like God is saying . . . “ya’ll need to go. Out of the country.”

First off, we were both really busy with work projects and December is good weather - it’s a good time to get things done. Secondly, we had already told this family in the States that we declined their offer --- our ministry account was at that time in the deficit and we certainly couldn’t go back to this family and say . . . hey ---- how about that offer? Still good? We checked on flights to the States around the holidays and prices were triple in many cases than the normal low-season fare we try and fly on. So it was not looking good.

Besides, NO ONE was predicting election violence. NO ONE.

Brian decided to keep his mouth closed.

He knew that I would need to hear from God Himself before I’d agree to such an idea when it seemed that nothing was going to happen at elections anyhow. Seriously, we all thought it was going to be peaceful. Anyone who lives in Kenya and primarily those of us like myself who work among multi-tribe situations knows and loves all the different tribes of Kenya. I’ve seen how they can get along and work together. We have a pretty even representative of tribes in the Legacy program - I did that on purpose, actually, when we started --- because I wanted the ministry to be an example of multi-tribal unity. And even now --- as I type this --- we have five representatives from Adopt  a Legacy  who are serving the other members by bringing food and supplies to those who are stranded and those five representatives come from ThREE different tribes. So even in this situation ---- we are seeing pictures of grace and unity.

I never thought this would happen to Kenya. It has become much more cosmopolitan in the last 30 years.  A friend of ours is a Kisii tribe who married a Luyah tribe person (mixed marriages wouldn’t even be tolerated 30 years ago.) Their names are Moses and Esther. They recently had a baby named Gershon and when I brought up the fact that their baby was now mixed tribally and asked how that made him feel . . . he just grinned and said, “Our baby is American!” Meaning : a member of the melting pot of life. There has been SO MUCH advancement cross-racially and cross-tribally in Kenya that it is nothing short of heartbreaking to see what is happening now. I can’t even believe it!

      But back to what I was saying about getting out of dodge.

   The weirdest thing happened. Brian got back from Pokot. He never mentioned to me anything about what God put on his heart and all of a sudden I had this HUGE leading by God to GET OUT of Kenya! Nothing prompted it. It was just so HUGE that I blurted it out to Brian. Everything was so peaceful then that it didn’t make a lick of sense. God had EVEN put the EXACT location we were to go on both of our hearts so that when I mentioned WHERE God was leading us to go --- he said that was the same exact location God told him to take the family. He got all teary-eyed (he does that - my sweet B - on spiritual things) and said . . . Okay, let’s do it.

       Problem is: Family of 5 --- that’s some cash to do something like that. And like I said - our ministry account was in the deficit. We couldn’t do it. But when God leads - He provides. So we prayed. And then we felt led to send out a letter telling about the situation to around 10 people in the States who had indicated possibly helping us if we ever got in a bind. Well - this was a bind. So we sent the letter.

WITHIN 12 HOURS --- God had provided our way out. Unbelievable! He moved in the hearts of humanity to help us and it is such a testimony to His calling and direction. Our pastor preached a sermon on Jonah the Sunday before we came to Kenya this year and in it he talked about how if you are following God’s leading . . . God picks up the tab. But if you are not . . . like Jonah didn’t - you have to pay for it yourself. When God provided so quickly for what we needed to go we saw this as confirmation of God leading us out ---- even though we had no idea why.

        Looking back now and seeing how everyone is hiding in their houses with gunshots going on around and cars being burned and houses being burned and shortages on food and clean water . . . .I am so thankful! With three children still at home, I can only imagine the kind of fear they would feel in a situation like that. I am so so so so humbled that God spoke and protected them in this way. If I were single or EVEN if it were just Brian and I --- I would totally want to stay and see what God would have us do IN the situation. But as a mom --- things are different. I have a responsibility to my kids as well as to humanity and I’m so thankful that they are not being traumatized by this event. Even if they were to be safe in Kenya during this time --- it is still traumatic for a child to experience something like that. I am so humbled and grateful to God and for those who provided the finances we needed to go to North Africa during this time. Thank YOu!

            Now - we are in a new valley of decisions. We were scheduled to return to Nairobi on January 5th. The opposing political party has scheduled a million-man march and rally in Nairobi on January 3rd where they intend to name the opposing candidate the People’s President. Maybe everything will go smoothly. I hope so. But you never know. The government says they will fight this action with violent force. And arrest the opponent. With today being a holiday, we were not successful in contacting airline agencies to get a different flight so that we don’t return to Nairobi just yet. East West has us going to Larnaca for an East West field retreat conference on January 8th so we’re checking urgently on how we could possibly fly out of where we are now straight to Larnaca and avoid returning to Nairobi for at least another two weeks . . . hoping that by then things may have settled more. What to do? What to do? Brian spent the day driving around in a taxi looking for airline agencies that are opened. It being a holiday --- he didn’t have any success. Plus we don’t speak the language here so that makes things difficult. I spent the day online trying to find anything we might be able to change flight-wise online. So far - nothing. Pricey. And because of the holidays - flights are actually FULL> Plus the country we are currently in doesn’t have a lot of airlines allowing booking to take place online. Ugh.

        But I can’t complain. I’m SO grateful to God for bringing us here so far and I trust He will make it clear what to do/where to go --- for the next week. It kind of feels a bit like the apostles in the New Testament when you read of them going here or there --- God opening doors . . . .closing doors. He IS faithful. And He is continuing to teach us to walk by faith, not by sight . . . .

        Please, please continue to pray for our Kenyan loved ones. We got word today that the Great Mercy home was able to get some food from a nearby farm. Praise God! We have also heard from a few other people who are locked indoors but they have enough rations. We pray for peace - and quickly. And that God will comfort the small children who are still there and who are no doubt confused by all of this violence that has come to their once beautiful and peaceful Kenya.