CRC Reaches Out in Prayer and Deed to Kenya

January 4, 2008, Grand Rapids, Mich. – The Christian Reformed Church in North America is mobilizing its resources to raise support for persons whose houses were burned and looted – and in some cases whose family members were killed or raped – in the election-related violence that has swept Kenya in recent days.

On Friday, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee announced plans to provide food and other types of relief to displaced Kenyans who have taken shelter in churches in Eldoret, one of the cities that has been hardest hit by the violence.

“As soon as we learn more about these displaced persons and access is improving we hope to set up a larger food and non-food response,” says Jacob Kramer, CRWRC’s international relief director.

At the same time, the Reformed Church in East Africa, with which the CRC is in fellowship, has begun to help the displaced persons by opening its partially constructed conference center in Eldoret to those who need shelter.

Four of the RCEA’s pastors were among those caught up in the recent violence. One was slashed on the leg by a machete, while his home was looted and burned. The homes of three other pastors were also burned, and their families fled to the church's conference center, says Richard Van Houten, general secretary of the Reformed Ecumenical Council, which is based in Grand Rapids. Van Houten has been in contact with friends and colleague in Kenya.

As for the situation in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, things there are “less clear and we may have to wait a few days before we have a clear picture of what activities can be developed for the people who have lost their houses in the shanty towns,” says Kramer.

CRWRC has five full-time staff members in Kenya. The country is also the base for the CRWRC’s HIV/AIDS coordinator for the East/South African region. Partners Worldwide, a CRC business-development ministry, also has a staff person in Kenya. All of the personnel are safe at this point.

Two Christian Reformed World Mission employees, who traveled to Kenya late last week to work in a seminary library, are also safe and should be leaving the country soon, says Ron Geerlings, Africa director for CRWM.

As of Friday, more than 300 people had been killed in the clashes and protests that began following the announcement on Sunday that President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the closest presidential election in the country’s history. Charging that the election was rigged, Raila Odinga, the opponent, has refused to concede defeat.

Because of the ongoing violence in Kenya, the CRWRC has set up an Emergency Response Team. Calling an ERT into action is a precautionary, and yet serious, development. It is part of coordinated plan to put staff in Kenya on alert to stay at home and to have the funds and documents available to evacuate the country if necessary.

The ERT will function as the group that decides on how to best communicate the situation in Kenya to the media and to the wider church, as well as whether or not CRC personnel need to leave the country, said Andrew Ryskamp, director of CRWRC.

“The situation in Kenya remains tense,” he says. “There are reports of sporadic clashes between demonstrators and the police in central Nairobi, but generally a tense calm is prevailing.”

The CRWRC, says Ryskamp, is working through its extended networks, in the United States and abroad, trying to coordinate assistance.

Meanwhile, employees at CRC office in Grand Rapids gathered in a circle in the atrium of the building this week to do one of the most important things that they are able to do. They prayed. They asked God to look out and care for the five CRC workers and others in the region.

They prayed as well for a peaceful end to the situation that remains uncertain as U.S. diplomats and even Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu meet with politicians in Kenya to try to broker a solution to the chaos. They also asked others in the denomination and elsewhere to pray for the people of Kenya.

Rev. Jonathan Kangogo, the immediate past General Secretary of RCEA, told Richard Van Houten that he believed the violence was mostly along political lines, and not ethnic lines. He also said the RCEA, which has many ethnic groups among its members, was not divided, but standing in solidarity with one another. He said the RCEA was now working to provide food for the displaced persons they were hosting. The RCEA Bible school just outside of Eldoret in Plateau was not attacked.

Christians account for about 77 percent of Kenya's 37 million people, while about 10 percent of the population are Muslims.

To donate to this relief response, mark donations "Kenya Conflict" and mail to CRWRC, 3475 Mainway, PO Box 5070, STN LCD 1, Burlington, ON, L7R 3Y8 or to CRWRC, 2850 Kalamazoo Avenue, Grand Rapids, MI, 49560. Donate online at www.crwrc.org. For more information: In Canada, call 1-800-730-3490. In the U.S., call 616-241-1691 or 1-800-55-CRWRC. Email: crwrc@crcna.org.

For more information on the Reformed Ecumenical Council, visit www.recweb.org or phone 616-949-2910.

Contact:
Chris Meehan ~ News and Media Director
CRCNA ~ 1-616-224-0849 ~ 1-616-460-0551
meehanc@crcna.org

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