Life and Death in Kenya

I received the following email from a missionary in Kenya. Because he and family are in danger, I have removed any references to names or places that could endanger him or the other missionaries/Christians mentioned. Please pray for these men, women and children who have followed God's call to bring the Gospel to this country.

We Christians here in the States too often take our freedom and safety for granted. What if it was you who were holed up in your home with riots and murdering, burning of buildings and fighting in your neighborhood? Would your faith be strong?

Here is the letter, uncut, except for names and specific places removed:

I know you won't recognize some of the names I mention but you'll get the gest of it. Yeah, things here are unlike anything I've seen in the last 20 years. Things are very tense all around the country. The election was rigged. The evidence is overwhelming. Even the local election officials are admitting to bowing to pressure from the president to rig it. Riots got close to home yesterday. **** round-about ****. One was killed there. Then they spilled out onto the **** road from ***** there at the ***** Hotel. They were looking for Kikuyu's. So far the Kikuyu's have been silent. If they decide to retaliate??? They are a rough tribe. Kibaki is an entirely different kind of person than I've ever seen him. He said last night on TV that even if he remains with only 10 people, he'll be the president of 10. **** and ***** are hiding and feeding about 20 Kikuyu's in ******’s compound.(these are Christian friends of our's in *****). All lorry traffic is at a standstill. Uganda and other countries east of us have no fuel now. Ten buses of Kikuyu's under military escort were brought to Nakuru from Eldoret yesterday. World Vision pulled all it's personnel out today and sent them to Tanzania for at least three weeks. Luo's burned the largest AIC church in Kibera yesterday. Luyah's and Kikuyu's are camping out at **** (our pastor at **** is one of them). The American Embassy hasn't issued quit orders but is telling us to just lay low for now. **** is having his passports flown in from ***** on Monday via ****. I'll pick them and hold them for him just in case. He's in ***** and says Lodwar will be out of fuel and food by the time you get this because no vehicles are running. ***** had to hide at ******. His family has been camping at the ***** since Saturday. 4 were killed in front of *****’s church on Sunday. ***** said that Kenya will be another Ivory Coast if Kibaki doesn't step down. Fat chance of him stepping down. You know how African's are about saving face. We have about a weeks worth of food here. **** sensed that it would be like this. Praise God for her. This has been really good for me. I've drawn closer to the Lord than I've been for a while. I had a wreck in my **** and its in the shop. The engine is out of the *****. We have ******’s car. I could go on and on but Desmond Tutu came in yesterday and met with Odinga. He meets Kibaki today. We'll see. For now things are ok for us but I'm very concerned about our people, especially in ****. ***** and family have been indoors for one week. Their food is gone and water too. All men must stay awake at night with machete's ready. They even carry machetes to the out-house. Pray for us. Its funny how things have turned so quickly.