A trip to Eldoret! -by Maggie.

We arrived and were greeted by Marggie (what a great name!) who is John’s niece. They welcomed us into their  home and we had supper with  Peter, Naomi his wife, daughters Tabitha and Marggie and Baraka their son.

Through bumpy dirt roads we arrived at a scene where if you looked closely, destruction was hidden behind wild green growth.  We were at the sight of much violence and terrorism during the 2007 tribal conflicts due to post-election violence. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_Kenyan_crisis)

Houses were abandoned after having their metal parts ripped out and roofs burned down. We saw where an entire school had been burned to the ground and then later had been rebuilt. Along the highway were groups of hundreds of tents where Internally Displaced People were still living after being forced from their homes.

The most moving scene was meeting about 12 people who had been at the scene when a gang of Kalenjins had come slicing people with machetes and burning houses. About 35 Kikuyu people, mostly elderly women and children, were hiding for safety in a nearby church.

The people we met began to recount their experiences that night; one woman running out of the church with her two children in her arms risking death by machete rather than be burned along with her children, one man who was sliced and thought dead while trying to escape, one family who lost a young girl in the fire.

Their stories were unbelievable- what could cause such brutality? How could human beings stand to cause children to burn to death locked in a church? We were without words, but Pastor John and Peter had many words of hope to share with the crowd. They spoke of God’s hand over that place and how he had preserved their lives for his purpose and how Kenya is going to be redeemed.

Peter told of a prophecy in Zephaniah 3: ¹⁰ “From beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshipers, my scattered people,
       will bring me offerings…”

 Cush is modern day Ethiopia, just north of Kenya.  He and others believe that their town of El Doret, where so much violence has occurred, is the place where revival in Kenya is going to begin. They are praying for Kenya to become a city on a hill to all of Africa. Continue to pray for peace and the Word of God to come strong in Kenya!

It was an honor to visit these places and have the opportunity to understand the people more and what they have seen.

After lunch of roasted goat, we then had a fun chance to visit the Rift Valley Coca Cola bottling plant where Peter is the Quality Control Manager. It was really fascinating for us and answered the mystery of how they get the coke into those glass bottles! I especially loved the testing laboratory portion.

We were even given some awesome Coca Cola hats and shirts from Peter and his family!

What a refreshing and enlightening trip! We are so thankful to the Muhika family for hosting us.