Charis Around the World

Childbirth in Kenya
by Jannekah Guya

My husband, Martin, praying for a woman in northern Kenya

Imagine with me for a moment that you’re a beautiful Kenyan woman and you have 3 children with smiles so bright and beautiful they could light up the entire African continent.  But none of you have eaten in 4 days, and the food you have managed to eat over the past several months has very little nutritional value.  You haven’t seen your husband since he left 5 months ago to try to find pasture and water for the cows and goats.  You don’t know when he’ll come back.

You’ve heard there is an NGO that has brought relief food, but the camp is a 2-day walk away.  That means you and the children will have to walk all day in the scorching sun with no food or water, and at night you’ll have to sleep in the open, vulnerable to wild animals and enemy tribes.  But you have no choice.  You either risk the journey or stay and starve to death.

People on the road going to get relief food

You and the children set out, but half way through the journey, your oldest child has become too weak to walk.  She can’t keep up and you have to make a horrifying choice.  If she continues to slow you down, the other two children will never make it to the camp.  You’ll have to leave her along the path if the other two children are going to have any chance of survival.  Several hours later, the baby on your back succumbs to the severe malnutrition and dehydration and you must leave his lifeless little body along the path as well.  Finally, you and your child reach the camp.  The NGO has a makeshift clinic and your child is given an IV to get him hydrated and they put a tube through his nose and into his stomach to feed him.  The nurse tells you he probably won’t make it.

This kind of scenario is unfathomable for mothers like you and me.  We can’t even begin to understand what it would be like to go through something like this.  But for hundreds of thousands of Kenyan, Djiboutian, Somalian and Ethiopian families, this is their reality and it’s happening every day.  Yes, today, in the 21st century.  More than 11.5 million people are facing death by starvation in the horn of Africa, and the number is projected to rise.  But behind every single number is one special, beautiful, unique individual who is precious to God and who has a purpose He has given them to fulfill.

It has occurred to me that God’s Word holds the permanent solution to all of this.  Not only did He give His servant Joseph the wisdom to help Egypt survive 7 long years of severe famine, He gives us countless promises concerning drought and famine throughout His Word.  Promises such as ~

           “He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses… the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.”  Psalm 33:7, 18,19

And ~
          “I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety.  I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.  I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.  The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land.  They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them.  They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them.  They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid.  I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.  Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they…are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD.  You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.“  Ezekiel 34:25-31

And ~
          “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.”
2 Chronicles 7:13-15

So please pray with me for East Africa as we trust God to keep His promise.  My husband will be traveling to one of the drought affected areas next month, with a local ministry we partner with, to let the people there know they have not been forgotten by us or by God.  Please keep him and the team in your prayers as well.
 

A dry river bed

Someone dug a hole in the dry river bed and found some water
and people came from all over to try to get some.

houses

Martin and Jannekah Guya with their son, Ezriel and his big sister, Amariah

Our International Charis Family
Your stories from around the world touch us and we pray for your safety.
Thanks, Love and Blessings to every one of you!