Kenyan Church Burned- around 40 dead

Displaced Kenyans seeking shelter in church burnt to death

Nairobi - Scores of people seeking shelter from election violence in a church in western Kenya were burned to death by an angry mob who set the place alight, the Red Cross said Tuesday, as rioting continued to overwhelm the East African nation. The Red Cross was unable to give a death toll, but local media reported some 200 people were in the church and between 35 and 40 people were killed. At least 42 were rushed to hospital with serious burn wounds.

"There has been a burning of a church where people were seeking sanctuary," said Abbas Gullet, head of the Kenyan Red Cross Society.

Gullet said the situation was dire around the town of Eldoret, where the church was torched, and the North Rift region with up to 100,000 people displaced and in need of food, water and shelter.

"We must highlight the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding. There is a massive displacement of the population that have no access to food, water, sanitation or health care," he said.

Kenya has been plunged into chaos after disputed presidential election results sparked widespread outrage and riots and have touched off fighting between the country's ethnic groups.

Gullet said the church was mostly filled with Kikuyus, President Mwai Kibaki's tribe, who have been chased out of their homes and attacked by ethnic Luos, the tribe of defeated candidate Raila Odinga, and other ethnic groups.

Police have said 73,500 people have been displaced countrywide but Abbas said the number was "much, much higher" without being specific.

Odinga has charged the vote was rigged and is set to declare himself Kenya's president at a rally on Thursday.

Nearly 200 people have been killed in the aftermath of Kenya's elections in what marks a disturbing turn for the worse in Kenya's otherwise peaceful history.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/167286.html

Please pray for these wonderful people. I've been in contact with a brother that is a pastor in Nairobi, Kenya. He has also been asking me to come and minister there. If you think about it, please pray that I would know God's will concerning what to do.

Here is the e-mail he sent me this morning:

hii bro ,,, just pray for us here .it has been bad due to election chaos.we have been in homes for the last 4 days .so many people have been killed ,,many children killed ,,many homeless. it is so bad .no transport out of the city and into the city .i could not even come out to write .bro we need GOD in this nation .pliz pray for as kenya nation .

Here is a photo of them.

[url=http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7206/congregationhh4.jpg]Click here for photo.[/url]

The force of darkest just seem to be more forceful on the African continent. I read Credo Mutwa interview and it coincide that the world is of the devil.

[url=http://www.metatech.org/credo_2.html]Credo Mutwa[/url]

An incredible and horrific matter, my prayers for all.

Compliments ... do you lack understanding or just tact? What a shameful response.

Here is an article that give a lot more information. There were stoning, people being hacked with machetes, and the fire.

[url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQUIrJzN6krWc0yJ6DP3ySeXQekQD8TTBK500]Kenya Church Torched, 50 Reported Killed[/url]

Wouldn't you say that it's normal for a church to be burnt by those who hate it?

It can be easy to sit back and say "oh well, this is typical Bible Christianity." I fully realize persecution is all throughout the Bible, but we should be able to feel the pain and struggles with them. I honestly don't know if that is your mentality or not, but I'm just saying this as a general comment. Even though we are in a nation that probably needs what persecution would bring, we can't lose sense of heartfelt compassion because of our frustrations with the church in America.

I just know that I've read all kinds of persecution stories and accounts and I had a sense of compassion and encouragement from it, but it's different when you feel like you have a connection with the people who are going through it. I think it's easy to get the "martyrs complex" where you think that martyrdom puts in you in a "Rambo" high and it seems so glorious. I understand there is much glory in it (1Pe 4:14), but there is a remarkable pain that goes with it.

Again, I don't know if that is your mentality or not; I just know I've been guilty of that in the past.

These things brought out in our attention not just for discussion and just watched what is going on in our co-believer in Christ Jesus.

If you not being shaft in your own faith compliments what is wrong there?.

I believe these reveal to us, so us who believe in Christ be able to go forth in our knee and cried out to God to give them strenght in this time of persecution of these brothers facing.
The enemy may seems over come them but their faith will not weaver...

Am greatly bothered by this ...

Have been reading about what is happening there since this all started up. The trouble with those earlier, ill advised comments here is that it completely misses just what the situation is. This is a political uprising and many of the markets and surrounding areas have been put to blaze amongst other atrocities. This is not an act of persecution against the church but runaway evil in the hearts of men for political purposes and intentions.

To glibly put it the way it was ... it's just beyond me.

we should be able to feel the pain and struggles with them

Indeed, especially when we do not have the foggiest idea of what all this entails.

This is a political uprising and many of the markets and surrounding areas have been put to blaze amongst other atrocities. This is not an act of persecution against the church but runaway evil in the hearts of men for political purposes and intentions.

That's what I gather also. It seems that most of it deals with political or tribal issues.

I think I remember reading somewhere that most of the people that were saying in the church were from a certain tribe and that is why they were targeted.

EDIT: The 2nd article link I posted mentions it.

EDIT2: The first article mentions it also.