Elections
I have never before used my blog as a vehicle to urge prayer but as I write this I am in Nairobi and am aware of tension in the air. It is in the run up to the Presidential Election and there is a growing sense of apprehension as Election Day approaches on March 3rd (followed by a second day on 17th if there is no majority winner on 3rd). Prayer is urgently needed.
Looking back
The last election was just after Christmas in 2007. Before results were even declared major conflict arose between the various tribal groups as accusations of rigging were widespread. Thousands of people were killed as neighbour turned on neighbour, and tens of thousands were displaced as they fled from their homes; some have still not been repatriated five years later. When I visited a few months after these elections to review the help given by Newfrontiers churches to those who had been displaced I was deeply impacted by what I found and made a short video.
New Constitution
Since that election a new constitution has been enacted and there has been optimism that the coming elections would be peaceful. However, the two leading candidates are running neck-and-neck in the opinion poles and there is widespread concern that these elections, also, may not be carried out in an atmosphere of peace.
A quiet and peaceable life
This is an urgent request for prayer. Early in his first letter to Timothy Paul exhorts him to urge those he is ministering to to be diligent in prayer for those in authority ‘that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity’ (I Tim 2:1-2). Can I urge you to join in prayer with the Christians in Kenya, particularly with the ones in Newfrontiers churches under the apostolic oversight of Edward Buria, that this whole election season would be one of peace and that the man of God’s choosing is elected without any whiff of corruption having achieved his victory so that they and the whole population in Kenya may live quiet and peaceable lives?
Thank you.