Miller Family Kisumu, Kenya: Kenya In The Wake Of Elections, A Mudered Pastor, A Missing Gun.

Hello Everyone,

Dad An Mom With interpreter James, visiting John an Anna...

Time for another update, an where do I start? I'm finding that not keeping a journal anymore makes it abit harder to collect my thoughts once I sit in front of this laptop again.

We are enjoying the peace that is here in Kisumu, for now at least.
The opposing presidential candidate, has still not excepted his loss, but is taking the announced president to court, to prove that they rigged the elections, an stole his votes.
So in the mean time he told his tribe, an his supporters, to go about their everyday life till the court has a final verdict on what the elections results are....some say that right now Kenya has no president, others say the announced winner is the president an the sooner they except it the more peaceful Kenya will be.

Johns small son, blowing the cooking fire to make chia...

It could go quite a while till the court announces the verdict, so we keep praying that this long, drawn-out process, could end up being peaceful, an that there would not be more riots later on...Keep praying for Kenya.
The locals are angry with the corrupt police force here, an I cant say as I blame them after some of the stories I heard, I would be upset too...but what can you believe!? who is telling the truth an who is making up a story.
One story that was supposedly in the news, an was true, was that, the police were raiding houses looking for a man that had killed one of their police horses, an stole the machine gun from the police riding it, an killed the police too, so the police were searching houses to find the missing gun, at the one house they pulled the father out of the house, beating him mercilessly, dragged the Mamma out an beat her too, then went inside to search the house for the gun, there was a 9 month old baby laying in the corner, an the police took his club an whack the baby's soft head, causing the family to rush to Aga Kahn hospital, after the police finally left, the baby was announced to the public as dead several days later. Its so sad when the police abuse their authority.

The usual food when visiting before lunch...

One of our CBF members actually got beaten by police as well, he went to their local market to buy something small to take home for supper, an met up with the police who beat him mercilessly, for no reason other then to take their anger out on someone. Its more understood when you realize that most of the police force are on the presidents side, Uhura Kenyatta, so they beat any Luo people they could find because they were the ones voting for the rival party.
The locals said the police traveled through the roads an highways beating anything that came in their path, children, adults, even cows, goats, an dogs....telling the people that they didn't come here to protect them, but to kill them, since they are not excepting Uhura as president. its so sad, pray for the Kenyan government.

We are also doing a lot of visiting to our church people since we are able to get back out, we thank God that they were all safe an none got killed.
This week is terribly full, an I think literally everyday this week I will be out visiting the natives, but I enjoy that so much.

Visiting Jared an Sarah, they sew for their living, an Jared makes bricks...

On Friday we went to visit John an Anna, a very poor family from our church, we enjoyed reading Gods word with them, an through an interpreter hearing about their struggles in life, an trying to encourage them. sitting in their little mud hut with nothing on the walls but a calendar the church gives all the members once a year, an no furniture other then a three person wooden couch frame, an a single wooden chair, with no pads on them, only the wood frame, an a small coffee table, it made me again realize all I have....but the happiness they had was amazing! they love the Lord, an living for God is their number one goal.
Friday night we had Bible study at James an Christina, they made some really good soft pretzels afterwards.
Saturday we got up abit earlier an Mom an I worked on getting some much needed cleaning done, while the twins an Wayne struggled to get some breakfast together for all of us...Dad worked in the office.

The lady in the teal dress is giving her testimony, an is in instruction class...

Then around 12 we all got ready an went to the funeral of pastor Moses, a friend of ours that we had come to know through our friends Richard an Janet (Ex-Muslim Christians) Moses would have been Janet's brother-in-law, it was a sad day...seeing his newly widowed wife an three children sitting there in tears, as between 400-500 people gathered for the funeral.
Moses was a very humble pastor, an many people knew him an loved him.
As for his death, I will give you the story.
Moses often spent all night in prayer an fasting...so this Wednesday after he had finished teaching his Bible study class was no different, he left the house around 10:00pm to go down to his office in the church house, only several hundred yards from his house.
He usually prayed an fasted till around 5:30am so his wife an children went to bed.

Her husband is on her left, along with her mother an children on her right...

The next morning, the guard that is at their compound was making his rounds, turning off the lights around the compound an making sure all was safe from the previous night. when he came to the main gate, he saw that the padlocks had been cut with a sharp knife, an were laying on the ground, then he looked over at the church house an saw the main door to the sanctuary was open, he went to investigate, when he heard someone inside, gasping in a labored, raspy, breathing pattern, he went inside only to find Pastor Moses laying in a pool of his own blood, in his church.
The murderers had gagged him, an slit his throat, an chopped at the back of his skull...
He ran to notify his wife, an they rushed him to the hospital were he died by 4pm that night.

Only in Kenya, there is always room for one more....we counted 6 people on here

He left his pregnant wife, two sweet little girls, an his oldest child a 10yr old son behind...needless to say it was one of the saddest funerals I have attended in Kenya, an as the widow talked at the funeral, saying how she doesn't understand how someone could come in an just kill her husband, an go Scott-free...there was not a dry eye in that place. She melted into sobs, but regaining her composure she said that she knows that the Lord says, Vengeance is mine! I will repay, saith the Lord! And she said that she is choosing to forgive the murders of their great crime, an leave it to God to punish them. Pray for her if you think of it, I believe her name is Carolyn.

My friend Jane an her grandmother....

No one knows why those men came an did what they did...some say it was jealousy of all that Moses had, he was a more wealthy man then the average, an he had met up with a white missionary pastor from England I believe, many years ago, an after the missionary left he signed everything over to Moses, his land an house an all, an in recent years a co-pastor or co-operator of some kind kept telling Moses that he was to share in this inheritance left by the missionary, so finally the court made a verdict an saw that Moses had all the legal papers to owning the compound an everything, an concluded that the co-partner does not receive anything, an shortly afterwards, the murder happened, but no one has any proof, that it was because of that.
One interesting thing to me at the funeral was that the preacher was quite energetic an preached hell fire an brimstone! I had to laugh because he kept calling his interpreter his "interrupter", he had quite a sense of humor though, an the one time he was asking us to greet the person sitting beside us, then he told us to tell that person that "I look better then you." hahah he was hilarious, he was also asking us all to clap an chant something or other, an some people I guess were slow in doing what he wanted, since it was hot an everyone jus wanted to sit still an listen to him speak, so he said, "Hey! if you don't start clapping an smiling at your neighbor right now, you will be seen as a suspect." everyone laughed, but I must say, everyone started doing just as he asked us to. hahha

Visiting my friend Jane's house, this is her nephew Jr.

It was a typical Kenyan funeral, we had asked what time to come to the funeral an they had told us 10am. so we knew right off that we didn't have to leave the house till 12noon, we got there around 12:30pm an sat through three solid hours of "testimonies" then they still had the message, an finally by around 5pm they took him to the gravesite to be buried.
Sunday was a normal day at church, Dad however preached his first message since his malaria an felt quite weak towards the end, he said he felt so weak that he wanted someone else to come close the service since he felt like he could collapse.
Pray for Dad, his second time with malaria has really made him even more weak, he says he weighs less then he did in the last 15 years, an he says he is dizzy a lot recently, an feels like fainting most of the time, also complains that his vision is somehow dark, so I worry about him, I think all those malaria meds have almost taken a toll on the old man.
But I keep reminding myself that God is faithful, an will help him to be strong.
I will wrap up this update for this time, as I'm going out to Lela church to help with a clothing distribution, an have a dentist appointment at 3pm. but I wanted to quickly write this small update of our last week, an get it out to all of you.
Keep praying for us, an thanks for all the prayers you have prayed for us.