Out of Africa

Out of Africa

Yes, I’m Out of Africa and home in the U.S. I arrived Sunday, February 3, with great thankfulness and joy to see my family. God performed many miracles to make it happen.

By January 31, the circumstances surrounding me were becoming very serious, so I started the process of arranging for flights to go home as soon as possible. The first hurdle was getting from Nandi Hills to the airport in Eldoret. The roads had been closed with roadblocks for several days, so I contacted a friend at EPK, Eastern Produce Kenya which owns many of the tea estates. They had been arranging charter flights to fly their Kikuyu employees to Nairobi from a neighboring tea estate that had an airstrip. I asked this friend if there were any more flights scheduled in the next couple of days. He said there were none, but he could help me get to the Eldoret airport. Another EPK employee was going on February 2 to pick up his wife and I could ride with them in an EPK company car, a Ford Ranger, 5-passenger pickup.

I packed my carry-on-size piece of luggage with my laptop and a few other things I could squeeze in, and then filled a shopping-bag-sized tote bag with other things I needed. At 6:00 a.m., February 2, I left my house and everything in it. I took no baggage to check in. Henry went with me to Nandi Hills to the EPK offices that are behind locked gates with guards so he could drive my car back to the house. He has had six months of driving lessons and just recently learned to shift to 3rd gear (my RAV4 is manual with five gears), so the angels of God worked hard to get him back home and up the steep driveway.

We had to go through one manned roadblock at the turn into Nandi Hills. The people had torn down large signs and placed them across the road with a narrow place between them in the middle of the road where they had laid rocks. The three men on duty held roughly-made wooden paddles and searched the car. The roadblock was set up by individual residents of Nandi Hills to protect their town because two days before a car loaded with guns had arrived, but were stopped by the two remaining policemen. (There used to be thirty policemen in Nandi Hills town.) We passed inspection so they moved the rocks for us to pass through.

We were to meet at EPK at 6:45 a.m. However, it is Africa, so they showed up at 7:15, and then we left immediately for the Eldoret airport. There were countless roadblocks all the way, but none of them were manned, thank the Lord! The barriers were made of large stones lined up across the road, and/or tree trunks or stumps, a badly damaged truck, and a burned out upside-down car. There were several fire-blackened areas along the side of the road and many places where power lines and poles were down. Except for the millions of potholes, it was not the same road we were on only a few weeks earlier to stock up on food and supplies. A very sad sight it was.

We arrived at the Eldoret airport in a little less than an hour. I was able to buy a ticket on the next Jetlink plane for Nairobi, sat down in the waiting room for about 5 minutes, and then boarded the plane. Forty minutes later we landed in Nairobi. Two black angels helped me with my two bags as we walked outside from the domestic landing area to international departures. It was about 10:00 a.m. At midnight the 747 to Amsterdam took off. My heart was filled with thankful praise to Almighty God. After a change of planes I arrived safely in Atlanta at around 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 3—40 hours after leaving my house in Kenya and encountering no problems along the way. Our God is soooooooooooo good!!!

Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray for the people and country of Kenya. Countless thousands are suffering greatly without food, other necessities and homes. In the area I left the people were living in their houses by day, but sleeping in the tea fields for fear they’d be burned to death during the night. Fear has gripped the whole country because of the unprecedented evil and wickedness never before experienced by native Kenyans. Our enemy Satan knows his time is short before Jesus returns, so he’s not wasting any time gathering millions of lost souls with him to hell.

I must end on a positive note. Remember Mark Mogere, the young man who worked at the now burned-down Total filling station in Nandi Hills and who I led to the Lord a few months ago? He called a week ago to say he was safe in his family homeland (he’s a member of the Kisii tribe). He wanted to start a branch of my ministry there and asked me to go help him. I told him to read his Bible and pray regularly and tell others about Jesus Christ. God would grow his ministry if he remained faithful to Him.

Remember also the Turkana pastor of Nandi Hills church, Joshua Ebei, who had to take his family back to their homeland? If he hasn’t already, he will start a new church in that area.

The Kikuyu pastor from Tinderet, Samwel Kiarie, and his family are now in their family homeland. I’m sure he has already started a new church there.

The Kikuyu pastor from Lengut, Duncan Karinde, is still in a refugee camp in Nakuru. He and his family survived the horrible murders that took place in that town, and he probably has a church going for the refugees. His brother, also a born-again Christian, is with him.

The ministry in Kenya is not over. There’s much more to be done. The Church of Jesus Christ will continue to spread and grow amidst the persecution, war and famine as it has always done throughout history. And it will be stronger. Pray for your Christian brothers and sisters around the world.

Mungu awabariki! God bless you all!
Judy