Could I please ask for your prayers

[concerned]

Late last night I received word from a community of Monks from there main monastery in Rochester that there sister monastery is in drastic trouble. Here is the letter. It is late because word getting out is right now almost imposible:

Prayer Request For Our Brothers In Kenya
Our Trappist brothers of Our Lady of Victory Abbey in Kenya, East Africa find themselves right in the middle of the violence that erupted in that country. The following bulletin was posted on the Order's web site requesting prayers for them:

This message was sent Sunday, January 20, to the Generalate by Dom Bernardus of Tilburg who has been in contact with Dom Dominic of Victoria Abbey in Kenya and Mgr. Lebeaupin, the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya.

“The Monastery has been surrounded since Saturday, January 19, by a group of young men who want to attack the monastery and the some 600 refugees about 125 families living in the monastery. These people are members of the Kikuyu and Kisii tribes who live in the neighborhood of the monastery. These people took refuge in the monastery when the political disturbances began. The young men who want to attack the monastery presumed that the refugees had vacated the area completely. When they became aware that the people are in the monastery and that they will return to their property, the young men burned all their homes. The police who were present to protect the people and the monks took sides with the young men.”



Monday, January 21, Abbot General was able to phone Dom Dominic. It seems that the situation is worsening. Let us pray for the Community and the refugees and the situation in Kenya.

Thank you, Bill

[concerned]

More info if you don't mind.

KENYA
28/1/2008 13.53
ELECTORAL CRISIS (2): VOICES FROM KISUMU, NAKURU AND NAIVASHA

Miscellaneous, Standard


“Thousands of angry Luo youths took the streets this morning bringing chaos back to Kisumu. They barricaded some roads and set fire to tires in protest against the killing of some of their tribe members over the weekend in the towns of Nakuru and Naivasha”, said a local MISNA source in describing the situation this morning in Kisumu, a town on Lake Victoria considered the ‘political stronghold’ of Raila Odinga, the presidential candidate of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) that contests the confirmation of President Mwai Kibaki in the December 27 vote. “The police fired shots in the air to disperse the rioters and for the moment we have no reports of victims”, added the source, explaining that residents of the town have once again barricaded themselves in their homes. Groups of youths are also going to schools of the area to stop them from reopening, as instead announced by local education authorities. Tension and unrest is underway also this morning in the Nakuru area, more precisely in Gilgil, around 80km south of the Rift Valley town theatre in the past days to the worst episodes of violence. “The people are fleeing. Gilgil is a mixed area on a tribal viewpoint, but groups of Kikuyu (majority ethnic group in the area) have started hunting down members of other tribes in reprisal for violence in other parts of the country”, said a local source to MISNA. “We were told that there are victims, but the number is unknown for the moment. Many houses were torched and scores of people are fleeing”, added the source. The situation appears fairly calm this morning in Nakuru, though tension remains very high. Based on reports, shots were heard overnight and barricades were set up along some roads of the area. A still unspecified number of people continue arriving at the Afraha stadium in Nakuru, where authorities are gathering the people displaced in the past days of violence. “The authorities decided to concentrate the displaced in a sole area to guarantee their safety. We are bringing them food, blankets and other basic necessities”, said to MISNA a source of the Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of Nakuru, specifying that there is urgent need for medical provisions. Stocks of almost all the main hospitals in the Rift Valley are in fact dwindling, given that the unrest has impeded the consignment of supplies that normally arrive from Nairobi at the start of each month. While tolls are attended of yesterday’s violence in rural areas of Nakuru (Bahati and Njoro), in Kaptembwa (another town of the farming area west of Nakuru in direction of Molo) various thousands of people from surrounding villages sought refuge in churches and police stations. The Holy Cross church is packed with people, at least 2,000 according to Father Bernard Ngaruyia, while the police stepped up its presence in the area to impede further violence. The situation is extremely tense in Naivasha, a town midway between Nakuru and Nairobi, where at least 14 people were killed yesterday in violence unleashed by groups of Kikuyu youths in revenge. “The town is still paralysed by yesterday’s violence. Everyone is remaining in their homes and even transportation is completely blocked. The police is patrolling the streets obsessively and apparently carried out some arrests”, said a MISNA source from the area. The police reported that 155 people were arrested yesterday in Naivasha on murder charges. Hospital sources in the town referred that the majority of the dozens of people admitted in the past 24 hours had stab wounds. “We are in urgent need of medical supplies, stocks are finished and yesterday groups of youths even targeted pharmacies and dispensaries in the town, looting and burning the provisions”, said a medical source to MISNA.

[kim]

Not good. Not good at all. Sigh.

[Clipper]

Concerned, I have added it to my prayer list and told my friend from the bowling alley to add those concerns to his prayers and tell his prayer circle.

The world is becoming a scarey place, and the unrest is widespread and not confined to any one region. I pray every day for at least a lessening of the violence if we cannot acheive complete peace.

[jduges]

i'll hope for the best......

[Ralph]

[concerned]

thank you people very much the monastery is still awaiting news from there sister monastery . I did read late last night 3:28am that some villagers some how convinced those who attempted to rush the monasteries enclosure not to do so. Somehow we believe that God played an important hand at that moment. I will keep you informed those of us who know this monastery in Rochester and the sister monastery are to say the least very very sad. We and them do have hope if that is Gods will. Thanks again.

[concerned]

This is an update. It came from the main monastery in Rochester and it shows the monastery in Kenya. Apparently we are now dealing with ethnic clensing.

[Clipper]

I am still hangin with ya concerned. I put it with God in prayer, and I am leaving it there until he resolves it.

Ethnic cleansing, is simply another term defining "genocide". It has existed since the beginning of time. Historically, it has been the process of "evil" attempting to stomp out "righteousness", and hasn't succeeded.

It has even been tried here in the good old USA with native americans. I firmly believe that if they hadn't conceded to being run onto reservations, many more would have been killed in the interests of white people.

Had it not been prohibited by our constitution and laws, it would probably have been used in the civil war against black americans, and would be used now against immigrant populations.

It has always been resolved in the past by war, and if it is "Gods will" war will allow good to once again triumph over evil.

A very wise "fellowship of recovering drunks" many years ago and early in my sobriety, taught me a few sayings that made sense in my life. One of those sayings was "Let go and let God". Just give it to him and don't even try to take it back. He doesn't need our help. That, and saying and the "Serenity Prayer" have guided me through many troublesome times.

I also have been known to tell people, "If God is your copilot, switch seats!"