Pray For Kenya

I was blessed to have been able to spend a week in Kenya last month. The purpose of my trip was to train and inspire our leadership from around the region to reach more children and youth with the gospel in such a way that it becomes a life changing encounter with God's Word. The men and women I met with are pastors and lay ministry leaders. Each of them are evangelist to the children and youth in their countries and are passionate about seeing everyone reached with the gospel.
I received the following prayer request from Pastor Cal Ratz, our regional director for eastern Africa, this morning. I ask that you join with us in prayer for peace to return to Kenya and for these young people to look to God as their solution to their most urgent needs. The following is the request received this morning from Pastor Ratz:

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR KENYA:

Earlier this year, close to 1,000 people were killed and several hundred thousand people displaced in post-election events that swept through Kenya. Now violence has broken out again, though this time it is not connected to the elections.

Kenya is country where children beg parents to allow them to attend school, Now Kenyans have been shocked by the latest violence to erupt across their nation as students have burned down their schools and dormitories in a massive protest.

The wave of student strikes and riots has closed about 500 high schools over the last month. There have been arson attacks at about half of them. Scores of teenagers have been arrested and thousands more sent home. One student died in a dormitory blaze. Both government and private schools are affected. The government is considering closing all secondary schools.

Philip Mungai Nganga, Book of Hope’s national director says, “We have work to do. The education department has already asked me to have Book of Hope produce a new book dealing with the hopelessness, frustration and stress youth are experiencing. We will include this in our strategic planning meeting in September.”

Yesterday, the Kenya government released new information showing an increase in HIV/AIDS In the country.

Philip Mungai says, “The hottest topic in Kenya concerns what is ailing our children. What a time for Book of Hope to step into the situation!.”

How To Buy A Child In 10 Hours - Child Slavery In Haiti

I traveled to Haiti in October 2007 for a two-day research trip. We did meetings with government officials and multiple focus groups with educators, political leaders, and ministry leaders. In nearly every meeting, I heard the heartbreaking story of child slavery in Haiti. I came home angry at the situation and frustrated that so little was being done to help these children who are regularly being sold into labor or sex slavery. While Tammy and I are not in a position to personally touch and help these exploited children, we did channel our efforts toward building a bigger network of evangelistic workers throughout Haiti. Since then, our Book of Hope program has grown from one major distributor reaching about 100,000 children per year to three major distribution groups with the potential to reach over one million children per year. Please continue to pray with us that our work in Haiti will bring about transformation, not just in the individuals reached by the Book of Hope and The GodMan, but in entire communities, entire cities, and even the entire nation. It is only through spiritual transformation that families will stop selling their children into bondage and the government will do their job at preventing this exploitation.

The three links below will take you to the three segments of the full nightline story:

Part 1 http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5336644

Part 2 http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5336634

Part 3 http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5336628

This next link will take you to a World News segment taken from the entire Nightline story:

World News http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5330271

Note: The ABC News website is not the most responsive. If the video does not start to run or you get an error, try again later.

Photos From The Dominican Republic

We have posted photos from Tammy's trip with Victory Church to the Dominican Republic on Flickr. Click here to view them.