Window on the World

African refugees' plight

From Randal Dick

Superintendent of Missions

James Henderson, superintendent of missions for Africa, and his wife, Shirley, visited one of the newest and most challenging church-plants in the entire WCG fellowship. Here is his report.

By James Henderson

My wife, Shirley, and I returned Feb. 24 from a church plant in a place called Kakuma, Kenya, and felt I had to tell you all about it. From our perspective the visit with our people there was one of the highlights of our ministry so far.

Our leader in Kakuma is Nyenye. Let me tell you his story.

Nyenye lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1993 he was a student at the university there and, just like so many young men that you and I know, he had high hopes for a future career. It was an exciting time in his life.

However, this area has been the scene for many years of rebel and insurgent activity. Students in particular have been targets of intimidation, and Nyenye was chased out of the region. He fled to the neighboring country of Sudan, where he met up with some Sudanese Christians who had come under religious persecution. He escaped with them across the border to Kenya and was admitted to a refugee camp in Kakuma.

One of the remarkable things about Nyenye is his Christian faith. He and other refugees have gone through trials that I can only imagine and that would probably defeat me. I know a refugee woman, a Christian, whose husband was shot dead in front of her and her children, and the murderous soldiers then drove them out of their country. Yet in the midst of all this pain, faith exists. Nyenye and the refugee widow and believers like them trust in Jesus.

About 240,000 people live in makeshift accommodations in the Kakuma refugee camp. Food is distributed through the World Food Program, and rumors indicate that soon the donor funding will cease, with disastrous consequences. While there, some refugees told me that the twice-monthly ration is one glass of cooking oil per person, some maize (corn), salt and one bar of soap. For meat and vegetables people have to use their initiative. The surrounding area is arid and inhospitable.

In 1997, Nyenye moved to Nairobi, Kenya, to try to get work and also to train in sign language. While in Nairobi he came into contact with the Worldwide Church of God. We have a refugee congregation in the township of Kangemi on the outskirts of Nairobi, and Nyenye began to attend there. He became friends with another young man, Eraston, who had fled the Congo from the predatory troops of President Laurent Kabila, successor to Mobutu Sese Seko.

In 2002, in an effort to regroup the refugees in Kenya, the authorities transported Nyenye and Eraston back to Kakuma.

There, Nyenye and Eraston recognized that the refugees had spiritual as well as physical needs. Although some churches had been established, more needed to be done. They decided to try to plant their own branch of our fellowship.

Nyenye and Eraston went door-to-door, or more accurately, hut-to-hut, to preach Christ and to promote awareness of our fellowship. They invited to meetings those who would listen. Gradually the church grew, and now we have an attendance of around 70, mainly adults with just a few children.

These 70 are composed of Sudanese who fled from extreme persecution, Rwandese and Burundians from the Hutu-Tutsi conflicts, Congolese whose home areas are still occupied by rebel forces, plus some Kenyans and Ethiopians. Main languages spoken are Swahili, English and French. This ethnic mix is unusual in Africa and reflects the tolerance shown in our church services where we are all one in Christ Jesus.

One of the more exciting parts of my job is to, whenever feasible, visit new church plants in our fellowship and to welcome them officially into our fold. So it was with a degree of anticipation that Shirley and I set out on the long journey from South Africa to remote Kakuma. Nyenye met us upon arrival at Lokichoggio’s tiny airport, and soon we were on our way to the camp, a rough two hour drive.

Visitors had to check in with the chief security officer, and when we did he was horrified that we did not have an armed escort. This is a dangerous place with bandits causing tension on the roads. In early February two charity and church workers were shot dead on the main road to the camp.

The security officer gave us permission to proceed, and for part of the onward journey we were accompanied by Kenyan police, who carried an assortment of weapons from automatic rifles to clubs.

The drive to the small building where our church meets was bleak. Past security checks, shanty dwellings, barbed wire compounds, toxic open sewers, empty feeding posts, under-stocked street markets, some men fighting over who knows what, women carrying baskets on their heads and children in their arms, brown, dirty and dusty.

When we entered the hall, Nyenye was there, of course, full of smiles and enthusiasm. But for an African church it was unusually silent. Why? About 30 of our members, mainly from the Sudan, are deaf. Nyenye, as if he had nothing else to do or think about, recognized another need. The church groups in his immediate vicinity did not have arrangements for the hearing impaired. So he, in conjunction with our Kenyan church, started a sign language school and invited his pupils to church.

Despite the silence, the welcome we received was overwhelming, and we felt at home, with everyone shaking our hands, smiling constantly. Various songs of praise were sung, one of them by the deaf choir, which is composed of about 12 people. A beat was clapped out, and then someone recited the words of the song, "I Love Jesus," and the 12 signed to the words and the beat. It was an inspiration to watch.

Later we gave out WCG certificates that showed advancement to a certain level of sign language appreciation. Some months ago, because of the generosity of WCG international donors, we supplied this congregation with Bibles, and I saw them being used.

What do you say to such a group? I told them about how Jesus suffered and that in their sufferings Jesus is present with them, that there is hope in Christ, that he too was a refugee at one point and was called the Man of Sorrows, that, above all, each and every one of them is special to God, that although everything seems stacked against them, God is for them. I also told them they are part of a worldwide fellowship that cares for them. We intend to help these children of God as we are able.

The chief security officer told us we needed to travel back in the heat of the day (and it was very, very hot), as most attacks occur in the relative coolness of the morning or the late afternoon. So we had to leave earlier than planned. It was sad to go. Once again my wife and I felt emotional, like we were leaving newly found brothers and sisters. We were. These people are not only our brothers and sisters in Christ, but yours too.

But what of Nyenye? Nyenye has not seen nor heard of his family since 1993, and he cannot return home because Kisangami is still insecure. He remains a refugee. However, he does not dwell on the unfairness and the hardship that have come his way. He sees his situation in life as an opportunity to do something with God’s help for others. His desire to is to continue to give of himself as much as he can.

Maybe there is a lesson in this for us. Whatever problems we have, whatever dire situation we find ourselves in, we can still do something positive. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves we can reach out to others. We can still do something for God.

It was hard to leave the church at Kakuma. I know that many of you would have loved to have been there, and would have been moved by the whole experience. I wanted all of you to know that in that part of a far-off land, people are thinking of and praying for you and our fellowship, and delight in being part of our Worldwide Church of God.

KAKUMA MEMBERS—Refugee church in Kenya.
[Photos by James Henderson]

Nyenye

DEAF CHOIR—Choir members sign hymns.

Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2003