Three ways to respond to what's happening in KenyaLisa Borden - 2 Oct 2013

As the siege at Nairobi’s Westgate mall began to unfold on 21 September, I stared at my computer, reading every update as it came in.  No matter how clearly BBC posted the words, I could not wrap my mind around what was happening an hour away in a shopping center I have frequented many times.

Disasters happen and “acts of nature” take lives, but this was different.  A vicious violence was released that Saturday, calculated and brutal.  It was also terrifyingly targeting at those who did not appear to adhere to the perpetrators’ vision of proper religion.  The stories that have emerged are harrowing in their normal-day-turned-surreal-nightmare reality.  

The terrorists espoused an agenda about Kenya’s troops in Somalia, but they chose children, pregnant women and people of many races and religions as the random recipients of the full force of their boiling anger.  The question remains: How do we pray?  How do we move beyond shocked paralysis to real supplication?  After 20 years in Africa, I can only offer these simple things…

First, pray as Jesus taught us. 

“Our Father, who art in heaven, holy is your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, (especially right now in Kenya,) as it is in heaven…” 

Pray these words with every aching ounce of your being. 

Second, host the Holy Spirit.

Invite God to fill you anew with Himself.  Ask Him to invade your being and make you into the channel of His love that only His powerful presence can cause you to be.  Let Him know you’re available and ask Him to show you how to pray.

Third, live His Kingdom come.

Romans 12:21 tells us not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.  Most of us will not face terrorists, but we can fight evil right now, exactly where we are, by asking Him to show us what love and kindness we can give today. 

Ask for the Kingdom come, ask for more of the Spirit, and practice loving your neighbour as yourself.

Since Westgate, there have already been more horrific (and apparently religiously motivated) attacks.  Multiple bombings in Pakistan, students shot dead in the their sleep in Nigeria… As children of the living God, we have His ear.  May we step up to our responsibility and pray.