From Isaac & Colleta Cheduke, Church Planters Living in a Very Violent Area

Isaac Cheduke

Here is a report from Isaac and Colleta from Nakuru where some of the worst violence has taken place.

First the goods news: a testimony of what God has done with this family just since our conference with them in December:

“So far since you left us I and my wife Colleta had managed to teach and multiply our Nakuru house church membership to thirty houses which has total number of 100 people. From these houses being the meeting points, people were being mentored to go and begin more house churches and continue multiplying in other surrounding areas.”

Obviously, the situation has now greatly changed and the following report is hard to even imagine:

“It’s unfortunate for us that in our process of the Good News spreading to broaden our Nakuru House church network in Kenya calamity has befallen us. All of us are displaced and our houses looted from, our businesses closed down, our women and girls raped, our members killed. Right now as I speak we need to bury ten of our members killed in this violence. Some of us have received death threats, but in the camp where we are, we have learned to stick together as a family. We pray together, read and discuss the word, sing praise and worship songs. We share our experiences and put all our trust in God. Surprising, for when we begin our serv ices many people are joining us and we are telling them we are Nakuru House church and teaching them the gospel of multiplication. So far we have ten families which have joined us right in this camp.”

Isaac goes on the describe some of their imminent needs:

“I personally need to move my family to safety. My wife is being threatened to be raped and I have also received death threats. My two boys are not going to school anymore.

We need to bury our members who have been killed as a result of this violence. Currently there are ten bodies: 4 women, 3 men, and 3 children.

We have had three girls and five of our Nakuru house church women raped before their husbands and children. Three of them were raped with more than ten people and two of them with more than seven people. This woman has not been thoroughly examined by a doctor and treated for lack of finances.

I need to move our members who are not the tribe of this place (Nakuru) to western Kenya. Otherwise they will be killed. There are ten families. What they need is only transport and Police escort. Here we pay police escort. These ten families are all numbering 30 people. Transport which includes police escort fee is KSH 3000($50) per person. Without police escort here traveling is like committing suicide…

Even though we are weak now but we are strong. Some of us have never been in such a situation, sincerely we don’t even know what to say or how to act. The more days go by the more it sinks in for us that it’s happening.”

From Dawson to Greg & Laura: Violence First Breaks Out

When the violence first broke out in Kenya, Dawson and his wife Elizabeth were far from home. Here is Dawson’s report:

Greg and Laura,

Thanks for the funds. We were able to travel on saturday to Kitale (Dawson’s home town) but what we saw on the way we could not explain. We got a police escort with more than 5 police trucks, we saw bodies of people burning on the road side, property destroyes, vehicles burnt, had we not gotten police escort, our vehicle would have been set on fire too.

The scenes we saw were so shocking, at one point the police men openly asked us if we had any one in our car of kikuyu tribe, my wife is kikuyu, then they said because of that they had to take us all the way. Things are not good. We saw horrible things, massive destruction of property and life. Thousands of people have filled police stations and churches. Arriving in Kitale, more than 50 people had camped at our compound from the mountain where we once went there for a house fellowswhip.

Thanks for these funds, we will be able to assist in feeding them and other things. We are praying that the violence and the killings dont spread to our place. It is only happening 10 miles away from our house.
We love you

Thanks

Dawson

Picture of Dawson Mudenyo (left) and Two Other Church Planters

John White Introduces Dawson Mudenyo via an Email

Family,

Here’s what Tim heard last night (from Gal. 6:2)…

Shoulder the burdens of others.
Increase your awareness of the sheep.
These burdens are an opportunity to love.

For me, that seemed to connect with what I was sensing about Kenya. This week I’m going to be sending to you some of the emails we’ve gotten from our friends there so we can “increase our awareness of the sheep”. I want to stress that these emails are not from faceless people or impersonal organizations.

A year and a half ago, Jan and Tina Cowles (whom you all have met) and Greg Strand (another friend of mine) spent 3 weeks in Kenya training Christian leaders in simple church. The response was tremendous and within 6 weeks the Kenyans had planted 90 churches. This last November, another friend of mine, Roger Thoman, traveled to Kenya and did more training.

I want you to get to know some of the godly men they trained who have been effectively planting house churches. Today, I’ll paste an email below from Dawson Mudenyo that will give you a feel for his ministry. In a couple of days, I’ll begin with some emails that explain what has been going on since December.

John

From 3/9/07…

Dear John,

Greetings from Kenya africa. We just came back from Mombasa nearly 14 hours drive from my home town Kitale. Down in Mombasa we had some great things take place.

I had earlier visited a muslim friend who ended up giving his life to Jesus. He then asked me to come down and visit with him. I asked him to invite two of his unsaved friends. We spent at his house the whole week and by the end of the week, we ended up leading 6 more muslims to christ.

The brother told us that he had a problem going to any structured church and he would be persecuted by fellow muslims if seen attending church, I told him we could start a church in his house. We then started a house church for them before we came back home.

Well, Gregory (Strand) sent me and my wife an invitation letter to come to the states and attend the conference, I have booked an appointment with american embassy on wednesday for Visa interview. I will communicate with you by monday. (Dawson was planning to come to the DAWN Conference last May but it didn’t work out.)

Thanks
Dawson