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This week we will continue our series on World Impressions. Our travels this week take us to the wonderful country of Kenya.

We are learning about real people in the world based on my travels and what I have personally eye witnessed along with others on our teams.

It is my hope that we will be inspired by the perseverance of others that will in turn give us courage to see a change in our own country.

From a spiritual perspective, Kenya continues to be in a key role as a solid base for Christian ministry to Africa and the world. With a total population of roughly 35 million, Kenya has 36 per cent (13 million) evangelicals, Africa's second highest percentage - nearly equal to all evangelicals in Europe.

However, despite the strong influence of Christians in this nation, at the dusk of 2007 it became a place of violence due to a strong dispute in the elections.

There is a great deal of ethnic pride in Kenya as a whole. The unity of the nearly 122 ethno-linguistic groups, which consist of many tribes, sometimes leads to unrest and prejudice, but rarely precipitated any form of violence.

This reputation was broken in December 2007 as Kenya's 2007 presidential election put the country's ethnic groups on opposite sides, with only turmoil in between, depending on which candidate they supported. Kenya's majority Kikuyu tribe backed the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki, while the indigenous Kalenjin tribes of the Rift Valley along with the Luo and other tribes supported the then

challenger Raila Odinga.

When the election didn't go their way, Kalenjin, the Luos and other tribes were against the Kikuyu who made up the majority. People such as David Rono were furious.

"Even up to now I'm still angry. It was not a fair election. It was just a stolen election," says Rono, a 26-year-old motorcycle taxi driver. Many of his friends died in the clashes, Rono says.

"When more than 30 Kikuyu women and children were burned alive in a nearby church, Rono says, he felt nothing." At that time, we were not feeling mercy for anyone. So we were not thinking of either the children or anybody. We had really decided if it is bad, let it be bad," he says.

Violence was also brought out on the Luo tribe. One lady, Cherono, is now crippled as she ran form a Kikuyu mob. Cherono was chased near a riverbed behind the flower farm where she worked. She never knew what hit her as she immediately fainted. When Cherono woke up, her spine was damaged and part of her hip. That would be the last time she would run in her life.

I recall sitting at home watching the violence on television in December 2007. It especially hit my heart because we had just come from Kenya from a Cornerstone mission trip in August 2007.

In addition, we have members in our church from Kenya that were especially concerned for their loved ones and for certain reason.

Ethnic clashes killed more than 1,000 people and over 250,000 were displaced. The violence began with elections in December 2007 and continued into 2008. As a result, a country known as an oasis of stability in east Africa descended into an inferno.

I just recall this strong sense that I will or need help in this in some way to bring about peace to this problem. I remember asking myself "But how will this take place?" After all, I was thousands of miles away, and what door would God open for this to come to pass?

Early in 2008, our church conducted a leadership retreat at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in New York. One evening a man in our group was looking for a seat before the prayer meeting began and decided to sit next to a respectable person in the church.

Before the start of the service, this person decided to turn to one of our leaders, Bernell Gibson, and share with him the following, "God is going to use your pastor [Pastor Gary Simons] in Africa. In particular, he is going to use him in Kenya. God is going to open a door in His Time."

He then proceeded to give Bernell his watch that he was wearing and said to him as He placed this watch in Bernell's hand, "Give this watch to your pastor as a reminder to him that God will open up the door to Kenya in His time." I remember what face I must have given Bernell as he gave me this watch after dinner that night. I asked him again, what did this gentleman say? He could not give me his name or phone number, just this message that seemed to be from the Lord.

Then I was amazed by a conversation that another leader in our group gave about one week later. Merlin Burt then comes to me and says, "Pastor Gary, I had a strange dream about you." I asked her to tell me about it.

She said, "I saw you in this dream with an African outfit on, but the strangest thing was that you had this big clock hanging around your neck." I had to smile when she shared this because she did not know of Bernell's encounter, nor about the message that in God's "time" he will open the door to Africa.

This clock was a reminder of the watch previously given to me. I then told her and she was amazed as to how God was speaking about this "thing" to take place in Africa. Seven months later I then receive an email from someone asking if I would please come and minister at a Pastor's Conference.

However, this was a pastor's conference in Africa, but in particular in Kenya. The amazing thing is that this was not just any pastor's conference, this was a pastors conference in Eldoret, that higher elevation in the western part of Kenya where most of the violence took place during the election.

It was to bring pastors together from the warring tribes (the Luo and the Kikuyu) that were killing each other just eight months before! It was then that I remembered what God impressed upon my heart while I was watching CNN, the puzzle came together from three different angles!

This experience, along with others, has taught me that we must always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the leading of God.

Next week I will share with you where this journey led us. None of us on the team to Kenya was prepared for the people we would meet and the stories we would hear. Join me next week as we learn about the tremendous spirit of the Kenyan people.

Pastor Gary C. Simons serves as the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship where Sunday services are held at Ruth Seaton James Auditorium, CedarBridge Academy, Bermuda.

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