Day: 21

Kenya

When people think about Christian persecution, they usually think of the Middle East, ISIS, or even Boko Haram. Kenya isn’t on their radar. Many are surprised to hear that ICC even has a presence in Kenya, especially those who haven’t been keeping up with the trajectory of persecution in the country. They picture safari rides and touristy venues – the picture of stability in Africa.

Those things exist, but there is a darker side to Kenya.

Kenya’s Most Dangerous City

Do you remember when Islamists took over Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013 and killed seventy-one people? Or when Islamists took over Garissa University in Kenya and killed 148 people, mostly Christians?

Those two events (and there are many more) indicate the depth of the struggle Kenya finds itself in with radical Islam.

Although nearly half of Kenya’s population is Christian, there are pockets of Muslim-dominated regions where our brothers and sisters in the faith suffer severe persecution.

When one of my staff traveled to Kenya years ago, a local missionary asked him what an organization like ICC, an organization championing the rights of persecuted Christians, was doing there.

“I’m going to Garissa,” he replied. That was enough to answer the missionary’s question.

Garissa is populated with mostly ethnic Somalis, and Christians there find themselves in a dwindling minority. In fact, Garissa is known as Kenya’s most dangerous city for Christians to live in.

One of our contacts in Kenya is a man named Ibrahim, a pastor who knows about persecution.

“Life is not easy,” Ibrahim told ICC. “We must endure persecution everyday here in Garissa.”

Ibrahim remains in Garissa, where his life and work are threatened every day. In fact, it’s a miracle that he’s alive at all.

Ibrahim’s Calling

In 2013, Ibrahim was traveling with Pastor Abdi, the Muslim outreach pastor at their church. Both men received regular death threats because of their outspoken witness to Muslims. Both men fled the region on different occasions. But, they always returned to continue spreading the gospel to their neighbors there.

“Abdi and I were driving to the bank in Garissa,” Ibrahim recalled. “On our way, we noticed that there was a car following us. This made us very nervous.”

The men decided to head toward the market. There were lots of people there, including Ibrahim’s wife. If there was trouble, Ibrahim wanted to pick her up and get her out of danger.

He didn’t make it to his wife.

“When we stopped in front of the shop where my wife was, the car following us also stopped,” Ibrahim related. “I opened the door, stepped out of the car, and noticed that the men in the other car had also gotten out. That’s when I saw they had guns.”

Before either pastor could react, the men shot at them point blank. “I felt something hit me in the chest,” Ibrahim said, “but did not feel pain. I was in shock. Suddenly, I couldn’t stand anymore and slumped back into the passenger seat of the car.”

“Everything was in slow motion,” he recalled. “I saw my wife scream and run away. I looked over to Abdi and saw him wounded, leaning forward on the steering wheel. I couldn’t move. Then, I saw a hand reach across me, pointing a pistol at Abdi. The hand was shaking and then the pistol fired six more bullets into Abdi.”

Ibrahim looked at his friend. Abdi gave a weak sigh and leaned more heavily into the steering wheel. That’s when he knew his brother’s soul had departed.

“Everyone stayed away from our car right after the attack,” Pastor Ibrahim said. “I thought I was going to die because no one was coming to help us. Then a Christian woman looked in the car and I looked her in the eyes. She screamed, ‘Pastor is alive!’”

“I Want to Return”

Several people helped him out of the car. The ambulance driver was too afraid to come to the scene to offer support, so local Christians had to take Ibrahim to the hospital by motorcycle.

Thankfully, ICC was able to help Ibrahim with his medical care, and he has since made a full recovery. When we talked with him last, he was making plans to go back to his church in Garissa.

“I want to return to the church,” Pastor Ibrahim told me when I interviewed him. “I don’t care if those men who killed Abdi are gone or not.”

Freedom from Fear

When I think about the Christians we serve who are living in constant danger, I worry about them. Like you, I often wish there were a way to bring them to a safe harbor, where persecution would never touch them. Where they could heal from all their physical and emotional scars.

Pastor Ibrahim is not one of those believers, though.

ICC saw him through his recovery. We ensured that he got the medical care he needed, and we looked out for his safety until he was well. But Ibrahim is not the kind of man you can pluck of the mission field for his own protection. Garissa is not only his home; it is his calling.

Like a soldier who refuses to leave his post, Ibrahim continued his ministry there. He continued preaching the gospel to those who murdered his friend and tried to kill him in Kenya’s most dangerous city.

If Ibrahim finds himself in trouble, if he needs financial or medical support in the future, we will be there for him. ICC will do whatever we can to help him.

But that’s not why I refuse to worry about him.

One of Satan’s main tools is fear. He uses the fear of every kind of loss including, and up to, the loss of our own lives.

But what does Satan do with a kingdom-man like Ibrahim who has one foot planted on earth and one in the next world?

Men like Ibrahim have nothing left to lose. Ibrahim has bought a field in a land far away. He paid a pretty penny for it, but his treasure is there. No threat on earth will keep him from getting there.

He is not to be pitied. He is to be envied for his freedom from the world’s chokehold. He is the living picture of courage and a life devoted to the kingdom.

He would say, “What man can do to me?”