Yesterday we had a visit with our doctor, here in Nairobi. His name is Dr. Chunge. He is a brilliant Christian doctor who is now making personal sacrifices to start a medical school in Kakamega. Somehow we got on the subject of the Kenyan culture and he told me a funny, but not so funny, story.

He said, “There is a School of Criminology at my college in Kakamega. So I went there one day and I asked the professors, ‘What are we doing in the School of Criminology? Are we training criminals? Are we teaching them how to be criminals? Because all I see around me these days are criminals! I hardly know anyone who will not cheat you, lie to you, con you or scam you for a few measly schillings. These guys will lie to their mother to get money from her purse.’”

He was being a bit funny but what he was saying is totally true. Kenya is so overrun with corruption that it has become endemic. The hustle is on, from the top members of parliament to the farmer in the field. I have known this for many years. In the work I do, I see the tragic results of mega-corruption because the consequence of it has caused a “Super Rich/Super Poor” syndrome. The super rich live in lavish luxury and the super poor in absolute poverty, with not even enough money to buy an anti-biotic to treat their dying children.

So is it hopeless? I’ll have to admit I sometimes wonder, but invariably I always come back to the fact that I have seen a lot of people come out of this blackness of despair and rise to a hope in Christ that is imperishable. When I look at the big picture it seems overwhelming, but when I look at the situation one person at a time, I can see the light of hope shining.

Isaiah described it this way in Isaiah 60:1-2,

“Arise and shine for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, but the glory of the Lord will rise upon you, And His glory shall appear upon you.”

I have seen both ‘the deep darkness covering the peoples’ and ‘the glory of the Lord rising upon them’.

And so I carry on, knowing that we must attack this darkness one child, one person at a time and keep on praying for a true revival to come. A revival that can’t be stopped because it is powered by the Almighty God. Show your power, O Lord our God!

FROM AFRICA
Richard Vicknair