Kenya

Many kids in Kenya went back to school this week, where schools weren't burned. Here's a photo from Joseph Karoki's blog. He describes it as "Kenyan children of different ethnic tribes excited to see their friends on the first day of school."

I'm praying for Kenya, but it isn't always easy to know what to pray. That's even more true for the people there, where one's prayers are informed by one's political views, or by recent experience.

Three days of demonstrations are coming up starting tomorrow. I am afraid of what will happen. I read stories of what has already happened and I cry. I feel despair over what will happen in this place I love so much, to people who are innocent, who just want to live their lives.

And I don't know how to pray.

I'm praying for those kids, the ones who went back to school and the ones who didn't. I'm praying for the refugees, thousands of them living in fairgrounds and parks and churches. (How could this be happening in Kenya, so many are asking? Kenya hosts refugees from other countries, Kenya doesn't produce refugees.)

And for the political outcome - I'm praying for peace and justice, and for leaders who will put their country and its people ahead of their own ambitions. I don't know what will happen next, and I don't even know what should happen next. But God does.