Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

As soon as we arrived in Nairobi on Monday, Obamania or whatever they call it was way more obvious than I thought it would be.  Bumper stickers.  Billboards.  Newspapers.  All seen on the streets of this enormous city.  What hurts my heart about all of this is not that Kenya supports Obama, but that they’re putting GIGANTINORMOUS amount of hope in him. The media here has hyped up our election so much, false hope has spawned.  For instance, on the news over here one of the news stations interviewed some school children in western Kenya.  When asked, “What do you think will happen in Kenya if Obama is elected President of the United States of America?” one child answered, “I believe he’ll send us lots of money and each one of us will get a present.”  I know one little statement by a child can’t be the determining factor in saying it is having a negative impact here, but to see it so widespread with my own eyes and ears… well, it just hurts.  It hurts that at least that child will wait in vain for these American treasures.  It hurts that we now have a president with unrealistic expectations placed upon him.

Please pray for the people of Kenya to not look to us (Americans) in hope nor even to themselves.  It can only start by looking up.  Seriously.