Dear Friends,

This message is actually a combined effort of the East African Coordinators in bringing to you some of the serious problems faced at present in East and Southern Africa.

The first message is from the Coordinator at Kisumu writing concerning the serious problems that arose over Independence Day there in Kenya.

FURY OF A NATION

We in CCG are in different nations, but we are one body in Jesus Christ and we share the same river of life. Like a tidal wave, the rage of the nation swirled around the venue of the Independence Day celebrations as Kenya turned 45. The bubble of expectations burst because the public wanted the President’s word as assurance over the serious affliction of the nation. There was rage over the non-payment of tax by the MPs and over the Wednesday’s legislation of media raids.

My brothers and sisters, 45 years ago, the founding fathers of our nation ‘Kenya’ won the last battle on our behalf. On this day the fathers cleared the last hurdle on our path to liberty and nationhood. We became The Independent Republic of Kenya. Out of the 42 tribes and sub tribes within the national boundaries, our founding fathers fashioned a nation. They just improvised as they went along, convinced that the victory and the tide of history were on their side. That is why when the nation they fashioned gathered together, every one and every region was happy. It was everyone’s country, everyone’s government. For that we owe our forefathers utmost gratitude.

What is happening today in Africa is not what our fathers dreamt of. We might be thinking and indeed talking of ending Mugabe in Zimbabwe but we should not forget that we have the elements of a Mugabe in most parts of Africa. It was very sad that the day when Kenyans are celebrating their Independence Day, a journalist was beaten up in the eyes of the President and the prime minister and later on he was reported as being castrated by the police. This man was trying to present a petition to the President not to sign a bill bringing in further restrictions on the media. Such restrictions are not what our fathers, who fought for the freedom of this nation, would like to see. Africa is still far from independent and only God knows when this will happen.

For the first time since independence, we took up arms against fellow Kenyans on a scale that shocked the world. Shame on our nation! Forty-five years after we announced our independence we found ourselves appealing to the international community to save us from disintegration. Much of this happened also because of the bad teachings we got from the churches who claim to be telling the truth but are in fact just misleading people. For example, God told us to keep the Sabbath holy, yet now most of our people are keeping Sunday holy forgetting about the Sabbath. This action is going against God’s Law and it is time that we face the truth and understand the truth. Many also teach intolerance and division.

We need to understand the Law of God and the application of the Fourth Commandment. If you break one law you break them all and need to repent (see the papers in the sequence The Law of God (L1)).

Walter Okello

Coordinator in East Africa (ed. Wade Cox)

The second element of the message is from Bizimana Bosco who is the coordinator in Uganda and lives at Kasese. He was orphaned due to conflict in Uganda and his wife also lost her mother there in the conflicts. They work hard to help the orphans they have there. They operate a maize-milling project to assist the brethren in CCG and the children and orphans they have there by producing maize flour.

He has relatives working in Zimbabwe and gets frequent reports of just how bad it really is in Zimbabwe and the total dysfunction of that Nation State.

Bizimana says that the root of the problem is that the President in Zimbabwe simply does not want to give up power. That is much like the Kenyan situation where the same thing happened and riots broke out all over the country. In Kenya 350,000 subsistence farmers were dispossessed and consequently the maize crop was drastically reduced and prices are doubling and more.

The same thing is happening in Zimbabwe. Although "the details in that email are pretty sparse. ‘There is so much more going on there.  Zimbabwe is a failed state. The health system has collapsed, there is no food, no clean water, and disease and sickness are rife among the population. Even the army is starting to riot.’"

Yours faithfully

Bizimana Bosco

*********

We know that the situation is grim in many nations in Africa but particularly in Zimbabwe. The cholera epidemic is increasing with a thousand dead and the infections rising. The epidemic has spread to South Africa across the Limpopo River due to the crisis.

Robert Mugabe has been censured by Kenya, Botswana and by South African political and religious leaders. However, South Africa stopped a UN censure from going through that might have enabled further assistance to Zimbabwe and brought about a resolution.

The concept of democracy and the welfare of the people are not even comprehended by these politicians. President Mugabe, in the most bizarre propaganda outburst, stated that the Cholera epidemic had been contained and as a result there was no need for intervention. It reminds one of Nelson turning the telescope to his blind eye and saying: “I see no ships.” However, Nelson was sailing into danger to protect the fate of Britain, not to destroy it out of self-interest. According to Mugabe everything is a British plot even though they are trying to help them at every turn and the aid workers are not allowed to assist.

The soldiers that rioted over not having any pay were summarily executed shortly thereafter. They are held in line through abject fear. 90% of the army has HIV. There in Zimbabwe rape is a death sentence.

So what can we do that is of effect?

The answer is that we can all pray that the situation is resolved. We can ask that God intervenes and removes those who are impediments to peace and the welfare of the people.

This situation is surely similar to the worst days of Sodom and Gomorrah. God sent Christ to Abraham with two other angels of the Host. The other two Yahovahs went to Lot and as a result Yahovah in Heaven sent fire down upon the people (Gen. 18 and 19, see the paper The Angel of YHVH (No. 24)).

There is no room for tribalism or racism in CCG or in the coming world under Jesus Christ. These attitudes must be stamped out. They must be removed from our thinking. We have seen tribalism and racism infect the Churches of God for decades. It has no place among us.

In the same way it was good to see that at last the international courts sentenced the key perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide to life imprisonment this week. These concepts have no place among us or in any society. The problem is it took some fifteen years to bring them to trial and sentencing. There is talk that they will not place many more on trial. This should be treated in the same way as the Nazi war crimes and be open as long.

Pray for the peace of God that passes all understanding to be on us all and implemented in Africa to save them from annihilation.

Our prayers are important in the function of the power of God. The prayers of a righteous person are of great effect. We have all seen it heal the terminally ill and the sick generally and we have helped many people. Let this appeal to God receive your full support and effort.

Remember also that in this week ahead we are faced with the pagan Xmas system and the disregard for the Prohibition of God regarding this pagan festival of so-called Christmas. These people, when told it is pagan, still say: “Oh it is good for the family.”

These people completely ignore the fact that the festival is forbidden by God in the Book of Jeremiah 10:1-9 (see the paper The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235)).

Pray that God deals with the world and corrects these errors and the false traditions and the corrupt leadership in our nations. We have seen in the state of NSW one element of the government provide evidence that a prima facie case of fraud exists and the other elements that are tasked with its investigation refuse to act on the evidence and investigate it. Corruption is everywhere. A teacher of mine was once the Ombudsman for Victoria and he was doing such a good job cleaning up the police force there that they passed an act of parliament to get rid of him. The fraud last week in the US was so entrenched and long standing and the regulatory system so weak and corrupt that some $US 50 billion has disappeared. The serious matter is that only $20 billion has been accounted for. Many are not coming forward to disclose their losses as yet. That may well be because the losses will affect their balance sheets and their share values and ultimately their solvency. Trading whilst insolvent is a crime that is often overlooked. White-collar crime is not punished as severely as crimes of violence. Yet they are every bit as evil and destructive to the society and more so.

The $183 million dollar fraud in Denmark the same week was ironic because the man involved skipped Denmark on the night he was to be awarded the entrepreneur of the year award. He handed himself to police in the US.

The disasters are occurring all over the world and the dishonesty amongst the banking system is as bad as it is among the political despots. Use the time over this pagan, godless and blasphemous period to pray for an end to it all and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

Wade Cox

Coordinator General