Missionaries from the Church Missionary Society (CMS) based in Nairobi were on leave or home in Australia, CMS told Eternity. SIM Acting National Director, Bob Cole, reports that no SIM missionaries were affected by the attacks.

Christians in Nairobi have been organising prayer meetings and practical responses. One that can be reported is Kenyan Langham Scholar Dr Gladys Mwiti, working to organise a psychological crisis response. Mwiti is a world-renowned specialist in trauma counselling. Langham Scholars are majority-world people given the opportunity for post-graduate theological study  by the Langham Partnership, founded by John Stott.

“On Sunday briefed and deployed over 80 psychologists under the Red Cross and the Kenya Psychological Association (of which she is the chair)” Mwiti told Langham. “We began again on Monday to train more. We thank god that we have the history of experience and expertise on our part to know how to prepare a major response. A sad affair but Kenya is united as one and we’ll go over it safely.”

Sarah Brittain is a Bible Society staff member whose immediate family are missionaries in Nairobi. She wrote her response to the news of the recent attack:

To hear about the terrorist attack and massacre at Westgate shopping centre on Saturday was a huge shock to me, and very frightening. Mainly because it held such a personal threat to me: my Mum, Dad and younger brother all live as missionaries in Nairobi, Kenya. Westgate shopping centre is their local main shopping centre, so they could have easily been shopping on this busy Saturday morning. Having visited this shopping centre myself just a month ago, having dined in ArtCafe, the entry point of the Somali rebels, it was surreal to see pictures of the shattered building, and injured people that could have easily been my family.

First of all, I thank God that he kept my family safe! The relief of confirming the safety of Mum, Dad and Matt was huge, and my sisters and I cried at the graciousness of God in how he protected them. I had friends and family calling me all day Saturday, who also rejoiced with the good news. However, the hostage situation went on for days, and I knew this would be extremely hard for my family to have this happening just 10 minutes away from the family home. As more information was revealed, and the death toll increased, the impact on the community only worsened. My brother has had a school friend killed in the attack, and several school friends were injured and lost parents to the terrorists. One girl in particular lost her father, who had been her only living parent—the attack now leaving her as an orphaned school girl.

I believe the perseverance of my parents is a great reminder that our labour for the gospel here on earth is not in vain. Their passion for the gospel goes far beyond their fear of persecution or death, and reinforces the importance and necessity of The Great Commission.

Part of me now just wants my parents to jump on a plane and come home, to the safety of Australia, and the comfort of family and friends. But this will not be the case—they are going to stay. So instead, I will pray. I will thank God for His sovereignty and praise him for his graciousness. I will cry out for the Kenyan people who have lost friends, family and loved ones. I will plead for the souls of those in Kenya, and ask God that He would continue to grow me to be more like Christ and to share his heart to spread the gospel to the nations.

Sarah Brittain runs the Bible Society “Godspeak Advocates” programme which sends young people to experience the work of Bible distribution in majority world countries.

Image © 2013 Anne Knight licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence