Rift Valley Province

Went to visit the Rift Valley Province yesterday. At this internally displaced people camp, there were about 3,500 Kenyans with more filing in every second.

They came on big trucks. They had any belonging they could manage to get on a truck. Many came with their couches, chairs, mattresses, etc. all piled high. Others came with only the clothes on their backs.

The showgrounds normally looks pretty spacious, but yesterday - pretty much every little space was in use. There was a clinic, a counseling area, food storage, clothing piles, even a comedian entering the crowds. In the only small open space, teenaged boys played soccer with a deflated basketball.

Baptists in Kenya have donated a lot of food to many of these camps, as well as blankets. They are distributing it in six of the major hot spots in Kenya. One of the elder Baptist pastors said he's never seen anything like this. He said this has gone past election violence to something he never thought would happen here -- Christians raising their hand against another simply because of what ethnic group they belong to.

"We used to think this way back in the old days. Kikuyu and Luo thought differently," he said. "But when Jesus Christ came to our country, all of that changed. During the Great East African Revival of 1936, these areas that in the most conflict now became Christian areas. We began thinking of ourselves as brothers in Christ and not as enemies."

One really neat thing that has come out of this conflict is Kenyans helping Kenyans. In past conflicts like this, elders said Kenyans did not respond like this. They wanted to help others but did not have the means or power to do so.

You should have seen the lines of Kenyans bringing in a sack of clothes or vegetables from their own small gardens. Thousands of Kenyans have been displaced but millions of Kenyans are reaching out with a helping hand.