THE KENYAN CAPTIVES IN IRAQ

By Wycliffe Adams Odhiambo

WHENEVER I HEAR OF A HOSTAGE-TAKING, I reach out to God in prayer. I felt especially impelled to pray when three men from Kenya, my neighboring country, were kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq on July 21, 2004. The three Kenyans were captured, together with three Indians and one Egyptian. All of them were truck drivers employed by a Kuwaiti trucking company.

After the news bulletin came out that day, I just wanted to be alone—alone with God. I wanted to unite in prayer with my captured brothers and the other hostages, their families, and people all over the world who I knew were also praying. Turning to God, I focused on the fact that God keeps us all eternally safe because everyone of us is His beloved child. I prayed to understand more about the safety, protection, and love God has for all that He has created, including the hostages. Since all is under God's dominion, I knew all had to be well.

Trying to grasp better how it is that all was well, I thought about the Bible story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (see Daniel, chap. 3). These three men had been thrown into a "fiery furnace" by King Nebuchadnezzar because they had refused to give up their trust in and worship of the one eternal God. It was their innocence, their persistence in doing good and serving the living God, that saw them through that dire situation. And they came out of it unharmed and untouched by the flames. In their ordeal, they experienced God's saving presence with them in the form of an angel. I saw that that same saving presence and power was right where the hostages were. In fact, it was an infinite power filling all space and was the only power that could be governing them and their captors—the power of God.

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