#1 What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do

July 21, 2023

Stacey Cagwin

A hazy sun was obscured by the smoke of numerous fires, casting an eerie morning light over the streets of Nairobi, Kenya. The scene from my third-floor hotel room was one of complete devastation. Car windows were smashed, buildings were riddled with bullets, stores were ransacked, and dead bodies lay in the streets. After 19 years of peace, the city of Nairobi was caught in the crossfire of a bloody coup between rival military powers attempting to overthrow the government. That day we were scheduled to start a training institute for African Christian leaders from all over the continent. The administrator of the facility we were renting for the institute was frightened by the coup and did not want us to open the sessions. Due to anti-American sentiment, the Kenyan government was advising Americans to flee the country if they could find a way out. A Swiss airline crew staying in the hotel where I was residing offered me a ride to another city from where I could catch a flight to America, and I was seriously considering it. Our national coordinator and the African delegates, however, wanted to open the training institute as scheduled. The final decision was mine, but--what should I do?