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My name is Joshua. I am your host. And today, I aim to encourage you by enhancing your appreciation of how rich and peaceful your life is, even today, even on today. Notice I'm saying today, which is November 6, 2018. It is an election day in the United States of America, and a great many of my fellow U.S.

American citizens are feeling significant angst today over the elections. Now, here's what's unfortunate for you. There's a good chance that you are going to be disappointed in the wake of today's elections. I repeat, there is a very, very strong probability that you are going to be disappointed in the wake of today's elections.

Two main reasons why I say that. Way number one that you'll be disappointed is if your preferred party, candidate, issue, if your preferred positions or people or platforms lose in today's elections, then of course you will feel that keen sense of disappointment. And there's a good chance that you will experience that deep emotional just pain that comes from the loss of an election.

It's very hard if you have invested your emotional energy into certain candidates or positions, if you've tried hard to lobby your friends and neighbors, you've battled these things out in the public social media space, and you've desperately tried to change people's hearts and minds to agree with you, and then you find that, well, it didn't actually work.

That's a strong reason for disappointment. And there's a good chance that you'll be experiencing that tonight as the election returns roll in. Now, if on the other hand, you don't experience disappointment tonight, if tonight you get to bask in the victory of winning or the emotions of winning, the emotion of victory, if you get to enjoy that tonight, you'll face two problems in the next weeks and months.

Problem number one is your victory tonight is only one small step in a long battle. It's only one small battle in a long war. And problem number two is your candidate who gets elected won't actually do anything. Your position that you're voting for won't actually change anything. Now, whether that's because your candidate was somehow, well, let's just use the right word lying.

They said a lot of nice things that they wanted you to believe, but they didn't actually believe those things themselves. They just said those things to get elected. Or whether it's because your candidate is well-meaning and well-intentioned and just quickly overwhelmed by the ongoing bureaucratic nature of government, by the fact that one individual candidate can really do very little, you'll face the disappointment and the frustration of seeing that candidate become quickly ineffective.

So one way or the other, you're probably going to be experiencing some significant feelings of frustration and disappointment tonight and in the coming weeks and months in the wake of an election here in the United States. What I want to do, however, is help you to gain a different perspective because so much of life can be enjoyed if you have a different perspective.

Two people face the same circumstances and they experience the emotions of those circumstances very differently. Just speaking with some common financial examples, one person cuts off their cable TV and celebrates it as a way to be released from the grip of the propaganda machine and a way to regain some peace back into their life and a chance to read some more books.

Another person cuts off their cable because they're out of money and sees it as the ultimate expression of their poverty and it's deeply frustrating to them. One person moves into a van down by the river and sees it as an ultimate expression of a lifestyle choice that fills their values of simplicity and frugality and minimalism and an opportunity to commune with nature and to live a lifestyle of adventure.

Another person is forced out of their house and into a van down by the river and finds it to be the most humiliating thing that ever happens to them. And we could go on and on. You could see same situation, different perspective. So often if you gain a different perspective on something that's happening around you, you can appreciate it in a different sense.

That's not to minimize what actually happens, but it is to say that part of a good mental health or part of the ability to maintain good mental health is just simply being able to pull back from the situation that's near you and appreciate things that happen around you. So today I want to bring you a story that I've often wanted to talk about, but I haven't for quite a long time because first it's fairly personal.

Two, I've wanted to see all of the details verified because unlike many types of stories, there was no way to verify this except through personal contact. There was no news vetting that could accomplish the task. There was no journalistic investigation into various reports and censoring the truth from various perspectives.

There was only personal confirmation that could happen. And that has only happened fairly recently. But I thought today on election day in the United States, it would be a useful point of orientation for you to appreciate the rich and peaceful life that you and I enjoy. Today's story comes from the country of Kenya.

I'm going to be quite circumspect with the details of the towns and cities in Kenya. I'm also being circumspect with the names of the people involved, but the facts are true and it's a situation that I've been involved in for years. Going back a number of years, over the years, my family and the church that we're a part of, we've had contact with a number of different people in Kenya.

And one man that we've come to have contact with is a man named Jacob. This man named Jacob is a really incredible man, a man of character and integrity, just a testament to who he's a man of character and integrity. I can't say enough good things about him. Jacob has his own interesting story and it's interesting, especially as it relates to finance, to see the twists and turns of his life and to compare them with the financial planning that most of us do in our own life.

Going back a number of years, Jacob and his wife had young children and a small family and they were living in a part of the country that started to turn against them because Jacob and his wife were from the wrong ethnic tribe in that part of Kenya. And so Jacob and his wife sought to move for the safety and peace of their own family, they sought to move from that part of the country to another part of the country.

They were facing significant risks of violence towards them and their family. They actually did flee in basically in what was the middle of the night, flee across the countryside to escape the risk of their life and managed to make it from one part of the country to another part of the country where their tribal ethnicity would not cause them so many problems.

Jacob and his wife had developed their own farm prior to their having to flee. And in fleeing from that farm, they've ran the risk of having it all left behind. Now thankfully, after they were gone, they were able to negotiate the sale of their previous farm and they were able to negotiate the lease, hopefully leading to a purchase of a newer farm.

This newer farm was a great opportunity that landed in their lap because it was unlike many of the structures and the farms in the area. It had been built by a wealthy man who had basically built it up as his retirement project and yet through a variety of miraculous circumstances.

And when I use the word miraculous, I don't use it lightly. I use it in its sincere and true sense. Through a variety of miraculous circumstances, Jacob and his wife came to be the tenants and the owners ultimately of this farm. This farm was unique because it had large buildings, well-built structures, unlike most of the local structures, which are basically mud huts.

This farm had structures made out of stone and it was really a well-done farm. Now that was the first of many unique steps in their own financial journey. Again, consider fleeing from where you live to another part of the country because of the risk of you and your family basically being lynched in the middle of the night because you're from the wrong ethnic tribe.

So fast forward a while, Jacob and his wife, their children continue to grow. And Jacob is a man who is very active in Christian ministry there in that part of Kenya, very active in the community seeking to network and encourage other Christian churches that are nearby. One day, he gets word of a flood that had happened in a nearby town.

And what happened was during the middle of a weekday when the children were away at school, there was a flash flood that arose and basically swept away this small village in Kenya and destroyed the town and killed many dozens. And I think it would be, I don't think I'm stretching any numbers to say hundreds of local residents.

I don't know the exact number. This is a part of the world in which getting news verification, journalistic verification is almost impossible. So almost impossible to sit in the United States and find out about these things in remote regions of the world. But many, many dozens of people were killed, including several dozen members of a local church that Jacob had had interaction with.

So as Jacob is there, there are about a dozen orphans that he had known prior to the flood and they were newly orphaned that day. Again, the children were away at school in a higher part of the country, not down in the canyon where the flash flood was, and their parents were killed in the flash flood.

So of course, them knowing Jacob and him knowing them, he took them home to care for them for a few days while they figured out what the plan would be. Now as time went on, ultimately he tried to work with the government and tried to understand how these orphans could be helped.

But Kenya has a very unique challenge with orphans and there's basically no infrastructure, no governmental infrastructure for the support of orphans. And so at the end of the day, after going back and forth with the governmental authorities for a time, he was basically told either you care for them or put them out on the street.

There's no other option. And putting orphan children out on the street is relatively common. And the orphans are expected to either die or make their way by begging or stealing or some way of trying to make their way. Well, he and his wife couldn't put them out on the street and they decided, well, we'll deal with this together.

So live or die, we'll all be in this together. And so he and his wife adopted the 12 orphans, bringing their family size up, obviously rather significantly. I don't remember the exact number. I think they had four biological children at the time, brought them to 16 children, something like that.

Now you and I, if we wanted to, could actually very easily adjust our budgets to care for an additional 12 children, especially if we adjusted our use of the word care to the practical matters of life. You and I probably couldn't absorb an additional 12 children into our lives if we committed to sending them to dance lessons and football camps.

And if we committed to all of the finest organic food and if we committed to going out to eat once a week, et cetera, et cetera, the things that are fairly common for our lifestyles. But if you and I brought these children into our lives and we committed to providing enough calories in order for us to stay alive, you and I could fairly easily bring 12 children into our lives and care for them.

Not so easy if you are a subsistence farmer in a very poor country, but through a variety of again, miraculous circumstances over the years, Jacob and his family have been provided for. And back to the provision of that particular farm, that farm has proved to be for him and his family a significant blessing.

Again, I remind you, all of this is, everything I'm telling you is true and is not in any way embellished or exaggerated. This farm proved to be a blessing because although it had been much more than Jacob and his wife had needed when it was just them and their small children, it was exactly what they needed when their family was significantly enlarged.

In addition to the orphan children, they also brought into their family several widows of men who had been killed in that flash flood and those widows who'd been, I'll pass some of the circumstances, there's heart-wrenching circumstances of what those widows had faced, but they had children as well. And so their family was actually larger than just that.

And so the provision of this large farm and the buildings turned out to be a great blessing for them. Now over the years, it has not been easy for them. Even though they had infrastructure, they still face the constant challenges of drought and famine and food prices that change in an incredible way.

One anecdote, last year there was a time of famine and the food prices in the local area in Kenya multiplied by five overnight. I talked a moment ago about the fact that you and I, as relatively affluent people, we could absorb the expenses for 12 children into our families if we wanted to.

We would have to reprioritize many other areas of our expenditures, but we could absorb them in. But now consider absorbing them in when the cost of food increases by 5X due to famine and due to political conditions. That one really sobered me up when I first heard that a couple of years ago when it was in the midst of it.

Now consider a 5X increase in your food budget. That was what these particular people that we have contact with in Kenya faced. Five times increase in your food budget. It staggered me. Well fast forward, last year in Kenya there was a significant amount of political turmoil. And all through that, since that political turmoil, all through we've had contact with it, but it wasn't until recently that we could get true confirmation where my dad recently went to Kenya and spent a couple of months there in Kenya traveling around, ministering among some of the local contacts that we have there.

So this is a firsthand report specifically from my own father who was able to see and verify these details that we had had a lot of correspondence on over the last couple of years. And I want to read to you his summary of the situation. And this was never intended.

He didn't ever intend this as a kind of a public document. This was just a private summary that he sent back to our local church, which had sent him out to Kenya. And I want you to just to listen to the circumstances that Jacob and his family faced and consider them in the wake of today's political election and your own life and my own life.

This past week has been primarily taken up with visiting those in this area who were affected by the turmoil surrounding the presidential election last year. For those who may not know of those events, I'll try to summarize with the best information that I have. Hopefully, I'm at least 95% correct.

A presidential election was held towards the end of October last year. On the first ballot, the existing president was proclaimed the winner, but the opposition claimed fraud and the Supreme Court also declared the election invalid. A second round of voting took place, but the opposition withdrew from that voting, saying nothing had changed and the existing president was elected nearly unanimously, but with about 50% of the voters not participating.

After the first vote, violence erupted in this area that resulted in about 800 homes and businesses being burned and about 120 people killed. From what I understand, the target of the violence was anybody that was from the same tribe as the president. The deadly attacks came without warning, and many were caught fleeing for their lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

A number of believers in this area, along with their neighbors, were among those affected. About 300 or so found themselves together running for their lives. 12 of the men were killed trying to protect their families or possessions in some way. There was no transportation available, so they started walking with the goal of reaching a certain town where they thought they might find a refugee camp.

One of the men, who was a leading Christian in that area, knew Jacob and led them to Jacob's place where they planned to rest for a couple of days before going on to this other city. They started early one morning and reached Jacob's place about 10pm. Because they did not know how the neighbors around Jacob would react, they tried to keep their presence as secret as possible.

They were trying to decide what to do and where to go. There was no news, so they did not know what was happening even in a town nearby. After a few days, the neighbors began to learn of their presence and reacted in a friendly way, bringing food, blankets, and so on.

Because of this, they decided to stay longer before making a decision. During this time, one of the men, not a believer up to that point, stood up and declared that he felt something was happening in him and that he felt they should stay and not go on to this other town.

This man later became a strong believer. It was during this time that Jacob first informed us of the situation, asking for prayer. We also helped some with the cost of food, etc. As time drew on, the leaders felt they should stay until things calmed down and they could possibly return back home in the near future.

One brother decided to go back and see if it was safe to return and unfortunately was killed, leaving his family behind. This brought the number of men killed to 13, leaving their wives as widows with multiple children to support. Feeding and housing 300+ people was not an easy task to say the least.

However, Jacob's place is large, so between using every available room for sleeping, a couple of rented tents, not really tents but the kind that is used for vendors, and some sleeping outside on the grass, provision was made. Cooking was non-stop, both on the inside and outside kitchens, with everybody helping with that, the farming, and so on.

Fortunately, they had water from the well that was installed last year. Bible study and fellowship was also non-stop and resulted in considerable spiritual fruit. I was told that at least half of the people turned to the Lord during that time. One number given was about 180, some were baptized.

Finally it became safe to go back and survey the situation. Almost all of the homes had been burned, the possessions in the homes stolen, and all of the livestock taken as well. Those who had relatives or some other place to go left Jacob's place when it was safe, but that still left more than half with no place to go.

About 65 homes needed to be rebuilt. The leaders here went to the government asking for help, but the response was minimal. Over the months that followed, we helped with finances to rebuild the homes at about $200 per house. This was enough to provide a basic mud structure with a tin roof.

The size of the houses varied, but I would say that the average was about 12 by 18 feet, some smaller, some larger depending on the situation. Sometimes it was just one room and sometimes divided into two. On Tuesday we met with about 30 believers and they served us lunch.

In the next three days we visited as many homes as possible, maybe about 20. The country is mountainous, so we spent a lot of time going up and down the hills. In each home the believers told of their testimony of losing everything, having no hope, and their thankfulness for our help in giving them a roof over their head again and a place to call home.

We shared a short word of encouragement and then prayed. It was a moving time for all of us in many ways. We cannot understand such things from a human point of view, even to understand how evil men can be. One husband was killed while trying to carry his wife to safety.

She is unable to walk from birth. Other similar stories would break your heart. Only God knows all that took place. We heard many touching testimonies. We were told that there are now a total of eight gatherings in that area, meeting in homes. In my own evaluation, rebuilding the homes was probably the easiest part.

The obvious need is now to help these people rebuild their lives and establish some sort of income. Many depended on their livestock, of which there is none at present. In some houses, there is hardly one chair. They borrowed chairs from their neighbors for our visit, and some are sleeping on the mud floor.

We encouraged the leaders to really seek the Lord's wisdom in each case. But the deeper need is to see these new believers established in the Lord. There are several men laboring diligently to that end. They need our urgent prayers. May God enable all of us in that ministry. How can we understand these things?

My answer is that we cannot, but we know that God is good, He does not make a mistake, and even in such crazy calamity, He is drawing men to Himself. His eye is on His eternal goal, and He knows how to take what the enemy is doing and work it for His purpose.

We met today, Saturday, with more elders from other gatherings. It was a good time of fellowship, and they were very thankful to meet us. What God has in mind for the future, I do not know, but we'll just leave that with God. One thing that is happening here at Jacob's Place is a university-sponsored project for the good of the community.

The project involves working with the land for soil and water conservation, growing some experimental crops in the greenhouse to see what works best, raising rabbits (60 cages were built last week), a barn for milk cows which collects the manure and urine for fertilizer, a fish pond, and so on.

Jacob's Place has been designated as the "pilot project" for the community. The university is funding the project and will then bring students from the university for training. The community around this place will then be brought in to learn how they can reproduce what is taking place here in their own place.

I rejoice in what I see because it will be another open door for the gospel in many ways. It is an answer to prayer. And with that, my dad just closed with a couple of personal paragraphs, and that was the end of it. Now, I want you to imagine those circumstances.

I want you to imagine the circumstances of 300 people living in your home and on your property. Or imagine yourself in the circumstance of a refugee fleeing for your life with your family. Imagine the circumstance of you as a husband trying to carry your wife to safety and your attackers coming along and killing you, for no other reason than political conflict largely driven by ethnic and racial strife and hatred.

And then compare that to the tension that you might feel today given political strife in your area. And be grateful for the peace that you're experiencing in your community. If you want to have a greater appreciation for your day today, I simply urge you to think about that, to appreciate the peace that allows you to go down to a local polling place, that allows you to cast your ballot if you choose to vote, and to stand in line with people who vigorously disagree with you, and then to leave.

And you don't go in fear of your life. You don't go in fear of your property. You don't go worrying if tonight you'll wake up with a band of thugs carrying torches ready to lynch you as they surround your house. You don't worry about them burning your house down, taking and stealing your animals, and just looting your business.

It's not the society that you live in. Be thankful for that, because that is a monumental achievement. To live in orderly, peaceful societies, to be in the circumstances that you and I live in, to be in this place where we worry about what riders to put on our insurance policy, and to worry about the stuff that I talk about every day, these things that on a global scale seem so inconsequential but yet are so important to us, that's a luxury.

And may we never lose sight of how truly privileged and blessed we are. Because today, in other elections that happen around the world, not everybody experiences those same things. Also don't lose sight of the fact of how hard it is to get the information. All the information that I shared with you, never been able to verify it with any news reporting other than a sentence or two here or there, an illusion.

You say, "How can that be?" Because if in where you and I lived, where you and I live, if there were hundreds of people killed and hundreds of homes burned down, that would be front page news. It would. But not when it happens in a rural part of Kenya.

It's not of much interest to most of our news sources. But it doesn't mean that it's not happening. Again, that's personally verified, frankly, by my own father, who we had a lot of extensive interaction over the course of the last couple of years. And then he's just returned from a two-month visit there.

So I want you to appreciate that. In your own political battles, I'd also just encourage you to always stand for vigorous public debate on issues that matter. Violence is – physical violence is usually flamed when there's not an outlet for vigorous public debate. My concerns personally is if there is suppression of vigorous public debate of ideas, that ultimately can lead to increasing political violence.

I don't want to live in society like that society in Kenya, where there is no outlet for vigorous public debate and people feel no choice but to turn to violence. I don't want to live in that society. Now, just a few more lessons or suggestions for things for you to comment on.

Notice that in situations, in extreme situations, you're going to look for your friends and neighbors and you're going to stick up for one another. And the strength of your community now will – frankly, will guide the outcome of your success in an extreme situation like that. So the more you can do to build in your local community, the stronger your local community, the more insulated you can be from some of the potential tragedy.

I probably take a more extreme form of financial preparedness than many people do. I don't think it's weird to talk about financial preparedness that involves good financial diversification and it involves the fact that you and your family might have to flee in the middle of the night from a bunch of thugs with torches surrounding your house.

That's because these stories are not uncommon on a global basis. They're uncommon in the United States of America today. They weren't uncommon in the United States of America 50 years ago, but they're uncommon in the United States of America today and they're not uncommon on a global basis. I think we'd be well-served to think about that and to consider that in our own thoughts and in our own planning.

So when I think about what would I do or how would I get my family out, that's where some of this comes from. It's just to say this is the reality that many people face. I could go on. I'll let you draw your own lessons, but consider. Consider how peaceful your life is today.

Though you feel the turmoil of hot political debate, though you feel the frustration and feel like this is the most important election of your lifetime, appreciate at the very least the monumental civilizational achievement that is represented by peaceful, orderly voting and a citizenry that stands ready to accept the outcome of that voting.

Frankly, one of the most important things about the American experiment is that Americans did not come together on the basis of race, religion, tribal affiliation, ethnic identification, but around a set of principles and a set of ideas, the American creed. And if that American creed is strong, it leads to a harmony in civilization.

If that American creed is weak, who knows? Now where we go from here, I don't know. But at the very least, appreciate the peace that you can experience today in your own life and don't let the political battles take an outsized influence in the harmony of your own personal life.