UNFPA logo
The Lord opened doors and showed his power during the UNFPA Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi in November 2019.
Muslim nations stood alongside Christian ones in opposing the UNFPA’s pro-abortion agenda from 12th to 14th November in KICC. Such was the level of opposition the organisers played down the subject of abortion, even as the Swedes and other Nordic nations were banging the drum for ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights’. SRHR is code for forcing countries to liberalise laws against homosexual practice and to bring in abortion on demand.
Evangelistic leaflets
Judy and I arrived in Kenya the week before the conference, carrying 1,250 prophetic, evangelistic pro-life leaflets put together in the UK at a cost of 10p each. We learnt from an ‘advertorial’ in the Kenya Airways in-flight magazine that 5,000 delegates were expected at the Summit. If we had been on a BA flight we should never have learnt that. Praise God for that intelligence.
On landing we promptly secured prices and ordered another 2,000 leaflets from a printing firm in Nairobi, using our UK print-ready artwork. These also came out at 10p each.
Nairobi booked up
When we tried to book rooms in Nairobi for the next week, unsurprisingly, everywhere was booked up. From the Hilton to the ‘Intercon’ to the Sarova, there was no room at the inn.
However, we have a connection with Nairobi’s United Kenya Club (founded 1902). So for Ksh 5500 / night (£45, way less than the Hilton), we were able to stay at a rather exclusive venue which none of the conference delegates even knew existed. Think comfort and slightly faded grandeur. And 15 minutes walking distance to KICC. At times, in ‘the Jam’, that’s faster than taking a car. So even in the matter of accommodation God poured his grace upon us.
Networking
Judy was networking as soon as we arrived using contacts gathered in advance. The Lord opened a door for an invitation to a prestigious pro-life breakfast meeting at Nairobi’s Intercontinental Hotel on Monday 11th November. Many international guests were present.
Sharon Slater of Family Watch
We met Sharon Slater of the US-based Family Watch International. Under Sharon’s leadership, Family Watch International has become a leading authority on anti-life and anti-family machinations within UN bodies. It has the honour of being listed as a ‘hate group’ by the US anti-Christian ‘Southern Poverty Law Center’. A ministry run by our friend US pastor Scott Lively has the same distinction.
Sharon spoke mainly on the dangers of Comprehensive Sexuality Education. CSE is being sneaked in to African nations by fair means or foul. Think the worst excesses of UK Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and you have CSE.
Muslims and Hindus
Kenyan Muslims were on side but were not present at the breakfast. However, we were able to meet two representatives of the Kenya Hindu Council. One of them told us he owns a cement factory – is anyone surprised?
Talk turned to how Kenya might add value to its raw materials. Currently the country exports its iron ore to China and buys steel in return. It’s the same story with the oil discovered in 2012. Crude oil will be exported, not refined in Kenya, as it could and should be. To build a blast furnace, apparently some $200m would be required, which does not seem a vast amount. Doing such things would help move Kenya ‘Beyond Aid’ and be less susceptible to the strings attached to aid from the West.
At the Printers
In the afternoon we visited the printing firm in Nairobi’s industrial area and met the father and son in charge. It was a large operation, providing work for 60 Kenyans. Even there, the Lord opened a door, albeit for someone else. The secretary turned out to be a Goan Catholic. She told us she had a young Hindu friend who had been forced into an abortion by her Muslim boyfriend which had left her bleeding for weeks and her hormones in a mess four years on.
The girl, in her early twenties, could not go to the doctor because her parents would get the bill from the gynaecologist and realise there was something wrong. Two days later, having made good contacts at the conference, we were able to send the secretary the phone number of a leading pro-life doctor who would see her for nothing. The secretary undertook to pay the bill for any tests or x-rays. Praise God.
Parallel Conference
The next morning there was a parallel conference which was very successful. It was held in the Holy Family Basilica Roman Catholic Church. The good thing about this venue was that it was right opposite KICC. There were many Pentecostals present, but we met few from either the Anglican Church or the Presbyterians. The Lord even arranged for us to meet Bishop Mark Kariuki of Deliverance Church, a large Kenyan Pentecostal denomination, in the lift.
We had been praying the Lord to raise up local Christians before we even arrived, and he chose to energise a multi-denominational group called Kenya Christian Professionals. Of course their effort was derided for its size by some of the abortionists at the Summit. Nevertheless, KCP put their parallel conference together in days rather than the months that lay behind UNFPA’s effort.
Leafleting
KICC Nairobi
By the grace of God, Christian Voice concentrates on research, analysis of events against scripture, giving our members the information they need to pray and take action, and getting out on the streets to confront Satan’s strongholds.
So by 9am we were on City Hall Way opposite KICC. The Lord had already raised up our friend and Chairman of Kenya Christian Voice Apostle Zakaria Odongo who travelled all the way from Mombasa to help. He and I gave out hundreds of leaflets to delegates queuing for their summit passes. Most would take a leaflet, especially when we explained to them what it was about. My line was, ‘Say no to abortion, no to Marie Stopes, no to IPPF, no to CSE’. The leaflet then does what it says on the tin.
One group of people sadly stood out. Blonde white Scandinavian-looking young women were most unlikely to take a leaflet. Some even volunteered they were pro-abortion, or ‘pro-choice’. ‘Your heart started beating three weeks after conception’, I would tell them, ‘And it won’t stop until the day you die.’ Where will they go then?
Dignitaries
The Lord enabled me to spot a cheeky location right next to the KICC entrance where dignitaries were being ushered in. ‘Please take a leaflet, Excellency’ seemed a good line. It couldn’t last. A UN security guard called the police. That led to a great conversation with a burly Superintendent, at the end of which he said, ‘You carry on, Mr Green.’ But I moved to a nearby location anyway.
During the event we met the Pakistani delegation. They were outraged by the Summit and wished us well.
By the end of the first day, Apostle Zakaria had managed to distribute every last one of the 1,250 leaflets. But already the printers had delivered the next 2,000 to the United Kenya Club.
Spiritual realm
When we do the little things that only we can do, the Lord does what only he can do: that’s the miraculous. Something changed in the spiritual realm as a result of our leafleting. And we were noticed. The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka reported on the first day: ‘Outside the conference venue, conservative religious groups are distributing pamphlets condemning the conference and the dialogue on sexual and reproductive rights it represents.’
Tunisian activist Hedia Belhadj is a United Nations insider: seen here at the UN Economic and Social Council
Tunisian feminist and Summit panellist Hedia Belhadj reported ‘Anti-abortion flyers were distributed to people waiting in queues and throughout the event.’ She also spoke of ‘US pressure on country delegations and on the atmosphere around the event’. We’ll come back to the US.
To add to the ‘atmosphere’, local CitizenGo activists set up a display outside KICC announcing the 1,048,937 signatories to their anti-UNFPA petition. The touchy Summit organisers asked the Kenya police to break up the entirely peaceful proptest. An officer of the feared para-military riot police, the General Service Unit, duly did so, in full view of rolling news cameras.
Commonwealth HOG
Tuesday evening I was preparing a presentation for my seminar the next day at the parallel conference on Western funding for African pro-LGBT and pro-abortion NGO’s. During it, I began to wonder when the next Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting would be. This is where Australia, Canada and the UK try to force through some pro-gay or pro-abortion measure and the African, Caribbean and Asian nations have to vote it down.
It turned out that CHOG is happening next year, 2020, in late June in Kigali in neighbouring Rwanda. Now, President Paul Kagame is authoritarian and fairly liberal on these issues, but all the same, the Kenya Christians now have experience of holding a pro-life conference and can roll it across the border if the Lord wills. The venue and timing seem heaven-sent.
Whether this ministry can secure accreditation as an NGO for CHOG currently seems a long shot. But who knows what the Lord will do? One way or another, God willing, we ought to be in Kigali in June. (Post Script: Covid Lockdowns postponed the CHOG to June 2022.)
US Press Conference
The Tunisian Summit delegate mentioned pressure from the US. A lot of lobbying apparently went on inside KICC as part of what can only be described as a spiritual war. By Wednesday the United States had gathered together ten other nations to stand with them to condemn the Summit.
The eleven held a press conference at the Intercontinental Hotel on Thursday morning, 14th November. I was able to attend and filmed the whole event in the middle of the press corps.
They declared any document the conference issued would be ‘illegitimate’. The joint statement was presented by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Global Affairs on behalf of Brazil, Belarus, Egypt, Haiti, Hungary, Libya, Poland, Senegal, St Lucia, and Uganda. It reaffirmed ‘there is no international right to abortion’.
International law clearly states that “‘[everyone has the right to life’ (e.g. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights),” the 11 signatory nations asserted. It is fair to say that only under President Trump could such a gathering have happened.
MP Contacts
Hon Jennifer Shamalla
Two Kenyan MPs stood up at the press conference to add their voices. Opposition Deputy Whip Hon Chris Wamalwa and Hon Jennifer Shamalla of the ruling Jubliee Party gave it both barrels. I managed to speak afterwards with Hon Shamalla. That led to the dear lady hosting Judy and me for tea in the Kenya Parliament in Nairobi that afternoon. We praise God for the contacts and for the witness of these two switched-on Members of Parliament.
Prayers and funding
As if all this was not enough, the Lord continued to open doors for me back in Nakuru to encourage first Sunday School teenagers and then trainee pastors to be ambitious, pray, stay obedient, do the little things and watch the Lord work miracles.
It was the prayers and financial contributions of Christian Voice members which made all this possible, opening the gates of heaven so that blessing and grace poured forth.
I have never known a mission which was so blessed with so many doors opening and events coming together to further God’s Kingdom. It was a privilege to be part of it and we give God the glory.
READ: Lev 26:3-4; Psalm 118:23; Isa 29:14; Jer 5:5; Zech 4:10; Luke 10:2; Acts 1:8; Phil:4:15-17.
PRAY: Please give thanks for the Lord’s favour and pray for his enabling for the follow-up. If you can support, or further support, this effort with a financial contribution, that will be appreciated. That small action in standing with us shows the Lord your prayer is serious.
