Prayer for the Kenyan Economy

I just left our morning staff devotional at Agape and wanted to extend out a prayer request to all of you.  Since we arrived in Kenya, the Kenyan Shilling has been performing very poorly against the US dollar, which from our family's perspective and the ministry's perspective is a really good thing . . . meaning that we can get more shillings per dollar.  But, with the poor performance of the Kenyan Shilling, inflation has risen out of control driving food prices very high.  Here are a few examples.

Two kilograms of sugar has gone from 180 KSh to 400 KSh (~$4) over the past year, an ~120% price increase.

A 10 kilogram bag of ugali flour (a Kenyan staple) has increased from 490 KSh to 570 KSh an ~16% increase.

Your average Kenyan makes around $3 a day . . . so you can probably see the impact of inflation.  If food prices were to rise in a similar manner in the US, we would cut back by eating out less or maybe delaying the purchase of new shoes for the kids; maybe we would purchase groceries with a credit card.  But, in Kenya different steps are taken.  In our devotional this morning, my staff shared that Kenyans were beginning to skip meals (like breakfast).  It's a reality here; if money is short, then meals are skipped.

Please pray for the Kenyan economy . . . pray for the government officials and bankers who influence the value of the Kenya Shilling . . . pray that inflation in Kenyan be brought into check . . . pray that not many more meals will be skipped.