The Maasai--Kenya and Tanzania

Hello there! I want to quickly check in with you all as our team leaves Saturday morning for Tanzania with Matt’s parents and the Tidenbergs. I am rushed right now as I sit down to write, so I will try and briefly recount what happened this week and then ask for specific prayer requests at the end. Here is what sticks out in my mind from the past several days.

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Matt, Erin, and I spent time with a missionary named Bob Calvert. Bob’s motor runs one hundred miles an hour in all aspects of his life, especially in regards to his talking and his driving. He is an absolute firecracker. He invited us to spend a couple of days with him in Maasai land here in Kenya. The Maasai are an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people living in Kenya and northern Tanzania. When we went into the bush on Tuesday, we were expecting to walk around praying with these people and witnessing to them. However, the day proved to be full of tragic news.

The first man we went to visit was a Maasai named Elijah. He is the pastor of one of the churches Bob helped create. We found out from him that there was a good chance a war was going to break out between two neighboring Maasai subgroups, one being Elijah’s group and the other coming from just over the Ngong Hills. Four people from Elijah’s village were near death when we talked to him because they had been attacked the day before with clubs by the neighboring Maasai group. I wish I knew the names of the groups to make this easier. Basically, the people that attacked had crossed over the Ngong Hills and ambushed Elijah’s people, claiming that they owned the land and were there to take it back. According to Elijah, this was a completely unfounded claim. It is not the other group’s land at all. What’s scary is that most of the Maasai are now equipped with AK-47’s and know how to use them. The fighting that took place the day before we got there was about an hour and a half walk away from where we were talking with Elijah. We prayed that peace would be the result of this situation, and then we moved on to our next stop.

At the next boma, or family village, we went to find another pastor that was originally supposed to take us around to evangelize. I can’t remember his name, because we did not end up staying there very long. This pastor already had a few Maasai visitors with him due to the fact that his sister had died in a car accident the day before. Apparently, there were a whole bunch of people on the back of a pickup truck and the truck rolled over. Several were killed, including this pastor’s sister. What a horrible tragedy for this family, but they continued to praise the Lord in the midst of their trying circumstances.

While Tuesday did not go as planned, Wednesday was a very positive day. We went to another church Bob had started for a teaching session with certain Maasai pastors. Every once in a while, Bob gets several pastors together to teach them how to disciple their church members. The meeting lasted almost three hours, and at the beginning, the three of us got to share with the pastors how we came to know the Lord. It was a very encouraging time both for us and for them. It’s so neat getting to speak in front of Kenyan groups because they give you so much positive feedback as you are speaking. I love it! Anyways, the teaching session was centered around the concept of “storying.” The Maasai primarily learn through oral methods, and Bob has developed a storying cloth to show different events from Scripture in chronological order. Remind me to show you one when I get home. They are very effective teaching tools.

Well, that’s about all that happened worth noting from this week. Matt’s parents get here tonight, and we leave very early in the morning for Tanzania. In Tanzania, we will once again be focusing in on the Maasai people, encouraging local churches that have no missionary presence in the area. The Tidenbergs did a lot of their missionary work in Maasai land in Tanzania for many years, and they are taking us to churches that they have relationships with to provide them with any encouragement that we have to offer. Please pray for safety in travels this week, and ask God to prevent the rest of our team from getting sick. I had a fever for a short while, and I am still feeling quite crummy. The biggest prayer that I am praying is that souls would be saved. We want to share the good news of Jesus with the lost that we will most definitely encounter this week. Also, pray that these churches we visit would be encouraged, not only by us but even more by the Holy Spirit.

Finally, next Saturday, we are having a basketball game and cookout for all of the contacts we have made at Graffins College while living in Nairobi. To remind you, the main reason we came here originally was to do campus outreach. We have still been doing that a couple of days a week, but I don’t usually write too much about it on here. This cookout will give us a chance to introduce our new friends from Graffins to some of the other missionaries living here, so that they can stay in touch with these students after we leave. We don’t know if all of them are Christians or not, but I assume that there will be someone coming who does not know the Lord. So, please pray that they would see Jesus in us this weekend at the cookout and be drawn to a personal relationship with Him that we as Christians already experience.

Well, that’s it for me! I am heading home and will try to rest up for the long but exciting week ahead. I love you guys, and I will be seeing many of you in two weeks time. Get excited!