Steve and Matt in Africa: The Tale of Lesiret

As I write this, I am wearing a clean pair of briefs. Why is this big news? Well, I went four days this past week in the same under garment. I’ll explain later. I know you’re excited to hear about that. Anyways, I’m sorry that it has been so long since the last blog, but Steve and I have been without the internet for the past 18 days, spending time in Tanzania with the Maasai people. I realize I am the master of hyperbole, but outside of Christ saving me, this past week was the greatest experience of my life.

The first four days of the Tanzania trip were spent in the Maasai areas of Longido and Kimokoa. Since the life-altering experience occurred at the end of the week, I will briefly run through the equally eternally significant events in these two places. The transportation from Nairobi was a story in and of itself. We were taken to downtown Nairobi, where we boarded a matatu with a Kenyan friend escorting us to the border. As we got out of the car at the matatu station, we were swarmed by a million different drivers, grabbing our bags and our arms to take us to their car where they’d give us a “special” price. Thankfully we had our friend with us who knew what he was doing. The driver we chose was chatting it up with us, telling us how good Obama has been for America. Obama is still loved in Kenya. The 3-hour crammed and bumpy drive, mixed with the wonderful scent of Kenyan body odor, provided a lot of entertainment. In the row behind us, two professing Al-Shabbab members were practically shouting in Arabic, while smoking some sort of plant. It was creepy to say the least.

We spent the entire Tanzania trip with a local pastor named Mikaeli and missionary Dan Johnson. Mikaeli is a tall, lanky fellow, instantly endearing himself to people with his consistent usage of “Oh my braza, God bless you” and “My dear.” In Mikaeli’s hometown of Longido, we spent Saturday with a Compassion International group of children who played soccer, ate the provided lunch, and learned the Bible. If you sponsor a child through Compassion, rest assured that your money is going to a very worthy cause, at least from what we saw.

From there, we spent a couple of days in Kimokoa, teaching the Gospel message from Adam and Eve to Christ’s ascension to heaven, using the kanga storycloth to teach our audience. Groups between thirty to forty people gathered beneath acacia trees at each boma, since acacias are literally everywhere in Maasailand. I still vividly remember the second day of teaching when nearly 40 Maasai, including the chief of the area, gathered beneath a massive acacia tree to listen to the Word of God. In those few days of sharing, we witnessed God’s power of salvation in the lives of many men, women, and children. When I followed up with two young warriors who gave their lives to Christ, I asked them if I could get them a Bible so they could continue to learn, and was saddened to hear they have no idea how to read even in their native language. This is very common to the oral storying Maasai people. The good news is the International Mission Board has created a solar-powered audio player of the Bible in the Maasai language.

I will fast forward to Wednesday through Saturday (5/16 – 5/19) when I encountered something I may never be able to experience ever again. This happened in the remote village of Lesiret. And when I say remote, I mean remote. We were in the extreme bush. Steve said that Lesiret is so bush it’s bushier than Anthony Davis’ unibrow. The drive was only about 30 miles from Longido, but it took us 5-6 hours to get there. In fact, the last 6 miles took us about two hours to drive. There was literally no road. Sure, someone had chopped down some plants and maybe driven something out there in the past century, but we crossed ditches, went over rocks, and through trees to make it out to Lesiret in Dan’s wonderful Toyota Land Cruiser. I did not get motion sickness because of peppermint oil and the favor of God, as I’ve been getting nauseous a tad bit in Nairobi. Thank you, Lord. Let’s move to a few life-changing moments.

Life-altering moment #1: Steve and I were the first white people to ever visit this village. Ever. In the history of the world.

Life-altering moment #2: Steve and I were the first white people the teenagers and children had ever seen. In fact, the children were extremely apprehensive around us at first, because parents in the Maasai culture often tell their children that if they do not behave, the mzungu (white person) will come and snatch them away. How terrible is that?

Life-altering moment #3: the people of Lesiret had NEVER heard the Gospel before this trip. Please let that sink in. Don’t just brush over that sentence. These Maasai had NEVER been told the message of Jesus. This rocks me to my core. It makes me even more committed to using my resources—money, time, and abilities--to get the Gospel to places that have never been touched. No guilt trip intended, but if we are Christ-followers and desire a life of abandonment to Him alone, why don’t we give our everything to reach people who have never even heard the saving name of Jesus? How can we allow them to die without Christ?

I am incredibly shaken and humbled, that in God’s divine providence, He chose Steve and I, in the year 2012, to be the first Christ-followers to ever preach the Good News to the villagers of Lesiret. There are still hundreds of thousands of Maasai like this in Tanzania alone, and they are considered an unreached people group in this country. And let me tell you this: they were more than hungry to be taught the Truth. They were starving. We allotted time to teach the Old Testament using the storycloth on Thursday, and prepared to teach the New Testament on Friday. After finishing up on Thursday, the chairman of Lesiret said, “We thank you for teaching us these stories. We very much enjoy learning them and hope you are telling us the truth. We want to hear more tomorrow.” Wow. God is good. He asked everyone from his village to come listen to what we had to say. That is huge, because if the chief and the men of the village receive Christ, many of the women and children will as well.

So, God makes dreams come true. No, I am not trying to mimic Joel Osteen or sound incredibly cheesy. God places desires in our hearts that only He can fulfill, and this is one of those instances for me. About a decade ago, I watched the video of a missionary sharing the Gospel to a people group who had never heard before and saw them rejoice in dance and song over this Good News. Ever since then, I have always wanted to witness someone hearing about Jesus for the first time. Who knows why, but God allowed this dream of mine to come true.

And He also allowed Steve and I to teach the entire New Testament on Friday. Steve taught the bulk of it and did an outstanding job, but I will forever be struck by what happened when I stood up to speak in front of the 40-50 Maasai men and women. I started with Judas’s betrayal of Jesus and how Christ was sentenced to die for crimes He did not commit. I have never seen a group of people so drawn in to what the Spirit was saying at that moment. They did not know what happened next to Jesus, and they were waiting intently to hear! They were very quiet and somber when Jesus was crucified. However, they expressed great joy when discovering Christ had been raised from the dead. On this day, all of them committed their lives to following Jesus. Praise God!

Some Christians think that short-term missions aren’t worthwhile, and others have asked, “Why not just help in America where much help is needed?” I completely agree that we should be living out the Gospel in the cultural context where God has placed us. This means America for most Americans. However, I have a newfound commitment to expend maximum effort in taking the Gospel to people that don’t know of the salvation Jesus offers. I have also witnessed that the harvest is still plentiful in many areas of the world, and that the human pride and worldly intelligence of many Americans cause them to miss out on the simple but powerful truth of the Gospel. So I will continue to send support letters and go on trips, and even though it can be awkward to ask, I will continue to raise money for worthy causes like spreading the Gospel across the earth.

And now to this week’s wackiest. (1) Maasai people hate eating eggs. In fact, most of them would not even try one. We scrambled eggs every morning in Lesiret, and they nearly gagged when the eggs were near them. (2) Out of all of the disgusting things I have eaten in my 6 total months in Africa, the Maasai milk was worse than drinking urine with roaches as ice cubes. I would describe the milk as warm, chunky, bitter, thicker than jello, and having the worst smell and aftertaste of all time. By the grace of God I got one sip down, and passed the cup to someone else. (3) The day before we arrived in Longido, Mikaeli’s daughter Hannah asked when her mzungu from 2008 was coming. I am her mzungu apparently. I guess she owns me? (4) A few of the Maasai girls sadly performed a Shakira song for us. (5) I got stuck up on a trail in the mountains having to go to the bathroom in the worst way. The one that requires toilet paper. I flat out sprinted down the mountain and made it just in time. (6) I constantly woke up to loud donkey noises at night. Not used to that. (7) Steve celebrated his 21^st birthday in a Maasai boma. They gave Steve Maasai warrior clothes and made him participate in a jumping ceremony so that he could officially be a man. (8). We saw black lambs. I didn’t know they existed. (9) We had to fetch water and pour it down the toilet if we wanted to flush. The rule was “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, but if it’s brown, flush it down.” (10) The Tanzanian and Kenyan people have so much trouble saying “Go Gators.” It always comes across as “Goad Gatos.”

Sharing Christ in a village outside of Nairobi tomorrow. Thanks for your powerful prayer! Love you all.

Steve and Matt in Africa: Gangs and the Gospel

Where were we? Oh yea, when I last wrote you, God had shown his favor by connecting us with Pastor Vincent, who was starting a church in Kawaida. Well, we went to that church service on Sunday, and let’s just say that God is hearing your expectant prayers and is blessing the faith and work of His people. The service lasted 3 hours, and there were about 25 children and 10 adults in attendance. It was a slightly smaller crowd than we estimated, but God obviously knew what He was doing. More on that to come.

One tidbit I have gleaned from these small villages is that the louder the speaker you can get your hands on, the better your church must be. I guess it’s a similar sentiment to some churches in America: the bigger the building, the better the church. But I digress. Even though we had been there before, the music was so loud there was no wondering about the church’s location as soon as we got out of our car. Pretty sure Ugandan and Tanzanian citizens heard it. As we approached the site, we began to realize that the music was actually Vincent playing some sort of plastic keyboard/synthesizer, while he and his wife sang a reggae Christian song with surprisingly nice harmonies.

We were slightly discouraged when we arrived to find only Vincent’s family, a couple of kids, and a DJ and MC at the service. Honestly though, this was to be expected as the place filled up over the next couple of hours. There is absolutely no concept of time here. It doesn’t exist. If something is advertised to start at 10, don’t even think about getting there before 11. Mom would fit in perfectly here, right dad? Before the service kicked into high gear, a man named Henry, who owns the land where the church resides, asked if he could be born again. Henry repented of his sin and confessed Jesus in front of the “congregation.” I have a strong opinion regarding the “sinner’s prayer,” and I talked to Pastor Vincent afterwards to be assured Henry would be discipled. We must teach people how to follow Christ and be true disciples—not just lead them in a prayer and send them off to live the Christian life on their own.

Some Christ followers in America claim that the term “born again” is too churchy, but if using Scripture to describe salvation is churchy, then label me very churchy. I love how Pastor Vincent, in sharing the Gospel around the village, often told the story of Nicodemus. In this passage, Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The life of Christ fully transforms us into new people. We are not a part of the Kingdom of God if we have not been born again.

This leads me to another revelation from sharing the Gospel this past week. Like many Americans, a lot of Kenyans profess to be Christians, when in practice they have no relationship with Jesus and no interest in following Him. It is so much a cultural norm for Kenyans to say they are born again that even the youngest children in attendance describe themselves this way. Side note: in these smaller village churches, EVERY person introduces himself or herself and says they are born again. This is one of many reasons why the services take forever. Anyways, Linda Gandy, our host missionary in Nairobi, is quite bold in using Matthew 7:21 to lovingly confront Kenyans who think they are Christians but have no relationship with Christ. The more I ponder it, while we are not called to judge one’s salvation experience, isn’t it better to make sure our friends and family know Jesus rather than avoiding one awkward moment of gentle confrontation that could transform their lives and impact their eternity? We must continue to share the Gospel at all times and to all people, even if they are members of our church. We never know who the Spirit is drawing to Christ.

At village churches in Kenya, you can be asked to give a word to the people at a moment’s notice. Pastor Vincent called on me to speak, and I enjoyed sharing a mini-message from Acts 5. As far as Pastor Steve is concerned, he flat out rocked the mic when he preached. He taught on the story of Elijah and Mt. Carmel, where the prophets of Baal were put to shame and the God of Truth was glorified. He was a natural up there, and it was so exciting to see him passionately share the power and faithfulness of God.

At the end of the service, a man named Daniel took the microphone and expressed his desire to be born again. This was no ordinary man. Daniel was a member of the Mungiki, an outlawed criminal organization in Kenya who rejects the Western lifestyle, the modernization of Kenya, and the Christian faith. This gang has been responsible for the raping and killing of Kenyan citizens in the last decade, including a practice of beheading matatu drivers (Matatu). While the Kenyan bureaucracy claims the Mungiki are an outlawed organization, many believe they occupy government positions. The lesson here? There is no one in your life out of God’s reach. I often find myself giving up on friends that I believe will never come to Christ, but anyone can be drawn by the power of the Spirit and transformed by the grace of God. So, I urge you to identify people in your life that you think will never follow Christ. I will join you, asking God to save those that I have given up on.

After Kawaida, we spent Monday and Tuesday at the Karibu Centre (Karibu) in Thika, Kenya. Orphan care is especially near and dear to my heart, as I spent 3 months in 2008 at Tumaini Miles of Smiles Centre (Tumaini). Further, James 1:27 cannot be overstated. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.” We also know from Scripture that God is a father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5), and the Karibu Centre is following His command to care for orphans. They have an abandoned babies wing of the centre, housing 20-25 children who were either discarded in dumpsters, kiosks on the side of the road, or other less-than-ideal situations. I love the work that Karibu Centre is doing, and I was thrilled to be a part of it. As Christ followers, we have all been adopted into God’s family, and I believe there is no better way to show the heart of the Gospel message than by adopting a helpless, parentless child. I pray that everyone reading this blog would think about whether God is calling you to adopt, for He will make a way if He leads you to do it. Regardless, Christians are supposed to be extremely generous people in the world, and we are to be at the front line of helping the “least of these” in society. Are we all doing our part?

We could instantly see the love deprivation these babies experienced, as many of them reached out their little hands to be picked up by someone. A baby boy named Innocent was screaming and crying looking for anyone to tend to him, and he immediately stopped crying when I held him, resting his sweet head on my shoulder as content as could be. Any time we left their presence, they would all come to the end of their concrete play area and peek their tiny heads around the corner, possibly wondering where we were going or if we would be back at all. They were so cute that I almost didn’t mind being covered in urine for a day. All of the kids were wet and soaked our shirts, but that wasn’t nearly as bad as when I sat in a puddle of urine, wiping it off with my hand because I didn’t want to put the child down.

The Karibu Centre also has a school, and they let us spend time in the classroom, teaching a group of kids the game “Flower.” In 2008, I made up this form of Hangman, because I didn’t find it appropriate to hang a man in front of the 5-6 year old African children. For each letter they guessed incorrectly, I erased a petal of the flower until the flower died completely. Don’t worry--we always gave them enough clues to keep it from getting to that point, because I couldn’t crush their beautiful spirits! We also watched them do their “This is a” exercise, where a 4-year old would take a ruler twice his or her size and smack it against each picture on the chalkboard, saying, “This (pronounced theeeeeeeeeees) is a house. Theeeeees is a ball. Theeeees is a trrrrree.” Incredibly cute.

Steve and I also spent time playing with the kids during recess. They loved when we picked them up and spun them around, and were obsessed with brushing their hands through our hair. I admit that some of my ostensibly altruistic motives for working with orphans are mixed with my selfish desires to hangout with extremely cute kids. I repent. Don’t fault me for it. They are so dang cute. We were struck by the euphoria these kids expressed because a couple of white people were around, and how every toddler brought us their toys and said, “Teecha.” The excitement was even more than at Tumaini in 2008.

How about this week’s wackiest? (1) At Karibu, I almost pulled a metal door off its hinge because I didn’t unlock it properly. That was fun. (2) We went to the market in Thika to get fruits and veggies with Luke Kincaid from Karibu, and it smelled worse than manure. I had my tennis shoes on and stepped right in a very muddy spot, and I probably have parasites and worms teeming in my right foot now, but it’s all good. The produce is waaaay fresher and more natural out here than in America, and it is delicious. Kind of makes me like veggies. Kind of. (3) We ate at an Ethiopian restaurant, where the meal looked like baby food and sponges (Ethiopian Food), but was unbelievably tasty. I may move to Ethiopia now. (4) I nailed my head on a dwarf-sized doorway and was almost knocked out cold. (5) I also slammed Steve’s fingers in a car door, but it only made a small dent and he was miraculously ok. He just looked at me and nonchalantly said, “My fingers are stuck in the door.” (6) Steve haggled with a street vendor to buy a lot of nice roses for the Gandys (our missionary hosts) for about 250 shillings ($3) and Raybans for about 200 shillings ($2.50) with the help of Emily—a wonderful missionary here!

After spending a sobering day in the slums of Kibera, we are all packed and ready to head out to Tanzania in the morning. May many souls be saved for the glory of God!

Steve and Matt in Africa: The Favor of God

I am pretty sure this is the longest post I have ever written. The Spirit has taught us so much this week that I must get it down on paper! So I am sorry for the length, but I hope this encourages you a whole lot in your walk with Christ! Psalm 5:12 declares, “You bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield.” If any theme has emerged during our first few days in Kenya, it would definitely be that the favor of God is on His children.

I hope to avoid this being an “I’ve come to Africa so I must love Jesus more than you” blog. Those really bother me. I also wanted to avoid technology and stay away from the computer as much as possible, but I thought it was crucial to encourage friends and family praying for us back home that your prayers are effective and powerful through the Holy Spirit. More than anything else, I want these next two months to be a true partnership of many believers in Christ across the world lifting up expectant prayers to our Heavenly Father, asking Him to move mountains in our lives. Talking to local pastors here has revealed that Christ still heals the sick, saves the lost, casts out demons, and loosens the chains of captives. He is real. He is alive. He is constantly moving. I feel like the man in Mark 9:24 who cried out, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” I do not see these things happen on a regular basis because I often have very little faith in a weak representation of an Almighty God. Help my unbelief, Lord. May I have big faith in an awesome, powerful God.

Back to the theme of the week. Steve and I first experienced the favor of God in the Tampa airport. We were supposed to pay $430 for three extra bags we brought with us as gifts for some of the Kenyan children and families. However, the woman at the American Airlines check-in counter allowed us to check all five of our bags for FREE. It cost us nothing. Luck? Not at all. The favor of God? Absolutely. On the flight from Tampa to Miami, I sat next to a man that someone in UF’s athletic department had wanted me to meet. He just “happened” to be near me, works in athletics, and loves Jesus Christ with all of his heart. We have already been talking about how we can minister and work together in the sporting world. The favor of God! The London security got us on the fast track through security so we could make our flight to Nairobi. The favor of God. Travelling to Nairobi, we sat in front of a woman from Burundi and became good friends with her, discussing why we were going to East Africa. The favor of God. Finally, all of our bags arrived to Nairobi (a major feat in and of itself) and absolutely no Kenyan officials looked through our bags. We literally walked right through customs and security without anyone batting an eye at us (we were a little concerned they wouldn’t let us bring in all this U.S. stuff for the Kenyan kids). Oh, the wonderful favor of God!

If you read nothing else, I really want you all to know about Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I never fully understood the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men before this week. I previously possessed head knowledge, but you cannot beat experiencing in your heart what you have always thought to be true in your head. As many of you know, we were supposed to be with Sport Outreach Kenya (SOK) these past few days. And as those of you who have been to Africa know, Africa Wins Again (AWA). I tried my best to plan a trip where our gifts could be utilized for the sake of the Gospel, but Steve and I truly left it up to the Holy Spirit to guide us. “Use us in ANY way you see fit, Lord.” And He did just that. We simply did not sense the Holy Spirit leading us to work with SOK, and we really did not see any need for us there. Also, we weren’t really sure how much they were trying to reach the kids for Christ, so we left our meeting discouraged about how we would spend the next three days.

As we were walking back to our missionary’s house on the compound, we were stopped at a small building by pastors from Sema Leatherworks. I had actually heard a lot about them through an IMB missionary, and you can check out their group here: Sema. To make a long story less long, we connected with Pastor Vincent and immediately sensed the presence of the Spirit in this man, as well the Lord’s guiding us to work with him. It “just so happened” that he works in the leather shop Monday through Thursday and does outreach and evangelism on Friday and Saturday. So, we decided to join him on Friday. The favor of God!

It also “just so happened” that he is planting First Baptist Church Kawaida, and their first service is this Sunday (tomorrow). We walked around Kawaida in two groups and invited many people to come to the church service, which led to several opportunities to share the Gospel. I was able to share the story of Creation to Christ with a shoemaker (I never got his name), who has read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but is not yet ready to receive Christ. I pleaded with him that today is the day of salvation. I also shared with him what my pastor in Gainesville teaches about Christ: Jesus was often passing through towns and asking people to follow Him or telling fishermen to drop their nets and come after Him immediately.

The man appreciated my urgency and said that he would like to talk about it more on Sunday. Steve and I also got to share the Good News of Christ with a man about my age named Robert. Aside: it was so cool getting to share the Gospel alongside my brother. And that really made me wish sis and Ju were with us too! Back to Robert: He actually approached us first, and after talking about what we were doing there, he said, “Well how can I be saved?” Insert heavenly music and a divine gift dropping out of heaven now. Robert believes that good works are enough to have eternal life in heaven, and we were able to gently show him Scripture that counters this view. He too wants to accept the gift of Christ, but he is just not there yet. Please be praying for both the shoemaker and Robert.

Today (Saturday), we went back to Kawaida for more invitations and evangelism. By the way, if there was any worry about Steve adapting to the Kenyan lifestyle, it has completely disappeared. He is a smashing hit with the children, and his extremely laidback personality is so Kenyan it’s not even funny. People around here should stop referring to him as “mzungu” (white person) and start calling him “mkenya” (Kenyan).

On this visit, we recruited a bunch of watoto (children) around the village to help us move chairs to the extremely small First Baptist Kawaida building. They became the focus of our day. After watching the watoto climb trees and teaching them how to do pushups, we decided it was a perfect opportunity to tell stories from the Bible and share Christ with these 10-15 kids. Through a translator, I was able to tell the first four stories of a story cloth Steve and I are learning (Kanga). I discussed Creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah’s Ark. After introducing the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, I was able to proclaim that Christ was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

Please pray for the outcome of today’s story time. Normally, I would be rejoicing over 10-15 kids receiving Christ as their Savior and Lord (which is what happened), but I was very concerned that the kids had done this many times before. I want them to understand that salvation is certain through accepting Christ once, but it is common around here for watoto to receive Christ every time there is an opportunity (just like in America). I was not going to give an “invitation,” but Pastor Vincent said we needed to do it. He and I spoke outside after story time, and I asked him to promise that these kids would be discipled when we left. We are not at all about “getting people saved” or making numbers look good. Steve and I want those kids to follow Christ with all of their hearts. I am excited to be able to see them at church again tomorrow, so please pray about their relationship with Christ and that they would understand what it means to follow Him.

Before I end with the week’s craziest events, one more item deserves an entire paragraph all by itself. STEVE IS PREACHING TOMORROW! Yes, Steve Seitz will be giving an opening message before the pastor speaks (the service will be several hours). How cool is that? He is going to be the first person ever to speak at First Baptist Kawaida, and he is a mzungu at that. Please pray for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit and that people would be very convicted and encouraged by the Gospel message. I am experiencing so much joy seeing Steve’s love for Jesus. It puts me to shame but pushes me to love Christ more.

Shifting gears to close, how about this week’s wackiest? (1) Well, if you have never driven on a Nairobi road before, consider yourself blessed. We have encountered flooded streets (it is raining constantly here), a man in a wheelchair that we almost nailed, a 20-motorcycle funeral procession in front of a bus with a coffin on top, a lightning bolt exploding a transformer, a man with a 20-foot stick walking in the middle of the road. Madness. People literally drive wherever they want here. There are almost no lane markers or signs indicating upcoming speed bumps. If you are a fan of amusement parks, just skip the roller coasters and come join the crazy on the streets of Nairobi. Wow. I love what Steve said about it: “I’m excited to go for a ride here, because it is always an adventure.” Amen to that. (2) I sat next to a Bolivian woman on a flight who did not speak a single word of English, and I do not know any Spanish, other than “gracias.” We talked with our hands almost the entire flight, and she never quite figured out that I COULDN’T SPEAK SPANISH. (3) We have been wearing huge goofy gumboots (Gumboots) all over the very wet Kawaida. Pictures to follow. (4) We have been forced to eat more than any human being has ever tried to consume. It’s not that there is a lot of food at any one sitting, but every Kenyan is so hospitable and wants to offer you chai and chapati (Chai/Chapati) or Blue Band sandwiches (butter sandwiches--Blue Band). We are so full! (5) Steve and I drew water from a 75-100 ft. well. Very bad news for anyone who falls in.

I love you all so much. Sorry for the length. Talk to you soon!

Africa: A Look Back

Yes, I know April is a little late, and I have been back for a few months now, but I wanted to write one final blog while Africa is still very fresh on my mind. I don’t want to be repetitive, but I do desire to highlight a couple of the huge things that God did in my life while in Africa and since I have been back. I would also be remiss if I did not use this last entry to thank everyone who was a part of the trip. Some gave financially, some prayed, some encouraged, and I am indebted to you all for any type of contribution that you made. My life has been changed, and God has poured out His blessings on me since I have returned—not because of anything good I have done but only because of His grace and mercy!

I returned to American soil about a week before Christmas. The end of my time in Africa was an absolute whirlwind. The missionaries threw us a surprise going away party, and we said our emotional goodbyes. I made some very deep and meaningful friendships while I was in Nairobi, and I hope that those relationships will continue to last. I think very fondly of the people I worked with, and I want to go back and see them!

I can’t even begin to describe my journey back to America. It was very stressful, and it seemed like it took fooorever. I was in such a great hurry to see my family again for the first time in nearly half a year. I missed them so much. My two suitcases were both over the airline weight limit by a few pounds because of the African trinkets I was trying to bring back with me. The Kenyan Airways worker in the Nairobi Airport was trying to charge me a lot of money for barely being over the limit. However, he said I could just give him a $20 bill and all would be forgotten. Before you accuse me of bribery, this type of thing is customary in Kenya. Ok, moving on…

I actually made a really cool friend in the Nairobi airport, and I also hung out with her in the Dubai layover. From Dubai, I went to London, Houston, and finally Orlando. Yes, that was a Nairobi-Dubai-London-Houston-Orlando trip, and it was exhausting and long. I was in the air for a total of approximately 30 hours. Not the most direct route to say the least!

Seeing my family for the first time in a long time made me so inexplicably happy. I can’t properly put it into words! I was picked up by my mom, my dad, and Justin, along with two great friends, Ashley Herrera and Katie Caulfield from the University of Florida. I was back home and loving it!

Well, since then, I have still been loving it in America, but after a few weeks I did have my first significant feelings of missing the children. I do have a desire to return as soon as I possibly can! I know a lot of you know what the Lord did in my life in Africa, but I want to hit on a couple of key things that God revealed to me during my time there…

First, God taught me what it meant to be wholly dependent and completely reliant on Him. I was taken from a place where I knew everyone and was in a total comfort zone to a place where hardly anyone spoke any English at all. It was physically challenging because of the lack of running water, electricity, indoor plumbing (i.e. toilets), and the mattresses were extremely thin. I also never got used to the African staple food of ugali. It took a toll on my body. It was emotionally difficult because of Satan’s attempt to attack me with intense feelings of loneliness and homesickness. I grew up in Port Orange, FL and went to school in Gainesville, FL. This was my first time out of the country, and it was for 5 months halfway across the world. For the first month, I really struggled with those feelings of loneliness and longings to be with family.

But do you know what happened? For the first time in my life, I truly understood what it meant to be dependent on Him for everything I needed and for all my satisfaction. The Lord had been my Savior, my Counselor, and my Father, but He finally became my best friend. What a novel idea: I talked to God throughout my days. Isn’t that the idea? When I had to walk a half hour to the nearest store, all I had to talk to was the Lord. The more I talked with Him, the more His joy grew inside of me. That is what I want to bring back with me to America. I want to be putting myself in situations where I have to depend on Him for all that I need. Every day that I wake up, I want to tell Him that I need Him so desperately for everything in my life. I challenge us all to step out of our comfort zones, for it is in times of discomfort and difficulty that God changes us and molds us. I learned that lesson the hard way in Africa. After I learned that, I was filled with joy for much of my time there. I still dealt with homesickness, but I had Jesus as my best friend.

God was also dealing with me on the issue of contentment. I have still not mastered it, but He was teaching me about truly being content in every situation. I saw children and adults in communities with next to nothing. They barely had enough to make it through the day. Here in America, there are many people who work a little and have a lot, but in the village where I lived in Kenya, a lot of the people worked all day for very little. They must work to simply stay alive. Here we have so much and yet there are so many miserable people walking around. In Kenya, I saw some of the happiest people I have ever met in my life. They get it. They understand what is important and essential and what is not. They get so excited when they get any sort of gift and are so appreciative because they live on so little. The Christians are especially filled with joy. The believers there understand that they have to live for the life to come. They cannot live for this world, because there is very little hope of escape for the people physically. Their hope is in Christ alone and life eternal. They understand that this world is not their home!

I want to understand that. I want to grasp that truth. Even now, I am trying to spend more time praising the Lord and being more grateful for everything that I have here in America. People say that it is politically incorrect to say that we live in the best country in the world. Well, you know what? Although going to Africa opened my eyes to the fact that America is not all there is in this world, I can also say that we are extremely fortunate and blessed to live in this country. This really is the most amazing and blessed country on the planet. I am so thankful to be here, and I hope we will all praise Him for what He has given us.

I cannot express the joy in my heart over my trip to Africa. From seeing souls saved to seeing physical needs met, I experienced a deep happiness that I cannot explain. God moved in a mighty way. He brought me to a state of weakness, so I could completely surrender to all that He was doing. I pray that He will rock our worlds and break us of everything that we rely on in our lives. As much as I love family and friends, sports, and good TV, I want my satisfaction to come from Him alone. I don’t want to allow those things to get in the way of a daily, deep relationship with the living God. I pray the same for you all!

Thanks again for everything! I never could have gone to Africa without the financial support of friends and family, the prayers of His people, amazing home churches in Daytona and Gainesville, and the love and care of an incredible family. I want to stay in touch with everyone who helped make this trip happen! I am now in Houston, working at Champion Forest Baptist Church for an incredible pastor—Dr. David Fleming. God has opened up some amazing doors, and I am blown away by His sovereignty. I am constantly reminded about how good He has been to us all! Please keep me posted on what is going on in your life. My email is mseitz@ufl.edu, and if you email me I can give you my number if you want it. I love all of you! May God change us all to become more like Christ! I hope God has spoken to you through some of these experiences as He undoubtedly did in my life. To God be all the glory!

Lord, Bring the Rain

Hey everybody! I am coming home this week, and I am so excited about seeing all of my friends and family. The only thing that would make the homecoming even sweeter would be a ticket to the National Championship game in Miami. I am searching high and low for a ticket, so please let me know if you hear of anything. Anyways, our team got back from Tanzania on Thursday, and the trip was certainly a rollercoaster ride. Time is becoming increasingly scarce during my last several days on this continent, so I am only going to give you a brief summary of what happened.

The purpose of the trip was to connect with churches that the Tidenbergs had previously worked with to encourage them and pray for them. Each day was filled with non-stop movement from place to place. It was an exciting but exhausting trip. The man who took us on the church tour was a man that a lot of you in Daytona Beach know from prior trips to Tanzania. His name is Mikaeli. He lives in Longido, Tanzania, and he is part of the Maasai tribe there. I mentioned it on the previous blog, but I should remind you that all of the people we worked with this past week are Maasai people. I’m not in the business of ranking where people stand with the Lord, but I must say that Mikaeli loves Jesus as much, if not more, than anyone I have ever met.

We went from boma to boma, or Maasai villages, preaching the Word of God and loving on the local churches. God is doing an amazing work there. Your prayers are being answered. Churches are growing and more and more Maasai people are coming to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. God is bearing much fruit among the Maasai, and His presence is evident in their church work. A blessing for me was to be able to go share the Word of God with people who are hungry to listen. Mr. Potochnik was able to preach a couple of times, Tim Tidenberg spoke twice, Matt got to share his testimony, and I was able to share mine as well and teach the story of David and Goliath. What a cool experience!

While the trip touched each of us spiritually in a unique and profound way, it also touched us physically—in a very negative way. Either four or five of the eight of us on the trip became very sick for a couple of days, throwing up and feeling very nauseous (sorry to be graphic). It was either the semi-raw goat we were forced to eat or the tortilla-like, grease-heavy chapati that attacked our team. It was a painful week physically for most of the group. Even those of us who missed out on the sickness, including myself, still had bouts with exhaustion and nausea due to the difficult physical conditions out in the bush. The conditions were made even worse because of the fact that we shoved six people into a five-seat Land Cruiser and had to rotate team members in the trunk of the vehicle. I ended the trip feeling very sick to my stomach because of the extremely bumpy roads that we encountered.

I only wrote all of that to share what we experienced. I hope that didn’t sound like complaining. All of the trials we faced simply add to the story. I believe that the team became even more united after enduring what we faced the past week. I have mentioned this before, but what strikes me is that we go in for less than a week and think we have sacrificed, when these people live in these tough conditions day in and day out. Other than the Tidenbergs, who actually lived there for several years, we don’t know what it’s like to daily face what the Maasai face. I told you months ago that at the orphanage, things were very green and beautiful, and it was not the Africa I have always imagined. Where we were in Tanzania this past week, however, was much like what we all picture Africa to be. It was very dry and very hot. The terrain was rugged and harsh, and there was hardly any green at all on the ground. There was not any body of water around for miles and miles, and the people work just to make it through the day.

I was again reminded about how fortunate we are to have what we have in America. I leave you with one last picture of how different life is here in Kenya and Tanzania compared to home. Almost everywhere we went, the people requested that we pray for rain to come down on their land. After asking for God’s continued blessing on the churches we came across, rain was the number one prayer request. That blew me away. Here I am thinking about material things that I want or think I need, like going to a football game, and these people desperately need rain to simply survive. If it doesn’t rain soon, there will be serious consequences for the Maasai, and life will become increasingly complicated and difficult. Think about that for a second. Think about having to beg the Lord for rain just so you can live. I will never forget standing in circles with the people, pleading that God would bring the rain.

What a time we had with the Maasai people of northern Tanzania. Again, God is moving in their midst. Mikaeli, Mathayo, Lukas, and others are helping to lead people into God’s Kingdom. Churches are growing and schools are being built. The people are seeing their need for a Savior. However, Mikaeli says there are still many more who have never even heard of this Jesus that we call our Savior and Lord. Would you please pray for the Maasai people this week? Would you pray for the salvation of souls, God’s continued blessings on the churches and church leaders, and for rain to fall down on the land?

Jim and Peggy Brown from Daytona Beach are seasoned veterans when it comes to working with Mikaeli and the Maasai people. I wanted to end this blog by telling you, Jim and Peggy, that almost everywhere we went people asked about you. They love you with a love like I have never seen. Mikaeli says hello, Babu Jim, and he desperately wants you to come back. Remind me to give you something from him when I get home. I love you two, and I love all of you back home. Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers and support on this trip! Please pray for a safe journey home and for all of my bags to arrive in one piece. See you all soon!

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!

And All the Angels Rejoiced...

Hello to all my friends and family back home. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving celebration, and I know we all have a lot for which to be thankful. I am extremely grateful that I am in Kenya right now, but I am looking forward to a couple of weeks when I see a lot of you. I think there have been enough blogs at this point, so we can go ahead and skip a big introduction. There are three main stories that I want to share with you this week, so let’s move right ahead with story number one.

The first experience I want to express to you is our rafting down the River Nile. Yes, a lot of us know it as the Nile River, but the Africans say River Nile, and I like it that way. The whole time we were in the water we kept talking about how cool it was that little Moses was hidden on the banks of the very river we were rafting, and we thought it was cool that this same river was turned into blood. It’s a good reminder to me that what was written in the Old Testament actually happened. They aren’t a bunch of made-up stories, but Moses was really hidden in the Nile, and it did get turned into blood. Anyways, there were twelve of us that made the trip from Nairobi, Kenya to Jinja, Uganda, where we stayed in dorms at the Nile River Explorer campsite. We made the trip by bus, which was thirteen hours on Friday and eleven hours back today, Sunday the 30th. All of that driving for six hours of rafting, but it was well worth it. We got to Uganda around 8:00 PM on Friday, and were picked up and taken on the back of a truck through some villages in the country to the campsite. We were welcomed by extremely loud music and a whole bunch of drunk people. We did our best to go straight to sleep, but that proved to be difficult.

For those of you who don’t know, which included me until this weekend, the River Nile is one of two rivers in the world that flows from south to north. At least that is what we were told. The other river is the St. Johns River from the wonderful state of Florida. We got up Saturday morning at around 7:00 and were taken on the back of the same truck to another campsite for breakfast. Now, I got my first impression of the Nile early in the morning with the fog still encompassing it, so it was quite intimidating. I was shocked by the sheer size of the river. It is massive. The river is wide, and the water rushes faster than any river I have ever seen. After breakfast, which included some of the best pineapple I have ever had, we hit the rapids. It’s kind of hard to explain each rapid one by one, so I won’t. I will only say that I have rafted about five times in America, and nothing I did there ever came close to this. The rapids rivaled the waves of the ocean on a rough and choppy day. We were told that a four or five in terms of size and intensity of the rapid (on a scale of one to five) in America would be considered a two or three on the Nile. It is kind of like skiing in the East in America versus skiing in the West. Skiing in the East just doesn’t compare to the West.

The rafting was really fun, and it went relatively smooth. We only flipped once, compared to most other boats flipping at least two or three times. I jumped out of the boat whenever I could, just so I could get in the water which was at a perfect temperature. At one point while swimming in the river, we got to hang on a tree branch and body-surf a small rapid. By far, the coolest part of the day, and probably the most impressive of any boat, happened to us on the last rapid of the day. We had to skip a class six rapid because several people who attempted it have died, and we carried our boats around. We got back in the water with about one-third of the rapid remaining. We went through the first huge wave with relative ease, but we hit the very last wave of the day straight on. Well, we got stuck in that last wave. For literally over thirty seconds, and I have the DVD to prove it, we surfed a very big rapid. Up and down and side to side we went, and we could not get ourselves out of the wave. I remember we were in there long enough for Josh and I to have a conversation about what we should do if the boat remained stuck in the wave. To make matters worse, our guide Elias fell out of the boat, so it was just us in this predicament. Thankfully, the boat finally got itself out of the wave, and we were safe. The guide said it was “one of the most epic surfs I have ever seen, and I wasn’t even in the boat to experience it!” What a day that was, and I will certainly never forget rafting the Nile.

Another interesting story took place on Thursday, which was the day before we all left for the Nile. As you know, Rose Bugusu is the director of the Tumaini school and orphanage I was at for a couple of months. For a couple of weeks, she is living in Nairobi with her husband and son. Her husband works in Nairobi, and he helps fund the orphanage from about eight hours away. Well, she had a package for me that was sent by the Sullins family back in the States. I had been trying to find this package for a month now. Kellie White tried to take me out to Rose’s place in the morning, but there were a couple of bad accidents, and we could get nowhere in almost an hour. We also saw a girl’s foot get run over by a car. Anyways, Kellie dropped me off about fifteen minutes from the Tidenbergs, because she had to get home and cook, and I walked home. Daniel, who works for the Tidenbergs, told me he could take me out by matatu (public transportation) to get the package.

We set off for Kuwangware, which is on the outskirts of Nairobi and where Rose lives, and it literally took us two hours to move twenty miles. The traffic here is horrible. Again, everywhere I went I was bombarded with questions about whether or not I know Obama or like him. Once we got off the matatu, we called Rose, and she sent her son Moses down to bring us up. I spent about a half an hour chatting with Rose, and then Daniel and I set off. He sent me home by myself because he had some business to take care of in the city. I was without a phone this whole time because my battery had died. So, I got dropped off by a matatu back in Westlands, where we live, and I had to try and hunt down Matt and Erin to no avail. I decided just to walk back to the Tidenbergs and hangout until Matt and Erin were done with our Thanksgiving dinner with some missionaries. Luckily, I was able to put my sim card in one of the worker’s phones, and Matt called my phone soon after I did that. They came and picked me up, and I got to heat up a delicious Thanksgiving meal. What a crazy day. I rode and walked miles and miles for that package, but I am so thankful for it. It is loaded with good stuff. Thanks Sullins family!

Finally, this week was one of the major highlights for me for the Nairobi part of the trip because of this next story. David Cox, one of the missionaries with the IMB, took me to his house on Tuesday, because we were to go witnessing in one of the slums while Matt and Erin made one of our college visits. Unfortunately, our contact in the slum never showed up, and we were unable to go. The next day, Matt, Erin, David, and I went into the slums together. We got to share Christ at several different slums, but the most exciting thing took place during our last visit of the day. I have thought a lot about whether or not to share this with you, but I have decided to so that we can rejoice together in seeing our prayers answered. At the last house of the day, our translator Rama said we needed to share the Gospel with the three women and one man who had gathered to hear what the wazungu (white people) had to say. Matt and Erin had seen someone come to Christ here, and I had been praying that God would grant me the joy of seeing someone give their life to Him. I realized that I had no role in saving anyone, but I wanted to see God’s power move right there before me and through me. David Cox knew I had been itching to witness and see someone come to the Lord, so he pushed me to share the Gospel through my testimony. He pushed me in a good way, because it kept me from backing out of it. So, for about twenty minutes, I put forth the great news of salvation and what Christ had done in my life. I told them how I had been saved, and what my life would have been like if not for Christ. After speaking with them, I asked them if they understood everything. They said yes. Then I asked them if they wanted to make Christ their Lord and Savior and have a personal relationship with Him, and three of the four eagerly said yes.

So, through the translator, three of the four prayed to receive Christ! I explained to them that the words they prayed had no power on their own to save them if they were not spoken with a sincere heart. We put so much emphasis in America on praying a prayer, and we see false conversions because people think that reciting magic words will save them. I told them, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” The two women that prayed to receive Christ got down on their knees and cried, and the man had a huge smile on his face. We made sure they got Bibles, and Rama will follow up with them a couple of times a week. We do NOT want to go around evangelizing and then leaving no one there to train and disciple them. Again, we all realize that we play no part in saving anyone. I am simply ecstatic that three people were born again. Afterwards, I hugged Matt and cried tears of joy. The cool thing about witnessing is that it brings you back to your salvation, and it makes you rejoice because of what He has already done in your life. We all celebrated after what happened, and we will be praying for those three. We know that all the angels in Heaven rejoiced when these three surrendered their lives to Christ.

Please pray for those that were saved this week. Pray that they will grow day by day, and pray that satan will have no hold over their lives. What an incredible week! This is why we pray, and this is why we send people to foreign countries: to tell them about Jesus Christ. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Please pray for more souls to be saved this week as we go out with Bob Calvert to witness on Tuesday and Wednesday. We leave for Tanzania this coming Saturday, and I will hopefully post one more blog before then, but you never know out here. I
love you guys!