In this issue:
Maasai
Army:
The
Maasai have long been considered formidable warriors. At one time they
had to kill a lion single-handed and bring back its tail as proof before
they could marry a wife. Other tribes lived in fear of loosing their
cattle to the Maasai marauders- and perhaps their lives as well. The
Maasai believed that Engai [God] gave them all the cattle of the world
so they have a perfect right to take anyone elses cattle! Now times have
changed- there are more people and fewer lions to kill, and laws prevent
them from taking cattle. 
But some things have not changed- they still have their fears. Terror of witchdoctors curses and abuse continues of young girls- nearly 100% are raped in many areas.
However a new army is arising. An army of young Maasai warriors who having found the love of Jesus Christ have been set free from witchcraft and learnt respect for others as their sisters in the tribe. They are starting to march through the land spreading the news of the true saviour Jesus Christ.
I had first hand experience of this again at Moiroa when we shared with the young leaders of the area. Gidori came with me and thought we might be wasting our time- he thought they would not understand. But the Maasai are highly intelligent and at the end he said they showed the best understanding and asked deeper questions than any other people we had been to. Our prayer is that the Maasai people of the area find new hope and love from Christ in this new army of young people that is arising.
A testimony from
Moiroa from an elder Stephen;
My name is Stephen, I love the Lord
and He is my Savoir. I really thank the Lord for what He has done to me
during this Seminar. Lord has talked to me through his Servant Pastor
Mike Rothery during this Seminar for now I can understand the importance
of a unity in the body of
Christ.I was planning to go to start a new work at the area where my
fellow Maasai are unreached by this gospel of Christ, At least now I
know what I can do by participating my fellow Christians no matter which
denomination they belong! Thank you
Jesus.
A testimony from
Sister Anjiku
On the way to the Seminar I was not feeling so good. My body was
overwhelmed and my heart was heavy. During the period of praise and
worship I started to feel better. During the word of God whereby by
Pastor Mike was teaching I started to feel much better. I was completely
released when the alter call was made for those who are in need. Praise
the Lord.
AIDS in Mundarara
On Thursday I left Arusha at 11.30 am with Scott and Annelle Price of Christian Missionary Fellowship. Also in the car were Mama Alpha (our interpreter) and her 15 month old daughter Omega (very cute). Annelle worked in the area of AIDS education in USA but to teach it in a different culture and language is another thing altogether! It’s good to work together as a team- we can pray for each other, take turns teaching and give one another moral support.
We drove straight to the place where we were to give our first talk – Mundarara Ruby Mine. The local government invited us because they have had people dying of AIDS in that area. You get a very mobile population with a mine, which makes things worse.
We arrived at around 2pm and had to go behind an anthill, as there was no toilet!
The
last ¾ to 1 hour we had been driving in heavy rain and the muddy water
was flowing down as we drove up to Mundarara. The rain stopped just as
we arrived, but we had a smaller group because of it.
The people gathered around in their red blankets, etc. and we had
a small table to put the flannel graph board on.
After some welcoming speeches and a prayer we began.
First we had to talk a bit about the need to talk about sensitive
subjects, like sex and sexually transmitted diseases- things that are
not normally spoken about in public.
Then we took it in turns teaching: What is AIDS, Symptoms,
Transmission, Spiritual Issues, Abstinence and Faithfulness (totally new
concepts for Maasai people) and what the community can do.
Most of the people were not Christian but had been told to attend
by the local govt. leaders.
We spoke for about 2 hours while Omega pottered around in her squeaky shoes and picked up stones with rubies in them. The other thing that was going on continuously while we were speaking was a group of small flying ants were crawling out of a very small hole in the ground and flying away. They do that when it rains.
We stayed the 4 nights at Mama Alpha and Pastor Isaak’s house in Moiroa village. Mama Alpha’s camel now has a young female calf and Mama Alpha makes sweetened condensed camel’s milk that can be kept without refrigeration. She also has a lot of appropriate technology with a water tank, a filtered drinking water tank and a hot water heater tank (they put hot coals down a pipe in the centre of the tank). This appropriate technology has been taught by an organization called Community Health Evangelism [CHE].
On Friday morning we revised some of our teaching, changing things to suit the people we were speaking to and prayed. We couldn’t do sessions in the morning as the people were planting maize because of the rain. Friday afternoon’s session was at the Mundarara School. We arrived at 1pm but had to wait until 2pm for the teachers to eat their lunch. We felt like the animals in the zoo as we were waiting in the car with all the children watching us. That afternoon we spoke for about 1½ hours to students and adults. We did not know beforehand that we would be speaking to students! After that we went to divide some bags of maize flour between several orphans.
On Saturday afternoon we went to a different place in the same area called Mundarara Tinga (Tinga means pump or windmill in the Maasai language). There is an old windmill there with the wind fans missing and a diesel pump which works- if there is diesel, of course. This afternoon we were speaking under a tree with the flannel graph board on the front of the car and the men in red blankets sitting in one group and the women all dressed up with tons of beads and in their best robes, sitting back behind the men. They are a very colourful people; we looked very plain beside them.
Sunday
was a big celebration day. Three
houses had been burnt down in 2 different bomas ( a boma is where one
group of Maasai live together with 1 or up to 4 men and however many
wives they have. Each woman
has her own house that she makes herself.
Then there is the big enclosure where all the cattle are kept at
night that has thorns around it to keep out wild animals.)
The
combined women’s group from Moiroa (all the different churches) 
got
together and built three new mud and stick houses( like wattle and daub)
with tin rooves. This was a
big achievement and the first time that they had done something like
this. So on Sunday we had
to go to the 2 bomas for the opening of the 3 new houses.
At the first boma, the speaking and some singing (from a Maasai
men’s choir from Mundarara combined Lutheran and Catholic) went on
from 10 am to almost 2 pm. This
included introductions, AIDS teaching by Annelle, preaching by Scott, a
very short speech from me, a speech from the village chairman (about 20
min) a short speech and prayer from Pastor Isaak and then th
ey cut the
tie on the door. We very
quickly ate a little pilau and drank ginger tea and then left at around
2.15 for the next boma, which was not far away.
There, Annelle spoke again about AIDS and more speeches and
prayers and songs and we opened the other 2 houses with a heavy shower
of rain in the middle. At
the 2nd boma we were walking around in all the cow manure.
Then there was more pilau [a rice dish] and soft drinks for the VIPs By this time it was almost 6pm so we went home to Mama
Alpha and Pastor Isaak’s place. But
that was not the end of the day for then we went at 7pm to a widow’s
house to talk and pray with her and came back again at 8.30 for more
food!
Pray for Mama Alpha and Pastor Isaak as they work very hard and hardly ever take a day off. Also pray that the unity of the Spirit would continue and increase at Engare Naibor region and Moiroa village and that many Maasai people would be born again and grow up in the Lord. We thank you for your prayers, as we realise we are in a spiritual battle and we can’t win it on our own. We are glad that Jesus and His Spirit within us is greater than the spirit that is in the world.
We returned to Arusha on the Monday 28th. On the way home we hit an eagle, which shattered the windscreen, so Scott and Annelle had to replace that. When I got home Mike was at the monthly pastors fellowship so I had to wait another 2 hours to see him. Also while I was away he had to have our 2 pups put down with suspected rabies. [so we had to get rabies injections!]
Gidoris’ column:
A question to God
After the Seminar
we had a walk to the uphill in the Maasai land to make a mobile
telephone call. On the way we were passing a beautiful Maasai
‘Boma’, some Maasai were looking to us wondering for what kind of
people we are especially for ‘Mzungu‘ in their areas. When we were
at the place where we can have an access for mobile phone to reach to
Arusha, one of the Maasai came to us since we were nearby his Boma. He
was a very lonely one needing to talk to us. We greeted each other by
shaking hands. We were eager to make more talking but we failed since we
did not know Maasai and he did know neither Swahili nor English.
On our way back I was asking myself this question why God made all these complicated languages for human? I know for sure that God is so good and he is gracious full of mercy, but why has he made some things, which to me seems to be a bit complicated? I can’t understand even at this point for what God is doing to us even though he loves us! I wish I can face God right now and ask Him questions, which really troubles me.
How hard for building unity?
A competent technician once told me that doing a repair job is harder than starting a new job. That is after a complaints that happened between him and his customer for the price he mentioned concerning the repair he was planning to do. “It is better to purchase a new item rather than repairing this one,” complained his customer after that Technician told him the price for doing that repair.
I can now imagine with the kind of work that Pastor Mike is doing concerning building Unity amongst the body of Christ. It is as if he is doing a repair works!
Do you know why?
People in their denominations have been taught to hold at the kind of their particular system of belief which in one way or other they are prohibited not to have a fellowship with the Christians of other denominations. I can see personally that there is a breakdown according to the word of God especially as the body of Christ.
Mike has been doing all these kind of repair works from place to place, and I tell you it is really a hard thing.
For into some
areas you will find the believers and their leaders are “stubborn
because of the things they have inherited from their forefathers.
How then will you come and destroy that kind of belief and build
a right thing according to the word of god if not by the spirit of God?
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My
Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
Zach. 4:6
But praise the Lord for the seeds has been planted in those areas which are hard to
make repairs and we can now see some fruits for now we have a Pastors fellowship every month whereby more than 8 different denominations gather together for prayers, encouragements, sharing from one another, and so on. The most exciting thing is that the pastors of different denomination have started calling one another to share / preach the word of God in other denomination! Please keep praying for the true body of Christ to be united despite of the differences we have!
