Real Life aka “Wild” life

We’re on the downward slope for our
time here in Kenya. We officially met the half-way point last week
with our mid-trip debrief!

So, let me catch you up on some
things…

2 weeks ago we traveled north 8 hours
to a place called Musul, which is where we stayed with the Masaai
Tribe. WOW… wish we could have stayed longer, 6 days was not
enough! Besides the regular wildlife encounters of Elephants, Giraffes
and Zebras, our encounter with the people was most memorable! Sunday
morning church was our first taste of the rich Masaai culture. We
danced, sang, and danced some more to traditional songs and even
attempted the traditional dance, which none of us north americans can
rythmically get for the lack of coordination between neck and
shoulders! But fun none the less! The church definitely rang out with
the Joy of the Lord as we shared testimonies, worshiped, and heard
the Word of God together. The week consisted of visiting Bomas
(homes), teaching at schools, showing films, and ending with an open
air evangelism crusade in the local market! The team learned a lot
about the Masaai culture and the strongholds that keep people from
accepting the Love of Christ. The Masaai men are polygamist and
therefore have many wives and lots of children. The man of the family
is the chief and whatever he says goes, even if a woman wanted to
give her heart to Christ, she must first have the cheifs permission.
The Masaai are nomadic and follow the herds, or the water. We arrived
shortly after a lot of families had moved to the foothills of mount
Kenya where there is more vegetation for their livestock. We met a
woman who shared with us that she had gone to fetch water and when
she returned her family had left without her, for what reason she was
not sure, but she was left to care for some of the children and wait
for their return in the next season. I don’t know how she survives
with hardly any resources and without the help of her family. A
couple barriers that we came up against when sharing the gospel with
the Masaai was that in their traditional beliefs there is no after
life, when you die you’re done. So to try and explain a spirit life/
afterlife with God it sounds ridiculous to them. The other barrier
being that most of the adults believe they are too old to change
their ways now, its better to leave those changes of lifestyle to
those who are in their youth. These were only men and women of about
40 who said this. Another thing we learned that was a huge hurdle for
the women is the circumcision that is mandatory in order for them to
be considered a woman. It is a very unsanitary ceremony that leaves
these young girls with the risk of infection, and HIV. More and more
Masaai women are refusing the circumcision but they will also be
shunned for refusing, and will not be married. The bottom line is
that the women have no rights what so ever in this culture, some are
finding the freedom to fight it while most are subject to it.

The team embraced the Masaai with the
Love of Christ where ever they could. With encouraging words, prayers,
or quality time spent together many of the locals felt befriended by
the team.

Oh, and the open air evangelism in the
market… yea, Jesus rocked it! We shared our life stories over the
loud speaker, danced, sang, prayed and preached! It was a super fun
day interacting with the locals at their bi-weekly market where
families gather to buy/sell food, clothing, beads for fashion, cows,
sheep and camel! Yup there were camels there for sale, wish I
could’ve bought one! But I did get to ride on one!

There was also a point where we were
charged at by wild elephants on our way to ministry! We had stopped
to see a family of about 10 elephants on the side of the road when
the big Grandpappy of them all, stormed out of the bushes towards our
bus! This also just so happened to be at the same time that our
driver put the bus in reverse to get a little closer! So very quickly
we were face to face with a MAD elephant! It turned out that He was
just making a statement as the rest of the elephants ran behind him
to escape and He found his place at the back of the line heading into
the bushes on the other side of the road. It was a close call, and I
believe that Grandpappy elephant could have knocked our bus right on
over if he so desired to!

We spent 4 days at FishEagle working
through some of our differences among the team. It seems to be normal
at this point of a mission trip to be so incredibly over the whole
community living thing. And so we had to push through the hard times
of character development to reach the point of finding fresh vision
and energy for the ministry that God called us here to do!

Many times on this trip I have been so
busy ministering to the team and our finance book, that I forget to
sit and reflect on the things God has been teaching me through this
leadership role. And so I have been trying to make time to process
too. One thing I am continually gaining understanding in, is that I
am not fully alive in the life of Christ until I am fully loving His
people, whether teammates, our host, or the locals. Love has been the
theme of this trip without a doubt, for us leaders and among the
team. 1 Corinthians 13 is our lifeline. If I think about it, where
would I be without the Love God first showed me in His Son, why would
it be any different for this team and this mission. We love because
He first loved us.

Another thing I am trying to wrap my
mind, spirit and soul around is leading through serving. I’m not
talking about the times that it comes naturally but the times when it
doesn’t and I have to choose to be on the side of a servants heart
towards my team, ie, when I am worn out, longing for personal time,
or straight up frustrated. It is in those moments that the Lord is
teaching me about sacrifice that hurts and yet brings fruit in the
end. My prayer is that I continually strive to be an example of God’s
Kingdom at work from within, expressing the character of Christ.