During our month in Tanzania, we were blessed with the opportunity to go stay with a tribe right outside of town for a few days. Many of the tribes around here are pretty hardcore. We didn’t really know what to expect since Africa is always filled with surprises.
For the most part, the tribe was a lot of what we expected. The people live in mud houses, they have no electricity, they wear colored robes over their clothes and some of them have stretched ear lobes.
The main ministry they had for us was door to door. We went to the homes of all the family and friends of the pastor and prayed blessing over them and their homes. We got to the first house around lunch, so they served us heaping plates of rice and meat. Most of the time, they get offended if you don’t eat the whole plate of food, so I make sure to try and eat all that I can. As I was just finishing the last bite of this food, the pastor mentions that we should probably not eat too much since they would be feeding us lunch at every house we go to. I kinda laughed to myself since I had just eaten enough food for like 3 meals!
As we proceeded onto the next house, we not only got to eat ANOTHER lunch, but they had a young guy from their tribe come in, dressed in the tribal wear with a spear and his bow and poisonous arrows to show to us. So, we got to go outside and show the bow and arrow with them. They got a good laugh at us since we are all a terrible aim.
We went to 7 houses that day. We ate lunch 4 times, were served tea and bread at another, had curdled milk at another home(note in the photo, we have milk mustaches. That’s how thick it was!) and Mountain Dew with this really cool tribal family. Needless to say, I was stuffed to the brim.
We got back to our tents to relax at about 5:30 and they brought us dinner at about 7:30. I have never felt so full in all my life, but we were blessed! That night after dinner, we got to worship in a humble little church made out of mud. I was asked to speak that night, so I went to the Lord and he told me, “Worship. I want them to know about worship and what it looks like when My children walk in it.” As we started singing before the teaching, these people worshiped God in such an authentic way and His Spirit was so present.
I was really confused as to why God would have me teach on something that they seemed so full of already. I got up and shared my heart and was so blessed in return. I still don’t fully know who that message was aimed toward, but I know it was even what I needed. Sadly, we only got two days with this tribe, but they were two of my favorite days this year.
