On November 1, 1998 Janelle and I departed on our first trip to Africa. We were so excited. A culmination of years of prayer and waiting.
That Sunday morning I had preached at our church in Healy, AK. I picked up the Pentecostal Evangel off the back table to read on the plane. Later that day on the jet I began to read. The Evangel was all about Kenya that day.
A feature article called “The Maasai Miracle”, told of the Maasai people, beautiful and strong. Missionaries for many years had attempted to start churches among them in the Narok region of the Rift Valley but none were successful. Not one church had been planted.
The Maasai have an interesting belief. God gave all of the cows in the world to the Maasai. If they see cattle that a neighboring tribe (such as the Kikuyu) has, they will go and steal it thinking God intended for them to have it. Though they believe this, the Kikuyu don’t believe this, nor does the Kenyan government.
The article told of how a Maasai warrior named Simon, was caught stealing cattle. He was thrown in jail. While he was there a white man came. He told about a man called Jesus. Simon started to cry. He wept greatly. He thought, “This man must have cast a spell on me. I don’t cry. I’m a warrior.” But it was no spell. It was the convicting power of the Holy Spirit working on his life. When the man concluded his message, he invited those who wanted to get saved to ask Jesus to forgive their sins and be the Lord of their life. Simon accepted Christ.
While in jail, Simon was discipled and grew in the Word of God. When he got out of jail, he returned to his family. They asked him about his time in jail. He told them about the man who came and told about Jesus. As he was telling the story his family began to weep. When he got to the end many of them accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
There Simon planted the first church among the Maasai in this region of Kenya. God used an ex-convict to start a church.
The article goes on to explain how Simon traveled to another part of his tribe and shared the story. There too people started weeping and a second church was planted. Soon a third and then a fourth. There on the airplane I read how God had used Simon and others to plant 20 churches among the Maasai. My eyes were getting moist just reading the article. I prayed, “Oh God, please allow me someday the privilege of training Maasai pastors for you.”
We landed in Nairobi, Kenya and began our one month assignment teaching at East Africa School of Theology (E.A.S.T.). On one beautiful sunny afternoon, I was on campus after teaching. I was taking pictures of birds. I had a bird book under my arm and my binoculars around my neck. I took a picture of a bird in a tree above. I didn’t want to take the time to look up the bird.
There were a couple of African students standing next to me so I asked one, “Do you know what kind of bird that is?”
He said, “No, but you sure remind me of my brother.”
I’m thinking, “I wonder what it is about me.”
He said, “My brother is always taking pictures of birds. He has a bird book stuck under his arm and binoculars around his neck just like you. He is a guide in a national park.”
I said, “Oh, I am a guide in a national park in Alaska.” (A summer job to supplement our ministry.) As we talked further I found out he was Maasai.
I said, “I just read an article about a Maasai. He was a pastor.”
He said, “I am a pastor.”
I said, “Oh, maybe you know him; his name is Simon.”
He said, “I am Simon.”
He shared how some men had come from America. They had taken his picture and asked him questions for an article. But he hadn’t seen it yet.
Simon and I walked back to the apartment Janelle and I were living in on campus and showed him the article.
He said, “Here is my father. These are my brothers and sisters. This is the first church I planted.” As we talked further Simon asked, “Jeff, would you come preach in our church?”
I told Simon, “I would be delighted and honored.”
So early one Sunday morning Janelle and I rode with missionaries Jim & Meg Thacker and their girls in their Speed the Light vehicle about 3 hours out of Nairobi to the church.
It was the only vehicle in the parking lot that morning, but the church was filled with Maasai who had walked many miles to come worship God. The worship service was filled with the presence of God. The Maasai, known for their jumping, jumped for more than an hour as they sang. The singing was not led by one person, but one would lead out in song and then another.
I preached on Joseph that morning. Simon interpreted the message. What an experience! What a privilege, to preach the Word of God to a people so recently brought into the kingdom.
We said good-bye that morning. But our relationship with the Christian Maasai of the Rift Valley was not over. I had prayed a prayer on the airplane, “Oh God, please allow me someday the privilege of training Maasai pastors for you.” Simon has asked repeatedly if we would return to Kenya to help train Maasai pastors.
On October 22, 1999 we were approved to go to Kenya as missionaries. In a few months when the budgets have been raised, we will be able to go and find fulfillment of that prayer.
6J’s
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