Where No One (white person) has Gone Before

 Recently, we had two volunteers come to the Longido area to work with the Maasai leaders in sharing Bible stories from the Maasai Chronological Bible Storying cloth and to help with a new church start.  The 2 volunteers are brothers, one having just received his master's degree and one just finishing his sophomore year of college.  These brothers were very tall – 6’7” and 6’5” – so the Maasai were very impressed with these “tall white boys”. 

We went to Loisoret with 3 Maasai leaders.  We were well received with roasted goat in the bush and then given a tour of their water source – a natural spring with 2 overflow areas that eventually feed into a river bed.

Camp was set up and everyday, morning/noon/evening, we had curious on-lookers checking out the strange white people and their bomas (tents). 

The cooking experience was fun.  Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, canned meat, and other “exotic fare”.  The Maasai watched in amazement as we cooked over a gas stove – “instant fire” – as some described it.  One verified fact is that Maasai do not like eggs – at least in that area.  After cooking the eggs, we offered some to our curious guests, who reluctantly sampled some of our strange food.  Two Maasai even started gagging when the eggs were passed to them – it was too much for their stomachs to handle!

We usually had some snacks during the day and cooked pasta at night.  During our second night there, I fixed spaghetti and served canned fruit for dessert.  When the spaghetti noodles were finished, I drained them and proceeded to put the sauce on them.  One of the Maasai "spectators" asked what kind of food we had that night.  I told him that we had "cooked worms".  He proceeded to shake his head and walk away, commenting that these "good white people eat some strange food"!  We were able to show him later what the spaghetti really is and that it does taste good when the sauce is added.  The Maasai jury is still out on this taste test.

The Maasai came to hear the stories from the Bible Story Cloth for two days.  The Old Testament was covered the first day, then a short review and the New Testament were covered on the second day.  The singing was lively as usual and the jumping was something to behold.  My volunteers began jumping with the crowd.  They actually jumped higher than anyone there and almost hit their heads on some tree branches!  Our joke was that the Maasai agreed that “these white boys can jump!”

Many received Christ and a church was started.  The leader of the area was the first to “step out” and make a decision for Christ.  He is the designated church leader for now.  There is a Maasai seminary branch student who will finish his studies in November 2012 who will be going to this site to continue the work that was started during this time.

These 2 young men were really on the “cutting edge” of missions – the first white people and the first church started in this area.  It is something to behold when you join God in His work and are able to participate with Him.