Hello from Nairobi!
My team and I have been back in Nairobi for a
few days after 11 days with the Maasai in Ngabolo, Kenya. I can’t help
but be blown away by how much faith the believers have in Ngabolo. Their
church services are 5-15 people in a small room, they have no
instruments, and they have risked being persecuted and isolated because of
their love for Christ. Yet they press on boldly. It makes me think of
the 2-hour church services we complain about driving to, or too “busy”
we are for a Wednesday night Bible study. One of the women, Mary, told
me that her God was worthy. I believe He is too.
In Ngabolo, the people are self-sustained on their flocks of goats,
sheep, chickens, and crops. Their land is littered with elephants that
break the trees scratching their backs, hyenas that run from boma to
boma (home to home) each night, lions that hide in the brush, and birds
whose nests dangle from the ends of the thorn trees. I’ve loved living
in an area that was so full of life and yet so unbelievably terrifying
at the same time. Sleeping in a tent in the “center of nowhere” (Maasai
quote on our geographic location) when I could hear hyenas laughing at
night stretched my faith and dependence on God in ways I never expected.
The Bible stories you hear as a child, like Daniel in the Lion’s Den or
the parable of the 99 sheep were brought to life as I literally (possibly irrationally) feared
lions at night and saw shepherds counting their livestock at the end of
the day. And God is always so faithful… He has preserved a raw, beautiful,
and utterly alive presence in Ngabolo and among His people through their
way of life.
Please continue to pray for my team as we make our way to Tanzania this week. We will be journeying to Moshi, where we will partner with an orphanage and possibly a safe home for women. Please continue to pray for the women of
Ngabolo, that they would know how much value they bring to God’s heart
and that they’ll never be alone, that they are never forgotten. Pray for the women of Tanzania, that we
would have the words to say and the Spirit to comfort them. I know that He has already gone before us and prepared the hearts of the people we will be seeing, and I know that
God is big enough to love every single one of His daughters,
individually, and by name. I’m thankful every day to be one of them.
