I did not expect to come to Africa and feel like I am absolutely supposed to come back. I didn’t expect to fall in love with the Maasai people. Or squatty potties. [Well, I wouldn’t say I LOVE squatty potties but they make life easier.] I didn’t expect leaving the Maasai to make me wish I was going home more than anything instead of doing 2 more weeks of ministry. I didn’t expect to be the first person to tell the Maasai women that they are valuable and that God wants to use THEM to advance His kingdom, much less to have such an incredible spiritual bond of love with them afterward.
It has been almost 2 weeks since we left the bush and I am still processing what God did there and how much I loved it. It was the most dangerous place we’ve been with the elephants that prevented us from going anywhere after dark and the lions and hyenas that we could hear in our tents while we slept. The environment was harsh, extremely dry, hot during the day and freezing at night, and filled with these wicked thorn bushes that have hardly any leaves but they have 2 inch thorns all over them that are not fun to get through your shoes or your weave caught in. I definitely have a few more holes in my skirts now. However, I spent some time pondering why God would make such terrible plants and I have learned that it is so the people who live there can be safe from lions and other dangerous creatures. The people who live there walk miles to get water and live in these tiny mud huts. They have nothing but I could never call them poor by any means. In the little village of Ewaso the holy spirit is unbelievably present. He is doing amazing work there. When we first arrived we spent a day praying about what ministry we wanted to do while we were there. God put women’s ministry on my heart. So we invited all the women to come and teach us some of their beadwork and afterwards I shared a message about how Jesus viewed women, how he wants to use them to bring his kingdom and how much he values them. In Maasai the women have no voice, much like the women in JEsus’ day. Then I told them that God values them so much and is more than powerful enough to provide for all their needs. It was incredible to feel how close I was to the women after that. I wanted to spend every day for the rest of the trip there, living with them and ministering to them. God answered my prayer to for deep relationships with all the people there and I couldn’t even begin to describe how difficult leaving was. But I am confident that what God began there will continue and that my desire to go back to continue that ministry will be realized.
