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Maasai leader challenges outgoing workers to serve in the way of Christ
Fifty years ago Maasai leaders in Olepolos, Kenya, picked Sarone Ole Sena to go away to British schools because he was too weak and sickly to be of value to the tribe.
“I was their sacrificial lamb,” Ole Sena told the hundreds of friends and family members gathered to commission 66 short- and long-term workers at Eastern Mennonite Missions’ annual worker commissioning on July 8, 2007, at Lancaster Mennonite School’s Fine Arts Center.
Now, as the Africa Director for Compassion International, Ole Sena travels widely from his home in Nairobi, Kenya. He cherishes the way that the Maasai elders blessed him to serve the world, when he returned and they realized he hadn’t died as they had earlier assumed.
“I found hope,” he testified. “I came to understand that Jesus is the Lamb of God, and I gave my life to him in 1962. This rejected child has now been cleansed.”
From his lifetime of involvement in mission administration and community development, Ole Sena emphasized seven missionary challenges: remain accountable to senders, but connect deeply with hosts; remember that character is more important than knowledge or skills; become truly interdependent; share the whole message with the whole community; move outside the church; invest in local leaders; and preach a positive message that enhances the dignity of all.
At the end of the service, the audience moved to six parts of the auditorium to cluster around workers and regional banners. They commissioned the workers for those regions with Ole Sena’s words ringing in their ears – “Serve others the way our Lord Jesus Christ did.”
--Jewel Showalter
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