Tanzanian Mennonite Bishop Steven Mang’ana baptizes new Maasai believers during an outreach in Meserani, Tanzania, that has led to a new church of over 100. Photo: Clair Good

ARUSHA, Tanzania – In the little backwater town of Duka bovu, or “Worthless Shop,” a Maasai shaman, on the margins of the community, told Clair Good, “I don’t go to church.” Then abruptly he looked at Clair and asked, “When are you going to come and teach me?”

Good, representative to Africa for Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM), had worked with Kanisa la Mennonite Tanzania (KMT) to organize this special evangelistic outreach into Maasailand in northern Tanzania, February 8-11, 2007.

Besides Good, participants included Christians from several tribes in Tanzania, two Maasai believers from Olepolos, Kenya, and Gary and Denise Williamson, EMM missionaries from The Gambia.

At the Maasai shaman’s invitation, team members went to his home and gave him a Bible. Three other Maasai warriors joined in the conversation. As they read, talked to the visitors, and discussed among themselves, they realized that Jesus fulfilled all the laws of the Maasai. All said, “We believe.”

When the shaman asked David Shunkur, a Maasai Christian from Kenya, “What do you Mennonites forbid?” Shunkur responded, “We don’t forbid anything – God is the one who tells us what to leave behind.” These new Maasai believers now want to start a church in their village.

“In another village, Meserani, we saw 18 Maasai come to Christ,” Good said. “One young man came weeping. Maasai usually don’t cry – unless they’re filled with the Holy Spirit. From these visits another group has begun to meet regularly for worship. It grew from 18 to over 100. I have since heard that more are coming, asking for baptism.”

Good noted that the goal of the outreach was to encourage the believers in the Eastern Diocese of KMT in mission. He said that some tribes tend to look down on the Maasai because they are “less civilized” and have often been disruptive and warlike in their nomadic lifestyle and cattle rustling.

“It was exciting to watch them ‘get it,’” he said. “One KMT pastor told me, ‘We have lived here for 20 years, but we didn't know that these people wanted to become Christians.’”

During this same administrative visit, Good also met with the Council of East African Mennonite Churches (CEAMC) for their annual meeting.

Good reported that the meeting focused on “reaching the unreached.” Out of this focus came the dream to hold an African Mission Institute later this year. Plans are to hold the institute in Eastleigh, a neighborhood in Nairobi with much religious, tribal, and economic diversity.

Those who attend would study for one week, and then do a week of outreach in the villages or cities in Kenya. The third and final week of the institute would include debriefing and further teaching. Planners hope to have participants from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and the U.S.

Good said the third highlight of his trip was meeting a modern day “Apostle Paul” – a Kenyan missionary who was called by God to go into the Sudan during the war. He went without financial support and lived on what people gave him. He lived with a family until he learned the language and culture and then shared the gospel with his hosts. Even though he had to walk for days to reach various locations, four churches started within only a few years through his humble ministry.”

“These ‘stones’ which we’re tempted to reject because they don’t fit our patterns have become the chief means by which the gospel is spreading across the world,” Good said.

“I just heard that the Maasai Mennonite Church in Olepolos, Kenya, is planning to send a full-time Maasai missionary to assist with this new outreach among the Maasai in Tanzania,” Good said. “This is fun to watch!”

-Jewel Showalter

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