6/28/98: Today is Sunday, so Bill & Carol J., and family, took us to a Masai Church down in the Great Rift Valley. The overcast weather matched my gloomy attitude, but the worship service helped to lighten my mood considerably…
NOTE: The photo above shows the Masai church that we visited in The Great Rift Valley near Kijabe, Kenya.
6/28/23: When you drive to church on Sunday morning in Chicago, you are likely to see people walking their dogs. In our part of the city, near to forested parts of the North Branch of the Chicago River, you may also see an occasional deer, possum, racoon or even a coyote. But on that day in Kenya, as we drove down the escarpment into the Great Rift Valley, we saw what was typical of that environment: several clusters of antelopes, more than a few dazzle of zebras and at least one corps of giraffes. Who knew going to church was such an adventure!? (And aren’t collective nouns fun?) Interestingly, the Mai Mahiu-Narok Road, which we took down into the Great Rift Valley that morning, has to be repaired regularly because it crosses a tectonic fissure that is still widening (2018 news footage from Kenya). Constantly building a new bridge over a widening gap seems an apt geologic metaphor for the increasingly polarized social, cultural, ideological and political mood of the world today.
By contrast, we had a powerful and unifying experience in worship that morning. The church that we visited was a congregation of Masai tribal people who were warm and friendly, which helped to offset the cold and damp weather. There were two evangelists, one of whom had recently been installed as pastor of this particular congregation. Besides sermons from both of these men, several people stood up to give testimonies of faith. All of the speakers, men and women alike, were as adept and exuberant as the two evangelists! And, as it turned out, we, as Christian visitors from a foreign country, were invited to share a word of encouragement as well! Bill and I both spoke, and neither of us were completely caught off guard. As the Apostle Peter wrote in his first letter: “…always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…” (1 Peter 3:15).
My few minutes of testimony may have seemed dull by comparison with the energetic Masai evangelists, but I hope it was meaningful. In reflecting on the unifying nature of the Gospel and the catholicity of the Church, I tried to encourage that congregation with reflections on Paul’s words in Romans 1:1-7:
As fellow Christians, we are all “…set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; 7 to all who are beloved of God in [Kenya] (which I substituted for “Rome”), called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ruth and I had just read those verses the night before, during our prayer and devotional time together. I had been struck by the fact that these verses still applied to Christians today and in every part of the world, as well as when and where God moved Paul to pen them. God loves me, and Ruth, and those Masai people, and all people everywhere. But even more amazing, He invites us all to be His own children through faith in Christ.
“9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” —John 1:9-13
After the worship service, the church leaders made us their guests for lunch at a local “hotel”, their word for restaurant. Nyama Choma (roasted goat meat; “ny” pronounced as a diphthong, not a long “i”) and a sadza like cornmeal paste was the fare. It was, of course, delicious. It only cost the equivalent of a few American dollars to feed all twelve of us that were present, so it would have been easy for us to pay the bill. But their generous hospitality was a lesson in humility for us, because we were their guests. Such an expense for those pastors was like Ruth and I taking the same sized group out to an upscale restaurant back in Chicago!
The One Christian Church, hospitable and humble, is a truth that Ruth and I were reminded of over and over on our trip. We remain amazed at the fellowship we share with people from different countries, cultures and languages all around the world. I hope that experience that day was as encouraging to them as it is to us.
