1 Timothy 2:1
Good News Translation (GNT)
First of all, then, I
urge that petitions, prayers, requests, and thanksgivings be offered to God for
all people.
Everyone in East Africa in the late 1960's and before feared
the Maasai. They were known as fearless fighters, blood drinkers and cattle
thieves. Many armed skirmishes took place between other tribes and the Maasai
on an almost continuous basis. I had students in boarding school who would tell
me how they had spent their school vacations out fighting the Maasai to recover
cattle that had been rustled from their father’s farm while they were in
school.
In northern Tanzania the Maasai had been particularly resistant
to the Gospel, so it was with great joy that we learned there was to be a
baptism of some Maasai on the east side of the Pare Mountains. I was asked to
drive a group of about 9 of our seminary students to this event in the mission
director’s Toyota Land Cruiser.
A hundred or so people were baptized including a few Maasai.
Afterwards we stood around talking excitedly and feasting on excellent ugali
and relish plus festive fruits and meats. Everyone was excited, and the Spirit
of the Lord graced us with brotherhood and inter-tribal rejoicing.
About half of the students I had with me were Wapare whose
homes were in the Pare Mountains. So they begged me to drive them over the
mountains rather than around the end and back west to Ikizu. I looked at them
rather skeptically and said that I didn’t believe there were any roads over the
mountains. They admitted this freely but assured me that there were footpaths
that were passable for even something as big as our Land Cruiser.
Always ready for an adventure but quite dubious about the
possibility of making it, I headed up a steep path in low-range
four-wheel-drive. We met a few people on foot or bicycle. Often one or other of
the students would know one of the passersby and chatter excitedly as we
passed. Finally, late in the afternoon,
we arrived safely at the little village of Suji. The students parceled themselves
out for the night, and I stayed with a very friendly and hospitable family.
The family spoke Kipare as their home language and spoke
Swahili very well. I knew no Kipare, and my Swahili was halting at best. We
managed to keep up a broken conversation, and I learned a lot about the Wapare
people, their customs and history. That evening they asked me to pray for them.
I had never prayed in Swahili but saw no other way around it. I started out
with the familiar first words of the Lord’s Payer: “Baba yetu uliye mbinguni,”
and then I was on my own. They expressed their sincere appreciation, and we
parted as friends.
I don’t remember what I prayed for in that first prayer in
Swahili, but I do remember that it was a more stressful adventure than driving
for hours up mountain footpaths. It was the most memorable part of the trip, even
more memorable than driving through herds of thousands of zebra and wildebeest
on the Serengeti Plains, touring the Olduvai Gorge early human site, exploring
Ngorongoro Crater, traversing the mini rainforest with pygmy elephants and
lions in trees of Lake Manyara, and skirting the magnificent snow covered Mt.
Kilimanjaro.
Thank You, Lord, for
the privilege of prayer and how it binds us together as brothers and sisters in
Your great family.
