1
Corinthians 12:5
The
Voice (VOICE)
There are many different ways to serve,
but they’re all directed by the same Lord.
Tourists go to northern Namibia to see the great Etosha
National Park with its abundance of African wild animals and to Kaokoland, the
wildest part of northern Namibia, to see the Himba people who to this day cover
their bodies with a mixture of rancid butter and red mud and traditionally wear
only red mud colored skirts around their loins.
Pam and Gideon Petersen were sent as missionaries to the
Himba people in Kaokoland in the early 1990s. Going back to Dr Robert Moffat
and Dr David Livingstone, for almost 200 years missionaries have worked in this
part of Africa. To this day the Himba have resisted Christianity. The Petersens
went into the heart of this wild country, built themselves a palm leaf hut,
learned the Himba language, and worked with the people. After a few years the
church withdrew their support, regarding the effort as fruitless. They conveniently
forgot how Moffat had worked for over a quarter of a century before reaping his
first convert to Christianity in neighboring Botswana.
The Petersens, however, did not give up. Instead they joined
the self-supporting Adventist Frontier Missions organization. They visited many
churches and people across the world to raise enough money so they could
continue their work. They trained local people to carry on their work. After a
dozen or more years, the Holy Spirit suggested a novel approach. The Himba,
like many peoples in Africa, have only an oral tradition to remember their
history. This history is passed on to future generations by minstrels who chant
the stories of ancient heroes sung to time honored tunes.
Stories of the great Bible heroes and containing the timeless
good news of Christianity are being told in Otjihimba poetry that can be sung
using the ancient tunes. These are recorded on solid-state MP-3 players and
distributed amongst the Himba. Already God is bringing about wonderful hope and
changes in the lives of this people through these simple stories.
Finally the church that once lost interest in the conversion
of the Himba is now taking renewed interest in this work. Many are encouraged by the recent baptism of
a Himba chief.
Please continue, O
Lord , to bring light and hope to the Himba people who for so long have been
held enslaved by the evil spirits of Animism.
The Himbas can be equated with the Masai of East Africa. In 1908 a British Colonist known as Lord Delamere from London settled as a farmer in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya. This is the home province of the Masai.
ReplyDeleteHe acquired 100Hactres of land for himself to do agriculture as well as livestock farmIng. He encountered interference with the the nomadic masai crossing his land harphazardly. He decided to stop this by establishing permanent masai settlements in a distrIct area called LAIKIPIA. The program caused a lot of contradictions. Many cattles died as well as people. The King in England got informed. Since he considered all people in Kenya as his subjects he ordered the stoppage of 'Lord Delamere's Resettlement Program'.. of the masai people. He was infuriated. He died in 1930.
Today, the leading district of the whole Masai community in Kenya and Tanzania in terms of modern development i.e. education, housing, health, etc is non other than Laikipia. Had Delamere been allowed to continue more would be done.
Let those ministering for the Himba be blessed
Thanks, I didn't know the history of the Masai. I did know that the neighboring peoples were often attacked by the Masai on cattle gathering expeditions. I had the privilege of being at the first Tanzanian Masai baptism.
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