Our friends in Tanzania use medicine as a gateway to the Maasai people. A few weeks ago they did a medical camp among this tribe treating 670 people medically for a wide range of issues. Along with nurse practitioners J & N, others came with them to show the Jesus film in Ki Maa, the Maasai language, to hundreds of people each night. Very few, if any, of these Maasai living in this remote area had ever seen a movie in their life. Then, seeing a film in their own village in their own language, and hearing Jesus speaking in their heart language, they were riveted to the message. Between the film and the evangelism team sharing the gospel in camp, 310 people accepted Jesus as their Savior! The Namelok Baptist Church will take over their discipleship.
This hardworking team also tackled practical ways to help by laying the groundwork for a water project that will add 30,000 liters of water tanks and rain catchment systems. This will double their storage capacity when it rains. With drought cycles appearing more often, this is a huge benefit.
The team will come back to this group of Maasai in June to do VBS with the kids – and back again in October to do women’s health teaching as well as training pastors from the nine surrounding churches. And always, of course, more evangelism!
WHO ARE THE MAASAI?
The Maasai are cattle and goat herders, their economy is almost exclusively based on their animal stock from which they take most of their food: meat, milk and even blood, as certain sacred rituals involve the drinking of cow blood. Moreover, the huts of the Maasai are built from dried cattle dung.
The Maasai in Tanzania number 443,000 people and most adhere to ethnic religions. Only 6% of them are evangelical Christians.
THE MAASAI PEOPLE - CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE
Mungu awabariki, ("God bless you" in Swahili)
HPC Mission Strategy Team
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