Kwa Marafiki Wetu...
Nov 1999
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- "Who is Mama Alpha?"
.... Wonderful Masai lady - Visiting Encouragers...
Steve & Hillary Cullen - You want to fly?
..... try it.....? - Stanley and film
..... Help! - Benjamin lost out.
..... thievery spoiling help - Cows and a sick girl.
..... "sell the cow!" I said - Excitement: Upper Kitete
..... what food can do!
“I have had a great time ministering to the 'unity groups'- the groups of pastor's that Mike has a burden for. They are keen for the ministry and seem to be committed to the gathering together. Some places were really open to the Holy Spirit and others were hard work. I had a 'blast' at one place next to the Sanya Juu intersection where Mike had only been once. We (Matthew the keyboard player and I) turned up ten minutes after the appointed hour to find nobody arrived yet - then the pastor came and said – “yes, they are having the meeting, come back in an hour”! So we had coke for an hour and went back thinking – “wonder what's happening here?” Well, I needn't have been concerned; it was great. Very open people and a nearly full church. Matthew was helpful too as he got filled up while we were in Kilema- the Holy Spirit touched him and at one stage he 'fell off' the key board as we were worshiping the Lord! From then on I used him to break through in meetings. He became very aware of the anointing too. There was another place that we had a particularly good time as well - Daffa was interpreting for me and of course he really enjoys it when the Holy Spirit starts moving. We had people falling all over each other - they're not that good at catching - and the Masai passers-by putting their heads through the window watching the strange proceedings.
I found that some of the level of understanding with some of them made it difficult work as you could almost see them 'chewing' But on the whole it was a worthwhile time. I think I was with six of these groups with meetings ranging from one to three days.”
Steve
was a great blessing to us ministering to the churches here. People SO
appreciate overseas input. But we personally were blessed too. He and
Hilary came at an opportune time to encourage us. Thankyou so much
both of you! Back to Top
EVERYONE likes the film. We had elephants nearby when we showed to these Maasai!
“Who IS Mama Alpha?”
Our faithful ETF Oz sec/treas Rod asked me that question recently after a donation came in for Mama Alpha from friends from NSW. Well, she is a very hard working lady from the Warusha tribe [originally from the Masai tribe who settled permanently in the Arusha area- hence the name ‘Arusha’ given to the town we live in.] who has returned to the bush with her Pastor husband [Isaac]. They minister to Masai people far from town at Ngare Naibor, Tanzania, East Africa. Days of walking to nearby villages are part of her normal life.
She came to the seminar for children put on by Paul and his team. On her return
within
weeks she had 300 Masai children she ministers to spiritually and
practically with food and clothes [much from us]. It caused her a few
headaches- some of the local warriors did not like her teaching and
giving their children new things! They came against all the churches- in
her words there was a ‘war’! But some of the children were
literally starving [Masais cows are more important than wives or kids]
and she has been able to ‘rescue’ many many young lives. Things are ok now. It brought the churches together! She used to have to cart water, sometimes... 7 kms if the local pump was out. But with our friends help, she now has a pipe to a tank at her house where others get water as well. She has a small garden as well because of it. Soon she will have a bike! And a sewing machine [ or two, or three] to teach the young girls sewing! It is a privilege to be a channel to help such a faithful and enterprising lady! Back to Top
Excitement at Upper Kitete
It was great to return to where Marko, the village chairman, and his brother Matthew, now the pastor, found the Love of the Lord Jesus back in '94. We took food in there during the famine of that time. What a welcome we had! A weeks ministry culminated in the whole village turning out to thank us again for the food we took this year amongst other things. Unlike '94, there was no fear of hearing the wonderful life giving Word from Jesus. This time they flocked to hear and and in the evening...... well you should have seen it! People were everywhere and ran for Jesus afterwards. Long term relationships had been built by our previous work and people found the Lord because of it! It was a great time. Back to Top
Upper Kitete church
Steve and Hillary Cullen were late - only by a day! The day
before they had waved goodbye to their connect flight as they chugged
into Mwanza on the local ferry from Bukoba. ‘The next flight is
several days away’ they were told sadly. But then that changed- ‘you
have a flight tomorrow!’. Sharon and I waited for their 6:30 pm
arrival at the local airport here. It gets dark quickly at 6:45/7 [we
are on the equator] Suddenly there was a scurry of activity. Someone
was pulling madly at a generator on the tower roof. What was going on?
They were looking up at the sky “Inakuja!, inakuja!” [Its
coming, its coming!] I thought the wheels were stuck up and it was
overflying. Mad pulling on the generator. Inaenda, inaenda![its going
its going!]. The generator had failed to light up the runway lights!
Over an hour later we met them 40kms away at the International
airport!. Back to Top
Stanley and film ministry.
Stanley
and Matthew have touched well over 40,000 people with crusade and film
these last months.[I would say it would be double that- their record
keeping is lacking sometimes!] Many pastors have thanked us for the
unusual opportunity to avail themselves of the equipment without the ‘mzungu’
[white person] needing to be there. Literally thousands flock to watch
our films: Want
to help? Back to Top
Benjamin lost out.
We help people with small business as we receive help for this. Benjamin is such a man. He is a polio victim. He has a head for business but no capital to start. He proved faithful in selling eggs and Bible’s so we knew we could trust him with more. So friends in Oz helped him to start a shop. It started so well. He returned the first loan instalment on time as he promised. It was encouraging for him and us! But...... thieves broke in and stole much of his stock. He came worried about how to return the loan.
Why do I share his story? Sometimes you can get weary in trying to help people get out of the poverty here. So many times something always seems to crop up that pulls the newly blessed man down. I have others who need help like Benjamin. Pray for him.... and the defeat of abject poverty. We will continue to help him. Back to Top
Cows and a sick girl.
We were escorted to a Masai boma of thatched mud huts to pray for a very sick 13 year old girl. She had third degree burns from her clothes catching alight some three weeks before. We were led into the musty smoke filled darkness and in ‘candlelight’ her garments were lifted for us to see the horrific puss filled burns on her body along with ‘cancers’ [bed sores]. It was gross neglect in my view. I was asked if I would give them money to help. As we left, the pastor proudly showed me his many cattle and goats. They were fat and flourishing! It put some questions in my mind.
I sat the pastor down and asked him if he was prepared to do his bit.
“What, sell one or two of my cows!?”
“Yes, give what you have to give to help your daughter!”
You could almost see the pastor thinking “What an amazing concept!”
But he did it! I did help him as well to encourage him and took her to the hospital three hours away, but I believe that Masai pastor learnt a lesson that day to be taught to others. We pray so anyway. Back to Top
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