Amazing day... Pastor Edward Simiyu (Edward) has been working with those who are seeking to bring peace among the West Pokot tribe in Northern Kenya and Uganda. The West Pokot are raiders and cattlemen who live very primitively. They are largely nomadic, they do not respect the national borders of Kenya and Uganda and go back and forth as they please. They have been responsible for much killing and stealing and have also been targets of the same from their rivals.
For several years Edward and associates have been building relationship with some Pokot men who received education. Simon and Renson are Pokot men but both have achieved some level of outside education. Simon has even been through college. Both want to help their people leave fighting behind and pursue peaceful lives.
Though they were supposed to visit Nairobi in early March, they were delayed and ended up being here while we are here. What a privilege to be with these 18 warrior cattlemen as they have some of their first tastes of modern civilization. So yesterday we left Nairobi in a couple vans--18 Pokot men, Edward, Peter the driver, Marcy (City Harvest staff), me, Joshua and Dwayne, Joe from Christ's Hope and a couple intern pastors from City Harvest.
In our two vans and car we headed for Maasai land northwest of the city about 2 hours drive. Maasai are a warrior culture as well who also tend animals. We met up with John, a Maasai man who was to be our guide. He brought us through some crazy back country paths in the vehicles for about one hour until we reached Maasai land. We stopped at one of five water lines that the Maasai maintain for their people and livestock.
For an hour John talked about how the Maasai have left fighting behind, settled down and become a pastoral people. He described the obstacles to this transition from the elders, the value of education for their young people and the way their lives have changed as a result of embracing the water project and maintaining it. John is a committed Christian and he is also using his education to help his people while he lives among them and continues to be a warrior and herdsman himself.
The reaction of the Pokot warriors was amazing. They just stared at the Maasai animals. They saw how large and healthy they were. They saw the people happily living in one place rather than constantly moving about. They saw the ready access to water. They realized as we toured the Maasai villages that peace brought about a much better life than killing and stealing. The whole thing was centered on the work of one Christian man who had been a strong advocate for adopting the good of technology without sacrificing Maasai culture.
I don't know how to compare the experience of this day to anything I've ever seen. I left my last Africa trip already fascinated by the Maasai so to spend the day in the village was reward enough. But to see the power of God reaching this formerly resistant people and to see a godly man giving up the modern world to live as an example to his own people was amazing. And to be there to witness the opening of the Pokot men's eyes as they caught a vision for what life could be.
This is the two pronged way of the Kingdom--proclaim and heal. The Pokot need to know Jesus and a few of them have been radically saved. But they also need to have help in finding their way to a life of peace. It is not enough to simply say stop fighting. They need to be walked through a totally new way of living. So much more could be said but I'll simply end with some pictures of the day that hopefully capture some of it for you...
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