War

A couple of months ago, before the rains came there was scarse amounts of water and plants for the livestock in Engikaret to eat and people to drink. A neigboring village between Engikaret and Arusha called Oldonyosambu (the brown hill) began sending their cattle to Engikaret because their situation was even worse. This pushed the men of Engikaret to delve into the next village further, Keseriani (the place of peace). There was no peace there. The Massai in Keseriani chased the Engikaret men back to their village. This was not a very charged conflict because they were all Maasai. However, the neighboring village, Oldonyosambu is a sister tribe called Arushans. When the men from Engikaret returned, they proceeded to chase the Arushans off their land back into Oldonyosambu and the Arushans took that personally. Since then, the rains have come and the plants have returned and things were relatively peacefull, but the Arushans did not forget the behavior of the Maasai in Keseriani and Engikaret. This last month, the Arushans have regularly cut or turned off the waterpipe that supplies water to Engikaret as it travels through Oldonyosambu. The Maasai have gone to Oldonyosambu multiple times to try to resolve the conflict (albeit forcefully) but things have only escalated. This week as I returned home from teaching in Engikaret I came across over 300 Maasai warriors from Engikaret, Keseriani, Longido, and Ndaiboro gathered to march on Oldonyosambu for war. They reached the water tank built by Faces For Hope, http://www.facesforhope.com/, to discuss strategy. The elders are attempting to calm down the young warriors but to this point have been unsuccessful. The governor of the Longido area was present as well as the police, but none have been able to convince the Moron warriors to stand down. In response, several Arushan clans have gathered and reached the Engikaret border. Please pray for Engikaret. Please pray for the peace of God to come. Please pray that the young angry men will hear the wisdom of the elders and pray that the Arushans can come to a place of compromise. As of now, nearly 50 military men have been dispached to Engikaret and things continue to appear explosive. Pray for Heidi and I and our girls. We are looking for wisdom about how to continue our ministry and lessons in this time of violence.