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. 

Swallowed Up By Life

“We groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”

Every Thursday is a fellowship meeting where 25 to 40 Maasai come to worship.  Most Thursdays things are very average and normal.  They sing some Maasai songs (which the girls are getting very good at) someone shares a word from the Bible mostly centered around being good and doing what’s right, being pleasing to God by not doing what is wrong, then they pray for people that have needs (mostly sicknesses).  After a few months of this fellowship, sometimes it can be a little boring.  There! I said it!  Church in Africa is often really, really boring!  I remember talking with my wife’s great, great aunt from Scotland about church in America one day and she was being so critical of worship these days.  She called it “7Eleven” worship songs because you sing the same seven words eleven times.  I thought, “where is her passion?  Does she know nothing of meditation and waiting on the Lord?”  Well, today, Jesus is kicking my butt and reminding me about that conversation and my feelings for her every time we enter into a worship service because it is like “5twentyeight” worship here and I get so bored!  So I was watching last Thursday as the minutes on the clock were passing by slowly, seeing a handful of old ladies, a dozen young mothers, and one or two sidelined men or boys singing worship songs asking the God of Moses to take the hill (what meaning that has for a Maasai I have no idea) and I felt like my eyes opened.  I started thinking of the anthropology classes I’d taken in college.  I started thinking about every conversation I’ve had with every anti-evangelism philanthropist or American co- worker that accuses religious institutions of just bringing newly packaged religion to a different culture and in the process destroying the beauty of diversity and I started asking myself what real change was happening here?  Really, poor Maasai come to a well supported western style mission base to sing songs and they get stuff in return.  That sounds exactly like what critics describe us to be.  All of a sudden I became very frustrated and discouraged when all of a sudden the songs ended and the worship director lead us to change course a bit. 

He led us all to share some of the struggles anyone was passing through and then, to just lay them down and enter into the presence of the Lord.  This time, when I looked around the room, my eyes opened in a different way than before.  I saw a 60 year old 6 foot tall woman with a huge gap between her teeth and barely any meat on her bones close her eyes begin to experience something that until that moment I had been missing that day.  What I saw in her face was something that can’t really be argued by Evangelical culture killers and Anthropological Jesus haters because it has nothing to do with any of them.  No matter how many conversations I have about the proper approaches to missions or the abuses of churches to manipulate people, this woman was in the middle of an experience that no one else can really convince her of one way or another.  The peace that surpasses understanding, the grace that is sufficient for her, the love that is everlasting, the mercies that are new every morning really have nothing to do with me or anybody else.  Koko Elizabeth spends time with Jesus and that isn’t predicated on my ability to enjoy a worship service or not and it isn’t contingent on whether anthropological data shows our work is viable or not.  Then I looked around the room and saw more people experiencing something that can’t be quantified or measured, but can only be taken by faith.  I saw a young mother of 3 younger than my youngest sister with swelling above her right eye probably from an angry young man with her eyes closed and her mouth parted speaking to someone that I could not see.  I saw an old man all alone, without other young warriors to respect and honor him, but yet he comes and watches as people speak words of adoration to a God that will never leave nor forsake no matter who we are or what we have done.  I saw a little girl that would one day most likely be sold by her father  to a man, young or old, purchased for a price and then used the rest of her life…but before any of that happens she gets to hear about a man, A MAN! who traveled across the universe to tell her that he loves her more than anything in the universe and would lay down his life for her.  Then, this word of 2 Corithians comes to life.  For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, SO THAT WHAT IS MORTAL MAY BE SWALLOWED UP BY LIFE!

That is definitely worth an hour or two of my time.  I don’t know if anyone else gets bored at church sometimes, but next time you do, I give you this challenge.  Open your eyes and look around.  Look to see if what you are feeling is the same thing everyone else is experiencing.  Maybe you will find that God is doing some things that you didn’t see before and I assure you, when God moves nothing is boring.

Exciting News!

Hi family and friends!!
We have exciting news! After praying and seeking guidance from others we are heading home in November for a short visit to raise support as well as visit family and friends. We have been praying for the Lords wisdom in this. We have been praying about adding to our family. We are ready to adopt but the moral code of the government here is not very reliable and so it is difficult to count on the adoption process running as smoothly as we might like. That’s okay. Things take time. We have been told the process could take up to 2 years. We would love to start that process now but in a year when we were planning on returning home to report about all the Lord has been doing, the child/children may not be ready to return with us. We will probably need a year or two depending on the current mood of the court system. So, we are heading back to America to raise support, visit Jesus’ Church: America Branch and then we will return to start the process of adoption right away. By the next visit home we will have custody of our new little one/s. The timing works well with our ministry here. During the month of December and into a little of January the base here in Arusha and as well out in Engikaret shuts down. Everyone takes that month off to visit home/supporters. It is a good time to be absent without missing too much. We are not firm on the dates yet but we are scheduling ourselves to be in the states from the beginning of November until mid/end of January. We are so excited to be able to see you and share what is going on here in person as well as hear what has been happening in your lives. Please pray that we find a great deal on our flights and also good connections with people that will want to partner in the work going on here in Tanzania. If you know of anyone or any church/ministry that would be interested in someone coming to share about the things God is doing in Tanzania, please shoot us an email or facebook message and we can start putting pieces together. We love you all and can’t wait to see you!

I love myself

Lately hailey has a new thing that she does. Every once in a whiles he will start looking around the table at dinner or the living room when we are all together in the evenings and she starts on one end and makes her way around telling us who she loves. I love mommy! I love Daddy! I love Hannah! This all is very cute and sweet. But the last part is where i get struck with the voice of jesus. Because then she points to herself and she says, I love her! Basically, I love myself!! I'm not sure there is a greater gift that hailey could ever give me then when she looks at herself and says, I love myself. And it is more than just a kind of encouragement and peace in my heart that she will have good self esteem when she is older. But is this special kind of worship that I hear from the voice of my smallest child passing through my heart saying Jesus, "you have made hailey well. Jesus I love the way you made me!" In Africa Hailey couldn't be more different than everyone else here. Every child, every adult, every person looks nothing like her. She doesn't talk like they talk, she doesn't dance like they do, she doesn't dress like anyone around her. Even amidst all of the ways she sticks out like a sore thumb, still she points at herself and says, "I love her." So I see this and start to look at my own life and ministry. I look at the ways I look at evangelism and missions and somewhere along the lines I got the impression that I have to be an African to minister to Africans. And to start to be a Tanzanian I have to stop being an American. So I start doing silly things like hating the American in me. I start trying to push out the western values that have framed my personality and trying to mold myself after an eastern perspective. "why on earth do I need to save for retirement? God will provide for me! Why am I so strict about time? It really doesn't matter if I or the people around me are late. I need to stop thinking of myself as an individual and identify with the whole." But Hailey reminds me that God made me on purpose! And there is power the things He put in me. I don't have to become an African to show African that Jesus loves them. Jesus came to earth and put on skin in an incarnational step to reach us. He came to earth to show us that He loves us but he never stopped being God. He never forsook the power of being who He was. As we approach our ministries we don't need to become teenagers to minister to them. We don't need to become poor to minister to them. We will never literally wear someone else's shoes, but that doesn't mean we can't love them in the individual shoes that they wear. Jesus did a good job when he made me and he did a good job when he made each person in Africa. I worship Jesus because he made me and my job here is to help other people here to worship him because of the way he made them. I love me.

A Few Ministry Updates

Last week we were able to go to a church in Kia, about 40 minutes away from our home.  It was given some help from some churches in Korea to build and now it has this beautiful new church building, but it is unfinished.  .  The church was founded over 10 years ago by a man named Christopher.  He is the brother of a close friend of ours here at the base and is a good man.  We went to minister at this church and were very blessed to be able to meet and see them.  They have plans some day to build a primary school in order to minister to the surrounding children and educate children them in Jesus' name. 
All of this was very exciting for us because this pastor is very passionate and is hoping to begin going to surrounding areas in order to plant churches.  We are going to continue to meet with him and pray for the Lord's guidance about how we can partner together.  Please pray with us as we wait for the Lord's direction and wisdom. 
We also have seen the Lord doing some really great things in Engikaret.  We have a new staff here named Violet.  She is a young single girl that loves children and hopes to teach one day.  Her father is a pastor here in Arusha and she is following in his footseps of ministry. 
Also, we are really starting to get to know the people here.  We were invited to go to tea at one lady's house in particular.  She and her husband are both believers.  She is the only wife of her husband and they are really good parents.  All of these things are really rare to see in the Maasai culture. 
As for the literacy class, this week I was asked to teach in Arusha for the week, so I chose two of my best students and asked them to help me this week to teach the other students while I was away.  I am excited to return and see their progress.  Maybe this will even turn into a team for teaching more Maasai to read. 
Thank you all for your prayers these last few months.  Please keep praying for us as we work toward seeing every Maasai in a knowing and loving relationsip with Yesu. 
We have been sending out monthly updates specifically describing the kinds of things we are doing here and if you are not currently getting those and would like to, please email us at NHForrest@yahoo.com so that we can make sure you get them.  Lord bless you

No more fear

This past week has been a good week full of God's grace. Right after posting about fear I continued to seek the Lord for comfort. This place is so hard to live in. There are so many things that are so different than in America but the thing I love about being here is seeking the Lord in everything. There really isn't any way to run away from a hard situation or trust in something else. We have to trust in the Lord at all times and definitely not lean on our own understanding cause I sure do not understand anything really that goes on here:). Anyway a week ago we had a worship night and a celebration night thanking our guards for the work that they do to keep us safe. A goat was slaughtered as well as a pig. After we had a night of worship and it was amazing. Everyone was dancing around and you could just feel the tension lift, the fear leave and the joy of the Lord take hold. We walked home that night and I felt the unhealthy fear leave me and since then have slept great! There is still a healthy fear that brings wisdom in situations but the fear that had gripped me is gone. Thank you Jesus! Along with my fear this week we took Hannah's and hailey out to a boma. If you had been there the first time they ever went you would wonder why we ever tried again. They screamed and were soo scared they were shaking. Hannah loves baby and we thought this would be a good time to try so nick, Hannah, hailey and I set off to the boma of raziki and Baby Sara. We wanted to see how she was doing after these past couple months. Hannah was amazing. There was cow dung everywhere, the flies were awful, the boma was very very dirty and a couple of the women tried to pick Hannah up. She just smiled the whole time and when we got inside she wanted to hold baby Sara and just held her and talked to her the whole time. I was so proud of her. Hailey was comfortable after a little while but I realized she had never been inside a boma. For those of you who have never been it is pitch black except for a little hole of light coming in. It smells of smoke, the bees are bad inside and the flies are awful. You sit on the top of buckets or water cans and sometimes the smell is enough to make you lose your breakfast. The girls loved it! They loved the hole and kept covering it so it would be pitch black and would laugh and laugh. Hannah let the kids touch her arms and hair and just smiled. The fear that had gripped her as well is gone. She is still nervous and not super friendly but that fear that made her scream when a Masaai got close is gone! Thank you Jesus for your continued faithfulness to us!

Continuing to walk in a miracle

We got to meet Lightness, Kelly and Dillon at their home. They are currently living with her father's oldest brother in a small room made of sticks and mud...and couldn't be happier! The babies are at home with their own mama, in their own clothes, with their own bottles. Now all they need is their own home. Lightness is an orphan herself and, as you have read, has no husband to support her. She was almost finished with her last year of secondary school when she got pregnant, but desperately wants to return and finish so that she will be able to support her children. Now, she needs help. We have found a family that will help lightness pay for her rent, electricity, and food for her babies. (milk and porridge) Also, she is currently living in a room in her uncle's house with his furniture and his cooking utensils.  She will need a bed, sheets, cupboards, pots and pans, etc.  finally, she asked also after I asked her for the seventh time if there was anything else, she asked if someone could help her with some clothes.  . But she has nothing to put inside of the home she is moving to. She needs a bed and dresser, a small table to eat on, and cooking ware. We are wondering if there is anyone that might feel led to help lightness with these things. Also, her final year of schooling is $250.00 for the whole year's tuition. We have seen God do an incredible thing in Lightness's life and we have been so blessed by the opportunity to be able to watch God do a miracle. Please don't feel obligated in any way to send funds. We haven't asked for funds on this page before because we have wanted this to be a place to encourage and include people in what God is doing here in Tanzania. This specific opportunity just seemed like a really exciting and obvious way for anyone that felt led to be connected specifically to someone's life. We brought with us all of the clothing items the babies would need and she was so very grateful. It was strange, too, because usually in this culture when you give a gift, the recipient becomes really quiet and subdued. The opposite was true for Lightness. She looked us in the face, shook our hands squarely, and thanked us for the gifts we brought. I continue to be more and more impressed with this young lady and, to quote Chariots of Fire, "I feel His pleasure" when I see her with those children. Lord, you are good and your mercy endures forever.