Report from Mabwagele

By Rev. Evan Pyle

And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
Acts 19:18

Life is full of trouble. I guess you could say our travels were evidence of this. Our initial flight was delayed for an unknown reason and as a result we missed the rest of our connecting flights. We were transferred to other airlines altogether. Two of the planes we boarded wouldn’t start and they had to be dragged to a spot where they could be jump-started! Our revised flight plan took us to London’s Gatwick airport, from which we needed to collect our luggage and board a bus to Heathrow airport to continue our journey to Africa. The hitch was that our luggage was not present and accounted for. I thank God two men went above and beyond their job descriptions and sleuthed our bags from different parts of the airport innards. At one point, I was resting on a seat and just praying. I opened my eyes in time to see my suitcase being wheeled past me by an official from another airline. I rescued it before it disappeared behind another “No Admittance” door. Praise God.

Yes, there is happiness in every person’s life, but trouble is always hiding around the next corner, it seems.So, people have always sought ways to minimize their troubles and a means to ease their suffering. Some seek comfort in drink; others, in acquiring goods and riches. Many seek escape from trouble in religion. This is false religion, the kind that serves a god because of what he might do for you. There are people who profess Christ because of what He might do for them and simply add Him to the stable of deities they already hope to receive something from. This was, in part, the situation that Jay, Henry and I found in the village of Mabwagele, Tanzania. No wonder, since the picture of the Christian faith given to them has been one of cleaning up the externals.
Upon water baptism, “converts” are required to take a “Christian” name, forsake their Maasai decorations and, in the case of the men, don pants. These sincere people have been led to clean the outside of the cup without tending to the inside matters of repentance and saving faith in Christ. More than a few villagers expressed happiness
that God wasn’t asking them to exchange their culture for Christ.

I like to think of The Weapons of Our Warfare seminar as a teaching in Christian maturity. It is concentrated teaching for those serious about serving Christ. Yet we
had entered an area in great need of the gospel message that is the “power of God unto salvation.” The villagers knew almost nothing of Christ and His kingdom. We were amazed to learn that they had not even heard of an afterlife, heaven or future judgment. How was I supposed to teach them the Weapons seminar when more foundational teaching was so needed?

I am reminded of the evangelist Philip when he helped the Ethiopian eunuch. He began at the place where the eunuch was reading and preached Christ unto him. All of God’s Word proclaims Christ and that is what happened in Mabwagele. Regardless of the topic of the particular lesson that day, I used it to preach the gospel of Christ. At the end of several of our regular lessons, our co-worker Henry Musana led a call for salvation which resulted in a great response. It was moving to see people of such a different culture experiencing the same need as lost people everywhere. When they repented and called out to Jesus in faith they received the “like precious gift” given to all who are saved.

Shortly after our arrival we were informed that the Laibon had been in the village. In fact, he left when he heard we were coming. The Laibon is essentially the head of the Maasai traditional religion and acts as a prophet to his people. As such he wields great authority. Among the things he did while in Mabwagele was perform a ceremony in which a goat was killed. Participants were given a strip of the goat skin to wear around their wrists or ankles and were warned not to remove the skins lest some terrible thing happen to them, their family or their cattle. Indeed, we noticed that many, if not most, of the people attending the seminar were wearing these skins. Though these strips were carefully tied, it was not the knots that kept them in place; fear and superstition prevented people from removing the very thing that bound their hearts. Casting out devils, when done under the direction of the Holy Spirit, is an easy work compared to dislodging long-held fears and superstitions from the heart. What faced us was nothing
less than the commission given to Paul:

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
(Acts 26:18)

We found no greater friend in this work than the teaching of the Word. The Holy Spirit uses the teaching and preaching of Bible truth to enlighten the eyes and hearts of people. “The entrance of thy words giveth light,” says Psalm 119:130. The receiving of the Word caused faith to grow and the people began losing their fear of the accursed thing. Soon we saw goat skin strips on the ground, as more and more people cut them off. Those discarded skins bore testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of these people. I tremble both with excitement and godly fear thinking of the deliverance God wrought among the Maasai of Mabwagele.

Travel again became an issue for Ans, Jay, and me as we returned to Dar es Salaam for our flights home. Our transport broke down, stranding us late at night on a remote stretch of highway not far from Mikumi National Park. Amid dangers of animals and highway robbery, we managed to hitch a ride on the back of a large Pepsi truck loaded with empty bottles, an adventure that Jay and I both enjoyed a great deal. Only God’s
hand could have guided us safely through such troubles.

Those of you who support WTWH in prayers and finances are doing a valuable service in the Body of Christ. Dangers abound, but the payoff in souls is great. I know that in my times of trial, I felt your prayers holding me up. I also felt Jay holding me up when I became ill on the return flight. Thank you, brother Jay.

 

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From the September 2006 edition of the Vine & Branches