We left the comfort of Kijabe – the two hospitals, large private school, english speaking population – to live in Rare for 7 days. The people of Rare are from two tribes, the Maasi and Turkana. They both used to be nomadic herders but now the Turkana keep farms in addition to their herds. We often heard the sounds of cattle, sheep, and goats walking through our place we called home to reach the nearby stream for water. During the week that we were there we went from hut to hut in groups of 5 to 6 talking with the people there. Most of them were Christians but we were able to share scripture with them to encourage them and we also challenged them to know God on a deeper level.
As we were talking with people we realized how desperate the situation was for them. It had not rained there in two months and their crops were about to fail. Their herds were having a difficult time finding good grass as well. Our group was talking with one man when we felt God speaking to us saying that he would provide. We told the man that we would pray and that God would bring rain that night. As a team we fasted and prayed and God brought rain not only that night but the next three nights.
The last night that we were in Rare we bought a sheep from a local herder. I was allowed to kill it which was a great experience. That night we invited the pastor and others from the village and over 30 of us ate together.
The 4 guys on the trip decided that we were going to hitchhike the 20 miles back to Kijabe instead of taking the bus with the team. The local that was pointing us in the right direction ended up sending us on a road that was so steep that vehicles could go down but only motorcycles could go up. This condemned us to walking the whole way out of the Great Rift Valley. As we finally got into town we were weary from the long climb and were so happy to get some cokes together!
We look forward to what God has in store for us for the rest of the trip!
