Local fisherman becomes fisher of men

Hampstead Baptist Church members Mike Becker and Hippie Kaiser just returned from a mission trip to Africa. These men, along with others from North Carolina, spent two weeks in June sharing their Christian faith with native Kenyans for the third time in four years.

"The ministry is aimed at people who are known as the Maasai. There's between one and a half and two million of them. It's hard to know how many because they're nomads," said Becker. "They live on the Southwest part of Kenya and the North part of Tanzania. We started out in Kenya and we're looking to go into Tanzania more. There's actually more of them in Tanzania."

Before sharing his culture and beliefs, Becker had to learn details about their culture and beliefs. Since most of the Maasai can't read, just handing them Bibles would not be an effective way to reach them. Instead, they use a giant quilt, called the Conga Cloth, as a teaching tool. The quilt is adorned with chronological illustrations of the major stories from the Bible. The missionaries point to it while telling the stories through translators.

"They have a verbal tradition, so we replicated that concept in the quilt with The Bible Story on the Conga Cloth. And then we tell the story starting with the Creation and it goes all the way to the ascension of Christ. Then we spend a lot of time with the New Testament. We tell the whole story, what we call the short format, in about 45 minutes.  But when we go back, we might spend an hour on any story. That's our main purpose for going over there. We break up into teams. This year there were 12 of us from different parts of North Carolina, from four different churches. Calvary Roads ministries based out of Knoxville, Tennessee came up with the idea. We work in coordination with the Baptist Mission of Kenya. Some of us are so well trained now that we go on our own. We're still representing them, but they no longer have to be there with us," said Becker.

The missionaries are reaching so many people in Kenya and Africa that they are now venturing so deep into the wilderness that they will soon have to camp out instead of staying hotels. Becker also described how a typical mission visit would happen.

"What we would usually do is go to a Boma. "Boma" is Swahili for a group of family homes. They don't really have villages. Their houses are grouped together in a circle; they'd put down Acacia tree branches with their really big thorns, and put their goats inside at night like a corral. A lot of times we meet with the Maasai and they've never even heard of Jesus. A lot of them, believe it or not, have never even seen white people. The little kids want to put their hands on our cheeks and pull on it to see if our skin feels the same, and they'll tug on our hair. It's really amazing," said Becker.

"When we tell the stories at a Boma we usually tell story three times simultaneously and here's why: What we found in order to reach these people, we have to reach the old men. They have a very parochial system and it's real interesting. So we take all the different age groups and separate them off. Three of us join the leaders, the Ngusis, under a tree. Three more of us go off with the younger men. And three more of us go off with the women. We do this because this is the way they do things, so we mimic them out of respect. Old men won't sit there with women - not because they don't like them, but because that's just not the way they do things," Becker explained.

During his stint in Africa, Becker learned much about the warrior culture among the Maasai and how that is affected by age... approximately.

"They Maasai don't keep track of age. In fact, they think it's rude to count. They wouldn't know how many cows they had, but they would know the name of each one. So somewhere around the age of 10 to 15 they do this thing where they get grouped by approximate age. This is where the elders decide it's time to make a new group of warriors. So they take all the males and go through a circumcision ceremony and separate them from the rest of the group for as long as they are warriors. They don't live with the rest of the people. They live off to themselves as a group and they bond together and get real tight. That age-set is given a name that never changes. So you'll be in that age-set for the rest of your life. For example, my age group is ‘Rabau.' That would be people about 45 or so. They recognize me as a Rabau. That's key to what we do. I would introduce myself as a Rabau. When these warriors bond for five years or so together, they're job is to protect the tribe from wild animals; and of course lions love cows. These warriors protect the cows by killing the lions with nothing but a sword and a spear," said Becker.

Many years of living as warriors have given these men the ability to sneak up on anyone in an open area. Although, they are peaceful people, it still was somewhat startling to the missionaries at time.

"One thing you have to get used to is they just show up. They're used to hunting lions. You'll be talking to somebody alone in the middle of nowhere and then all the sudden there are five Maasai men just standing right behind you. I mean you're in the middle of an open field! And they're just suddenly there! And you'll be talking and you turn around again and they're just gone! They are quiet and sleek. And really just amazing people," laughed an impressed Becker.

The Maasai people have had an interesting time embracing technology and modern living. They still live in dung huts, but there are still some modern conveniences even they can't refuse-cell phones.

"I went in 2005, 2006, and this year, and I noticed something different on this last visit: these guys have cell phones! They don't have water or electricity but they have cell phones! Each Boma has a cell phone that they recharge at a charging station when they are at the market trading animals. They also buy prepaid minutes while they're there," laughed Becker.

While they love the phones, the Maasai were not fans of the Kenyan governments plan to force their children to get educated in schools. As part of a compromise, one out of about (remember they don't count) every six Maasai has to be sent away to school. The children that earn this "dishonor" are usually children who have show signs that they might not make good warriors. A child who loses a goat might be that one the gets sent off for book learning.

"They don't fight among themselves. As far as we know, no Maasai has ever murdered another Maasai. If they have a dispute, all the men will sit under a tree and figure it out, even if it takes days. And the one thing they never talk about is the problem. They might tell a story that teaches a lesson, and then somebody offers a solution. While they do this, nobody bothers them, not the women, not the kids," said Becker.

So the question is, why do Mike Becker and others from the United States feel the need to travel to Kenya to share their Christian faith when there are already Christian natives there who can do the same thing? The answer is somewhat complex and more related to age than nationality.

"The Maasai pastors are usually not from the elder ruling class. They are usually in their thirties. They don't have any power because the older men don't think they know anything yet since they're so young. So we gain the trust of the elders as missionaries, and then we tell them that they can trust these young pastors, that they do know what they're talking about," said Becker.

According to Becker, the mistakes of missionaries in the past was that they would build a church and leave. When they would do that, more than likely the church would just be an abandoned building within years. But if they show the people how to build their own churches and how to have their own leaders, then they are more likely to sustain their religious structure.

Those interested in supporting or participating in next year's mission trip are welcome to contact Mike Becker for more information. He says that the preparation for the trip requires intense learning about the Maasai culture, so no major mistakes are made during the visit.

It helped Becker avoid insulting the people. He is an avid fisherman, who writes a fishing column for the Topsail Advertiser. So what was one of the first things he learned about the Maasai people? They absolutely hate fish. They love goats and cows, but despise those pesky water animals. The preparation saved Mike from much trouble. Although, once they explained to him that they had only tried government-rationed skipjacks cooked with the heads and the eyes, Becker eventually introduced some of them to tuna, but only after gaining their trust. Learning their culture allowed him to share his back, and now he is home to share his visit with the rest of us.