Sermon

Irene and her husband, Pastor Simon

Pastor Simon and his daughter, Deborah

"I have ached for Africa for as long as I remember. I believe God was whispering in my ear, even in my mother's womb...."

"Africa.... Africa.... Africa...."

I stand, looking at the congregation. How did I get here? What had shifted to make this dream, reality? It was like being transferred into another realm, unknown, but familiar.

I explain why I carry my camera everywhere.

"When I was a very little girl, I would watch the TV... I would look at magazines or newspapers. I would see the photographs that had been taken of starving children in Africa. Their belly's round with starvation. Flies making themselves at home on their bodies. Their eyes staring into the camera, desperate. I would see pictures of mothers holding their babies, limp and lifeless....

Somebody took those photographs. I looked at them and was moved. I was moved enough to want to come here... To want to do something. I carry this camera so that maybe, just maybe, one of my photographs will move someone else to want to come here and help you."

I continue.

"For many years, my heart has ached to bring water to Africa. I came, not knowing you had no water. I came not knowing the state of your land.

My first night here, I told your brother, Samson, I want to learn Swahili and Maasai. He told me he would teach me. That night, God spoke to me as I was falling asleep...."

"MUNGO TOSHA."

"God. Is. Enough."

Hoots. Hollering. Clapping, stomping....

"God is enough", I repeat.

"I don't know Swahili. He spoke to me in Swahili! Who am I? I'm just a girl who aches for you... for your land, for your people.

I went to bed very late last night. I was asleep for about 20 minutes when God awakened me."

"Isaiah 35", He said.

"Let me read this to you.

Isaiah 35.

The Desert and the parched land..."

I read each line. My interpreter following from the Maasai Bible.

"'the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus,

² it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

they will see the glory of the LORD,
the splendor of our God.

³ Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;

⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you."

⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.

⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸ And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it.

⁹ No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰ and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.'

I see people on the floor. I hear weeping. My legs are quaking in the heaviness of God. I can barely stand and am thankful to have a pulpit to hold on to.

"God gave me this word for you in the night. He told me what to say.

All night He spoke to me.

Then, around 6am, I finally fell asleep. I had a dream.

In this dream, I saw a wall of water coming from the west.

This wall, the rain, was swooping in, fast.

I started to pray in my dream, excited, knowing the rain was going to restore the land.

I prayed so loudly that I woke myself up, sure that I had woken up my friends.

I listened, sure that they would come to see why I was yelling. Nobody came. They hadn't heard me.

I fell back asleep. Instantly, I was taken back into the dream, only this time, I was walking down a dirt road, arm and arm with sister Nelly.

We were out for a stroll.

We rounded the corner, and were stopped in the middle of the road.

Wildebeests were stampeding across the road.

Elephants, giraffes... they were all rushing back to the land.

They were coming back.

There was green grass again for them to graze, water for them to drink.

In my dream, your land had come back to life. The drought was over. The animals had returned.

God speaks to me through dreams. He WILL restore your land. Your people."

I tell them about the banners. I show them the water banner and explain how I came to make it.

"God told me to wave this banner. I will wave it and you may worship, pray, sing, whatever you feel led to do. When I am done, I will give this water banner to Pastor Simon."

I look at Pastor Simon. He nods, tears coming down his face.

"Pastor Simon, I want you to take this banner and wave it in your church. I want you to go to your wells and riverbeds and wave this banner. I want you to proclaim rain over your land. I want you to take this banner with you to the interior churches. Wave it there and proclaim rain. Allow the Pastors of those churches to wave it."

The musician starts playing his keyboard.

I take a deep breath.

"wait...

After I wave this banner, God asked me to do something that is very hard for me. Something that makes me uncomfortable. I do not want to be disobedient. I hope you all will allow me to do it"

I look at the goat poo covering the floor and try to think of ways to get around what I am supposed to do. I see the men and women on the ground, faces pressed into the earth. Hands and arms outstretched in front of them, they lay, weeping. I am ashamed to have worried about poo.

"I have this anointing oil. God told me to anoint each of your feet before you leave here tonight. Men, women, children... all of you."

I can barely breath.

I lift the banner as the music starts to play again.

I turn and see Pastor Simon's wife, Irene. I grab her hand and give her the resurrection banner.

We stand hand and hand, waving water and resurrection over the people of the church.

I whisper in her ear.

"This is a resurrection banner. Go with your husband and wave this when he waves the water banner. God wants to resurrect this land. He wants to see life here again. He wants your people to come back."

At the time, I didn't recognize what I had done. I didn't see that by asking her to wave the banner with her husband, there would be an atmospheric shift and a proclamation of unity.

I hand Pastor Simon the water banner. Oil in hand, I anoint feet, ankles, shoes. Wanda asks if she can help. In my haze, I look at her and nod. I am so outside of myself in this moment that I don't realize I have excluded my team.

The dust seems to have taken a permanent position on my body. I feel a bit like Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown... a cloud of dust chasing after me wherever I move.

I sit back down, satisfied that I have not missed any feet. I see Pastor Simon in the back, waving the banner, totally engrossed in God.

Bishop Osai stands and thanks us for coming.

He tells me I remind him of TD Jakes.

What?

He follows it by saying that TD Jakes had come a few years before with a similar message.

(phew. I mean, I love TD Jakes, but I don't know if I want to LOOK like him!)

Then he asks the congregation to come and bring us offerings.

"Whatever you have.", he says.

Pastor Simon stands and places a long, beaded sash around my neck. It is worn like a beauty pageant sash. I know this is a big gift.

I watch as people come and adorn us.

I start to cry as I see an older, traditional Maasai woman, crown Eilene with thick chain of beads.

I put my head on her shoulder and say,

"Eilene, you are being adorned like a queen. This is what I saw the first day I met you!"

"This is what you saw..." she says.

We are both sniffling.

We get up to leave and I say to someone,

"What does this necklace mean?"

"Oh, that? That is the highest decoration you can receive."

"What? Really?"

"Only Maasai warriors who have killed a lion receive this. Only men."

side note:

(Pastor Simon is the Pastor of the little tent church. Bishop Osai is over all the churches in the area.)