Indubaayo has a degree in knowing the Lord

On Friday evening, I slept out at a Rendille nomadic clan village.  Indubaayo, a traditional Rendille woman evangelist, had come to Christ several years ago through reading the Rendille gospel of Mark.  Her mother and sister still live in the Rongumo village we visited, so she asked for a lift.  I had printed out the hot-off-the-press Romans chapter 12 we had just completed in their language.  

That evening, as we sat on mattresses under the Milky Way in front of Khassos hut, crowds of traditional Rendille came and sat around.  I read the gripping first verses of Romans 12.  One of the burning questions for those considering the Way of Jesus is what about sacrifice?  Blood sacrifice and particularly the one that looks like a far-off cousin of the Passover, are seen to be critical to the life and survival of the herds and the people.  Blood from the slaughtered animal is daubed on the foreheads of all the males in the family and then on the humps of the camels.  If we stop this protection, what then?

As I read of the sacrifice God requires, Indubaayo excitedly filled in the gaps.  While the shedding of blood is not required of us, the giving of a life in totality is.  Questions and comments were flying back and forth.  The children started dropping off to sleep around us.  How could a passage written to Rome so many years ago have relevance to a group of camel-keepers in the Kaisut desert of northern Kenya?  Because it is God's Word, living and vitally active!  More was to come.

To people who have suffered time and time again from raids by enemy tribes, here is the powerful antidote.  Instead of the vicious cycle of revenge killings which evoke more raids and more brutal relatiation, we read: Don't curse your enemy, but bless him.  Is he hungry? Feed him out of the little that you have.  Thirsty? Slake his thirst with that precious water you hauled in the blistering heat from a deep well ten kilometers away. 

The next morning Indubaayo eagerly clutched the printed page, delighted when I told her she could have it.  On Thursday this week, she lead the devotions for the Form 1 students in the newly formed Tirrim Secondary school  The contrast could not have been greater - a formerly illiterate woman, still wearing her beautiful array of beads, speaking to these young people driven by a desire to learn.  "I am not like you.  I do not know many of the things you know about. But I do have a degree," she said to the surprised faces in front of her.  "I have a degree in knowing Jesus my Lord, and that is the most important thing that anyone can have."

She produced the well-handled page and challenged them from Romans 12.  What were they doing with their opportunity, with their knowledge, when Jesus required their all as a living sacrifice?  The Holy Spirit was deeply at work.  Several students had tears in their eyes.  Friday night was end-of-term closing time, and Luka, one of the teachers, earnestly challenged the students.  These were issues of life and death, matters that should be given the most urgent attention.  Who would respond to the demands of Christ on their lives?  Out of the thirty students, fifteen indicated a desire to give their all to Christ?  There is rejoicing in Korr, only matched and surpassed by the explosion of praise in the heavens?

By Nick Swanepoel, Korr, Kenya