As a little boy, Mark was beaten by his father, repeatedly, in order to teach him to be tough and angry.  He was beaten with a stick, which was given to his father when his father reached manhood.  He and his siblings slept snuggled up to the goats and were treated no better than the goats.  Once he could walk, he was basically on his own each day to wonder.  He gradually learned to herd the goats and cows and spent day after day walking with the herds to find food.

As he grew into his teen years, he became a Moran.  As a Moran, he learned to be tougher and even angrier.  Every 5 years, an age group becomes a Moran.  This normally occurs between ages of 17-22, when a ceremony is given. Usually, it is the witch doctor that heads up these ceremonies.  They kill a bull, and surround him.  The bull’s chest is cut open, and each young man is to drink the blood from this bull’s heart.  They surround the heart.  They then drink more blood from this bull.  Then the testicles are cut off and each Moran is to hold the bull’s testicles in his cheeks for a while, and then pass them on to the next Moran to do the same.  After much chanting and other ceremonial acts, young women are brought to them to molest and rape.  These are usually women who have not had any children.  More ceremonial acts are performed.  Then male circumcision is performed on each Moran, and they are given the Wisdom stick, which now allows them to beat women and children. 

It is after this ceremony that Mark was sent out to the bush, with no clothes, just a knife.  He was left to fend as an animal.  He had been taught to kill and fight, and now his survival was dependent upon how well he could use what he learned.  He searched for food as monkeys do.  As there was no water, he was taught what vein to cut on a cow’s neck and drink their blood, and then how to clog that vein for later when he is thirsty.  When he becomes very hungry, he was taught how to kill a cow and eat the meat raw, and then leave the remains.  If he did not have a cow, Mark was taught how to steal cows, and if necessary, kill their owner in order to do so.  He was taught to believe all cows are at his disposal if he needs one.  Mark had a knife to kill the 5 lions he killed, while out in the bush, This was done sometimes by himself, because the lion was going to kill his cow, or, sometimes with other Moran’s surrounding the lion with him.  Mark has also killed an elephant, giraffe, gazelles, and more.  It is a matter of survival in the wilderness.  Meat is meat.  Mark shares that giraffe meat is particularly good, but they are not to eat lions, as it is not good to have lion meat in your body. Mark lived 3 years in the bush, whereas his friend, Paul, later shared with us that he spent 10 years in the bush.  During these years, they would occasionally return to their village, but merely to check in, and then they were to go back out and “become a warrior…a real man.”

While out in the bush, after three years of living off the land, Mark met a missionary, who shared Christ with him.  He listened, as Mark never knew there was another way in life.  He never knew there was anything other than the way of the Maasai.  He son realized he was no better than an animal and had been taught all his life to life as an animal.  He was crushed to understand what all he had done, and how he did not need to live the life he lived.  He soon realized how he could become a new person in Christ and change his life.  He ended up burning his clothes, the stick, which was given to him to beat women and children, and anything else he had that was Maasai.  He burned everything, and left his old life behind, learning that he could be a new person in Christ.  This missionary saw Mark’s heart to seek after Christ, and his desire to change, and paid his way to go to Disciple Training School at the Youth With A Mission base in Arusha, about 7-10 hours away by car.  Mark put on Westerner clothes and walked to this base, just as he learned to walk anywhere else.  Upon arrival at the YWAM base, it was his first time ever seeing light bulbs, beds, cement walls, and much more.  Even though he never before gone to school, and did not know how to read or write, he sat and listened to God’s teachings.  He learned more of who Christ is in his life, and learned forgiveness, how to love, rather than hate, how to be kind, rather than angry.  He learned what God had to tell him, not the witch doctor.

 After completing the school, Mark was very anxious to return to his village, which is what he did.  Upon his return, his father greeted him, and gave him a bride.a child…as Mark put it…”She was only a child of about 8 years old.”  It broke his heart that this was his life.  He now knew this was wrong to take a child as a bride.  It is about relationships, not forced marriages with children. He told his father how he did not want to make a child marry him.  His father believed that he must have lost his mind, and he beat Mark severely, which he still has scars from.  After the beating, his father took him to go see the witch doctor, where there was a ceremony to cure Mark from going out of his mind.  He was in a hut, and the witch doctor brought in a large snake and it came right up to Mark’s head.  As Mark feared his life, he prayed out loud to God to help him and save him.  He then reached his arm out and caught the snake by the tail, and the snake fell dead.  Mark knows this is only God who could have done such a miracle. Due to this miracle, the witch doctor ran out, and Mark’s father gained respect for him.  Now, his father told Mark that his cows were also his son’s cows.  He could use them as he wishes. 

Mark went on to plant a church, and found a pastor to continue it.  He then planted another church in the bush.  He put back on his Maasai clothes to minister to the people of his village.  He has returned to YWAM to do a School of Biblical Studies, even though he still does not know how to read or write.  God has blessed him with a great ear and memory of God’s word.  Mark has such an amazing heart for his people, that while he was back in the bush, he disciple other Morans to come join him at the YWAM base, including Paul, the leader of the Morans from Mark’s village. 

Mark continues to have a heart for his people, begging people to go to his village and share God’s word.  His mom cannot believe there is a God, nor Christ.  He has 60 siblings, all of who are not believers.  Mark is about the 27th in line.    After he completes the School of the Bible, he plans to go back again, and share Christ’s word with the men, praying to bring more to a Disciple Training School and see changed lives. 

In talking more with Mark, he continued to tell us more ways of the Maasai.  If a Maasai is thirsty, they will urinate into a container and drink their urine.  This is common as there is no water.  To this day, he sees nothing wrong with this.  All of his sisters have had female circumcision performed on them, without him being able to stop it.  He knows this is wrong, and it breaks his heart that the young girls in his village are being given as child brides.  He pleads with us to pray for this to stop.  He pleads with us to pray for his family and village.  We tell him how we have such a heart for the Maasai people, and he lowers his head.  This Maasai warrior is humbled to tears, which he is trying to hide.  He lifts his head, and says he has one question he keeps asking himself.  “Why did God make Maasai?  Our life is so bad.”  This broke our hearts.  We continue to listen more.

After Mark became a Christian, he went back to a man who he almost killed and gave him a cow back, and asked him for forgiveness.  We believe this man who was almost murdered over a cow, saw Christ in Mark that day.
Although life is very difficult and sad for a Maasai man, when asking Mark, who has it hardest, a Maasai man or a Maasai woman, he quickly responded how a Maasai woman does.  She has to carry everything, and do all the work, and transport everything.  The Maasai woman has it much harder.  She can walk 6 hours easily for water. 

everything.  The Maasai woman has it much harder.  She can walk 6 hours easily for water. 
Mark says the way to touch Maasai is to bring them flour, and then preach the gospel.  It is as simple as that, but it takes people going out to them.  They live in such barren land and far away places; there are not enough Christians who will go out to them.  People don’t want to, he says.  The DTS at the Arusha YWAM base does some of their outreaches in Marks village, which is more than 400 km away…it is past Norogoro Crater.

On our last night, Mark came to us and wanted to pray with us.  So we asked him if he had a prayer request.  He replied, “Yes, for my village.  Because of the drought, the witch doctor is taking two girls and two cows to be sacrificed.  Please pray for rain.”