Last Week's Offerings

LAST WEEK'S OFFERINGS


Each year the church receives the ematua, or tithe where each parishioner brings 10% of their herd to give to the church. As money is rarely used as currency in Maasai-land, this is the major fund-raising event in the church year. One by one, cattle, goats, and sheep arrive at the church. It is a time of joy and loss, of friendship and hope for the future.

One of the animals is slaughtered. As I approached the meeting place under a cool acacia tree, I see the carcass being worked on by 5 young men on a wooden table. Needless to say, there are no gloves or antiseptics involved. They ask if I have ever slaughtered a goat, and were amazed to hear that I had never. It was a great shock for them to learn that nobody I know had ever slaughtered either.

They hand me the knife and tell me to try. As Christians, they had slit the goat’s neck so the blood was spilled on the ground. Traditional Maasais strangle the goat to preserve the blood for drinking. The next step in slaughtering is removing the skin from the flesh. It is surprisingly easy as they can even separate the two with their fingernails. I try to cut at some skin but am unsuccessful. Maybe next time I’ll do better.

While the skin was being removed, people were picking raw meat from the body to eat, piece by piece. Others were arguing over who would get the kidneys, as they are a delicacy normally eaten raw.

An older man watching the proceedings asked if Steph and I eat meat (probably assuming we were vegetarians since we have never slaughtered an animal). I said we loved to eat and cook meat, so of course a portion was set aside for us. I asked for it to be wrapped so steph would not be startled by a bloody mass appearing on the door step.

That night we feasted on BBQ Goat. It is tougher than most meat we’re used to, more stringy, which may be why the Maasai normally boil their meat. The following night was pineapple/Hawaiian Goat which was excellent over white rice. The final pieces were then put in a pot with some pidgeon peas for what I call “Goat Pea Soup.”

Praise God for the generous spirits of the Maasai, willing to part with their precious animals to express their gratitude to God. Old testament passages about sacrifices and giving, expressed in the Hebrew context make much more sense when living with other pastoralists. It is truly a sacrifice to give up your animals as they are your income, your bank, your food, and your hope. To give them up is to turn over all you have to God, saying, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ Blood and righteousness.”