The missionaries and volunteers are dressed more practically for the extremely hot afternoon. Other Maasai are standing around dripping baptismal water with big grins on their faces for every eye that they can catch. The volunteers, sponsors and college students are pretty overwhelmed, but are enjoying themselves and this special time in the life of this frontier church. Singing and conversation permeate the air around the church. A gray portable tub about four feet across and round serves as the baptismal under an acacia tree outside of the mud and stick church building.
Maasai children are everywhere.
After the ceremony, they will quickly congregate around the tub so they can play in the now-brownish water. For most of those who are baptized, it will be the first time that their entire body has ever been under water at one time. A dirt-covered little boy wearing only a shirt catches my eye. Three little girls cling joyfully to one of the college students. A man climbs the tree to get a better view, and I think of Zacchaeus.