I remember my first visit to Engikaret about ten years ago. Driving out to barrenness. There was nothing. Whatever direction you looked, it was dusty, and in the distance, the occasional red dot of Maasai herders with their goats. But John and Jacinta Mukolwe, with Edward and Anester, had started work on a school.
Part of the initial motivation had been to find a way to rescue girls from early childhood marriage. They also wanted to create opportunities for Maasai children and fought to establish a school. Two more needs became apparent very quickly – a clinic for physical health and a gathering place for spiritual health. The church started under a tree, beautiful until the wind came up. The clinic began slowly. A building went up as a stake in the ground. Once a month, a doctor would come and work in it, and long lines of Maasai would arrive. This clinic had medicine, and people would walk long distances to receive help.
Edward and his family lived out there, with no electricity, no running water, and basically in one room. Gutters went up with water tanks for storage, but life was hard. As Loom, we have deliberately engaged in Engikaret for the last 10 years. Our secret sauce is to stand with people of power and wonder! We trained the teachers and staff. We were engaged in starting a “MOOOvement”– funding cows to provide sustainability for the school and staff out in this dry, dry place. We fundraised to help build an additional classroom every year. The clinic has gone from a consulting room used monthly to a multi-functional space, and we were able to finish the labor room’s renovation. Since this has happened, no mother or child has died of birth complications.
I remember John saying to me, “Give me 20 years with this community, and they will no longer sell their children.” Tragically, John died in an accident in 2024, but in the last few years of his life, the need for dormitories to protect the girls had been his goal. A new directive was established in Tanzania that if a girl got pregnant, she could not continue in school. In communities that practice early childhood marriage (ECM), grabbing and assaulting a girl keeps ECM alive. We wrestled with the concept of dormitories, knowing the importance of family support during the teenage years, but the context was different here. We have met the girls rescued from ECM, who are now working as teachers and nurses and running small businesses. They have taken care of their parents and modeled a different way of living.
Last week, we got to visit Engikaret and catch up with what has been happening. John’s wife and brother were our hosts as we went to see how the work continues. As we were getting out of the car, they thanked us, as Loom, for our relational connection that had linked them to the donor who had built the dormitories. In utter amazement, we walked through the new building.
And there was more. They now have running water! The same donor had provided infrastructure to pipe water down from Mount Kilimanjaro. Water has a significant impact on this place. Clean drinking water, water for the clinic, water for the children at school, and water for the broader community, all at very low cost.
The original vision of John, Jacinta, and their team was “a city on a hill”—an oasis for the community. Today, they are so nearly there. The core of healthcare, education, and water, which will aid food security, is now in place. The people of Engikaret don’t only hear of God’s goodness; the reality that God desires all humanity to thrive surrounds them. The final challenge is a teachers’ housing block. The church is led by Maasai, with Maasai songs and culture. The Maasai have a long road ahead of them to master how they, as a nomadic people, will adapt to a changing climate, limited land to move across, and the realities of the 21st century. But in this one place – Engikaret – they have a community, a city on the hill, where they and their children can figure out their future – how they will thrive. It has been a privilege to walk alongside and watch their journey unfold.
