When Jim Burry, of Fountain Inn, traveled with a team of other South Carolina Baptists on mission to East Africa three years ago, he could not have imagined the providential chain of events that would unfold.
James Nampushi at the entrance to his home.Today, as a direct result of that trip, a 29-year-old Maasai warrior is studying for a master’s degree at Clemson University in order to help his village, money is being raised to drill a life-sustaining well for the village, and Burry, the 55-year-old owner of a used car business, has been adopted by people on the other side of the world as an honorary Maasai elder.
Flashback to 2008, when Burry found himself engaged in a conversation with a young man who happened to be holding a spear in one hand and Burry’s suitcase in the other. Burry had traveled to Kenya as part of a mission team made up of church members from Fountain Inn First Baptist (where he had been a member for most of his life), and Simpsonville First Baptist. The team members were winding up their trip, during which they had traveled through villages and shared the gospel “hut to hut,” Burry said. The group was spending the last two days at the Maasai Mara, a large-game reserve.
A safari guide at the reserve, James Nampushi, dressed in full warrior attire, greeted Burry and showed him to his room. Nampushi had learned earlier that a group of Christians was coming, and he struck up a conversation with his guest.
“I know Jesus Christ as my Savior, too,” Nampushi told Burry. Over the next two days, a relationship developed, and Burry asked Nampushi about his future plans. Nampushi told his new American friend he wanted to go back to school to earn a master’s degree in order to serve his people. (Nampushi earlier had earned a four-year degree at Moi University. Burry would later learn that Nampushi had graduated at the top of his class.)
Nampushi and his friend, Eric, load water jugs on a donkey for the long walk back to their village.Nampushi told Burry he wanted to earn an advanced degree in agriculture. “Look around,” Nampushi said. “There are no stores, no commerce. We live off the land, and we are 100 years behind in farming.”
Burry suggested Nampushi consider pursuing a degree at Clemson University.
“I am just a village boy,” Nampushi told Burry. “It could only be a dream to study in America.”
“To believe it, you’ve got to dream it,” Burry told him.
The two prayed together, and Burry returned to South Carolina and began making phone calls. Clemson officials asked to see Nampushi’s college transcript. Burry soon received a call. The university was quite impressed with Nampushi’s academic record. He would be offered a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in parks, recreation and tourism management.
Nampushi is now in his second year of study at Clemson, where he continues to excel academically. When he finishes his degree, he also wants to study agriculture.
The most basic need in Nampushi’s village is water. The sole source is a small, muddy pond, located about three miles away, where villagers travel by foot to fill their water jugs. The people are forced to share the water with the animals that wade into it – including elephants, rhinos and zebras. The filthy water has to be boiled before drinking.
For Nampushi, the dream of studying for a master’s degree is eclipsed by an even bigger dream – to see a well drilled in his village to provide fresh water for his people. Burry, who once advised Nampushi to believe his dreams, now finds himself stretching his own faith – he is spearheading a drive to raise funds to drill Nampushi’s well.
Through Infinity Church, a new church plant in southern Greenville County that grew out of Fountain Inn First Baptist Church, Burry and others have raised $20,000 of the $27,000 necessary to sink the 600-foot well. A geological survey has been completed at the proposed drill site and approved by Living Water International, a non-profit Christian organization based in Dallas, Texas, which digs wells in impoverished countries all over the world.
Burry hopes the drilling will begin in about two weeks. “This is going to transform these people’s lives,” he said. He plans to go back to Kenya in July for a dedication ceremony.
When Burry and Infinity Church pastor Johnny Dyer traveled to Kenya last June to scout the drilling location, the people of Nampushi’s village, in appreciation, held a day-long celebration and honored Burry as a Maasai elder. They also branded a cow and a bull with his initials, another ritual honor.
When Burry first met Nampushi three years ago, he asked the young Kenyan – who grew up in a place where most people had never seen a New Testament – how he had come to be a follower of Christ. Nampushi told him that 10 years earlier, a missionary had visited his village and shared the gospel. The missionary, he told Burry, was from South Carolina.
– Editor’s note: For more information on the Maasai water project, visit http://www.infinity-church.org.
Nampushi shows Johnny Dyer, pastor of Infinity Church in Greenville County, the muddy pond that is the sole source of water for his village.