Berger cites Todd Johnson, director for the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, and reports that American Christian missionaries around the world now number around 120,000. The liberal and mainline Protestant denominations have been reducing their missionary rosters for years, while missionaries from evangelical Protestant denominations and missions agencies continue to grow. Beyond the 120,000 missionaries cited by Johnson, the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College estimates that some 346,000 Christians are serving for periods between two weeks and one year.

In Kenya, approximately seventy percent of the people now claim some Christian identity. Nevertheless, the Samburu, numbering about 150,000, have been staunchly resistant to the gospel. Instead, they continue to worship "Ngai," whom they believe to be identified with the steep mountains that border their Kenyan valley.

Bergner is clear in pointing to the evangelistic motivation that drives the Maples and their ministry. "For us, this is home," Rick confided. As Carrie explained, they were here by virtue of their call to bring the gospel to the Samburu. "How do they know the truth, unless they are told the truth?" she asks.

The Samburu people are a proud tribe, who have embraced the Maples family as friends. They appreciate the fact that the missionaries have assisted with practical needs and medical care. As the report in The New York Times Magazine makes clear, modernity has made few inroads among the Samburu people. "Their wooden bells clacking softly in the still air, the herds graze, tended by the Samburu, whose bodies are draped in wraps of brilliant cloth, whose necks and foreheads are resplendent in beads and burnished metal, whose hair is dyed with red ocher."

Evangelicals should view this article with respect and appreciation. Daniel Bergner writes of both the missionaries and the Samburu people with genuine respect--treating them as authentic human beings driven by understandable motivations. When so many impressions of Christian missionaries have been fueled by notions of Christian imperialism and worse, Bergner points to the deep Christian commitment and love that has brought the Maples family to Kurungu, and keeps them there under difficult and lonely circumstances.

Bergner's reportage is touching and deeply moving. He writes of the loneliness experienced by Meghan, who at age twelve isn't quite sure that she shares the same missionary calling. Nevertheless, she speaks of being "really blessed" through her experience with her parents on the mission field. "Sometimes I think I can live without friends, I just don't know," she told the reporter. "Sometimes I have these breakdowns." There are almost no girls her age among the Samburu in Kurungu.

Bergner also writes of the "strategic" patience demonstrated by these missionaries. "It seemed to blend with the expanses of arid land and the timelessness of Samburu life," he observed. "It seemed almost like a cover. And all the while the Mapleses were gaining trust and gathering knowledge so that they would prevail in an area where other missionaries had made little headway."

Devastating criticisms of Christian missionary efforts as projections of cultural imperialism were often well deserved. In too many cases, Christian missionary efforts appeared to be motivated by something more like Rudyard Kipling's infamous "white man's burden," rather than by the Christian gospel and the Great Commission.

Daniel Bergner's article is a respectful and accurate demonstration that the age of colonial missions is now past--certainly among the most respected and established missionary organizations. Rick and Carrie Maples want to see an indigenous form of Christianity emerge among the Samburu, with indigenous churches and with appropriate cultural manifestations of transformational Christian truth.

As an example of the difficult issues often encountered in the collision of cultures and the presentation of the Christian gospel, Bergner points to the practice of female circumcision which is commonly practiced among the Samburu. "It's a spiritual issue, it's a public-health issue, it's a human rights issue," Rick Maples declared. As he explained, the body is God's temple and the mutilation of the human body is a sin. "Once people have accepted the Lord, we'll talk about how God created sex and ordained sex, that sex is to be enjoyed," Rick explained. "It is a gift to a man and a woman who are married, and to take away God's gift of pleasure is not right."