"I believe..."

Thanks to my heritage in the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, I'm not a big fan of man-made creeds--even if I agree with them on every point. However, I came across this statement of faith from African Christians that I thought was pretty cool. Unlike many popular creeds (Nicene, Apostle's, etc), this one actually takes time to make a statement about Jesus' life between the virgin birth and the Passion week. And check out the line about the hyenas! What a great way to express the truth of Psalm 16:10, "You will not let your Holy One see decay"!
I wish I'd known about this last year. It would have been useful for our African Safari-themed VBS.

The Maasai Creed

[The Maasai Creed is a creed composed in about 1960 by Western Christian missionaries for the Maasai, an indigenous African tribe of semi-nomadic people located primarily in Kenya and northern Tanzania. The creed attempts to express the essentials of the Christian faith within the Maasai culture.]

We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it. He created man and wanted man to be happy in the world. God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the earth. We have known this High God in the darkness, and now we know him in the light. God promised in the book of his word, the Bible, that he would save the world and all nations and tribes.
We believe that God made good his promise by sending his son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from that grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.
We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.