| Go with God By MILES BREDIN
Published: March 19, 2006
A waterbuck charges up the hill and forages in
the shade of a spiky candelabra-shaped euphorbia tree. Impala and
Thomson's gazelles graze on the plains below, just a few miles from Lake
Nakuru National Park, in Kenya. Rain is in the air; squalls scud across
the wide valley floor, drenching the parched grassland. Tomorrow the
flowers will bud, and the yellow and gray grasses will show a fluorescent
green sheen. Chris Foot, a lay preacher with the Vineyard church, offers
cocktails from a brass-bound chop box on a card table. "Footstep Safaris
is where Dom Pérignon meets the Bible," Foot says as he serves vodka, gin
and single-malt Scotch to the group. "My safaris are for people who want
to take God on vacation with them."
The inspiration for Footstep Safaris, which leads Christian expeditions
through Kenya and other parts of East Africa, comes from the doctrine of
theophany, defined in the dictionary as "a visible manifestation to
humankind of God or a god." "Nature itself is a theophany," Foot says.
Religious safaris are hardly new. The Crusades were big business in the
Middle Ages, and places like Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela still rake
in cash from the wallets of the faithful. Islamic outfitters have made a
fortune from the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj, and the many
missionaries who followed in David Livingstone's footsteps have been
spreading the good news and "illuminating the Dark Continent" for years.
Footstep, however, is not looking to spread the word.
"This is the first luxury safari with a Christian dynamic," Foot says.
"Christians and missionaries have always gone on low-cost minibus safaris
with like-minded folk. But we are providing bespoke, high-end safaris to
discerning, well-traveled clients with one difference: we encourage people
not to leave their spirituality at home." The camps are splendid: an
immaculately turned-out staff, tents that dwarf many a Manhattan
apartment, proper toilets, hot showers and bush cooking to rival that at
Nairobi's best hotels. And the safaris travel through some of Africa's
most breathtaking places: the rolling green Chyulu Hills, in sight of
snowy Mount Kilimanjaro; private ranches bristling with undisturbed game;
little-known areas of Kenya's rugged North. You might even call it God's
country. "When we go for a game drive, we usually stop for 20 minutes of
prayer and contemplation in a beautiful setting," Foot says. "God writes
another Gospel in every flower and bird."
Footstep Safaris is at www.footstepsafaris.com; (800)647-9017. Rates: $400
to $1,200 per day per person.
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