Randy Suits

The Tsavo Man Eaters

Dear Eve, my cultural anchor,

In the Field Museum of Natural History at Chicago, Illinois, is a two lion exhibit of the Tsavo Man-Eating lions. They killed an estimated 135 railroad workers working on the Kenya-Uganda Railway. In March 1898 the British began building a bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. Shortly after the project began, two maneless Tsavo male lions stalked the camp dragging Indian workers off at night and devouring them. Crews tried to scare off the lions with huge camp fires and thorn fences around the camp but the fearless lions crawled through the fences and continued terrorizing and eating the workers. Hundreds of workers fled from Tsavo, halting construction on the bridge. John Henry Patterson, the project leader determined to kill the two man-eaters by setting traps and he tried to ambush them from a tree several times but could not kill them. He killed the first lion on 9 December 1898. The lion was actually stalking him when he killed it. Twenty days later the second lion was killed. The construction crew then returned and finished the bridge in 1899. An enemy who strikes in the cover of darkness from ambush is the worst kind of danger. A lion who tastes human blood will usually kill again because humans are much easier to catch and kill than creatures of the wild. The superior intelligence of man enables him to overcome even the fierce hungry lion. Like the Tsavo man-eating lions, our enemy satan seeks to destroy us. In the book of Job, God asks the devil where he came from and he replied, “From walking to and fro and up and down in the earth.” The devil knows where we live. He is our adversary and he wants to take over our lives. “The Appostle Peter said, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him and be steadfast in faith…….” James gives us the solution when he writes, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” In the power of the holy spirit and the sword of the Word of God we have the weapons to overcome and defeat satan the enemy of God and man.

Our God will protect and keep us from our enemies,Kochany