Moto Kutoka Mbinguni

“I went outside early one morning to pray, over there where you go, when I looked up and saw this big, shiny, cylinder-like object way up in the air over the village. It looked like a big bomb, with seven smaller bombs hanging down from it. And on the side of the Big Bomb these words were written: Moto emekuja Kutoka binginni emkuja Kinni.” (Reverend David Salmon 2002)*

While this post concerns that vision, received by a revered Alaska Native elder, the late Rev. Dr. David Salmon, its symbolism serves to illustrate the inter-connectivity of the Spirit regardless of time, geography, or culture. And while the vision appears to take on increasing relevance as the future continues to unfold, the circumstances surrounding its appearance affirm God’s continuing witness among the Indigenous peoples of the world.

Apart from the particulars of the vision, when I questioned David about what it meant, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know, and neither does anyone else I’ve talked to.” Then, abruptly getting up, while stepping into his office, he soon returned with a scrap of paper on which he’d written the words of the vision, saying: “Here, you take it, maybe you can find out what it means.” A few months later I did. My spiritual brother and mentor, Rev. Eridard Mukasa, had been stricken with cancer and the prognosis was less than promising. I made reservations, and by the following afternoon my family and I were at his house in Pasadena. Yet we weren’t alone as if turned out. even though we were the only non-Africans in attendance. Later that same day, as the women began to prepare dinner, and I chatted with the men in the living room, I was surprised to learn that they were all Christian ministers, most having only recently emigrated to the United States from all over Africa.

Once the initial formalities were over and their curiosity finally got the better of them, the questioning began. “How do you know Eridard, how did you first meet; where did you come from, and why are you here, etc.?” Yet, when I offered that I was a Native minister, from Alaska, called “…to unite the Indigenous peoples of the Americas under the banner and headship of Christ,” it was eyes wide open. After a lengthy interval, the one to my right turned, and with some hesitation said: “Tell us about the vision.”

After describing the connection between my calling and that of David Salmon’s, I reached for my Bible; removing that piece of paper upon which the words from David’s vision had been written, I handed to him. The look of shock on his face as he read it, as well as that of every single one of them was electric. After a long pause, the one to my right finally turned and said: “This is strange indeed, as we can all read it; it’s written in Kiswahili (the universal language of Africa). It concerns an ancient prophecy from before the arrival of the White missionaries and well-known all over Africa. “Moto emekuja Kutoka binginni emkuga Kinni, or Moto Kutoka Mbinguni concerns a time in which the “fire from God” will rain down on earth, purging the just, while consuming the wicked.

Turning once again, my host paused, before saying, “It would be just like God to bring you and Eridard together, for the two of you are both alike. Even so, we were all called here, individually, and seeded according to God’s purposes, to speak life into America and prophesy, that these bones might live, and so become a mighty army beyond numbering.”