Our friend from Agape, Ted Ouche, offered to take us on a hike up into the mountains overlooking Kisumu. Earlier today, we drove about 30 minutes north of Kisumu on highways, dirt roads, and paths and eventually parked in front of a kind Luo woman's house. From there we had a short hike to a place called Abindu. A big thanks to Ted for taking us to this incredible place.
Abindu
Connor standing next to one of the huge boulders.
Abindu Video
(Please ignore my silly accent; when I'm around Kenyans alot, I start imitating their speech)
Abindu is considered a holy place and a number of different religions come here to pray (including Christians). The largest group is a cult called Legio Maria (estimated 400,000 to 1.2 million followers). You'll see within this post a number of different pictures and videos of the Legios praying, chanting, yelling, and screaming. The Legios, an offshoot of the Catholic church, believe in Jesus, but also believe in a black messiah who died about four years ago. Because he prophesied his own resurrection after three days, the Legios waited for over a week with their messiah's body, and the police had to forcibly remove the body because it started decomposing so badly. They're still waiting for his resurrection. The Legios believe that Jesus is in heaven to receive the whites, and that their messiah is in heaven is there to receive the blacks . . . very sad. Legios wear very brightly colored robes and headgear identifying each individuals role within the cult by its color (pastor, prophet, etc.); you will see them throughout Kisumu almost daily. The prophets can become pretty wealthy, because they will prophesy that a bad thing is going to occur to a member of the cult, and the member must then pay the prophet to intercede so that the bad thing won't happen. Many of our boys at Agape come from a Legio Maria background. Unfortunately cults such as Legio Maria are more the rule, than the exception here in Kenya. There is a huge problem with churches mixing Christianity with their tribal religions. You can learn more about this cult here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legio_Maria .
Legio Maria followers in Kenya
Walking through the bush . . . (sorry you'll have to turn your computer sideways to watch)
Our path up Abindu led through this tight crack between the boulders. I had to take off my backpack just to fit through.
An altar for Legio's black messiah and his mother Mary. Notice the candle wax.
Connor and Sutton hanging around the boulders.
For some reason I thought I could climb to the top. I got on this first rock and couldn't get any further!
An authentic monkey trap!
You can hear the Legios singing in the background, and then an explanation of the monkey trap. (Sorry, you'll have to turn your computer on its side again!)
My beautiful bride gazing across the fields of maize. :-)
As we walked down from Abindu, we heard chanting, growling and screaming, and I was able to tape the sounds from outside this Legio church service. Kinda creepy . . . please pray for these poor people who are so lost!
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