Friday is funeral day in Kenya. Not sure why, but every Friday the local hospitals begin releasing bodies and masses of people begin to crowd around the hospitals to receive the bodies. The bodies are placed in caskets and then are paraded through the streets . . . some of the funerals are pretty raucous and look more like parades. I saw one large funeral that had an entire marching band. Anyway, here are a few videos of three separate funerals I drove past within the span of about five minutes yesterday.
Last week, I wrote about the Legio Maria. You will see a bunch of Legios standing outside of this hospital chanting and singing. There are actually two separate caskets in this video, one is on the truck and the other is on the ground next to the Legios (tougher to see in the video).
Not a funeral, but video-worthy. This police car looks like it should be in an episode of CHiP's.
This funeral was pretty spirited, and I actually had to pull off on the side of the road, because they took up both lanes of traffic.
This last video is a little long, but it shows another funeral/casket as I drive past Kibuye (key-boo-yay) Market, which is the largest market in Western Kenya. On Sundays, which is market day, the place is packed with thousands of people buying "hawkers" wares. I'll have to tape it some time; definitely blog-worthy!
A few times a year, our church, Calvary Chapel Lakeside, hosts a Kids Kamp for kids from the church and from the local community. Because the Agape boys are on break, we usually try to bring them so that they can attend. Here are a few photos and videos of the kids:
Welcome to Kids Kamp!
Nicholas, Sutton, and I were in charge of registering all of the kids.
Mary tries on her "belly" for the Christmas skit.
Joseph (Tom) and one of the Shepherds (Seth)
Connor, Seth, Lyla, and Kenya Grace head to Kids Kamp.
Some of the Agape Boys goofing around.
More Agape Boys
We had around 100 kids show up!
Our friend, Matt Pottenger, leads the kids in a few Christmas carols.
Duncan, our MC for the camp, did an awesome job with the kids!
The wise men visit Jesus.
Seth with his friend Diane.
Seth really liked her braids.
Seth's class hears the Christmas Story via flannel-graph.
Crowning the kings and queens of Kids Kamp!
We packed 16 of us in my car to get back to Agape!
Every afternoon around 4:00 PM, the boys at Agape rush the dining hall for one of their favorite treats: Uji! Uji (pronounced oo-jee) is Kenyan porridge, and in my opinion kind of tastes like sweet tea, but has the consistency of . . . well, um . . . snot. Sorry, I had to say it. The boys love it, though!!!
Sorry, another sideways production! I'll try to remember not to film this way!
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!
Southside Church, our home church back in NC, recently sent a group to Israel to visit the Holy Land (the group actually may still be there; not sure!), and in reading my Bible this morning I was blown away by what the Apostle Paul had to say about God's plan for Israel.
Jerusalem (Not Kenya)
There is much debate and differing opinions amongst Christians about Israel's eventual and final disposition in God's Kingdom. Will all of Israel come to know Christ? Will a small or large remnant of Israel come to know Christ? Is today's Church the "New Israel," and the old nation of Israel has no inheritance in God's Kingdom? So many questions!
Now, I'm definitely not the most qualified to speak with any authority on this topic, but Paul says some pretty amazing things about Israel in Romans 11. From my reading, it seems clear that a remnant (size unknown) of Israel will come to know Jesus as Savior, but as I said before this topic is hotly debated amongst many respected Christian teachers and pastors. It is no coincidence that Paul refers to this topic as a "mystery" in verse 25, and that the chapter begins closing with verses 33 & 34 saying,
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?"
When I get to a tough passage of Scripture like this, I tell my staff, "Time to chew on some meat and stop drinking milk!" So, I'll ask you, what are your thoughts on this topic?
Just as I finished writing about Eddy, another boy's family showed up at Agape desiring to take their boy back home. Ethan Ochieng has been with Agape for about 8 months, and is a very quiet, polite boy. We believe that his mother passed away, and his father cannot be found. As such, we were very happy when about an hour ago his older brother and three aunties showed up to take him home! Please pray for Ethan and his family!
