Proceeding on to Pastor Amandui’s sister’s house outside of town, we were warmly welcomed into a small mud-walled building with a dirt floor, complete with wall decorations of cheesy plaques with goofy sayings, calendars, family photos, “white” Jesus pictures, and the most random posters.  Unfortunately, no pictures of those to share...but, they would have made you smile!  During our time there, we were entertained by a hen who kept appearing and walking into our meeting to check it all out. 

After videotaping the local pastors and our pastors (Amandui, Geoffrey) giving testimony about a young lady tormented by evil spirits, the lady (Christine) then spoke herself.  She at one time worked as a house helper for a woman involved in devil worship.  Christine was given some type of fetish necklace and clothes by this woman, who would go out all night participating in evil.  Christine was given human meat to eat and human blood to drink, which she was told was juice before she drank it.  Christine then started having dreams of someone trying to slaughter her, following her, etc.  She prayed (she grew up in the Catholic church) and was thereafter given 36 songs by God, all worship songs, never heard by anyone else.  She proceeded to sing 2 of them beautifully a-cappella for us.  Christine then described how she was helped by  Amandui’s sister.  She came to stay with Amandui’s sister and they prayed for her and revived her several times when she would suddenly fall on the floor, writhe like a snake, emit animal noises like a dog or cow, try to beat others, etc.  Her necklace, according to witnesses, would itself writhe like a snake. Amandui’s sister gave Christine “blessed water” to drink, which caused Christine to vomit up the human meat she had ingested months prior. Additionally, when Amandui’s sister went to remove from a bag the clothes given to Christine, her hand was shocked and became numb. She then poured the blessed water on the clothes causing them to smoke.   With prayer and inclusion in church, Christine began the process of being set free.

Next, Pastor Geoffrey explained deliverance ministry, prayed for the oil and water, then began anointing her along with the other pastors.  While they were praying for Christine, she suddenly fell and began writhing all over, banging into furniture and people (including Julie - kicking Julie several times).  While Christine made no noise herself, the pastors prayed noisily, while Bob helped to contain her violence, as the pastors flung blessed water on her.  This went on with great and furious intensity for about 10 minutes until she fell calm.  After that Christine seemed to recover to normal quickly and appeared happy.  We know demons are real based on accounts in the Gospels, but we’ve never seen this manifestation before.

After chai and mandazis (Kenyan tea and East African donuts), we drove to Thompson Falls, an incredible sight to behold.  After photos of the falls, photos of Bob and Geoffrey playing around with a beautiful chameleon, and sodas, we left for the “vely lulal alea.”

We drove 30 minutes over unpaved dirt and stone road to its end, then thru fields on no road, until we arrived at Amandui’s family home.  The people are pastoralists and very traditional tribal types in appearance and behavior.  Wife #2 of Amandui’s father (a ploygamist) had classic African tribal features and clothing, replete with a thick band of rings worn around her neck. 

Amandui’s family lives next door to the small dirt hut where Kevin was abused by his grandmother (see blog entry entitled “Kevin” 1/30/10).  Kevin lives now in Kijabe with the Amandui’s.  He can now wear shoes since Bob amputated his extra toe and also an extra finger. The Amandui’s have enrolled him in a local private primary school and Kevin is doing well. 

Kevin’s baby sister was a sad, neglected sight.  She was so small and vulnerable with baleful eyes and dirty clothes.  We met the abusive grandmother as well, which was not easy. As much as we wanted to, we could not remove Kevin’s sister at the time.  Please pray for her. 

We enjoyed a late lunch inside another mud walled room with dirt floor, a kitten mewing for scraps and much awkward staring from the Turkana crowd.  Amandui’s family were such sweet hosts and the nyama choma (roast goat), steamed cabbage, and chapati filled our stomachs. 

We then reversed the process of traveling home, hastily navigating around potholes, unpredictable matatu drivers, and highway speedbumps to arrive in Kijabe safely just before dark.  We brought back Amandui’s sister-in-law and her malnourished/dehydrated 6 month old baby girl for treatment at Kijabe Hospital.  The baby has since received treatment, is doing well, and has returned home. 

Days such as these were reason enough to move to Africa.  Strange days...indeed.