Saturday, June 23, 2012

Where there is darkness...


Haiti is hard. I’ve known that. Everyone knows that the minute they step off of the plane in PAP and drive through the streets filled with chaos, burning trash, starving dogs, and sick children. The poverty and filth that you see and smell and hear are gripping. It is shocking and unreal. But since I got here about three weeks ago, the Lord has been opening my eyes to difficulty and poverty that you don’t see, smell, or hear. He has been revealing to me the dark spiritual oppression gripping this place.

Even having been here all of last summer and again in December, it wasn’t something I recognized, or was forced to recognize, all that often. But this year, it has been around every corner. My Haitian friends have been talking to me more and more about voodoo. I was making some joke about the “zombie apocalypse” happening in the States the other day and one of my friends got very serious and told me about how zombies are a big part of voodoo. Her own mother was killed because of some voodoo rite that I don’t understand. Voodoo ceremonies combine all sorts of elements of spirit worship, dark magic, possession, and sacrificing. And the religion is so blended with Christianity here, its just confusing. In this darkness, confusion and fear reign.

I had no idea just how many people practice voodoo. The CIA estimates that at least 50% of the population practices, but my friends tell me it is much more of the country. Coming from New Orleans where voodoo amounts to a kitschy way to make money off of tourists and an arena football team, I had no idea how real it is here. How very real the power is that it has over people’s lives. The stories my friends tell me of the evil they’ve personally witnessed because of voodoo are saddening and distressing. The darkness is so deep.

But it doesn’t just stop at stories; the team has personally been confronted with the ugly grip of voodoo several times recently. The man that I wrote about last week in "This is Haiti" was one stark example of the havoc generational bondage to spirit worship and oppression wreak on life.

While up on the mountain this week, on the land Respire is preparing to buy, we started to notice evidence of voodoo ceremonies – certain drawings etched into the ground, stones arranged in circles, burn marks on trees. Two nights ago, Josh drove us and the interns up to the land to pray over it. As we got out of the truck and began to walk, a man came up to us wearing a traditional African-looking robe. He spoke in Creole, then began speaking in English saying, “We are busy. You need to leave. We are busy.” Megan said something along the lines of, “Oh… Ok?” Then he told us we could come back in 30 minutes. Instead of picking a fight with a voodoo priest whose ceremony we just interrupted, the group walked the short distance to our land. As we turned to walk, I heard the sharp, unmistakable cry of an animal dying; a sacrifice.

We spent a good time after that praying over the land together, singing songs, and worshipping God - the sovereign Lord who already owns that land and is gracious enough to let us and anybody else stand upon it. The Lord who casts out all fear, dispels lies, speaks clarity into confusion, and overcomes all darkness with his light. In the presence of his Spirit on that mountain, I could rest and rejoice knowing that he is already victorious over whatever evil was happening next to us. And we were humbled by the knowledge that God loves even people calling upon other names and spirits as much as he loves us who call upon his name. And he calls us to love them as well. There is no greater weapon to wield against the enemy than Love.

Tonight, we went back to the land to pray along with the 19-person team in from Baton Rouge. Shortly after we got to the top and began to worship, people arrived to begin another voodoo ceremony. Wadley spoke with them to find out a little more about what they are up to and share with them why we were there. One of the men asked to meet with Wadley again to talk more. I’m eager for this opportunity for Wadley to speak truth and love to him.

Typically, ceremonies such as these are carried out only every so often; not as frequently as what has been going on atop Bellevue Mountain. My very dear friend Wadley, a translator for Respire and probably one of the greatest men I know, explained that the reason they are having to come back over and over again is because what they are trying to do is not working. And we do not have to be scared of them, or what they are trying to accomplish, or of any of the dark powers in this world; because, as John writes, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4).

I grieve the spiritual oppression of these people and the darkness in this land. The same darkness that covers any place in this world where people worship and run after things that are not God and not of God, whatever that looks like - spirits, power, wealth (cough, America), romance, anything. It only ends in emptiness and destruction. But praise God that no one is too far away, too far gone, to ever turn and receive redemption!

Where dark forces are at work, God is even more so, redeeming and reclaiming his people. Where sin increased, Grace increased all the more (Romans 5:20). This is the story of Respire Haiti. This is the story of God, in his great power, entering into the bleakest situations and bringing together some unlikely characters to bring forth hope, freedom, and LIFE. This is the story of the kingdom of God.

Please join us in praying against the strongholds of the enemy and for true FREEDOM for the people of Haiti. 

“The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4


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