Friday of the trek we met a captive.
I think we all meet captives, regardless of where we are and much more often than we suppose. The bondage may look different. They probably don’t have physical chains, but rather emotional and spiritual ones.
Friday of the trek we met a witch doctor.
In the morning, there was another shortened ~3 hour hike, mostly down and deeper into the hill country. We stopped halfway to swim in this awesome lake formed by mountain rivers. It may or may not have had alligators/ crocodiles (as we were later informed) but the locals didn’t seem to mind so neither did we.
We arrived at our destination around lunchtime. It was another single room tin roof, mud and wood church (certainly the smallest one yet). Pastor Mithun gestured to a nearby hill and said (via translator) there was a witch doctor in a cave. If we wanted to, we could go check it out. Admittedly, I was a little excited, it’s not every day you get to potentially meet a witch doctor. From the first night, it was clear these hills were full of witch doctors. At night they play their drums (for hours) calling on dark spiritual forces and casting down fear on the surrounding villages.
A twenty minute walk later we were almost to the cave and BOOM. There was the man himself, sitting on a rock overlooking the trailhead. It’s a good thing Nepalese have dark skin because he was only wearing a loin cloth. He didn’t say much. He didn’t seem to mind that we checked out his cave home. In regards to the caves—I can see why folks started to move out.
By this point we had a good sized posse: our teams, pastor guides, local pastors and local families. After visiting the cave Pastor Mithun asked the witch doctor if he would play some traditional Chepang drumming. It didn’t seem like a good idea to me, because I didn’t realize there was a difference between tradition drumming and call upon a host of demons drumming. Silent prayer. I believe Pastor Mithun felt the witch doctor might be more receptive to the Gospel with us there, and having him drum might open the door for a conversation. The witch doctor produced his drum with full on animal hide and bells and chains. He had this hooked metal rod he used as a drumstick. Thankfully he wrapped up in a shaw before starting.
He sat on a mat of leaves and started to play, singing traditional Chepang. Before long his mood visibly changed, darkened. His eyes closed and he started the nightly kind of drumming. It was spooky. I looked at Pastor Mithun—he was unshaken. The drummer continued but began to get visibly frustrated. He shook his drum, beating the hide with all his might. He rattled his chains.
His session concluded after about twenty minutes. We told him and his wife (who had stepped out from the background) that we are Christians and asked if we could pray for them. The witch doctor didn’t reply, but his wife said “Yes”! We circled around them and prayed that they would come to know Christ. At the end of the prayer the witch doctor said his children follow Christ and that he is lonely, that maybe one day he too will become a Christian.
Please join us in prayer for this man, his wife and all those held captives in those hills and in our lives.
May Christ reign victorious. Luke 4:18-19
