February 4
I had always heard that Haiti was a spiritually dark country. I knew that Voodoo was a deep-rooted common practice, even among the Christian population. I fully anticipated seeing, or at least hearing something about it while here. But the last three weeks in Haiti have been a dream. Maybe we have been purposely kept at a distance.
Tonight that changed.
Our teams decided to do a group worship session after dinner. Worship is something we all crave. It’s a beautiful time to lift up our praises and voices to the Lord. We were all looking forward to tonight.
Preston started playing his guitar, our voices filled the air and started pouring out of our compound. Almost immediately, I began to hear a faint commotion coming from outside. As our voices grew louder and the singing continued, the voices outside grew louder as well. As I strained to hear, I realized the voices outside our walls were chanting. The chants turned to screams and the tortured howls of dogs filled my ears.
It felt like a dream. Scanning the porch with wide eyes, I was hoping to catch someone’s gaze to validate what I was hearing. My teammates were all deep in worship. I tried to cover my ears but the agonizing cries couldn’t be silenced. I sat paralyzed, stuck between praises to Heaven and literal sounds of Hell.
Worship ended and I blurted out, “Something terrible is happening outside. Something awful is happening to those dogs.” Half the group looked at me in utter confusion and I could see the other half intently listening and finally hearing what I had been trying to desperately block out for the last 15 minutes.
Spiritual warfare is real and tonight it was all around us. While my team was worshiping our God in Heaven, they were worshiping theirs. No one on our team heard anything during worship. Why I got trapped in the middle is beyond me. One thing I do know for certain is that our God will always prevail. The Lord will always be victorious over Satan, but Satan is always present, waging battle against those of us who are on the Lord’s side.
“… be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so
that you can take your stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, and the
powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground…”
-Ephesians 6:10-13
I’d by lying if I said tonight didn’t shake me to my core. It was a very literal reminder of exactly why we are here. Friends, please pray for Haiti. Pray for each person that our team encounters and each person outside our walls. Pray that the light of our God continues to shine brighter.
Love from Haiti, Sara
