Haiti is a country that is steeped in a history of voodoo. Many of the people here welcome and call to the dark spirits that lie just beneath the surface of the physical world. As a result, many places around Haiti serve as a playground for evil. When I read my Bible, I hear Jesus talking about demons and the forces of satan. However, in my comfortable, air conditioned, pre-packaged life, I had no context in which to place an understanding of these forces. In Haiti, I am getting a crash course.
There are forces at work here that are beyond traditional rationalization and understanding. We walk into places where the atmosphere gets heavy and a feeling wells up in your gut that your presence is hated. It is not the people that are the source of the hatred, but something much deeper and more primal. We are in a constant battle against the depression and melancholy that attempts to steal our joy.
For the first week, we all struggled with feelings of fear. Many members of our team have been woken up in the middle of the night in a state of extreme fear for no apparant reason. We hear the voodoo drums as we go to sleep at night and can hear the heathen parties nearby as they go on late into the night.
However, all that being said, we have begun to find the true power of Jesus Christ. This week, we have all been reminded that He that is within us is stronger than he that is within the world. We have found that through prayer and worship, we can overcome the spirit of fear and oppression. We have found peaceful sleep by claiming authority over evil in the name of Jesus. God is showing us in Haiti that we are powerful through our prayer and that no weapon formed against us may prosper. We can now confidently proclaim that we are not scared of the things that go bump in the night. We have victory over fear through the blood of Jesus.
