I sat on a wooden bench in the back of the one-room church building listening to the congregation's prayers. They were loud and jumbled (everyone was praying individually yet simultaneously) but oddly united.
I shivered despite the heat. The Lord's presence was so strong it was tangible.
What made this service so different than any other service? It was a service of divorce. But not the kind of divorce you're thinking of. This was a divorce from voodoo.
In Haiti, an agreement made under voodoo is considered an unbreakable contract. That Sunday, a family in the congregation came forward to renounce all ties to voodoo. To "divorce" voodoo.
~~~~~Rewind 2 years~~~~~
A young woman was pregnant, but unable to give birth after her 9 months of pregnancy. In desperation, she turned to a man of voodoo, begging him to help her give birth. He agreed - but at a price. The woman must agree that the child would belong to him and to voodoo.
After the birth, the man never came to claim his "right" to the baby girl. The parents became Christians and assumed all ties to voodoo had been severed at conversion. But last week, the young mom (whose baby is now 3) had a vision that the man came back to claim the child.
It was this vision that gave the family the courage to stand before the church, confess their prior involvement in voodoo, and proclaim freedom in Christ.
"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1)
Not only was I struck by the family's dedication to pursuing freedom (true and COMPLETE freedom that can only be found in Christ), I was also struck by the pastor's dedication to bring light to the darkness of voodoo in Haiti.
I was among a group of 15 or so Americans visiting the church. It would have been easy for the pastor to put off the "divorce" service for another day in order to not make the visitors uncomfortable. It would have been easy for him to help the couple privately rather than publicly. But he didn't. He took the issue head-on and not only proclaimed an end to voodoo but also used it to illustrate the importance of putting Christ FIRST and serving Him ALONE.
This is a pastor who refuses to let his family, his friends, his church, or his community live in darkness. He refuses to allow his brothers and sisters in Christ to have one hand in voodoo and the other hand in church.
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (Matthew 6:24)
How easy is it to forget this in our own lives? We need to be sold out to Jesus 110% and to serve Him and Him ALONE. Only then can we find complete freedom.
Side note.
The pastor of this church is a graduate of Emmaus Biblical Seminary (EBS) - a local seminary only 5 minutes from where I work. I am continually amazed by the students and graduates of EBS. These students are passionate about the love of Christ and their responsibility to share that love with people who don't know it yet. They are brave. They are strong leaders. They are the people who are changing Haiti for better.
