This is Pastor Emmanuel St-Jean, standing in front of the Baptist Church of Vallue, Haiti. I have written much about Pastor Emmanuel and this church, because I have been led by the Lord to visit here on every trip I have taken to Haiti in the past year! Both Teen Challenge teams visited here and spent a night in rural homes. We have had pastors conference, leaders’ conference, youth conference, and many other events here, including five days recently that I spent in personal spiritual retreat at a mountaintop hotel nearby.
I have been wondering for some time why the Lord continues to direct me to return to this place again and again. There is not any serious sign of spiritual revival here, except in three hungry young men who are leaders of the youth group and who enjoy sitting at my “feet” in order to receive anything I feel led to impart to them. Pastor Emmanuel himself is not particularly able to grasp and apply the spiritual principles that I am sharing with him in hours of private discipling. I wonder what the Lord is doing here that I cannot see, and sometimes feel discouraged that perhaps I’m “wasting” my time continuing to return to this place again and again.
Joèl and I visited Vallue once again in October. It was rainy and muddy, and we stayed in rather terrible conditions and ate rather terrible food. I was there only to meet with Pastor Emmanuel and also with the three youth leaders. When I met with the youth leaders, they told me an amazing story which I would like to share here…
Some problems were developing in the congregation. People were starting to complain about many things; the atmosphere of love and friendliness was decaying into eruptions of anger and discord. A number of people were leaving the church for various reasons. No one knew why this was happening. The people are spiritually alert enough to think that perhaps there was some kind of voodoo curse that had been placed over them, and they began to search the area for any “fetishes” that might have been left or buried nearby as a sign of such a curse. They prayed for understanding and revelation, but none came, and the atmosphere in the congregation seemed to decay irresistibly.
One day a man came to the church. He identified himself as pastor of a Pentecostal congregation in Port-au-Prince (a serious distance to travel when you know no one in the place you are going). He said the Lord had spoken to him in a dream and told him to go to the Baptist Church in Vallue, where a curse had been placed by local voodooists. How amazing that this man was willing to leave his home and travel to a previously unknown place because of the clarity of the dream the Lord had given him.
After he had told the people why he was there, he prayed and asked the Lord to give him a clear revelation. He walked to the area of ground directly in front of the entrance to the church, pointed to a specific spot, and said “Dig here.” There was no sign in that place, where everyone steps in order to go in and out of the church building, that anything had previously been dug there. But he was insistent, and some men got shovels and started to dig. They dug two feet through very difficult rocky ground, and then wanted to give up. But the pastor told them to continue digging. Much later, after very difficult labor, at about four feet deep, they found a package wrapped in a dirty cloth. When they retrieved it, it was full of voodoo fetish items…bones, feathers, some terrible liquid in a bottle.
Everyone was amazed and concluded that since there was no sign at all that there had been a hole previously dug here, those who placed it must have made it descend into the ground by some demonic magic method. This means that those who placed this curse were probably witch doctors with deeply developed Satanic powers.
The finding of this fetish, revealing what was supposed to be a secret work of Satan to destroy the congregation, turned against him and became the very tool which re-united the congregation. All understood what was the real cause of their dissensions and discord, and unity in relationships and in prayer returned to Vallue.
OK, so now the three young men are telling me this story, and I’m thinking: First of all, if Satan would employ such deep demonic powers to destroy this congregation, one little church on the top of a mountain in a little village in Haiti, that must mean there is some godly power, some purpose, something here that is a big threat to him, something far beyond anything I have been able to discern. All I know is that the Lord nearly shouts to me to return to Vallue every time I’m in Haiti, and I’m not sure why! And second, if the Lord would use such dramatic means to reveal Satan’s plan, it confirms doubly that He has some very important plan to use this congregation for a purpose beyond anything I am yet able to see or discern.
So, I guess I will continue to sit and even more seriously mentor Pastor Emmanuel until he really gets what I’m trying to impart to him! And I guess I will certainly continue to go as far as I can in mentoring the three young men who are hungry to be used by God in whatever way He desires for revival and transformation in this whole area.
