The Haitian’s Dream
Voodoo Shop
This article was written by my son, Albert Wolfe, in November 2007. He currently is an executive coach and professor at Peking University.
During the spring of 2001, I went on a one-week missions trip to Haiti with Mission Systems International (MSI) led by Michael Thompson. One of the things that worried me a little from the books I'd read about that country was their entrenchment in occult and satanic practices. Witch doctors and voodoo were very much a part of their culture. Of course, I didn't know how much I believed about that, but I was sure that the power of Jesus was stronger.
Upon arrival in Haiti, I didn't feel anything special about the country. It kind of felt like a tropical island version of Mexico. As my translator and I walked around a small jungle town near Jacmel, our goals were to share the gospel with anyone who would listen, and also to invite them to the first service of the church we were helping to plant. My role was mainly to be the first white person these people had ever seen (which I did very well) and serve as a kind of bait for my translator to share what he wanted. I also could say things and he would translate for me.
One time, when we approached a hut that was much bigger and more ornately decorated than the others, my translator said, "This is the witch doctor's home." I didn't know exactly what to say to someone who was overtly in the service of Satan. So I just stuck with the Bible. I asked him if he knew about Jesus. He did. I asked him if he was living for Jesus or Satan. He said Satan. He showed me scars on his back that "demons had given" him. I said Jesus is more powerful than Satan. He stared me right in the eyes, very somberly and said, "I know." I asked him if he'd like Jesus to set him free from his current situation. He said it's too hard, he depends on his job as a witch doctor to make money and support his family. I read him John 6.27, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." He just shook his head sadly saying he knows that's true, but it's too hard. We left him in despair.
Later that day, one of our teammates from Colorado--Dave was his name, I think--told us the following story:
We were walking around from hut to hut and a man came running up frantically. He asked my translator, "What does that white guy have to say? I've got to know!" The translator explained the man's question to me. I asked the translator if he knew who that guy was or what he was talking about. He said he didn't know anything about him. So I asked the still-panting man, through the translator, what he was talking about. He said he'd come from a nearby town. A few days ago he'd had a dream that there was a white man in the jungle somewhere nearby and that white man had a very important message to tell him. He'd been running around from town to town since then looking for a white man, and now he'd finally found one. Dave was very surprised to hear this story and thought it only natural that he should tell the man about Jesus. The man seemed thrilled to hear the message of peace and forgiveness and committed his life to serving Jesus on the spot.
I don't know what became of that man. I don't know what has become of that church we planted or our respective translators. I returned to my home church, First Christian Church in Tempe, AZ shortly after I came back from that trip to Haiti and told the entire congregation the same story I have just related here. It was certainly one of the highlights of the trip, not only for Dave, but for the whole team.
