Fighting Demons and Pulling Teeth

The last two days have been great. Yesterday, we went to the Free Methodist church of Pastor Costume (kos-tu-ma). Cynthia and I were both offered the chance to preach, but she had a migraine and hadn’t slept. So I preached on Luke 15, the lost sheep. It is the passage we are focusing on for the Bible school for the children. Pastor translated, and I got into a pretty good rhythm of call and response with the church. I told them, “No matter what you have done, no matter how lost you are, Bondye benu (God loves you)!” Then I played guitar and we sang “Amazing Grace” us in English, the congregation in Creole. After worship, we had a fantastic afternoon on the beach. We sat on the sand and played and sang songs with Patrick, the Hertzes, and Anna. 

Today, Anna stole the show, rocking out her clinic. Everyone was impressed with her system, her skills, her bedside manner, and her leadership. Heather and Janice worked in with her, cleaning instruments and moving patients around like a well-oiled machine. Archibald kept things flowing and Dr. Benoit and Dr. Goldston saw 50 patients. In the morning they pulled teeth and in the afternoon they did cleanings. Cleanings are not Anna’s plan or desire, but all the Haitians she has talked to are sure that people want cleanings. People were lined up to get their teeth cleaned, so it must be so. 

In the meantime, I had possibly the best experience I’ve had in Haiti. Cynthia and I gathered with five Haitian pastors to study scriptures and talk pastoring together. We began with the easy stuff, Christ died for us and all that, and then it got really interesting. We bounced all around reading scriptures and talking about progressive salvation and sanctification. I would have thought that they would have been more about baptizing people and being done with it, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were very concerned about creating deep spiritual lives for their people, and building them into communities of love and care. Pastor Louisnar read Acts 2:41 about the early church and said he was teaching his people to give to the needy. Pastor Joshue agreed and told this story. One of his members starved to death. He brought the news to the church and they were horrified. They decided to do something about it, so everyone who can brings $1 Haitian (about 8 cents) every week. When they have enough, they give the money to the neediest member to use to buy some goods, sell them, and begin a business. Since this initiative began several years ago, no one has starved to death. That is an effective stewardship campaign. 

After this, several pastors asked me theological questions about once saved, always saved and about communion. At first, I thought they were evaluating my theology, but upon further reflection, I think they were using me as a resource to help them respond to difficult questions. The younger pastors were asking the questions, who likely had very little theological education or reading. Not a ton of books are translated into Creole. So, I was able to offer some theology for them. I say me because Cynthia sensed that they were uncomfortable with her as a female pastor, so she did not reply much. 

Finally, we shared testimony of God’s power. It was incredible to hear the miracles God was working in their communities. Just to share one, Pastor Costume testified that God sent him to serve in a neighborhood with a very small church. The church was weak because a voodoo priest set up shop next door and a demon had possessed her. Pastor led his church in a community prayer ministry to fight the demon. Long story short, the prayer ministry drove the demon out of the community, and the church is now thriving. Every story was that incredible.