what darkness looks like

The more time we spend in Sakenville, the more we see and understand what we believe hell is like. I don't at all mean to say that Sakenville is like hell. On the contrary, we are so thankful to live here, and have found ourselves to be so surrounded by sacrificial, joyful and loving friends. Sakenville is a beautiful place in so many ways because of the brilliant flickers of light here and there, and because of the many ways this community has made us welcome.

What I mean is that we are beginning to understand darkness in a way that we never did before. Sakenville is a community known throughout Haiti for its Voodoo. In fact, our night watchman, now our brother in Christ, moved to Sakenville with a few of his friends four years ago from Port-au-Prince because of it's mighty voodoo reputation.

However, the more time we spend outside these seminary walls, the more we are aware of this: It is NOT the darkness of Satan that we overwhelmingly feel. It is only the darkness that comes with the absence of God.

I spent about an hour this afternoon with a woman two years younger than me, Angeline. Her son is exactly one month older than Lily, and we talked while we finished scrubbing their laundry. She has a joyful spirit. She is gorgeous, with wide-set eyes, a flawless complexion, twisty braids rooting out in every direction. She is ridiculously kind to me, patient with Lily, anxious for friendship, quick to share and to listen. The father of her son lives with her, and he, too, is such a likeable man, hard-working, dark as the Haitian earth, eyes full of laughter.

There is a sense of pleasantness in Angeline's yard. But there is no light. She has her son. She has her boyfriend. She has some clothes, some food, a dry place to sleep. But she has not HIM, and her soul, her eyes, her home, her speech, her spirit...cry out to me that truth every time I see her. Darkness is all I see when I return her beautiful smile. That is what hell is...the absence of Him. She is choosing it here on earth. Sometimes, this is what darkness looks like.

While I sat with Angeline, and then later with a large group of ladies a few more houses down, Matt and 8 of the students headed further down the road. They hadn't planned on going to the primary voodoo temple in Sakenville today, and actually quite stumbled upon it.

Matt had spoken to the pastor in Sakenville a few weeks ago about the extreme voodoo presence in this community, and Janiel had named one boko (witchdoctor) as the head of voodoo in Sakenville.

"Pierre is a very large man, good color (translation: lighter brown skin), young, and he is known as the most powerful boko of all the bokos in Sakenville," Janiel had said. "If Pierre came to Christ (this is how Janiel thinks, always) OH, oh what a change we would see in Sakenville."

So today, as they were walking, Matt was drawn to a small yard with 2 other students because an elderly woman from the church was there. But as he entered the yard, he noticed trinkets hanging all over poles that had been staked in the ground, bottles, chains, talismans, etc. As he approached our friend from church, he saw voodoo charms and bracelets around her wrists and her ankles. This is what darkness looks like.

She explained that she had been sick, and so had come to the boko for healing.

"Can we see him?" Matt asked, discouraged to see our sister literally bound by Satan. The woman directed them to follow a path leading behind the house. Mirrors and bottles and flags became more abundant as they walked further from the road and deeper in the yard.


"It was like someone had taken a bunch of vines and sticks and twisted them and staked them into the ground, and then hung dozens of glass bottles, shards of mirrors and scraps of cloth all over them," Matt told me later. "I can't even describe it, because it was such a random hodge-podge of stuff."

The area opened to a cluster of huts, and in the main temple area five men sat. Matt and the students stopped, and asked if they could come in to talk. A young man, well-dressed and obviously well-educated, immediately declined.

"No. I'll come out to you." Seemingly a type of disciple to the boko, this young man talked with Matt and the students for about 10 minutes. They presented the Gospel to him.

"We all understand things differently, thank you for sharing" the young man said, face drawn and clearly hard-hearted. Suddenly, another man came out from the dark temple, a huge man (by Haitian standards), wearing a t-shirt and jeans and covered in "bling", gold crosses and chains, several rings, light skinned.

Before he even introduced himself, Matt knew that this was the Pierre Janiel had told him about.

"We're here to tell you about Jesus," Claudin (one of the fourth year students) said.

"I know about Jesus," Pierre replied. At this point, his friends retreated to the hut, leaving Pierre alone with Matt, Claudin and Leandre.

Taking turns, the students shared with him nonetheless about God being his Creator and even told Pierre that it is God's right to have authority in his life, not Pierre's own.


"That makes sense," Pierre said, surprising Matt. "I know the things that you are saying are true. I know Jesus is the Son of God. I know He died on the cross to forgive our sins. I know He rose again after He was killed. But, somethings people do voluntarily. And somethings people do involuntarily. I have to do this. This is what I do. I don't do anything else."

At this point, another man emerged from the darkness, there to be "treated" by Pierre, irritated that Pierre was squandering his time with Christ-followers. Undeterred, Pierre blew him off. "I am interested in what you are saying, see?" Pierre said to the guys. At this point, several of the other students had joined them.

"I'm obligated to do this. I have family. This is how I provide for them. If I leave this, I have no support."

"Pierre," Matt said, carefully speaking only when led to, overjoyed to see the students taking a main role in the conversation. "We've only been talking for 30 minutes, and look. Already, you have 8 men who are ready to become your brothers. God will take care of these things."

"I am interested" Pierre said, countless times, and showed it, as he listened patiently to each student. He asked them to come again. They promised that they would. Then the light left the darkness, and Pierre, declaring with his lips that Jesus was Lord, returned willingly to it. This is what darkness looks like.

"It was AWESOME" Matt just told me, reliving the moments of this afternoon. "I felt invigorated. It was awesome because we had the TRUTH. We WERE the light. And I couldn't stop thinking about Saul, as a leader of a community, and about how God transformed a community when He transformed Saul."

"We stood in the middle of the most Satanic place in one of the most Satanic communities of one of the most Satanic countries, and I felt nothing but the vibrancy of Christ. The bottles and potions and symbols and flags felt juvenile. Ridiculous. Like trivial trinkets that stood as a pile of dust before our God."

What a precious gift, to understand that Satan's finest has no value next to our Father. What a gift to see His precious love for His children, His great desire for LIFE ABUNDANT and FULL for His creation. What a gift to fear only the darkness that comes from the distance of God's light. What a precious gift, to possess Light and to live in the midst of such darkness. (As do you, precious friend...As do you!)

Please pray...Angeline, Pierre Noah, his disciples, the elderly church woman, Sakenville, the students...

The people who were sitting in darkness
saw a great light
and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death,
upon them a light dawned. Matthew 4:16

***This Saturday and Sunday is our OMS Haiti field's annual spiritual retreat...please be praying for this time, and for meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
***A missions trip is in the works to send a group of students back to Port-au-Prince over spring break to work alongside of Junior in doing an Easter Crusade. Another group of students is also going to do children's ministry in the same area. More on this soon, but please start covering this time, travel, work and people group with prayer!