We went to bed in the dorms that night at 10:00. I fell asleep right away. I was surprised because right after we went to bed, a voodoo ceremony started just up the hill behind the mission. The sharp thump of the drumming was constant and chanting and singing was frequent. I had actually "hoped" to hear a ceremony while we were there, though I felt guilty for feeling that way. The pervasive hold that voodoo has on the people of Haiti saddens me. It is perhaps Satan's strongest tool in this impoverished nation. But I wanted to hear a ceremony in hopes to have a deeper glimpse into the daily lives of these people and this nation.
That night (Tuesday night) the men had prayer time in the prayer chapel. My time was from 1:00-2:00 AM. Neal woke me up from a deep sleep. He said the prayer tower had a fair amount of mosquitos in it so he had prayer on the roof. I decided to do the same and it definitely was the right place for me to pray.
The voodoo cermony was in full swing during my prayer time. I stared into the hills behind us searching for the lights of this ceremony but saw none. But it was so close. I could clearly hear the chants (no idea of course of what was being said). The drumming was sharp and rythmic. Hearing the drumming and chanting during prayer time was a very powerful reminder of the evil gripping this country.
Haiti is surrounded by so much darkness. Crushing poverty and human suffering. So much of this is tied to voodoo and the people don't realize it. SO MUCH money and hope, both of which are far too rare in Haiti, are poured into this religion and its witch doctors and sacrifices. This is a religion now steeped in greed and desperation and anger. It is not a religion of loving one's fellow man.
Let me give you a brief history of voodoo in Haiti. Voodoo at its roots is the tribal religion of the African slaves from their homeland in West Africa. Voodooists DO believe in one supreme God. But they mistaking believe that this one God has no interest in the daily lives of people and that there are a vast number of lesser gods that "intercede" on the behalf of the people. Some of these gods are gentle, some seductive, some angry, some vulgar.
Unfortunately, one cannot fault the Haitians for there deep distrust, if not hatred, of the white man's version of "Christianity". Anyone who reads about the origins of Haiti will be absolutely repulsed by the unimaginable cruelty inflicted on the slaves by the French slave owners. When the slaves finally had enough and successfully revolted, they of course wanted NOTHING to do with the white mans God. Who would? So the practice of voodoo (vodoun is the proper term) grew in the 200 years of virtual isolation that struck Haiti.
Christianity, as taught by Jesus, is making inroads in Haiti. The same white people, whose distant descendants brutally murdered and mistreated these people, are now in many cases coming back to humbly serve the descendants of those so terribly mistreated. To me this is what a foriegn mission trip, be it short term or long term, is ALL ABOUT!
Looking out into the darkness, hearing the voodoo ceremony, remembering the images we saw, was the most surreal thing I believe I have ever experienced. So much mental preperation, many books and articles read about Haiti, had preceeded this trip for me.
Living it, hearing it, seeing it for only a few days didn't even seem real. And that tears my heart out.
SIDEBAR: To get a non-biased, secular detail of voodoo, read Alfred Metraux's "Voodoo in Haiti". It is considered to the most detailed view of voodoo from a white person's perspective. You owe it to yourself to read it if you want to understand these people.
I read it about a month before we went to Haiti. I actually approached reading this book "hoping" that voodoo was really not that far away from Christianity. I finished with a very deep, very clear conviction of the opposite, though that is not the author's intent. These spirits are real and they are from Satan. Voodoo is not the direct worship of Satan, but is a vast series of spirits under Satan that deceives these people. I finished the book feeling not fear or dread of those who follow voodoo, but instead a deep sadness for the deception of these people .
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