The power of God on display in Haiti

The "Greatest Gift Mission Trip" to Haiti the week of Christmas was filled with a lifetime of memories, too many to recount in this blog. To sum it up in one phrase, our group of 15 missionaries from Dothan, Headland and Cottonwood saw the power of God on display.

How? In many ways. The religion of Voodoo is practiced by many Haitians. Some don't know any other way, because they haven't been told. Voodoo is in a word, evil. It deals with demonic spirits and Satan himself. If you don't believe in Satan, demons and occult, then you are blind and haven't read the Bible. Jesus talks a great deal about the "enemy," and the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12, "For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens."

In Haiti, we felt the presence of evil, but we felt the power of God so much more. Knowing who you are in Christ Jesus, and knowing that the King of kings and Lord of lords, almighty God Himself lives within you, gives you confidence that you will see the mighty hand of God move for His glory in the midst of darkness.

We saw the power of God in nearly 200 people making decisions for Jesus. The Holy Spirit drew them to Christ, and they surrendered. They heard the Gospel message of hope, peace and salvation in Jesus Christ alone, and turned from the dark to the light. One of those saved was a Voodoo priestess. A smile instantly appeared on her face Christmas morning when she prayed to renounce the ways of Satan and turn her life completely over to Jesus, and that smile was still there when we left.

After we baptized her two days later, she felt the power and love of God so strongly inside of her, she told Pastor Damil (our host pastor in Montrouis, Haiti) that she wanted to get rid of all of her Voodoo stuff. That afternoon we burned and destroyed all of it.

After making the decision to follow Jesus, one man told us that up to that point he hadn't cared about anyone and drank alcohol all the time. He was to the point where he was going to cast a Voodoo curse on two people to kill them. On Christmas morning he surrendered to Jesus, and on Friday morning he was baptized. Now, he is learning to become a disciple of Jesus and to be a man of God for his family.

We saw the power of God at work in each other. His love is power, the only force that gives hope to those in the deepest of despair. That's why orphans and widows could smile and say they now have hope after we prayed with them and took time to talk and have fun with them. We danced, played soccer and basketball and other games with the children, and even discussed math in a classroom setting while waiting for food to be served for Christmas lunch.

We saw the power of God give hope to pastors and give them the determination to keep on "fighting the good fight of faith" for the glory of God.

Do you want to know the power of the name of Jesus? Every night we heard Voodoo drums. The drums beat throughout the night, and at some points it changed and became even eerier. I got tired of hearing it. I got tired of hearing them give glory to Satan. He doesn't deserve anyone's glory. He kills, steals and destroys. Around 10 p.m. on Thursday as we walked outside of the gates of the mission house to walk to the house where Martha, Gia, William and I were staying at, we heard the drums again. I yelled "Shut up in the name of Jesus!" The drums immediately stopped and we didn't hear them the rest of the time we were there. That's the power of the name of Jesus.

We saw the power of God as we prayed with people in L'Artibonite. The response to prayer was tremendous as all of our team members laid hands on men, women and children and prayed for them. A woman who was so ashamed of her condition, during worship she faced a wall and wouldn't look at the people. She came forward and told us that she had AIDS. That took the power of God to bring her forward. We laid hands on her and prayed and then hugged her.

We saw the power of God as we were stuck on top of a very high mountain because the pickup truck that was to take us back down broke. One-by-one and two-by-two we rode on the back of motorcycles down a very bumpy and treacherous road. On top of that mountain we saw the Holy Spirit draw more than 100 people to Jesus.

God's power. It's real. Just dip your toe in the water and feel how refreshing His power is. You see, His power comes in different forms - forgiveness, salvation, love, grace, peace, strength, and many other ways. And, nothing and no one can resist His power.

It has nothing to do with you, me, missionaries, preachers, teachers or anyone else. It's all God. When we completely surrender to Jesus we get the awesome privilege of seeing His great power released in and through our lives. I saw it in each and every member of our mission team.

Each one of us grew in the Lord on this trip. Our faith was tested time and time again, and each time we trusted God and saw how incredibly faithful He is.

What about you? Are you experiencing the fullness of God? If you are, keep going forward, because you haven't seen anything yet. If you aren't, there's one thing you need to do. More than 2,000 years ago Jesus gave this invitation to 12 men, "Follow Me." His invitation is still available. Will you accept it? Will you accept Jesus and follow Him? I encourage you to do so and experience what real life is all about, because Jesus is the real life. He is the only life.