Why go on a short-term mission, or on a mission team? What purpose can two weeks in another country serve? How can we give enough to make it worthwhile with no language skills and limited cross-cultural experience? Is it just a glorified holiday? Or can God work through these short experien...
Extreme Walk is a formative 10 month cross-cultural church multiplication and discipleship experience. 10 months of stretching spiritually and emotionally as a person is taken out of their natural environment and placed in a world with different values, customs, and worldviews - not to mention d...
The last two months have seen a couple of things happen. Back in June, the eXtreme Walk team joined with Y.W.A.M (Youth With A Mission) and people from the Seminary. Together we went to Montelibano to work with and along side people helping the displaced people out there. Colombia has the ...
As a family we are doing well, although life here is challenging. We know there is a real need for us here, and the needs to be filled are endless. The girls have really settled into the Ecuadorian swing of life, Anika (1yr) now speaks as much Spanish as English. While Maia (2 ½) is struggl...
| What Powers Make You Untouchable |
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David Bustin reported, "A little past one o'clock we received word that the local witch doctor had been severely beaten while attending a voodoo dance. We went to give him help. Upon approaching the scene, I could smell death in the air. Our thoughts were, this is going to be bad … and it was. There on the side of the path we found Yon Yon lying in a pool of his own blood. One eye was gouged out, a finger was cut off and he was covered with deep gashes and wounds all over his body. All through the night the voodoo ceremony continued and even into the next day. We could smell and feel the demonic activity that had taken place and was continuing. As we picked up Yon Yon, people had already started to yell the death wail, as they knew he was almost dead. We carried him to a truck. As we placed him in the truck to take him for medical help, I again shared the gospel with him. It was not the first time that I had talked with Yon Yon about Jesus.
Let me take you back a few years and share with you my first encounter with Yon Yon, the local witch doctor. Not long after we moved in here Yon Yon came to our house. I was working on our truck. Feeling the presence of someone near me, I looked up to see Yon Yon staring at me. I greeted him and asked how I could help him. Responding he said, “I want to know what powers and forces you have that make you untouchable.” When I asked him what he meant he replied, “You have been preaching the Christian gospel and making people feel uncomfortable. People have asked me to cast a spell on you. I have been trying, but my powers are unable to touch you. The harder I try to get rid of you, the more you preach the gospel.” I began to tell Yon Yon about God's power and grace. Over the years we have been praying for this man asking God to make him a new man in Jesus. We arrived at the hospital and while the missionary doctor examined Yon Yon, I told him again about God's great love for him and his need to accept Jesus as his Saviour. There, lying on the operation table, Yon Yon accepted Jesus as his Saviour. We could feel the presence of God's angels all around us. Five weeks later Yon Yon returned from the hospital and medical care and came to our home to visit us. Wow! What a changed man! He could not say enough words of praise for all God has done for him. Yon Yon said, “I know Jesus is my Saviour. He knows all He is doing and He does all things well. I believe the missionaries came here a few years too late!” He expressed how Satan, his headmaster, had taken much more from him than he had ever given him. Now God is blessing his soul so much he can hardly contain the joy in his heart today. He said, “My sins are forgiven and God keeps cleansing me.” The very next Sunday Yon Yon came to church. The church was packed, excitement was running high, and God’s presence was with us. When Yon Yon was asked to tell what God had done for him, he shared with the church how he had wasted his life serving Satan, waiting for blessings from Satan that he never received… he said “the more I gave to the Demons, the more they took from me. Finally they wanted my life as well. When I was given up for dead then God stepped in. Now that I belong to Jesus, he has freed me from all the powers of Satan, my sins are forgiven, I am determined to serve my Lord.” At the end of the service a large group of Christians accompanied Yon Yon to his house. After much singing, praying and reading the Scriptures, Yon Yon invited the believers to destroy all his articles of Voodoo worship, including his Voodoo temple. God is doing a wonderful work in the life of this former witch doctor and in His church.” Haiti bought into the lies of Satan 200 years ago, exchanging slavery to the French for a far more dangerous slavery to Satan. Just as Satan lied and deceived Yon Yon, leaving him mutilated and almost dead, so has Satan lied to the country of Haiti and intends to leave it for dead. Just as Yon Yon's live has been transformed, so the country of Haiti is being transformed today by the power of God. The evidence is breaking forth throughout the land. Loudly the people are shouting "Haiti for Jesus, Jesus for Haiti!" Pray for Haiti. Pray for the work of OMS missionaries as they train leaders for the church and the evangelists to take the gospel into every corner of the country. Pray for our radio program 4VEH, broadcasting the message of good news in Haiti. - from a report by David Bustin a missionary in Haiti – abridged.
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