Thursday Chapel 2/25/11
We’ve been consistent about chapel at El Shaddai since its inception. We’ve seen children saved, healed, and set free from all sorts of things, but today………….Today was different. I must back up a little so that you will begin to understand why.
Two weeks ago, a Haitian pastor by the name of Eddy Francois came to town and did a two week crusade that really impacted the devil’s hold on people. There were so many healings and deliverances we couldn’t count them all. He’s gone but what happened is lingering and we saw a bit of it today with our kids.
Today, we were singing a Paul Wilbur song that had a line stating “what God has done for me.” When we finished, I said, “Someone stand up and tell us what God has done for you.”
Marc was the first to raise his hand. Marc is age 12. I knew his mother died a couple of years ago and that he was still hurting from the loss. He began to tell us about getting hit by a car, which resulted in breaking his arm. I told him God saved his life so he could serve God. He said, “I want to pray but I can’t pray. I go to church but there is always something there that keeps me from praying.” I asked if he’d ever been to the book (witch doctor) and he replied no. Then he said, “After my mother died, my father took me to the witch doctor and he gave me a bath.” This bath is like a baptism using very smelly water or mud. His father was trying (out of ignorance) to protect his children from death but of course, he was attaching death to them, thus the accident. By this time Marc was crying and we prayed fervently over him binding generational curses and the spirit of death. He was so shaken he sat down at the front of the class (on the bench behind us) rather than returning to his seat.
Henson came up. Henson is very slow with his school work and he’s usually in trouble for one thing or another. Henson came several years ago. His mother told him he was coming to Haiti for a vacation and then she left, leaving him with an aunt. Thankfully, this aunt is a Christian. Henson dropped his head as he began to speak and tears started to flow. He told us about a gun fight that occurred when he was very young out in a village. There was voodoo going on, when Henson’s uncle killed a man. His mother and father ran leaving Henson standing all alone. There was only one way to escape the village and that was across a river. Frightened, Henson ran and jumped in the river but was drowning. Someone rescued him and drown in the effort. Henson didn’t see his parents for several years after that. By the time he finished the story we were all tearing up. We prayed over him binding different spirits that have troubled him since then. (Mr. Daniel said he has had trouble with Henson so often and had no idea what this boy had been through. He said, “I will begin to treat him differently because he needs love.”) Mitch came next. Mitch is a very small 12 year old that came to El Shaddai last year having a command of English from another English school. He talked about 1/12/10, the day of the earthquake. He was in Port au Prince that day, many people died around him. His uncle rescued him. This is the first time we had any clue that he was in the earthquake in Port. You could tell that he was still very shaken from the experience and he probably hasn’t talked about it from that day to this. We prayed he would have peace of mind.
Stally came up and told her story. I knew that her mother had been taking her for demonic baths every week as she shared this with us over a year ago, after she had an accident that nearly killed her. Her mother had gotten saved, but the spirits were still after Stally and she called it a “snake in my throat.” Because she couldn’t breathe well, her mother got her on a motor cycle taxi to take her to the hospital and they had an accident. She ended up in a hospital in Port au Prince and has quite a few visible scars from that accident. After she came back to school, she was different about the Gospel. Instead of a dark look when she was in chapel, she was happy and singing. We came against all the curses put on her by the witch doctor each time she went to him.
Tara shared a long story about how people called her a sorceress, since she was a small child. She’d answer that she couldn’t be a sorceress because she was born into a Christian family. We know the famil well. Her story became so bizarre that we cut it off and intend to have some private prayer sessions with her. We spoke to her mother about it and she said, “My husbands family are all in voodoo and they have tried for years through witchcraft to get him back and out of Christianity. The spirits are coming to my daughter instead.
So, there you have it, a peek into children’s lives here on this island that openly serves the devil. Generation after generation, it goes on. I reminded all the kids that Jesus has all power and can set people free. I’m asking you to pray that our kids will be totally free as we preach and teach and pray over them. Pray there are more opportunities to bring true deliverance to these captives so the next generation will be Godly.
Later in the day Mr. Daniel came back and said, “That chapel service was the Holy Ghost. I thought you would have your Bible presentation, I didn’t expect anything like what happened…it was all God.” And it was!
