The Other Side Of The Mountain (The Conversion)

The United Christians International mission in Caïman, Haiti is run by JeanJean and Kristie Mompremier. Kristie is from Iowa and married JeanJean who is from Caïman area. When we arrived in Caïman Kristie informed us that a local woman, who is a witch doctor, was ready to renounce witch craft (voodoo), accept Jesus Christ, and burn her voodoo artifacts.

At about 4pm we loaded the trucks and headed to the woman's village, which was not far away. UCI had started a nutrition center in this village. This is a center and program in which UCI provides meals for the children of the area. The nutrition center was an 8 posted structure with a corrugated metal roof and without walls. It was at this nutrition center that we were meant to meet the woman.

When we arrived we learned that the woman had gone to the market but would return shortly. We sat on the benches of the nutrition center, read some scripture, sang, and generally prepared for what was to come.

There were a couple of local women that JeanJean introduced. They were both x-witch doctors who had come to Jesus. The both gave their testimony, which were similar.

They came to be witch doctors after their husbands died. Their husbands were witch doctors and they sort of "took over" the business when they died. The spoke of the darkness of voodoo and how they had been paid to cast curses including curses that caused death.

They also spoke about the area and how voodoo once controlled the Caïman area. They stated that at one time it was not safe for a child to walk through this area alone as witch doctors would take them to "use" them, or parts of them, in voodoo rituals. They stated that since JeanJean had brought the love of Jesus to the area a light had come to remove the darkness.

Eventually the woman arrived. Her nick name was "Nanu" and her real name was "Amaz". The group circled around the woman with JeanJean and about 3 other local men from UCI directly next to Nanu. The group laid hands on Nanu and JeanJean began to pray over the woman and demand, in the name of Jesus, that the daemons leave.

About 5 minutes into the prayer Nanu let out a loud scream and started to physical fight against JeanJean and the others while the rest of us backed up a little. She tried to get away from JeanJean while shouting "Mwen pa vle!", which translates to "I don't want!". JeanJean continued to hold on to Nanu by the arm as she thrashed around and kicked. JeanJean called for someone to get his Bible and he began to read from Psalms.

After the reading from Psalms JeanJean began to call Nanu. At first she did not seem to respond and continued to fight, but eventually she calmed down and responded to her name. This was the signal to JeanJean that the demons had left her. JeanJean asked that she pray on her knees the confession prayer.

It was at this point that I happened to look at JeanJean's face and noticed that he was dripping in sweat. This caught my eye because during all my time in Haiti I have never really seen a Haitian sweat, let alone see them dripping in sweat; even when they are doing difficult construction work.

To be honest I am not quite sure what to make about what happened. I am naturally a skeptic and the whole situation was quite foreign to my north American context. In my context the spiritual battle between good and evil is relatively abstract compared to this experience.

After we got back to the UCI complex we did a bit of a de-brief. JeanJean said that this experience was typical, while some were more violent. This is when he walked through the experience describing what was taking place at each phase, the Creole, as well as what he was doing and for what signs he was looking.

JeanJean also gave us a bit of a Haitian education. He told how the Haitian revolution started at a voodoo ceremony in the north of Haiti and spread south. He spoke how this helped ingrain voodoo in the Haitian culture and psyche. He spoke how voodoo requires that to gain power it must be taken from someone else. It was quite interesting and allowed me to look at the situations I have seen in Haiti through a different lens.

As I sat pondering this experience back at UCI, I wondered why I felt God had called me to extend my trip to Caïman. I had no agenda at UCI; no plans. Was I sent there to experience this conversion? To see the spiritual battle manifested in the physical world? What should I have been learning? How should I be growing? I sat and listened. I tried to be open to God's voice and his urging.