My Valentine.

One of my students is incredibly socially awkward.  We don't know what exactly is going on with him. But, we are certain we can attribute his issues to the fact that his mother abandoned him at a young age, and he is being raised by people that mistreat him and rarely give him food.

Despite the fact that he is the oldest boy in my class, he is the smallest.  This year, I've seen him come out of his shell more and start to find his place among the other students.  It has been an exciting change to witness, but the best moment of all happened this week.

Everyday after school, Biolan stays late to eat some extra rice.  When he was finished eating and walking away, I called after him.  When he turned around to look, I flashed him the "I love you" sign in sign language.  I had taught it to my class the week before.

When he saw that, his face lit up and he signed "I love you" back to me.  I asked in English, "Biolan, do you remember what that means?!"  He smiled again with a cheeky grin and said in English, "Yep.  I love you." This time in Creole I said, "It's true? You love me?"  Yet again, he smiled at me and just simply said, "Yep" as he turned to leave.

I couldn't ask for a better Valentine than that.

Cast Out Demons

I was unfazed when one of our school cleaning staff sent word that she was ill and would not be able to come to work one Friday in January.  A fever is not uncommon.  I assumed she would be back to work on Monday morning.

Monday morning rolled around.  We had just finished our morning teacher devotions when two of the staff approached me looking concerned.  "P is sick again.  Except, she isn't really sick.  She has a zombie."  

I recognized that use of the word zombie.  In the fall, one of my students had a sister with a "zombie".  In Haiti, when someone has a zombie, it usually means they are being tormented by the demonic.

Rumors tend to spread quickly here, so I decided to pay P a quick visit to see what was really going on.  What I saw and heard from her neighbors was disconcerting to say the least.  She had cuts, scrapes, and welts all over her body.  She was very agitated and not acting like herself at all.  Several neighbor women explained to me that they had witnessed her jumping on her bed and swinging from the rafters of her little one room house.  They said she acted crazy in the middle of the night and ran outside.  When they had to restrain her to get her home, she attempted to fight them.  "It is a zombie," they told me.

Ok.  It was 7:30 AM.  My students would arrive for class in 15 minutes.  What do I do with that information??  "Can I come back after school to pray for her?" I asked the neighbors.

By the end of the school day, most of the school staff had learned (or heard rumor) of what was going on with P.  During the end of the day meeting, I explained to everyone that if they would like to accompany me, I was going to go pray for P.  School was over, they were all free to go home, but every single staff member (15 total people) went together to P's house.

We barely fit inside her tiny house as we made a half circle around her.  My co-teacher talked to her about God's healing power for whatever problem she has in her life.  He lead everyone in worship and we all began to pray for whatever problem P was dealing with.  Eventually, we moved her into the center of the house and we formed a circle around her.

Fresnel, one of our Haitian teachers, began to lead by asking P some simple questions.

"P, who created you?" he asked her.

"Bondye (God)." she responded without making eye contact with him.

"And who is His son that saves us from sin?" Fresnel questioned

"I don't know." she said, eyes fixed on the floor.

"Do you recognize the name 'Jesus'?" He asked her.

"No," she said.

"And what about my name? Or her name?  Or his name?" he asked her as he pointed to several of us in the circle.

"I recognize you all." she said

"No, what are our names?  Tell me one name." he said firmly.

"It's far...I can't remember right now, but I know you." she said.

I think in that moment it became clear to most of us what we were dealing with (Ephesians 6:12).  So, we began to pray again.  Despite Fresnel's attempts to get her to make eye contact with him while we were praying, she continued to look at the floor.  Eventually she sat down in the middle of the circle.  We moved to the floor with her and continued to pray.  Fresnel began to speak directly to her again.

"Where do you come from?" he asked

"By the meat market," she answered.

"Oh yeah?  Well, I'm sending you back to the fire right now," he said to her with complete authority and confidence.  At that, he head shot up immediately and fear was in her eyes.

"Fire?!  Fire?!  No!  No!  I'm not going to the fire!  You can go to the fire!  I'm not going!" she began to shout loudly.

While this was taking place, I began to pray harder asking the Lord to speak to me and reveal where this spirit was attaching itself to her.  I asked for a word that would help us to speed up this process so that this demon would stop abusing her.  Within a minute I very clearly heard, "Neck."  Simple and straightforward.  But, oh me of little faith.  I prayed, "Ok, God was that you??  Really?  Did you just say neck?  If that was you, God, and not my own head, please say it again."  I didn't even have to wait because I heard it again, immediately.  "NECK!"

Afraid to say it loud enough for everyone in the room, I turned to my friend, "Ok, this is weird but God just told me neck...that's all I've got."  She shrugged and at that, we both looked to P's neck.  A blue scarf was tied tightly and multiple times around her neck.

"What is that?" I asked Fresnel.

"I don't know," he said.  "P, who put that on you??" he asked her.  She didn't respond.  "Take that off!" he said.

Someone untied it and handed it to me.  It smelled strongly of incense and was wet.  I immediately went to the door and threw it outside to get it as far away as possible.  As soon as that was removed from her neck, things started happening fast.  She began thrashing around on the floor.  We had to hold her down.  We prayed harder, commanding the demon to leave her body and go back to hell.  She gnashed her teeth and attempted to get away from our grasp.

"Let me go!!!!  No! No!  Leave me alone!  No!" she screamed.

This went on for several minutes until she eventually was still.  Fresnel asked her to stand up and pray with him.  She prayed with him saying "Jesus is Lord."  We formed a circle around her again.  One by one, Fresnel had her say what each of our names were.  She knew every name.  When she got to me she looked up into my face and smiled, "I'll be at work to clean tomorrow."

And she was.  The next day, bright and early with a big smile on her face she was at school and she was P again.  "I slept peacefully.  I didn't hear the voices and I wasn't beaten by the demons last night.  My house was peaceful after you all prayed for me."

Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.


Matthew 10:8

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.  Freely you have received; freely give.

For the Kingdom of God Belongs to Such as These

The Lord has been moving here in Gonaives in mighty ways since the start of the new year.  Although I have not been writing on my blog very often, big things have been happening.  

Each day in each class, we start with a 30 minute devotion time.  Most days, my 2nd graders act goofy and are talkative.  They are not usually very serious about our prayer and devotion.  Today was different.  As I read from the book of Daniel, they listened to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego with interest.  I saw in their eyes a hunger to hear more.  I felt in my spirit that the Lord was working in their hearts.  Together, we talked about the faith and courage that it took the three young men to stand for God when all others bowed down to an idol.  

One by one, my children started to raise their hands to share stories of Vodou related things they see and experience in Jubilee regularly.  They drew the connection that participating in Vodou is like worshipping an idol.  One of my students, Ifocoeur, raised his hand.  "My dad is a bokor (Vodou priest).  My grandfather was a bokor and my grandmother was a mambo (Vodou priestess).  I don't want my dad to do that anymore.  I have an idea that came into my head.  I have to go talk to my dad.  Today.  At 2:30 when school is over, I have to tell him to go to church and to serve God."

Ifocoeur happens to be one of my most spirited children.  He usually distracts others during prayer and devotions.  Today, he was completely serious.  When it was time for prayer, his eyes were glued shut and his head was bowed.  I looked at my children as we were praying and for the first time, they all had heads bowed, eyes closed, and were praying out loud to God.  They didn't say any of the memorized prayers that they know.  They spoke from the heart.  They talked to God with their own words.  Holy things were happening.

When we were finished praying, Madelene shot her hand into the air.  When I called on her to speak, she very seriously said, "Katie, just now when we were praying I had a vision.  I saw a big snake.  It was scary.  It was right in front of me."  That lead us to more prayer and more discussion about spiritual warfare.  We had a great talk about how Satan is always working to take us away from God and to try to distance us from Him.  The battle is real.  Day and night, it never stops.

My students had so much to share with me during Bible that we missed math class and we were late for library, but I knew that what we were doing was more important.  When it was time for recess, Madelene asked to stay and talk with me some more.  For 20 minutes, she shared with me many of the dreams that she has had.  She has a reoccurring dream about Ifocoeur's mama being chased and killed by a giant snake.  She shared about another dream in which she sees both Satan and Jesus.  Satan has a bucket that is filled with fish while Jesus has a bucket that is empty.  She and her cousin choose to go to Jesus even though his bucket is empty.  Her other cousin chooses to go to Satan.  After they make their choice, Jesus' bucket becomes full of fish and Satan's becomes empty.  In anger, Satan chases the girls and no matter where they run, he is behind them until two angels appear and save Madelene and her cousin while the cousin that chose Satan is killed by him.  

Just when I thought she was finished sharing, she went on.  She told me of another dream in which she sees an ugly old lady who is hungry and thirsty.  The woman asks someone for food and water but the person refuses her and sends her away.  She continues on and finds another person.  The second person gives her a huge plate of food and a beautiful big glass full of juice.  When the old lady is finished eating, the person goes on to tell the old lady about the Lord.  Then, the old lady turns into Jesus.  I was able to talk to Madelene about Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."  It was a beautiful time with her in which I was able to encourage her to pray about the dreams and visions that she has and to share them with people she trusts.  She said to me, "I have many, many dreams, Katie.  All the time!"

At the end of the day, Ifocoeur came to me and hugged me.  He asked me to go with him to talk to his papa about Jesus.  That lead us to have a nice long talk and time of prayer.  We decided to take the rest of this week to pray together every day after school.  We want to prepare our hearts for him to talk to his papa.   Ifocoeur said to me, "Since this morning the Bible story that you read to us has been on my heart.  I know that the things that my papa serve are not good.  He needs to stop.  He needs God.  I have to help him."  He prayed for the Lord to give him courage and strength to talk to his papa.  He prayed that his papa would listen to him and not be angry with him for talking about God.  Afterwards, I was able to pray over Ifocoeur that he will be a light for his family and Jubilee.  That the Lord will give him the words that he needs to talk to his papa and that his papa will have ears and a soft heart to hear his little son.  

After Ifocoeur left my classroom, I stood and cried tears of joy.  I'm so excited to hear and see that God is speaking to them and that they are listening to Him.  This is why I'm here.  This is why I came to Haiti.  Not so my students can learn to read and write.  Not so they can grow up to find good jobs.  That is all fine and good.  But the real reason I'm here is to be a part of the change that is taking place in their hearts as they learn about and experience the love of God the Father.  He is doing big things.  I ask that you join me in praying for them.

"Aslan is on the move."

-C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Creative Writing: Why are your teachers important?

"They love us just like our mamas and papas love us.  If I have a problem, they help me."

"They tell me everything that I don't know.  They tell me when things are bad that I should not do.  They tell me not to say bad things.  They teach me what is right and what is wrong."

"They are gentle.  When I have a problem, they help me because they love us all."

"I love the good advice that my teachers give me."

"When I'm sick, they heal me.  When I have a problem they help me."

"They work very hard, and they spend their money to make our school better and give us materials."

"The give us lots of things.  They teach us lessons and do exercises with us.  I want to build a big house for all the teachers."

"They give us many things and teach us many things we don't know."

In-house Nurse

My roommate and good friend, Keziah, came back to Haiti three weeks ago.  She had been in America since August caring for a sick friend.  It is great having Kez back for so many reasons.  We pray and worship together on our porch.  We swap stories: she shares about nursing classes and people she has stitched up recently and I share about my students.  We discuss the ups and downs of Haiti life.  Sometimes we have deep discussions, but most times we laugh and joke.

There are many perks to living with a nurse.  For example, last week I was sick for three days with a nasty stomach bug.  Keziah made sure I was drinking plenty of gatorade and gave me medicine. She even got up with me in the middle of the night to give me a shot when I could not stop vomiting.  Not many people are fortunate enough to get that kind of care right in their own home!

Interesting things happen while living with a nurse, too.  People tend to show up at your door unexpectedly in need of medical care.  Last year, a friend showed up at the door with his fingertip cut off and the piece of missing finger on ice.  Tonight, a friend of ours knocked on the door with a buddy of his.  The man had a bite sized chunk missing from his lip.

He had gotten into an argument with someone and she bit his face, tearing off a chunk of his lip in the process.  He had the missing piece of lip with him, hoping that it could be reattached.  Unfortunately, it was too mangled.  So, right there at our kitchen table Kez stitched up his lip as best she possibly could.

It is in situations like these when I hear words coming out of my mouth that I would never imagine myself saying.  For example, "Here, throw this in the trashcan.  Be careful...don't open it.  His lip is inside the bag."

You just never know what a day will hold for you here in Haiti.