“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24
Today is Ash Wednesday and it brings back a few vivid memories of my first season of Lent while I was living in Haiti. My first Ash Wednesday that I spent while living in Haiti was on February 13th in 2002 and Pastor Thomas Bernard had given me explicit instructions on what to do starting with the days of the Carnival celebration in Port-au-Prince and ending with Easter; STAY INSIDE my apartment. People who were Christians were not to be seen with the vodou people celebrating with the devil.
I had read a couple of books about Haiti before going to live there and the one thing that really caught my attention was at that time when I initially arrived in 2001, was that ninety percent of the population identified as Catholic and eighty percent practiced vodou. “No one can serve two masters.” There are children attending Christian schools with Trinity HOPE feeding programs who surely must have some family members still practicing vodou. During the season of Lent, the vodou followers become more active and it is a time when our prayers for these children should be more fervent as we can’t imagine what challenges they are facing in their own homes and within their neighborhoods.
The attached photo is of a vodou rara band marching in the street next to my apartment. I didn’t follow Pastor Tomas’ instructions to the letter and not leave my apartment, but did go up on the roof to watch this band. There were possibly 300-500 people in this group chanting and making their presence known as they marched in the streets on Easter afternoon. The man in the crowd with the Brett Farve Green Bay Packer shirt would probably tell you that Jesus is still buried in the tomb; satan is victorious. Children in Christian schools have heard these bands, heard the drums and horn and seen the evil in the faces of the vodou priests. They are being taught the truth about Jesus; crucified, died and risen from the tomb on Easter Sunday; VICTORIOUS. They can tell you; HE is RISEN, He is risen indeed!!! Please say a few more prayers for our children in Haiti during this season of Lent and also pray that the people following the liar of this world will repent and turn to the Living Savior; Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay