by Esther Schaeffer, an Alliance international worker serving in Burkina Faso, West Africa
Editor’s note: It’s hard for North Americans to imagine a life devoted to pacifying demons; most of us have never witnessed this activity. Yet sorcery is prevalent in certain regions of the world, causing deep spiritual bondage. Jesus followers in these places seek to ensure that the oppressed are freed in His name (Luke 4:18), as the following story illustrates.
A Burkinabè village has a centuries-old tradition. The local witchdoctor passes to his oldest nephew the role of worshiping idols and appeasing the demons.
Jude was born in this village. His mother, Sabine*, was a sorceress known to converse regularly with the dead. As the village witchdoctor’s oldest nephew, Jude was destined to assume his uncle’s responsibilities.
Initiation into the Occult
Jude’s initiation into his new role began with his baptism into the occult. It was a frightening event, he later recalled, one in which he was forced into the woods alone to participate in secret rituals and sacrifices.
Shortly after the baptism, Jude’s mom began to suffer from confusion and dark episodes during which she would scream and run through the village. No one could calm her.
Villagers also witnessed Sabine silently wandering through the forest, muttering to herself as she scavenged for leaves to make potions. No remedy for her could be found.
Before long, Sabine stopped leaving her darkened one-room hut; she also quit speaking and bathing herself. It became challenging for her family to get her to eat.
Intercession for Sabine
One day, an Alliance missionary arrived in Jude’s village with a group of Christians from a nearby town. They began going door-to-door, sharing about Jesus. When they arrived at Jude’s home, his father related his wife’s problems to the missionary, who asked permission to pray for Sabine.
After a time of fervent intercession and casting out the demons that plagued her, Sabine was calmed. The missionary told the family to bring her to church the next Sunday.
Jude’s father didn’t want to go to the church, so he asked Jude to accompany his mother. At the service, Sabine experienced an immediate transformation when she confessed Christ as her Savior and vowed to abandon all of her dark practices.
She and Jude began to regularly attend the Alliance church.
Jude’s Decision
It wasn’t long before Jude told his father that he too wanted to become a Christ follower. But his father would not accept his son’s decision.
“We understand that the Christians’ God healed your mom, so she needs to be faithful to this God,” Jude’s father told him. “But you have no reason to join them. You are not sick; they have done nothing for you. You owe them nothing. But you are designated to carry on our village traditions. You have been baptized and prepared for this important work.”
So Jude began to secretly attend church with his mother. As he read his Bible and listened to the pastor’s teaching, he realized that he needed to make a stand for Christ—he decided to be baptized in the name of Jesus.
Jude’s father tried every means to deter his son. He threatened Jude and brought financial hardship on him, burning his fields and giving away his cows. But Jude went ahead with his plan.
Although baptized into darkness, Jude chose to be baptized with Jesus Christ into the light. Today, he and his wife, Josephine, are students at the Alliance Maranatha Bible School in Burkina Faso. They plan to be full-time Alliance workers, serving among their people, the Gouin.
“We want to help our people move into the light of the gospel,” Jude said recently. “And we are so thankful for the opportunity at Maranatha to go deep into the Word of God and learn how to practically live out our faith.”
God’s Plan
Jude had been groomed and prepared to lead people into darkness. But the Lord Jesus had a different plan in mind. He sent a missionary to bring light, truth, and healing to a troubled woman and to rescue her son from darkness so he could bring others into the light.
Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). He wants to work through each of us to bring this light to those around us, just as He sent a missionary to Jude’s spiritually oppressed village.
*Name changed