The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

I don't know why, but as I was sitting eating breakfast yesterday I kept thinking about my 2 trips to Haiti. It probably had to do with an invite to for a fundraising garage sale at the church I used to attend. The church who's youth group is who I traveled with to Les Cayes, Haiti 2 summers in a row. The first was in August of 2007 and the second was in August of 2008.

Thinking about Haiti and my trips there made me look through my travel journal from my second trip. As I started filling through the pages and reading all my thoughts and reflections I started to remember one very memorable service that we experience. I quickly filled through and scanned the pages till I found my journal entry about it. Reading it over again brought shivers up and down my spine.

You see in Haiti there is a town called Torbeck. It's a very small town. It is a town that is filled with voodoo practice. The ministry we were with, El Shaddai Ministries, had been trying to find a pastor for the church they were trying to have there. This was back in 2008. They had gone through many pastors in the short time they were meeting there. The push back from the witch doctors in the community was driving the pastors away.

We were told this before we all got ready one night to go there for an evening church service. We boarded our bus and headed out for the 40 or so minute drive from the compound where we stayed and the the church building that El Shaddai had in Torbek. There was also a group of people from the Les Cayes church who were going to come worship with us.

The whole ride there I was feeling sick to my stomach. Just brushing it off as car sickness I tried to put it out of my mind. Upon driving into Torbek I was finding it hard to breath. I thought this must just be nerves over the unexpected. I composed myself and tried to take in the surroundings. Later I would come to find that it wasn't just carsickness, in fact it was the feeling of the oppression of Satan that had taken hold of that town.

It was already pitch dark by the time we made it to Torbek. It was a rual enough town that it didn't have electricity, so there were no lights besides the headlights on our bus. After what seemed like forever the bus stopped at a dark building. They got some lights lit and we headed in.

Many people from the community had followed us and were coming to see what was up. We were all smashed into a tiny one room building with a few wooden benches, with only the light of some lamps at the front by where Pastor Louis stood. We started with some worship and the Holy Spirit filled up the room. I could tell from the moment the singing started that something was different. The Holy Spirit was going to come into this town and into it's people, tonight things were going to change.


After a couple of songs as Pastor Louis started preaching some of those who had come with from the Les Cayes church headed outside and started walking around the building praying. Praying for protection and change to come to this little town. Not far into Pastor Louis' sermon a woman from the back of the church started to cry out "Hallelujah". Pastor Louis explained to us that the people of Torbeck were ready for change.

At some point along there I broke down and started weeping. I could feel the spiritual warfare between Satan and the Holy Spirit. I could feel the prayers and crying out of the people lifting the veil of Satan's reign and control over their town.


Pastor Louis asked our group and the others from the Les Cayes church to pray over these people. They were ready to receive the Holy Spirit! I went over to a little girl, probably around the age of 10. I held her and I prayed for her and her town. We prayed for awhile then the celebration began. We sang and dance and worshiped our LORD till was time to head back to our compound.

That still to this day is the most real moment I've felt the Holy Spirit moving around me. It was the first time that while in Haiti the language barrier didn't at all exist. We were all worshiping our LORD and though we didn't understand each other it didn't matter. It made me long for the time where we will all be in heaven together worshiping God to His face and no long will anything like language divide us.

I need to be reminded of these things. More often then I am. I forget the power of the Holy Spirit sometimes. I forget that the LORD is with me always, because sometimes He feels so far off.

The sand here is black. This is the beach of Torbeck. They would do voodoo rituals here at the beach. Many times that lead to major storms coming and flooding and destroying their town. 

I long to go back to Haiti. To share that experience with Nick. Right now it's not my time though. Right now God wants me right here taking care of my little family. I could let that get me down, but I'm going to instead choose to be joyful and know that I'm right where God wants me.

At least I have the hope that one day I will see all those faces again in paradise. My heart bursts with joy at just the thought of that. Merci Savior!

Slide Show from my 2nd trip, August 2008. Made by our team leader Ben Welstead.

Slide Show from my 1st trip, August 2007. Made by our team leader Ben Welstead.