Jul8 Written by:Kayle
7/8/2009 7:03 AM
So one of my students asked if she could talk to me. We met this morning and she told me that a few weekends ago she went to the rural areas where her family lives. She handwashed her laundry and hung it up at their rural home and then her whole family went out into the fields. When she came back, she noticed that some of her underwear was missing. With African Traditional Religion, it is a BIG deal if some of your underwear is missing because what it means is that someone has stolen it to put a curse on you. Your underwear is some of your most sensitive and private items that you own. So these are taken to a witchdoctor who uses it to put a curse on you--typically a curse that you won't get married or that you won't have children or something like that. Well, for the last month, this student has had an ongoing menstral cycle.
The average person here would associate her menstral problems with the curse that has been put on her through the stolen underwear. But this student said, "I refuse to be fearful of this situation as Christ is more powerful than any witchdoctor." When she told her mother, a new believer, about the situation, her mother reminded this student of their niece who had her underwear stolen, had severe menstral bleeding and died. Her mother said that she was going to go to the witchdoctors to fix the problem. But this student rebuked her mother telling her that if she now believes in Christ, then she must trust in Christ for protection and not in the witchdoctors as Christ is the all powerful one over all the earth.
This is a common problem for many believers here--when hard times hit, the first thing they do is run back to their traditional religious roots as they "know" that it works rather than to trust in Christ. This student said, "I don't care. I'd rather die in Christ than in the hands of traditional religion." I was really impressed at her faith instead of fear!
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