Four years ago, a church planting team with our partner ministry in Indonesia started work among a people group in a remote part of Indonesia. Today, the team has expanded to 11 sub-districts in one province. So far, in every village they have entered, God has arranged for them to meet with the key shaman, a person believed to have special powers to control or influence good and evil spirits.
Team leader Paulo shares about their recent experience meeting a shaman named Hari:
My coworker and I entered a new village and began small talk among the people. Soon another man joined us whom we learned was the village shaman named Hari. Hari was excited that we visited his village and invited us to come to his house later in the week. Over the next two days, we spent time getting to know the villagers and some of their concerns and needs. We learned how much they respected Hari and his power over the “dark side.”
When we arrived at Hari’s house, he immediately welcomed us in. He told us about himself and showed us photos of people on whom he had successfully performed black magic. Then he wanted to know about us. We carefully shared God’s plan of salvation. When we finished, he seemed to realize that he was a sinner and knew that his good deeds could not pay off his debt of sin as Islam teaches. He wanted to believe and, praise God, he did.
The next day when we returned to Hari’s home for a follow-up visit, we were not prepared for what he told us. He said, “Last night, I had a high fever and my sleep was troubled. I had two dreams. In my first dream, I saw the figure of a man I think was Isa Al Masih (Jesus Christ). That man stated that He was the way of truth and told me to follow His teachings. Then I had another dream in which one of my ancestors made a deal with my soul and told me to drink water infused with a potion and it would take my fever away. I could not sleep after that!”
Hari was sure the second dream was a threat from the devil to harm him, and he was afraid. He urged us to stop coming and sharing the Bible with him. We were saddened by this, but he let us pray for him. As we were leaving, he handed us an envelope.
As soon as we arrived home, we opened the envelope and pieces of white shroud fell out. We realized Hari was trying to work his black magic on us. We immediately gathered our whole team together for prayer and burned the shroud and envelope. That same night, our team, including our wives and children, had high fevers.
Early the next morning, my coworker and I went to see Hari. When he opened his door, we saw the surprise on his face…surprise that we were not dead! Hari admitted that every time he sent a shroud and said a mantra over a person, that person would die.
That gave us a great opportunity to share about the power of Jesus Christ. In the end, Hari admitted that he was afraid to leave his beliefs and his practice of black magic. “But one day,” he said so softly we could barely hear him, “I will tell you when I am ready to learn about Jesus.” Please pray with us for Hari’s salvation.
God has given us a love for the lost and sends us into fields with hard soil so that we will completely depend on His power. Nothing is impossible for Him, and we believe that one day there will be a revival in these people groups. We count on your prayers to help build communities of Jesus followers among these people.
