Most days while we are in Zambia for 40/40, we have a “Daily Field Assignment,” or DFA. The purpose of DFAs is for us to observe African life and to learn how to learn the culture of wherever it is that we’re living and serving—because Zambia is very different from Uganda, which is different from Kenya, which is different from Botswana. Each DFA has a different focus, whether it is community needs, family life, attending a typical church service, or investigating the available health care. Because traditional healers and ancestor and spirit worship are such a key part of African life, our DFA for today was to investigate traditional medicine—namely, witch doctors.
The witch doctor we met with was named Maria. Her sisters and other women in her family were witch doctors before her. When she was 25, she began to have dreams in which ancestors would come to her and show her which herbs she should use to heal certain diseases. She can also use herbs and the spirits’ help to heal someone who has been bewitched, or to bring revenge on someone.
When our helpers first introduced us to Maria, they told her we were missionaries from America who had come to Zambia to learn about African culture. (There were about 15 mzungus, plus our 7 or 8 Zambian helpers; by the end of our time with Maria, we had drawn a crowd of 50 or more locals!) Because she knew we were Christian missionaries, it seemed like she was trying to tell us what she thought we wanted to hear. She said she prayed over the herbs in the name of Jesus, and that He was the Son of God. But she also said that her power and knowledge came from the spirits. (Even the demons believe… and shudder!” James 2:19)
From the beginning of our time with Maria, my spirit felt uneasy. There was a strange look to her eyes. And I felt like she weighed her words very carefully. Before we left camp, we had been reminded that the person we were meeting with was not our enemy, but a lost person who Jesus loves and died for, and who is being used and deceived by the father of lies… “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but… against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)
The bottom line is that those “spirits” that guide Maria are demons. She is controlled by them, even in her sleep. And Satan is using Maria to deceive people around her, to steal them away, to kill them, to destroy them. I don’t know what to make of the crowd we drew. The nationals paid no attention to the 15 mzungus, but hung on Maria’s every word. She has power and influence in this community, and Satan is definitely using it to his advantage. But we know that “the One who is in [us] is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) Pray that Maria and the people around her would come to see that true healing, both physical and spiritual, comes only in the redeeming power of the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins.
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