good times at the expense of the............witchdoctor!!!!

So my color group team (Vibrant Grey) which I lead went out into the village on wednesday to help a family repair some of the walls of their house. The local pastors whom we went with ended up being extremely unprepared so we didn't get much done (not a big surprise, this is Africa after all) but we arranged for them to be more prepared another day and we made a date to go back. While we were hanging around and playing with the baby though, we noticed he had a strange looking bracelet on him. I asked Justinho about it, and if it was a witchdoctor charm to ward off evil spirits and stuff. He asked the mother and she said it was. They had been having problems with him, so they took an hour and a half journey to see the witchdoctor who informed her that her child had a demon attached to it and this bracelet was supposed to keep the demon away. I told them this was unacceptable and that the bracelet needed to go. We asked the mother if we could remove it and she said we could. I expected a little more resistance on her part. Many families are terrified to remove a witchdoctor's amulet because they fear a demonic attack upon their lives. Anyways, we cut the bracelet off (with the help of Elise's key) and then gathered around the baby and prayed for the blessings and peace of Jesus to abide on him and heal him. Then we explained to the mother that trusting in Jesus was so much more steadfast and everlasting than trusting in the witchdoctor. It was good times.

The children here at Iris make their own bracelets out out different color beads which symbolically represent the new life which is found in Christ. One of the members of my team bought one and when we go back to the house we will replace the bracelet we took from the baby with one that represents the everlasting covenant God made with us through Jesus. How absolutely awesome is that?! It's pretty awesome. I love it.