As missionaries, we believe that Christ made the preaching of the gospel the primary mission of the church and all believers. He is the only way of rescue—this is what we proclaim to the lost. As I share with you this true-life story, I invite you to pray for the strategy we are building around the truths it reveals about our people.

In 1973, a hunting trip turned into a dramatic experience that deeply affected the religious allegiance of the Dendi of Kandi and their neighbors.

That day, two friends were returning home after an unsuccessful day of hunting. As they reached the Alibori River, widely thought to be the home of spirits, they saw a group of monkeys drinking and playing. As Muslims, they considered the monkeys unclean meat. But since the monkeys were easy targets, the men decided to shoot one and take it back to their village for their non-Muslim friends.

The men shot and killed a large monkey. It was too big for them to carry, so one man stayed with the dead monkey while the other went back to the village for help. When the group from village arrived at the riverside, they found no sign of the dead monkey or the man who had stayed behind. They searched the area for several hours, but without any result. More people joined the search. They looked all night until dawn. They extended the perimeter and searched for several days but found nothing. After the police joined the search without success, the Muslim community conducted prayer services. The few Christians in the area also prayed.

Eleven days after the disappearance, the mayor and his counsel decided to invite the input of the voodoo priests. This was a difficult decision because the missing man was a Muslim, and voodoo practices are contrary to the teachings of Islam. However, syncretism is the norm in individual and family life in Benin, so no one was surprised when the voodoo priests showed up with their troupes of spirit mediums.

Like all the other cultural groups in Benin, the Dendi place a high degree of importance on spirituality, and religious practice is an important part of daily life. The truth is that, though Islam introduced new elements to the Dendi culture, it left the underlying framework of custom and tradition virtually untouched. Spirit possession, magic, sorcery, ancestor worship, and witchcraft remain the vital components of Dendi belief.

Thus, the voodoo priests and their mediums had all the latitude they needed to do their ritual. For the Muslim relatives of the missing man, the end justified the means—they were willing to do whatever it took to find him.

At midnight on the eleventh day, the voodoo priests started their ritual by the riverside. An old-woman medium became possessed by a spirit who spoke through her and revealed the location of the missing man’s body. It was in the river just under her feet—a place that had been thoroughly searched. The body was found in less than two feet of water. The spirit revealed details of how the man had died. It said the monkey—actually a river spirit—had come back to life and killed him. Everyone understood that the man had offended the spirit, and his death had been a sentence of the gods. This was quite a power encounter for the villagers and all those who heard about the story. Since then, many Dendi—especially women—have been attracted to voodoo and joined the medium troupes.
This story confirms to us that we need to focus on power encounters—exposing our Dendi people to the omnipotence of our Savior. Our Lord requires all people to set aside their allegiance to other gods and worship Him alone, and He stands ready to demonstrate His power to change Dendi hearts and minds. For the Dendi, this will be more effective than simply reasoning with them about the truth of the gospel.

Last October, our Muslim friend, Nasirou, an auto mechanic in his late thirties, suffered for weeks from a mysterious illness probably as a result of a voodoo curse. One Sabbath, we laid hands on him and prayed for him. He recovered the next day—a powerful testament to the omnipotence of our Lord. He is a living witness of the power in the word of God and in the preaching of the gospel (Mark 16:18).

In another display of God’s power, we were able to recover the important items stolen from us in a roadside robbery.

Please continue to pray for us as we heed the Lord’s commands, grasp His promises, follow His instructions and trust His power.

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