20551: LOCCM: Re: 20534: Racine125@aol.com - A new Vodou phenomenon... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LOCCM@aol.com

We are a very small protestant missionary group and have been working in
Haiti since 1971. From the beginning, we met the needs as best we could of
Christians and non christians alike.  What better way to win them.  Recently five
houngans practicing in communities near one of our churches have renounced their
past ways and have become Christians.  God loves sinners just as much or even
more than he does Christians.  One of the converts returned to his old ways
two years ago Jan 29th.  His specialty is charging poor people to make them
prosperous.  What concerns us is that while every houngan that I have met, lives
in poverty, their dovtees seem blind to the squalor and still give them money
to work their magic. Irrespective of differences in cultures or beliefs,
chicanery is despicable wheather it is practiced by unscrupulous television
evangelists or any other person, especially when it involves the very poor in any
culture.  I seek out houngans and make friends of them.  So far every one of them
has told me that they are just in it for the money.  I believe that I recently
had a revelation.  If these practicioners have the powers that they claim
through the baron, Mary Uzerlie St Jacques or St John the baptist, why can't they
supply tomorrows lottery numbers either for themselves or for one of their
paying customers?  In closing, I admit to being oppinipnated, bigeted and biased
but I still will continue to show my houngan friends how they can find peace
in their hearts by accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior.  Grace and peace,
John Ba Mwe