The Desert, The Priestess, & The Spider
categories:
Miracles
A week later we started the long journey home. We’d been on the road for a few hours, heading towards Port-au-Prince and the airport. And then it happened.
Our truck broke down in the middle of the dessert. The driver and the interpreters pondered our situation and time passed slowly as we baked under a tropical sun. All we could do was sit tight and pray. And I wasn’t afraid. I can’t explain it, but I wasn’t afraid. I even took a few pictures while we were waiting.
Maybe an hour had passed when a Voodoo Priestess appeared, all skirts and red sashes. She began dancing and chanting all around the vehicle. When we asked the interpreters what she was saying, they told us that she was putting a curse on the truck. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?” They also said she was placing a protective spell on herself and her village, that our Christianity would not infect her or her people. And still, I was not afraid. It was almost surreal how calm I was. For that moment in my life, I totally trusted in God 100%. And I knew that he would take care of us.
Two hours passed and then a miracle happened. An empty truck drove past us, stopped and came back to see what was wrong. Understand that trucks are never empty in Haiti. They are always packed to the bursting point with people traveling from here to there. Secondly, the driver was a Christian. Over 80 % of the population practices Voodoo, but here in the middle of the dessert was a Christian with an empty truck who was willing to give us a ride into the nearest town about two hours away.
So many dangerous things could have happened to us in that circumstance. And yet, nothing bad happened. God provided for us in a very miraculous way.
By nightfall we had reached Port-au-Prince. The team camped out that evening on a concrete porch. I don’t remember why or how we came about those sleeping arrangements, but I do remember the spider. I used to be afraid of arachnids. Those eight-legged beasts gave me the heebie-jeebies. Then an encounter with a peaceable spider changed all of that. I woke at dawn to discover a tarantula waking very close to my head, and I wasn’t afraid. As I sat up slowly, I watched her meander away from me and around my other still-sleeping team members. Then she leaped off the porch and sauntered off into the thick grass. I can’t explain it, really. I can only tell you what happened. I can only tell you that I was there, that a spider was there, and that God was there. He was there, He is here, and He will be with us always and forever.
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