The Sangoma

On Friday, July 4th, I had the opportunity to spend one more day ministering in Qwa Qwa, South Africa with a group of teens, that I was able to lead, from Fall Church, Virginia. Here is the account of that day that I wrote in my journal:

"Our interpreter, Abram Moloi, who had been with us all week, was not able to come out today because he was helping out at Thrive's Leadership Day. We had to wait a while once we got into Qwa Qwa for another interpreter to arrive. Since we had to wait, we finally decided that we would just begin to pray before we went out. Prayer was good and it made me ready for the day. Soon after, our interpreter, Timby, arrived and we started to head out. We didn't really know where to go because we'd already gone to other houses a lot and we didn't feel that we were supposed to go back again. We decided we would try going to a house that we spent some time at only the day before. When we got there, there was no one home and the door was locked. We kind of just stood around for a couple minutes trying to decide what to do. Nothing made sense but to go to a new house. Even that didn't really make sense since we wouldn't have a lot of time to disciple anyone else on our last day. We thought that it would be hard to get into a deep conversation with someone in only a few hours. Lauren, one of my teammates, said that we should just talk about more cultural things, like what they watch on TV, rather that get into a deep conversation. We walked across the street into a yard where there was a tin shack. We didn't really know what we were doing, but walked up casually, not expecting anything. As we walked into this yard which held a tin shack, we bickered about whose turn it was to introduce our group. It didn't really matter when we got to the door, because Timby talked with the woman inside before we were even able to see who was there. They talked for a while, longer than usual, and we were invited in without even having to introduce ourselves. As I walked in, I immediately smelled incense and knew that there was something different about the woman that lived in this shack.

Sorry to stop so abruptly, but I remembered something else that is vital to this story and showing how awesome our God is.

While the group was walking to the area that we would minister in, Lauren and I were talking about how some people from her church had ministered to a man who lived next door to a witchdoctor, and they had been really scared. They were in the house next door, and they were scared. That's interesting to note. We also talked about how we had never ministered/discipled anyone who was not a Christian. A lot of people are from ZCC (Zion Christian Church) which is a church that believes that it's ok to worship ancestors.) ZCC is very poplular, and yet we had never met anyone that attended that church. Ok, back to the story.

When we walked into the house, with the smell of incense very evident, it was obvious that she was very poor. There were newspaper ads to cover up the tin walls and she had only a small table, camp stove, and two small chairs for seating. I sat on the floor. We introduced ourselves, and then it was just quiet. It was awkwardly quiet, even quiet for South Africa. I think the girls were a bit intimidated, so I spoke up. I asked her what kinds of things she liked to do. Most Basotho people will say that they just rest or they like to clean. This woman was different. She talked for a very long time. Finally the interpreter said that this woman liked working with her hands and doing medical treatments because she was a Sangoma, a traditional healer, a witchdoctor. We asked a lot of questions about her being a Sangoma and she was very open about it. She told us the story of how she became a Sangoma. She had a dream that she was wearing a dress (she pointed to the dress), and told us that it was the dress that they wear when they do specific types of healing. She said that's when she knew that she needed to be a healer. She told us why she wanted to be a Sangoma too. She said that before she became a healer, she went to a Pentecostal church and she was born again. She loved going to church and worshipping God. She became really sick and all the churches that she went to could not heal her. She became a Sangoma so that she could heal herself. After she healed herself, she wanted to go back to church, but her culture was stopping her. According to Basotho culture, when someone like her wants to go back to the church, they have to slaughter a cow and wash their hair in a special way. She was a very poor woman and it was easy to see that she could not afford to buy a cow to be slaughtered. She stayed a Sangoma because she could not slaughter a cow.

One of us asked her a question, but she didn't answer. Instead she said that she noticed that we had Bibles and she wanted to know about that. It took me a while to understand that this woman didn't even know what is in the Bible. I told her that the Bible is God's story of how he created the world and saved it through a big sacrifice. Right away, she said that before we left she wanted us to pray for her. Also, she was very eager and attentive to listening about the Bible. When we heard that she wanted to be born again but thought that she couldn't because of her culture, we tried desperately to try to explain how God's love is so unconditional and we can't do anything to earn it. Anna, one of the girls in my group, brought up the story of the prodigal son. She explained how God is like the father. She said that the boy was ready to work for his father like a servant, but the father, God, didn't want him to do that. The father welcomed his son home and had a party for him. We also tried to stress that what God wants is sometime different from what our culture tells us is good. We told her how our culture says that it's ok to have sex before marriage, but that God says that that is wrong. Also, our culture says that if you are rich, then you will be happy, but in the Bible Jesus says the poor will be happy, and he spent all of his time with poor people. We told her that we don't listen to what our culture says because God says differently and we know that God knows what's best. We told her about how God has the power to heal and all we have to do is have faith to be healed. I shared the story about the woman who touched Jesus' cloak and she was healed by her faith.

Finally, we gave her a card for Pastor Foto's church. She said she would be so happy to attend once she got a cow. I told her again that the people at the church would love and accept her no matter what because they have Jesus' love. We then prayed for her and prayed for her salvation. We prayed for her desire to know God to grow, and for her to understand that Jesus' love is free. I cried when we prayed for her. We left her with 1Corinthians 13 to encourage her.

When we left, Timby said that we did well in explaining things to this woman. She said that the things we said were all good. Timby also told us that a lot of Sangomas don't like to talk to Christians, and when they see people who are Christians, they know who they are. There is no confusion. She knew who we were, and she invited us in to her house without an introduction. We didn't even have time to talk about TV because we were too busy talking about Jesus. We asked this woman if she knew more about God or Jesus and she said mostly just God. We told her about the character of Jesus and how he heals and loves and spends time with poor people. My heart went out to this woman. I could feel God's desire for her. It was the strangest feeling of passion for her. I desired to love and let God consume her. I know that the Spirit was there with me. I had such great passion for her. God's desire for her was so great and I now know what it feels like when God desires someone, because I felt it that day. It was just good."

God was in that situation and I know that he will continue to work in that woman's heart. She has such a great desire to know who God is and it is my prayer for her that she is able to quickly find Him and be freed from the sin she is living in. Please join with me in continual prayer for the Sangoma.

I have more stories of how God worked on July 4, but I'll update about that later.