I have a friend, David Schmidt, has served Christ over 20 years in Haiti. He has raised a family while scratching out a small band of believers. David has seen things in Haiti that could only be expressed by the term “evil.” How did a country get so wicked? It was a result of one man living a “Purpose-Filled Life.”

On Aug. 14, 1791, a black slave and witch doctor named Boukman led Haitian slaves in a voodoo ritual, drinking the blood of a sacrificed pig to form a pact with the devil. The slaves agreed to serve Satan for 200 years in exchange for freedom from French colonizers who ruled their island. Beginning on Aug. 22, 1791, the slaves rose up against the French, and by Jan. 1, 1804, they declared Haiti the world’s first independent black republic.

Today in Port-au-Prince – Haiti’s capital – you can see an iron pig memorial.

On the tiny Caribbean nation, voodoo still pulses as an undercurrent of culture. By some counts, 75 percent of Haitians actively practice the ancient melding of West African spiritism and witchcraft. Folk tradition says Haitians are 70 percent Catholic, 30 percent Protestant and 100 percent voodoo.

Even former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fell under voodoo’s spell as he sought – unsuccessfully- to re-ratify the Boukman Blood Pact with the devil on Aug. 14, 2003. Before his removal in 2004, Aristide passed a law officially recognizing voodoo as an official religion and culture.

However, things seem to be changing. As Haiti prepares for its first presidential elections since Aristide was forced into exile in February last year, a number of evangelical Christians are working to reclaim Haiti for Christ. Overcoming 200 years of political corruption, poverty and voodoo is an ambitious agenda. Where do you start? Starting begins with taking one step away from where you are so that it becomes where you were. A Christian leader named Jeune, an evangelist and president of the Baptist Church of South Haiti, formally announced his candidacy for president of Haiti in his hometown of Les Cayes on Aug.10. Jeune is leading an organization that has the purpose to: “Take Haiti back from the devil, and dedicate her to Jesus Christ.”

Let’s pray for God to strengthen and give discernment to Jeune and those who are seeking to make God famous in Haiti.

Based on the article: Presidential Candidate Seeks to Claim Haiti for Christ by Janet Chismar – Senior Editor for Faith at Crosswalk.com