Spirits, Insurance, Chariots, or the Lord our God?

After getting settled into our house, we found that there is a small Baptist Church within walking distance from our house.  So Sunday morning we ventured down to check it out.  We got there a little early for the service and caught the end of the Sunday School lesson.  When the service started, a lady who speaks both English and Portuguese came and sat next to us and translated the sermon into English while the Portuguese was being translated to Makua.  They had a song book that we even sang some familiar hymns out of (in Portuguese of course).  It seemed that random people would take up instruments such as a tambourine, drum, or triangle to play along while we sang, and there were distinct clapping rhythms a little more complex than we are used to.

Before we came to Mozambique, we learned that oftentimes Christianity is mixed with animism and ancestry worship.  As we have attended church, we have begun to learn how this really takes place.  The tail end of the Sunday School lesson the first week was so interesting that we decided to go earlier the next week to hear the continuation of the lesson.  The topic was mixing spiritism and witch craft with Christianity.  In traditional African culture, when something is wrong in your life, someone is sick, etc., you probably have angered a spirit or a dead ancestor and you should make an offering.  It was explained that sometimes they would dig up the dead and take hair or nail clippings to use as part of their offering.  A discussion started that other cultures (Americans and Brazilians) don’t do these things and it was explained what was more typical in those countries.  Someone made the argument that other countries do what they do as a result of their culture, and Africans do what they do as part of their culture.  The teacher was teaching out of a passage in Deuteronomy where the Lord condemns the practice of witch craft, sorcery, etc. (Deut. 18:10).  One question that arose during the class concerned witch doctors.  When a witch doctor calls upon god, what god are they calling on?  It is the same God we worship?  As the lesson went on, the teacher explained that God is the Creator, supreme, and sovereign.  If we truly believe this, then why do we need to please these spirits?  Someone said that the relationship between God and the different spirits is like the government.  The government has different ministries in charge of different things and that when they go to the spirits, they are going to a department under God so to speak.  People often worship the Lord on Sundays, but when bad things happen, they place their security in their offerings to spirits.

After hearing all of this, we asked our language instructor, who is also a Mozambican pastor, if this was common in his church and among Christians here in Mozambique.  He told us that it is extremely common here in Africa.  He said the way families are run here, a head uncle may bring the family together and decide what offerings to the spirits need to be done.  It is very difficult to refuse to do these things.  He said the churches need a few strong believers who can stand up and say they will not participate in witch craft to help be an example to the rest of the congregation.

Are American Christians really that different?  When hard times hit, do we immediately seek the Lord, or do we find our security elsewhere…our bank accounts and insurance.  Africans in general don’t have the financial resources to solve their problems by throwing money at them, so they do something that gives them a sense of security (sometimes completely out of fear).  It is something that is so ingrained in their society (even if it is kept quiet) that Christians here struggle to see how it contradicts the Word.  Think about how your society incites fear and is constantly bombarding you with the need for security (insurance, retirement, safety, etc.).  Do we put more trust in these things than the Lord?  Pray for the Mozambican Christians, the churches, and the pastors, as they seek to teach the Word of the Lord.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” 

Psalms 20:7