The Shaman of Muyuna

At breakfast this morning, Elijah asks me, “Madeline, was that man a witch doctor?”

“Yes,” I answer, chugging some milk from the bottom of my cereal bowl.

Elijah’s eyes go big. “You mean, a real witch doctor? You mean a real one?”

“Yes. He was a shaman.” I tell him.

“And I went into his house?!” Elijah shrieks. “I went into his house?”

“No,” I say. “That was just the place where he does his spells and curses and stuff.”

Elijah shakes his head. “That is too scary.”

“Oh, it is,” I assure him. I’ve heard enough shaman-stories to authenticate that one.

“Is he a bad person?” Elijah suddenly demands from across the table. “He must be a very bad person.”

“Uh, see Elijah,” Abigail says, “He does some pretty bad stuff. But God says we’re to love him anyway. We have to love everybody.”

“I can’t believe you let me go in his house.” Elijah repeats, ignoring everything we just told him.

“You snuck in yourself when we weren’t watching,” I mutter. And of course he sticks his tongue out.

Would I be able to believe it, if I were Elijah?

 

How do I believe it myself, even?

When I’m standing in front of this man with corks in his ears, and parrot feathers strung around him, and red and black bead necklaces for protection against the spirits?

His black eyes watching our every move, with him listening to us speak with his people?

Oh, I believe it.

With both feet on the ground of Muyuna, in the Amazon rainforest, surrounded by the Kichwa of the jungle, it’s hard not to believe it.

But I also believe in a stronger power– I believe in the Strongest Power– and He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He is with me.

And I am not afraid.

 

So All May Know.

Madeline Studebaker

 

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

-Romans 8:37-39