Weekend Reads: The power of worship, in Haiti and at home

Miracle on Voodoo Mountain: A Young Woman’s Remarkable Story of Pushing Back the Darkness for the Children of Haiti (Thomas Nelson, 2015) is a gripping account of educational mission work. It is recent, no doubt: Author Megan Boudreaux’s mission work began only in 2010, when she arrived in Port-au-Prince without a word of Creole and no plans beyond seeing what would happen. In a series of providential events, Boudreaux so far has been instrumental in putting a corrupt orphan-seller behind bars and adopted four Haitian children. More than that, God has, through her efforts, established a school on a Haitian mountaintop, where more than 500 children have been rescued from slavery and given an education. That mountain was used for voodoo ceremonies for many years, and unbeknownst to Boudreaux prior to her arrival, a local pastor had been holding a prayer meeting on it every Sunday morning for 12 years. In that light, her entire narrative takes on the shape of an answer to prayer.

Boudreaux’s effort to finish the story when it’s obviously ongoing is a bit jarring. Thankfully, she doesn’t wrap up all the loose ends, especially one particularly heartbreaking narrative thread about a 2-year-old who was ripped out of her arms by government agents.

Two comments stand out: “It is so much harder to try to be the light of Jesus to the darkness than to be the white ‘savior’ rescuing children,” and, “Prayer and worship are my secret weapons. … I’m learning to let God fight my battles.”

That same emphasis on the power of worship is found in a book on living for the Kingdom of God through the sheer ordinariness of life at home. Home Behind the Sun: Connect with God in the Brilliance of the Everyday (Thomas Nelson, 2014) puts it more poetically: “We stand with you in the midst of the broken pieces of our world, and we cry for hope. But it’s not a weepy cry. It’s a crying out—a shout of praise, a song of worship.” That worship fulfills our mission to subdue the earth: “When we center our lives on him, his glory follows. It shapes us, and with it we shape the world.”

Jason Locy and Timothy Willard go on to make an observation that fits Boudreaux’s Haitian experiences: “Grace and glory are real, but they’re umbrellas covering us as hell falls, not grappling hooks pulling us out of pain.”

This vision—of the world as a theater wherein God enacts His glory—so beautifully expressed makes these books worth reading. One is a historical narrative, the other a series of entrancing meditations. But both evaluate life in terms of worship. Yes, worship is first and foremost about God. That’s why it has such massive consequences in this world.

Worship is the way to confront voodoo priests, the way to do educational missions, the way to keep the focus on God’s mighty work in Christ and not hog the spotlight as the “white ‘savior.’” It is also the way to approach our work and leisure. Locy and Willard are adamant: “Our imaginations do not exist so that we can numb them, nor do they thrive in such a state. Like our bodies, our imaginations thrive when we use them.” Our work and relaxation both exist as part of a holistic life dedicated to enacting and witnessing God’s glory. That is, “We love in order to see [God’s] face. We suffer in order to be his face to loved ones.”

Our sanctification is the down payment on this world’s glorification. Just look at a school on a mountain in Haiti.