Event Type
Papers Read
Start Date
15-5-2018 9:00 AM
End Date
15-5-2018 9:45 AM
Description
Fear of Black Magic and the Work of the Holy Spirit in the Witnessing to Christ: A Personal Journey
Emmanuel Ndikumana
Abstract: My family, like most others, has suffered from the ethnic violence that swept through Burundi. Following the killing of my grandfather and his three adult sons, including my own father, in 1972, our widowed mothers did their best to raise us and, decades later, our family started flourishing again. To our mothers, God has been indeed the father to the fatherless and the defender of the widow (Ps. 68:5). Recently, however, a disaster hit the family again in a manner that shook our Christian faith to the core. Two brothers and a half-brother who had risen from the vulnerable and helpless state of orphans to being heads of families died suddenly from unexplained illness and in a very short interval of time. Relatives, friends, church and other community members who saw or heard what happened were shocked. Many came to comfort and support the family. They offered songs and prayers of comfort and everyone looked comforted.
Behind the songs and prayers and the apparent comfort, however, many wondered what was really going on in our family. Some quietly believed the recurrent deaths were neither normal nor accidental. Someone might have put a curse on the family. The impact of that quiet belief on most members of the family was paradoxical. On one hand, it incited them to committed themselves to God more than before. On another hand, however, it stirred the fear that the evil hand could strike again. While none of them questioned God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus, they equally believed in the power of some people to take away lives. Thus, when I visited, I was strongly advised not to sleep at my mother’s home lets the curse fall on me too. I stayed against the rest of the family’s will as a protest and proof that, even if there could be people with evil powers, God is our most assured and sole protector. Rather than convincing and encouraging them, my decision to stay brought more anxiety than comfort.
Using the tragedy my family experienced recently, I consider what it means to witness to Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Lord of our lives and why his lordship sets us free from the fear of evil and opens the way to a victorious life over evil powers as we learn to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Bio: Emmanuel Ndikumana is a native of Burundi. He is the founder and leader of Partners Trust International, a Christian ministry that promotes Christian leadership and theological reflection. He holds a Master’s degree in Missiology from All Nations Christian College, UK, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in Oxford. He previously served with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students as Training secretary for Francophone Africa and is the current Lausanne Movement Regional Director for Francophone Africa. He is married to Asele and together they have four children, two young adults and two infants.
Study 9: “Fear of Black Magic and the Work of the Holy Spirit in the Witnessing to Christ: A Personal Journey in Burundi”
Fear of Black Magic and the Work of the Holy Spirit in the Witnessing to Christ: A Personal Journey
Emmanuel Ndikumana
Abstract: My family, like most others, has suffered from the ethnic violence that swept through Burundi. Following the killing of my grandfather and his three adult sons, including my own father, in 1972, our widowed mothers did their best to raise us and, decades later, our family started flourishing again. To our mothers, God has been indeed the father to the fatherless and the defender of the widow (Ps. 68:5). Recently, however, a disaster hit the family again in a manner that shook our Christian faith to the core. Two brothers and a half-brother who had risen from the vulnerable and helpless state of orphans to being heads of families died suddenly from unexplained illness and in a very short interval of time. Relatives, friends, church and other community members who saw or heard what happened were shocked. Many came to comfort and support the family. They offered songs and prayers of comfort and everyone looked comforted.
Behind the songs and prayers and the apparent comfort, however, many wondered what was really going on in our family. Some quietly believed the recurrent deaths were neither normal nor accidental. Someone might have put a curse on the family. The impact of that quiet belief on most members of the family was paradoxical. On one hand, it incited them to committed themselves to God more than before. On another hand, however, it stirred the fear that the evil hand could strike again. While none of them questioned God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus, they equally believed in the power of some people to take away lives. Thus, when I visited, I was strongly advised not to sleep at my mother’s home lets the curse fall on me too. I stayed against the rest of the family’s will as a protest and proof that, even if there could be people with evil powers, God is our most assured and sole protector. Rather than convincing and encouraging them, my decision to stay brought more anxiety than comfort.
Using the tragedy my family experienced recently, I consider what it means to witness to Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Lord of our lives and why his lordship sets us free from the fear of evil and opens the way to a victorious life over evil powers as we learn to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Bio: Emmanuel Ndikumana is a native of Burundi. He is the founder and leader of Partners Trust International, a Christian ministry that promotes Christian leadership and theological reflection. He holds a Master’s degree in Missiology from All Nations Christian College, UK, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in Oxford. He previously served with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students as Training secretary for Francophone Africa and is the current Lausanne Movement Regional Director for Francophone Africa. He is married to Asele and together they have four children, two young adults and two infants.
