The Witch Doctor
by John Collings
Norman Rideout and his team travel to hundreds
of villages. God does something unique in each one. The
following is a story picked up from bits and pieces of
conversations, letters, phone calls and trips to Thailand
over the last five years. It is a true story, and as
accurate as it was given to me according to my memory. I
felt compelled to write it down for myself so that I could
see it in one continuous piece, and so I share it with you
trusting the Lord will give you a bit more insight into what
He is doing in Thailand.
He was an ancient old man. No one knew how old
he really was, well past 90 years, but they gave him a wide
berth when he made an appearance. He had a large family,
many of them lived in the same village. Not many had the
courage to approach or speak to him. Even in his advanced
age and increasing sickness, it was not an empty reputation
that gave cause for fear when his name was spoken or when
his shadow paused at a village home. This man knew secrets
that had been lost to all but himself. He knew the past,
and his people, and he knew Satan himself. In that knowing,
he was the past and he was the people, and he was the
representative of Satan to all who knew of him. He was known
as the Witch Doctor, but he was much more. He was a high
priest of his art and for his master.
Young men were attracted to his power, and sat
at his feet to learn what he knew. They were proud to know
a small piece of what the Witch Doctor knew. As his
apprentices they also commanded the respect of those around
them. Every event in the village required a proper
sacrifice or incantation that the spirits might have favor
on those involved. Weddings and births, plantings and
holidays, sickness and death, every event in the life of the
village required the presence of this witch doctor or one of
his helpers. And not this village only, but to many others
where his reputation was known, he was called to grant
blessings, to heal the sick. He could also be called on to
curse enemies, to cast hex on those out of favor. For the
blessings and for the curses he was paid. Accidents and
sickness would visit those who were out of his favor. No
one, questioned his power. It was documented in the lives
of all who knew him.
There were Christians in the village. They,
too, quaked at the Witch Doctor’s presence. Once in a while
a bold young man would witness Christ to him, and the Witch
Doctor would listen. He knew the god of these young men, in
many ways he knew their god better than they did. He
practiced his art and evoked the demons, raging a war of
fear and evil against the one God. The Witch Doctor even
knew the qualities of good and justice and mercy of this god
who he battled against. He battled for Satan that he might
keep captive all in his domain.
It seemed the Witch Doctor had been there
forever. He had acquired elephants in his youth, and was
considered a rich man. During the Japanese occupation of
Thailand he worked his elephants for the Japanese, hauling
logs. He knew the first missionaries that came to his land
shortly after that and was curious about what they had to
teach. He watched as some of his people would take their
god. But as these new converts would grow up he noticed
that they had words, but there was no power or testimony in
their lives. They would set aside one day a week to worship
the “one god of good”, but the same “Christians” would come
to him to buy blessings. No consistent walking in a power
that could change or control lives as he knew his power
could. Yet still, he watched, and knew all that happened in
the lives of the people around him. It was the Witch Doctor
himself who created a law requiring those who worshipped a
god other than his to be exiled from their home and
possessions and family. In this way he ruled and kept watch
over all those around him.
Pracha lived in this same village. He was a
superintendent of several village schools. A humble
teacher, useful to the government for what he knew, and in
that way, Pracha distinguished himself, but in all other
ways he was an ordinary man. Drinking and worldliness
consumed him. Pracha was still young when he came to the
Lord. The drinking ceased, his life was changed
dramatically, yet he was still a quiet unassuming man. God
filled him with a restlessness to fellowship with other
Christians who had really given their lives to Christ. He
began giving all his spare time to traveling to other
villages, evangelizing and worshipping and knowing the power
of his God. Five years later he quit the security of his
teaching position and gave himself to the full time ministry
of evangelism with the team men he had been working with
part time.
What a contrast to the darkness he knew under
the power of the Witch Doctor. Pracha was a nephew to the
great man, and though they lived in the same small village
and shared the same family, Pracha never had to courage to
even speak to him. So as the Lord let him share in
victories in lives of many who came to know Christ from
other tribes and villages this was the conviction that began
to grow in him. . .To speak of Christ to his uncle . . . no,
more than that. . . to lead him to Christ before sickness
and age consumed the him.
It was no small thing. Pracha must have
wrestled with this intercession for years before having the
courage to ask Norman to join him in believing for the Witch
Doctor. So great was his power and reputation that even
together it was a serious matter to choose a day to visit
him. The day came and the trip was begun, but the weather
was not favorable. The closer Norman and Pracha got to
their destination the harder the rain fell. Maybe they were
both looking for an excuse to turn back. The four wheel
drive truck slid, the jungle road became more and more
difficult until several miles from their destination the
truck became useless, and they had to begin walking. Still
the rain would not let up.
As they approached the Witch Doctor’s hut, he
told them to go on, the Christian’s lived further on and he
had no need of them. Perhaps they gained entrance because
of the weather which had seemed to be against them, but
Norman and Pracha were allowed into his house. For the
first time Pracha spoke to his uncle. They and were allowed
to speak with him about their god. He listened and asked
questions and to their surprise he even invited them to
spend the night. Into the next day and its night the three
talked and shared. Later he said it was the testimony of
the life of his nephew that opened him up to listen. There
had never been any question of the “one god” who created the
universe and ruled above the demons and spirits of this
world. But there had never been a life of testimony of how
this god worked in the lives of a man. So when he watched
the “Life” in his nephew for five years, and when he heard
of how God came as a man, sacrificing himself as a man, and
then living in us by his spirit, all this bore witness to
what he had known and seen.
There were several trips, and Pracha brought
others of his co-workers to witness and share with his
uncle. SomChai and Moses shared the Love and Mercy of their
Lord. As they talked and as the months went by the old man
became more open and interested.
He
received Christ as his Lord, and asked to be baptized.
But none of this went unnoticed. There was
great interest in the patriarch of the village and in the
visitors who came to his hut. He held the history of his
people, their culture, and even the power of their dark god.
It seemed unrelated and inconvenient when Norman
broke his ankle while jogging the week before he was to
baptize the old man. A village preacher who had been
involved had a freak accident on his motorcycle and broke a
bone. Another who would have baptized him was confined to
bed by sickness. The baptism was moved to another village,
and was performed on schedule. The old man became a new man
in Christ.
The next week he made the journey to the city.
A difficult journey for a sick old man, to thank Norman for
his part in bringing him the Light of Christ, and to
apologize for the broken bones and sickness that had
afflicted the team because of the curses of his
apprentices.
The former witch doctor lamented his old ways
and shared how the law which he had applied on all
Christians under his power in former times was now his own
punishment. At more than ninety-seven years of age, by the
law that he had enacted years before he was cast from his
home and separated from belongings and the village that he
had once ruled.
He speaks a different power now, and walks with
a new stature. To the amazement of all who know him, his
back has straightened, and sickness is gone since his
baptism. The Christ he proclaims is greater than those who
curse him, and a village who knew only darkness has Light.
Those who watch him must wonder about the god who can take
an aging, sickly, feared high priest of Satan, and transform
him into a servant of the Most High. Surely if the changed
life of his nephew, a humble school teacher turned
evangelist can change this one, the life and testimony of
Chepaw the former witch doctor will affect the whole
village. Pray it be so.
