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That Time a Voodoo High Priest Came to Christ

While in Haiti, Ivan Vega Pacheco and his team were prayer walking through a local village bound by voodoo. As they prayed, God let them to a local voodoo temple, where they were able to pray for people and see them set free. However, the high priest was not there, and Ivan felt strongly that they were to return.

The next day, God sent them back to the voodoo temple. The high priest was there, and what happened next is incredible.


One day in Haiti, our team prayer went out walking in the local community. We knew it was an area where witchcraft and idolatry was commonly practiced.

As we walked through the mountains, we asked God to touch people’s hearts in the area and set them free. We asked Him to bring people to us who wanted to be set free.

Then we came to a voodoo temple.

Standing outside, we continued to pray as we talked with people nearby. People began responding to us, but we knew it was really Jesus inside of us that they were responding to. We were able to pray with people and they were healed! People were delivered from the bondage of sin and darkness and accepted Christ.

However, there were a few that didn’t want anything to do with Jesus.

We also felt led to meet the leadership of the voodoo temple and share the Gospel with them, but they were not there. A teammate and I agreed later that night that God’s work there was not done, and we needed to return to this community. We prayed and asked God to make it clear if this was what needed to be done.

The next day, our entire schedule was thrown out the window. Originally we were supposed to go to a local orphanage, but our project leader, Marty, felt led to divide the team into small groups for more prayer walks. This was confirmation of what my teammate and I felt God was saying the night before.

We divided into three teams, and my team of six, including one Haitian translator, felt led to return to the voodoo village. Before we left, I told God that I really wanted the voodoo high priest to be present.

I felt like his salvation was a strategic and divine assignment, designed by God, to tear down the territorial strongholds of witchcraft and idolatry in the community and restore freedom.

When we arrived at the voodoo temple, the people around greeted us with excitement. Walking through the gates, we saw a small room filled with idols, statues, voodoo dolls, skulls, alcohol, and moldy bread. Along the walls, were a variety of religious symbols.

Within the courtyard, there was a concrete alter with a cross on the edge and a Psalms 123 encryption. From our understanding, this altar was utilized for demonic rituals and animal sacrifices.

By the grace of God, we walked through this compound with a heart of boldness and compassion. More importantly, Frank (the voodoo high priest) was present, accompanied by two other men who were listening to voodoo music and drinking alcohol.

Without wasting any time, my teammates Samuel, Alice, and I engaged this man. The rest of the team interceded while they simultaneously played with the children.

Frank explained to us that he was sovereignly chosen by dark spiritual forces and his family to fulfill the call and cultural heritage of the voodoo priesthood. Praying for God’s presence to cast away the darkness, I told Frank that he was about to experience the difference between the Spirit of God and the spirit of oppression.

Within seconds, the Holy Spirit flooded the compound and began to meet face-to-face with this man. After communing with the joy, peace, and love of the Spirit of Truth and talking further with us about the Kingdom of God, Frank declared that he wanted to be set free.

We guided this man through the process of deliverance. After the prayers of repentance and renouncing witchcraft, we uprooted unclean spirits. When asked how he felt, Frank declared that his inner being was burning on fire. He was being made new.

Then, the voodoo high priest prayed to receive Christ.

Then I told him, “The Lord has delivered you from darkness into light so that you could become a deliverer… therefore, advance the Kingdom of God with power and authority. Heal the sick, bring liberty to the captives, and preach the good news.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how he would take this statement, this man who had literally just turned his back on his entire way of life to follow Christ. But I knew Frank held a powerful influence in his community; he wouldn’t have been selected as the voodoo high priest if he didn’t. And I sensed that his salvation was key to his entire community accepting Christ.

What Frank said next blew me away.

Just a few days before, he dreamed something unexplainable for a voodoo high priest. He said God told him he would be a pastor.

So the three of us began to pray over Frank once again. I prayed he would be empowered through the Holy Spirit in his calling as a pastor. Alice prayed for healing over wounds from childhood trauma, and our translator, Samuel, began to pray specifically over the Frank’s ministry in the community. Before we left, Samuel gave Frank information to a local church so he could be discipled in his faith and his calling; and reminded Frank one final time that God was with him.

With the high priest now a Christ follower, the three of us walked back out into the courtyard and began to pray over the temple. We prayed to break the chains of darkness and idolatry, and asked God to transform this land to a holy place for the glory of our King and the expansion of His Kingdom.

As we prepared to leave, we walked by Frank one more time. Already he looked different—he’d removed all of his jewelry symbolizing voodoo, and told us he planned to burn them.

Praise God for how He sets the captives free!


We serve a God who sets captives free, and He is on the move in Haiti! 

Do you want to join what He is doing in Haiti? CLICK HERE to find out how you can join an adult missions team to Haiti, and HERE for youth group trips!