Burn the Magic Books

The sounds of night fill our ears – a fire crackling nearby, field rats scurrying in the bush, a child’s cry in the distance, a man’s angry tone with his wife, the witchdoctor’s drums across the riverbed. …Our hearts are burdened for the young men surrounding us whose way seems lined with the gravest difficulties. But at the same time, our hearts are rejoicing.

“Are we ready?”

The young men have had a long day at primary school but are eager to gather again by nightfall. Under the thick canopy of stars, we can faintly make out their tall silhouettes in our circle of chairs. Though we’ve given up hope of seeing their faces at such meetings, we are glad to recognize the voices of those who speak.

“We are ready,” Lorot answers for all of them. 

Longoko leads off in a song. The other boys echo the lines in a strange minor key, conjuring up images in my mind of tribal monks singing their haunting melodies of praise. As the worship resides, we listen closely to a Scripture being shared in their sister tongue, Turkana. It’s coming out of Luke 10: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” We bow our heads in prayer then continue….

“Tonight we will be acting out ‘The Sons of Sceva’ in order to learn the story better. Now who will play the part of Paul?” Lopua eagerly steps forward. “And that of the sick man?” His friend comes to his side. Others fill the remaining roles, leaving only the possessed man and the evil spirit roles unfilled. (In this animistic culture, it’s seen as a curse if you call on a man to play the part of an evil character, especially one which is demon-possessed. This part, therefore, is played by a lawn chair at present. :) 

Our actors do a convincing job of portraying the story as it happened in Acts 19 – trembling in fear, running from the evil spirit, throwing their “magic books” into the imaginary fire with great gusto and, in the end, praising God. We applaud them as they take their seats. “Now who will tell this story?” we ask.

We hear Lopua’s soft voice from across the circle, telling the story in simple language, as though he was communicating with a child. He keeps the group’s rapt attention as he speaks. (“Imagine you are telling the story to an old woman in the village,” we’d told the boys. “This woman cannot read and is too old to remember long stories. Tell her the story in such a way that she could repeat the story to her daughter and her daughter could then repeat the story to her sister.” Lopua gets it.)

“Is this a good story?” I ask, as he concludes.

“Very good!” the others exclaim.

“What do you like about it?”

They discuss the question among themselves, then one responds: “We like that the people brought their magic books to throw in the fire. We think they got these things from the witchdoctor, but when they feared God they did not want the witchdoctor’s evil magic.”

“They saw God’s power was greater than the witchdoctor’s,” Lopore interjects.

“We like that Jesus was praised,” Lopua adds. “And God’s Word was spread so that many people could believe.”

More question and discussion time follows. Three nights thus far we’ve gone over the same story, each time with more answers and insight from Believers who are themselves surrounded by witchdoctors and magic tokens. On the second night we asked them, “Do any of you have magic things from the witchdoctors?”

“No!” someone exclaimed. The voice was Douno’s. “Before, I had these things, but when I started following God’s path, I got rid of all of them.” His voice rang loud and clear as that of a witchdoctor’s son who saw the light of Christ and was rescued from a life of darkness.

Many other young men followed suit in their answers, able themselves to confess that all their magic tokens had been destroyed. But there were two in our midst who remained silent, one of whom had just been to the witchdoctor that afternoon and had been wreaking havoc on the compound (along with the other silent one) ever since.

The son of the witchdoctor shared many stories with us of days gone by when he actively participated in witchcraft and of more recent days when his family members had become possessed or had been attacked by evil spirits. He and the other boys shared from their experiences in an effort, it seemed, to reveal to the silent ones the sin of their ways. But the hearts of the two remained closed.

We continued, “There are many people in this world who are ignorant of the activity of the spirits. But not you. …Tell me, why do you think God has allowed the Toposa to see these things? Why, when so many people are blind to the spirit world, has God opened YOUR eyes to see it?”

Lopua’s voice, though soft, commanded the attention of the rest. “God has let us see this so that the Toposa will not follow in the way of Satan. He is making the two paths clear to us – good or evil, life or death, God or Satan.”

Some students arrive early to practice their reading before the James class.

You make known to me the path of life; 

in Your presence is fullness of joy;

at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

(Psalm 16:11)