The Shaman

​John Holbrook


Smoke burned Pandak’s eyes as he swung in his hammock with fierce concentration. But he couldn’t see the smoke, nor could he hear the clatter of the village around him. He was deep in a trance, fighting desperately to navigate his village through a world ruled by hundreds of spirits.

Another child was sick. A shaman from another village had sent a spirit cat to scratch the child, and Pandak was fighting for the child’s life. The spirit was powerful, though, and Pandak’s spirits refused to help.

Pandak knew it was impossible to please every spirit. Their rules were so complex and contradictory that it was impossible to get through life without experiencing their wrath. Like every one of his people, he lived with this terror every waking and sleeping moment. As the most powerful shaman in the area, he did his best to manipulate his spirits in order to help his people, but the responsibility lay heavy on his shoulders.

And so he rocked on in his desperate battle to save the child’s life, not realizing that rather than manipulating the spirits, he and his people were actually descending deeper and deeper into slavery to them. He watched in frantic despair as the demon squeezed the life out of the little child. There was nothing he could do. The child was soon dead.

Friends, this story is not a fantasy. This is a reality darker and more desperate than you or I can imagine. It is the reality that tens of thousands of people live with every moment of their lives, and they cannot escape. Won’t you join me in paying whatever price is necessary to bring Jesus’ liberation to these people before it’s too late?

Reprinted with permission from Adventist Frontiers, April 2011.

Support PFM!