The Tale of the Fetish Priest
Once there was a fetish priest. He was quite old and lived in a small village in Ghana, West Africa. He was very wicked and was feared by the people in the village. He was so committed to his gods that he had let many family members die, believing he must, in order to keep serving his gods. One evening, he fell asleep in his house and had a dream. He dreamed a white girl came to him and told him he would die soon. She shared the Gospel of Jesus with him, then said he needed to turn away from his gods, meet Jesus and put his trust in Him as soon as possible. He believed her and asked what he should do. She encouraged him, “Find my people who are here in your village and they will tell you what to do.”
The priest woke up, left his house, and immediately began to search for the girl’s people. He found a group of people watching the Jesus Film. When it was over, the priest walked through the crowd to the front, and as he did, the atmosphere dramatically changed. He approached the pastor, who had no idea what was happening among the crowd. The pastor shared the Gospel with the fetish priest, and the priest gave his life to Jesus that very night.
A few weeks later, the pastor met with his friend who had invited him to come to the village. The friend told the pastor who the priest was and why the people were so affected by his appearance at the Jesus Film. He shared that the priest had come to his house the following Monday and told the friend the story of his dream. Then the priest said, “The girl’s name was Lauren.” That very evening, the fetish priest died.
This is a true story. Pastor Godly was invited by a distant friend to show the Jesus Film in his village. The friend only knew Godly was a pastor, but not which church he served. The priest gave his life to Christ, and after telling Pastor Godly’s friend about his dream of Lauren, he died.
Do I have any idea how any of this happened? I don’t. Lauren’s spirit didn’t actually come to the priest in a dream, but I believe perhaps God used a dream that He gave the priest about Lauren. What I know for certain is that God gave this priest a final invitation to come to Jesus, and the priest did. He is in heaven today because of God’s great compassion and unending mercy toward us. This is the God we serve.