Haitian voodoo priest introduced to Christ by Texas Baptist layman

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—A Texas Baptist layman who was ministering in Haiti led a voodoo priest to faith in Christ.

Fred Sorrels, who has been working periodically in Haiti since 2004, went to the nation following the earthquake to check on people to whom he had been ministering, particularly at a school for the disabled.

He found the school in ruins. Eight students and two of the faculty had been killed, and the rest had dispersed.

Sorrels, a member of First Baptist Church in Kingsland, encountered Texas Baptist Men volunteers delivering water filtration buckets. He asked if he could have a few to deliver to the families of the disabled whom he said often are overlooked. The TBM representatives also gave him a few gospel tracts written in Creole.

After delivering the buckets to families in a makeshift tent city, he asked if anyone needed medical attention. He learned about a woman with a crushed foot, and he took her to the Miami Field Hospital at the airport for medical treatment.

The next day, as he walked back to the camp to check on the woman, a man came running up to him and told him he had been injured by falling debris during the earthquake. Sorrels could see the man’s foot was swollen, but he told him they would have to wait until the next day to have it examined by medical personnel.

The man, who introduced himself as Jean Odlin, asked Sorrels to visit his hut. When he arrived, Odlin told Sorrels he had a dream the night before in which Jesus had written his name on his arm. Sorrels took one of the tracts he had received from the Texas Baptist Men and shared the gospel with Odlin.

“He immediately prayed to receive Christ,” Sorrels said. “Not only had Jesus written his name on his arm, but he also had his name written in the Book of Life.”

Odlin explained he was a registered voodoo priest, and he told Sorrells he wanted to destroy the items he used in voodoo.

A Haitian Baptist pastor came upon the scene. After they had gathered the implements into a large pile, the pastor asked Odlin again if he was renouncing voodoo and accepting Christ as his Savior.

“He renounced, and we began to burn. This was this man’s vocation. He made an extremely sacrificial commitment,” Sorrels said.

The pastor later told Sorrels everyone knew Odlin and had tried to reach out to him.

“He had been very resistant. He told me, ‘God brought you here for this purpose.’”

While reading his Bible the next morning, Sorrels came across the account of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, and knew he needed to wash Odlin’s feet. Sorrels had someone read the passage to Odlin while he washed his feet so he would know what was happening.

“I’d never had the experience of washing someone’s feet before, but it was such an honor,” Sorrels said. “Those feet that had been leading people into darkness will now lead them into the light.”