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Ep 126: From Voodoo to Worship - One Man's Journey to Faith (Part 1)
"What happens when God marks you for ministry before you can even walk? Meet Bastia, whose extraordinary spiritual journey begins with a divine appointment when a stranger arrives at his parents' home in Haiti with a message: "God wants that little boy."
Though born into a family steeped in voodoo practices, this moment sparked a transformation that would eventually lead his entire family to faith.
Bastia's testimony weaves through Haiti's complex spiritual landscape, where voodoo remains deeply entrenched even among churchgoers. "Almost all of the Catholic are involved in voodoo," he explains, describing it as "a religion where people worship the devil and do any kind of bad things." This spiritual stronghold, which many Haitians credit for their independence, stands in stark contrast to Psalm 33:12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
Though active in church music ministry from a young age, Bastia admits he was more performer than worshipper until a profound moment of conviction. While leading an a cappella group he'd formed, he heard a voice warn: "Bastia, you may send so many people to heaven and you, you won't go." That divine intervention led to his genuine surrender to Christ and complete transformation.
The cultural contrast between Haiti and America forms another fascinating thread in Bastia's story. His move to Wisconsin after marrying an American missionary left him speechless with culture shock. From seeing police dogs to experiencing his first buffet ("I almost killed myself!"), his humor and insight bring to life the jarring transition from a place without electricity or running water to American abundance. Yet rather than growing comfortable, this exposure to plenty only strengthened his resolve to return to Haiti after Bible college, bringing hope to communities still struggling with extreme poverty and now, increasing gang violence.
Listen as Bastia shares how God's call on his life has come full circle, from that first prayer over an infant to his current ministry in Haiti's central plateau. His journey reminds us that God's plans transcend circumstances, cultures, and even our own understanding of our purpose.
The School of Grace at Calvary Chapel Caneille: https://www.caneille.org/
Interested in more information about the mission at CC Caneille? Please contact Calvary Chapel Waupaca at https://calvarychapelwaupaca.org/
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Lord you know. Hey guys, you are now listening to.
Speaker 2:Play For.
Speaker 3:Word Radio. It's the best.
Speaker 1:After a week I started just to ask questions about everything. Yeah, you know, I saw people walking with dogs on the street. I mean, I saw dogs being like a police. Yeah, we used our dogs just to get our security in Haiti. But I did not, you know, to see, to see. On the dog they say, please, I couldn't, I couldn't understand.
Speaker 3:That's a culture shock. You're the only name. You're the only name. You're the only name.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God All right.
Speaker 3:Okay, so we are here with. Let me make sure I say your name, right, bastia, right? Yes, I don't know your last name, I just know you as Bastia. You're like, let me see, you're like those like you think of different celebrities and whatnot. You think of Prince, you think of Cher, or you know people that have just one name that's how I think of you but you think of share. Or you know people that have just one name that's how I think of you but you have a last name, though oh, actually, bastia is my last name.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, people call me bastia.
Speaker 3:So bastia, okay, wow, they call you by your last name. I love it. People call me by my last name too. They call they also call me by my first name and my middle name, so it can be confusing. But welcome to Plays on Word Radio. You have not seen one of our plays yet, but hopefully we will come visit you in Haiti and do a play for you. We are trying to also go see Brian. You remember our dear brother, brother Brian. We had a chance to meet up with him at the pastor's conference. So, yeah, you know it's going to be mad cool when we come down and visit you. Where in Haiti are you located, actually?
Speaker 1:I'm so looking forward for that. The situation is very critical right now, and I'm sure you are aware of that, but you know, let's wait. I can't wait to see things being settled in Haiti, yes, and so I can have you come and enjoy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, brian told us that it was a very difficult situation there and he's in Port-au-Prince. Yes, very difficult situation there. And he's in Port-au-Prince and he said 90% or 95% of the city has been taken by gangs and it's one of the only safe places is right around where they meet for church. So yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Port-au-prince is almost taken by the gangs. That's the truth.
Speaker 3:He's right. Wow. Now where are you in relation to that?
Speaker 1:Let me first say thank you, fred, for getting me on Place Radio. So this is my first time being on your show or on your radio and I'm so thankful just to be able to meet you and be able just to share about you know what God is really doing. So my name is Igna Bastia and people call me Bastia, and just because in my town in Haiti I used to help so many churches and people just called me by Bastia, so this is how I'm called, by my name. Okay, yes, actually we are located in the central plateau in Haiti, in the higher plateau. The central plateau is divided in two lower plateau and higher plateau. So on the lower plateau there are 12 communes and so has on the higher plateau, there are also 12 communes. But we live in the higher plateau.
Speaker 1:But we are in a very remote area and I'm about 35, 45 minutes drive on a walk forward and in a place called Kanee, where there is no electricity. There was no water there. Actually, praise God, we have water on the compound just to help, you know, the kids you know and the people working for the ministry, but other than that, it is a place there is no pizza, no Walmart and there is no job. Nothing, nothing.
Speaker 3:Nothing, wow, nothing, nothing, wow, yeah, yeah, brian was telling us is like the unemployment rate is unbelievably high as far as just no jobs, no jobs anywhere. So all right. So there's, there's a question that I ask a lot of people. I actually ask everybody how does Bastia meet? How do you? How does he meet Jesus? How does he come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? How did you come to know him? Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1:And actually in Haiti and many people still today are going to church and they are not saved and they just love having the relationship. Going to church, you know, and being caught by entertainment, and they see people being on fire, you know, whenever there's a crusade, things like that but really they have not made a commitment to Jesus Christ to receive Jesus in their life. So I grew up in a family who was first of all involved in voodoo my mom and my dad. They were involved in voodoo and when I was born and they were still involved in voodoo and God sent a special man just to pray for me, because God said, in this family, I want that little boy which is me talking. And so when that guy came into my parents' house and he explained to them that how God talked to him in a dream, just to come and pray for me, and they said, no problem, we can put this little bird, you know, outside for you. I did not walk yet and he prayed for me. So he did ask the family if they would receive the Lord like my mom and my dad, and they were so caught up on voodoo and they said no. So caught up on voodoo, and they said no and I don't think they even thought about. You know how serious that was when God asked to pray for me, when God says that he wanted me. So since after that, you know, this guy came back to my parent house very often to pray for me and after that my dad accepted the Lord and after my dad, my mom accepted the Lord, so the whole family became Christian. So, yes, they prayed for me.
Speaker 1:I was very little and my father became LA pastor and I was involved in the church and playing music etc. But really I really did not receive Jesus in my life, because this is really not something people really share with you. That is a personal thing. That's something you really need to do between you and Jesus Christ. So I became very famous in the town that I moved to, which is Hinch to. I meant to go to school, and what happened when I got there? I got involved with I mean, I helped in many churches playing music, but I had a home church. So what happened?
Speaker 1:I created a capillary group to sing for Jesus, getting about 18 guys singing, and I wrote a song too at that time, and so one day I wrote a worship song, which is something that I have not experienced yet. What is worship? So the music that I wrote were more kind of entertainment. Yes, we mentioned the name of Jesus, yes, we talk about his baptism, etc. But really it was not something that would draw someone to, I mean as a worship song. It was not something that would draw someone to I mean as a worship song. It was not like that.
Speaker 1:So and one day I wrote a song which was a worship song, and I stood with all of the guys in front of everybody, thinking that I was somebody at that time, just a young man, having 18 guys behind me, and we started to sing that worship song and the harmony was so beautiful and I saw people down there raising their hands to worship the Lord and a voice came to me. A voice came to me saying Bacia, while I was singing, that voice came to me and said that, basia, you may send so many people to heaven and you, you won't go. Wow, and I felt. I felt like it was like something heavy on my shoulder and I just put down. And that day, without knowing how I should ask, I mean, we see, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I found out later. This is what happened to me that day I said, lord, I give you my life. You know, I just want to be a son for you. I want to do whatever you want me to do, not what I want to do. But later on, when I got to Apatain, calvary Chapel Apatain, you know, under a good Bible teacher man at that time and he was really explaining, you know, how someone would accept Jesus it's something personal and woman 10-9 or 9-10, one of them I said you need to confess, you need to do that. And I figured out that was the time that I received Jesus in my life and, honestly, since then my whole life changed completely and I am a no-man until today.
Speaker 3:Amen, wow, that's an amazing story. Help me and the audience, help us understand. When you say voodoo, many of the listeners might have a preconceived idea of what it means, but can you just what does that encompass when somebody's caught up in voodoo? I've heard about there being a lot of it in Haiti, but could you give me just a description?
Speaker 1:Yes, when we talk about voodoo, it's a religion. Let's put it this way. It's a religion where people, they worship the devil and they do any kind of bad things. So like they would call on bad spirit and they would use some powder, a magical powder and that can kill people and they would use the bad spirit. The same way, when you are a Christian, you can intercede for someone. You can ask the Holy Spirit to go and do something positive in someone's life For them.
Speaker 1:In the voodoo, they can really do some type of ceremony and ask the bad spirit to go to someone to harm them or do something bad. So, really, voodoo that is what it is. It's a religion that is there to do one thing to people, and so it's really something that, like, haiti believed that when they got the independence it was through a pig, so they did a ceremony and that's how Haiti got free. But really, all that is going on to Haiti right now, today, and we are not in it yet. So I do believe that it's the result of how people believe that they got the independence, because in Psalm 33, 12, it says that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. So that is voodoo and it's really a bad thing.
Speaker 3:Is it widespread in Haiti still oh?
Speaker 1:yes, it is widespread, and even in its I mean even the people who accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior. It takes them time before they can completely become a new believer, and I mean they would say yes to accept Jesus Christ, but you know, what they used to do is so hard just to live. And even the Catholic, you know, in Haiti, and almost, I would say all of almost all of the Catholic, are involved in voodoo and they're welcome in the Catholic church because they think that that's okay. You know, it's not a problem. Almost, I would say, many, many people are involved in voodoo in Haiti.
Speaker 3:Oh, man, wow, that is. That's amazing and it's.
Speaker 1:you're basically dealing with powers and principalities and darkness in the heavenly places, exactly Things that you cannot see, but you can see the result of them in a negative way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that is not a good. I don't understand why people are so attracted to it, but people are attracted to things that are anti-God. Whatever it is. It's like, you know, it's just the world system is anti-God, it's anti-Christ, the whole system. Yes, that's so true.
Speaker 1:But you know the good thing, you know for us as Christians we don't have to be afraid, because what is in us is greater than what is in them.
Speaker 3:Yes, amen in us is greater than what is in them.
Speaker 1:Yes, amen. So we don't have to worry about you know things like that when we see them, because we know that having Jesus in our life, that's all we need.
Speaker 3:Yes, amen. So now you. That's amazing. You were playing music in the church and leading people in worship, but you weren't really. You were playing, you were more entertaining at the time until the Lord really got ahold of you and said, hey, we need to fix a couple things here, exactly.
Speaker 1:Actually, I would say that I had a calling in my life, since, I would say, even before I was born, God knew all about me, and so at the early age he directed some people to me. They did not put the oil over my head, but I feel that God anointed me.
Speaker 3:That's amazing, that he sent a man to your parents' house to pray over you. Yes, exactly. So anybody who thinks that prayer is not important.
Speaker 1:Prayer works and, honestly, if we did not have people praying for the whole world, the whole world, I don't know what would happen at this time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the people that are interceding. It's so important and I think that's the one regret we will have when we're in glory. That's something that we're going to regret. Wow, we should have prayed more.
Speaker 2:When we're in glory.
Speaker 3:I think we're going to be like wow, I cannot believe I didn't take the opportunity to pray as much. So how do you end up in Wisconsin from Haiti? That's a long commute. You got to help us understand this.
Speaker 1:That's so true. Actually, when I moved to Hinge my first wife at that time my wife was an American, so born and raised in Wisconsin, in the Kona area, so she went to Calvary Chapel, appleton, on the path to Dwight Dover, and so she was planning to go to be a missionary in Haiti. Okay, in 2000,. I believe in 2000 at the time. So that same year she went to be in a permanent, more permanent, in Haiti as a missionary. That was that same year there was a need at the church she was going to for someone to create an, a cappella group.
Speaker 3:And so Just all voices. A cappella, just a straight a cappella.
Speaker 1:No instrument, no instrument With different harmonies. So that's the time I got into that church too. We kind of got there at the same time and when I got there, I was helping her learning Creole and she was helping me also on my English. Well, as we were talking, we figured it out. You know, we looked alike and we had the same heart and, you know, at that time she was so mature and so she saw in me something that myself I could not see, and that's happened. Sometimes there are things you cannot see, but other people can see when the Holy Spirit is leading them. So we started talking and we had aged different and so that was a concern. But I mean, if I would tell you the whole story, that's it's cut at the time, let's say that you know, after talking we figured it out and we can make a good team and so for Jesus.
Speaker 1:And so we decided to get married and we got married in Haiti and moved back to Wisconsin. So my plan at that time I did not plan just to be a pastor, I just wanted to come here and to go and study to be a mechanic. That was really my heart. Okay, when I got here, you know, things changed. Things changed. This is how I got to Wisconsin.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to understand how much of a shock it must have been for you from a weather perspective, because Haiti is hot as it gets and Wisconsin is freezing.
Speaker 1:Actually, it is not only the difference in the weather, but it is on everything. Haiti is a very, very poor country. I mean, where I came from, there was no light. There was no light I mean I'm talking about electricity and there was no good there was. I mean I'm talking about you know electricity, right, and there was, you know you could. There was no good water for people to drink. And, uh, there, there is no market there. Like you know, you would say you go to the market like walmart, you know things like that. And so they they they were not a paving wood and really everything was new for me when I came to America and when I got here actually, I got here on May 29 in 2001.
Speaker 1:So, when I saw I was on the plane for the first time in my life, saw I was on the plane for the first time in my life, and as I was landing in Miami at the time and I saw the difference right away, and as I was looking down the structure, how the houses are built, and when I got to that airport, oh, oh, my God, it was I could not stand it and I did not say a word, I did not speak. You were in shock, because it was a shock for me. I did not know where to start. There were so many things. I look at the people I look at you know the airport was so big. You know I see ice thing. I look at the people I look at. You know the airport was so big, you know I see ice machine. I see, oh, so many airplanes. So many things to think about, and I did not even know how to start.
Speaker 1:It was a big shock for me, and so it took me time before I could digest and I could get it, and so my wife was a very good teacher, taking it very slowly to teach me about everything Because, you know, after a week I started just to ask questions about everything. You know, I saw people walking with dogs on the street, everything. I saw people walking with dogs on the street. I mean, I saw dogs being like a police. We used our dogs just to get our security in Haiti. To see on the dogs they say police.
Speaker 3:This is amazing. That's a culture shock. I'm living it through as you're telling it. I'm like this could be a movie. Wow, it could be a movie.
Speaker 1:To be honest with you, it's been a very big shock for me.
Speaker 3:Wow, and it was just seeing going from, I guess, the poverty situation, where it's very poor, and the construction, the way things are built, and then when you, you fly to miami, miami's, you know, miami, I mean it's, and yes, but when it's come, you know, because I came from a poor area actually, you know, living here was hard for me at first.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's why in my mind I said, well, I have to go back and see what I can do. Okay, what I can do. And so right away I thought about you know people that I know who could not eat. You know you open your fridge my wife at that time when you get a gallon of juice my first time seeing a gallon of juice, get gallon of juice, my first time seeing gallon of juice, gallon of milk and you know the whole fridge is full with stuff. And well, it was hard for me just to see that I was eating every day and I had enough to eat and have leftover. And thinking about so many people that I know who could not eat, it was hard for me. So I was really thinking about you know, what could I do?
Speaker 3:Wow, that's things we take for granted. I mean, I don't even think about it. I have a half gallon of orange juice in the fridge right now and I'm just you know, things we for granted For you to be surprised at that. Yes, you saw that and you were like, oh my wow, look at this, that's so true.
Speaker 1:The thing is, when you are in a country, you are very limited. If you would take a citron, you would squeeze it just to have a little juice, but the juice that you have may not be enough, for I mean, you know you cannot drink it yourself, you need to share it and you are done eating. You're still hungry because we don't have enough. And you can imagine, you are in a country. You find so much you can eat. You can take one cup of milk, you can drink a second one, you can drink a third one. Come on, I mean, you know what was the hard thing. You know, when I went to a place where you have refill on thing, I mean, just go and drink, you can just. You know, if you don't mind, I'll share one of my biggest stories, when I was in California still, and in California I got exposed to buffet. You can go, take your plate and eat, come back, I almost killed myself. What, oh man? I'm telling you the truth. I almost killed myself.
Speaker 3:This could be a movie. Man, this should be a movie.
Speaker 1:Yes, I ate so much and after I was done I could not lay down, I could not sit.
Speaker 3:Oh no, that's funny man. Wow, oh, that's amazing. Yeah, the buffets. Yeah, you can just get all you can eat. You can just get all you can eat.
Speaker 3:All you can eat All you can eat. Oh, man, wow, this is funny, man, wow, oh my goodness. So you were here for a while and then you decided you said I'm going back because I want to see what I can do. So what did that look like when you went back? I want to see what I can do, so what did that look like when you went back?
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, as I said, when I moved to Appleton, I was under the teaching of Pastor Dwight, calvary Chapel in Appleton, wisconsin, and Pastor Dwight is a great teacher and Calvary Chapel in general is known as a good Bible teaching movement. You see what I mean. So, in almost all of the churches, if you go, you know, I guarantee you, you, you will, you will be fed, you know, in the Word, because that's what we focus on. We focus on worship, you know, fellowship and the teaching of the Word.
Speaker 1:So, being under Pastor Dwight, you know, it was my first time, you know, sitting under a pastor who was teaching the Word of God straight, book by book, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and so my whole, my mind changed on being, instead of being, a mechanic, and I said, well, I need to go to the Bible college so I can bring back what I'm learning, because I saw that if I really learned the Word of God and I become a teacher, I could save so many lives in Haiti.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I was not attached, you know, to all the things in America. I mean, you know, all I could think about is go to a Bible college and go back to Haiti is go to the Bible college and go back to Haiti so I could start a freshman work and start teaching the Word of God, start investing in the community, etc. And after I went to the Bible college in 2003, 2005, I graduated, and guess what? I graduated in June 2005. And July 2005, july 19, 2005, I landed at the airport in Port-au-Prince with the mission for God to use me so life could be changed in Carnegie.
Speaker 3:Amen, amen, amen. That's our brother, bastia, and, god willing, we will be doing a play down in Haiti when things or when the Lord sends us. We are in the planning stages, trying to get down there. That's our dear brother. He will be one of the places that we're going to visit. Brian, we're going to visit Bastia and our dear sister, pam and Patrick have some connections down there too as well, so we're going to do a Haiti tour. Pray for us, y'all Pray. That isn't happening. I'm working on my French again so that I can. They'll be able to understand what I'm saying. I don't know Creole yet. Anyway, that's all the time we have. We're going to continue this next week, god willing, if the Lord tarries. But until then, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
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