This happened nearly a year ago now, I think I always meant to post it but never got around to it. I wrote the account soon after it happened though. This is when I was living with my teammate "Sue" in the capital. ( I don't know if it matters that I change her name, so I will do it just in case.)This happened while we were doing lessons in our friend Bobo's
Sue found out from Bobo, the leader of the house, that
his daughter had been having attacks caused by demons, as they were talking
about it, another girl in the yard said she had had problems with them too. Sue called one of our colleagues who is well connected with the local
pastors to ask if she knew of a pastor in this part of the city. Our colleague
called a pastor who agreed to come that afternoon.
When he came we found out that he spoke the same language of
Bobo and his family which was such a blessing, not everyone’s French was really
up to par for spiritual matters. The pastor began by asking both the girls
about their relationships with the demons, what they did, when they came, how
long they had been with them- one girl was eager to have the demons leave, we
will call her Rachel the other was non-committal and not really participating,
we’ll call her Mary. He found out that both girls had two demons there, and
they had been there for a lot longer than we realized. He then asked if they were ok with being
prayed for in Jesus’ name by Christians to have the demons leave; at this point
Mary appeared to be asleep, but the pastor said the demon had come. He started by singing a simple praise song to
Jesus, Mary quickly left the room.
By now most of the adults and people in the yard had come in
to watch. Pastor and Sue and I put our hands on her and he started
praying in French and we prayed in English, mostly “in the name of Jesus leave”
or variations of that, she started kicking and convulsing and yelling, pretty
much like what we see in those Darren Wilson films, and the guys came and held
her down. One of the guys in the yard who is a Catholic came up and started
praying with us too. We stopped and she
said one was gone and one was still there, so we prayed some more, and checked
again, she was hesitant to speak, but Pastor really wanted her to say
the demons were gone and to show him where they had gone, what direction.
Then
we prayed for Mary, it took longer, same basic process, I don’t know if she
told him or he just knew, but he said that demon was more entrenched or it was
stronger, and a snake spirit, it reminded me of one of the documentaries where
that happened. Anyway Mary was less
happy after it was done and kind of sulky…we didn’t really understand all of
it, how much is cultural or her personality or what.
Then Pastor prayed for the whole family and gave his number
to Bobo and the girls. He was really good with it all. I think Rachel said she
wanted to accept Jesus, I don’t know how much she understood but she wanted the
demons gone and they have each others’
contact information. Andy, the Catholic was visibly touched by the
whole thing too and talked to Pastor afterward. So we can be praying for that
whole family and future protection for those girls as well.
Pastor said
to us “thank you for trusting me” which was super humbling because we were like
“thank you for coming and doing this!”
Really, it was a good learning experience for Sue and I, and I pray
that those girls are done being in bondage now. I also pray this helps lead
that family to Christ.
