Introduction
Before I give you my journal entries below, let us acknowledge the significance of this day we celebrate as Good Friday. Let us consider the life of Christ and how He died for His people on the Cross. This humbles me, especially because I am a sinner saved through this death. Jesus suffered and died the shameful death of the Cross, but ROSE from death to fulfill the Father’s perfect prophesied plan - salvation for sinners. Nothing you or I do can be good and righteous enough to make us worthy of heaven; but the Gospel tells us that Jesus was good and righteous enough to make us worthy of heaven. I give glory to God for all he has given us is His Son. Are you confident you are justified before the Father through the Son? If you are unsure of where you stand with God, now is the time to make it right. God says that we “all have sinned,” but that is not the final word, the same passage goes on to say that “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” So may we all be repenting of our sins and believing the Gospel. This is the message for all peoples in all times in all places. Let this truth be the backdrop as you read my journal entries below.
Feb 7
Yesterday one of the women who is often with me, Aina, was bitten by a poison snake. She came to my wind-house to ask for help. I only saw one hole in her foot (not the normal two) and proceeded with the wrap. The suction (to draw out the poison) did not work because her foot is calloused like a stone. I was hoping that she had a scorpion sting instead of a snake bite. Once the pain proceeded moving up her leg I knew it was indeed a snake bite. Over the next two hours I watched Aina step onto death’s doorstep. By then most of the village was at her side, and I was pushed aside. I kept weeping in fear for her children - she has eleven, five of which live with her under the age 14. (Her husband died Sept 2019 from TB.) I kept pleading with God to spare Aina. She began the death-rattle (loosing air and voice) and then lost conciseness. Not long after this though, she began moving again and tried to talk. By God’s mercy Aina did not die that day. The Lord has now saved her twice (she is the same woman I wrote about back in 2018 when she was seizing giving birth to her last born). I continually talk to her about how Jesus has given her two more opportunities to live on this earth. I pray that God would mercifully save her from sin and ultimate death in hell, and that she would turn from her animistic ways and to the truth of Christ - the Gospel Caleb preaches to the villagers week after week.
Feb 14
We had such a cute Valentine’s Day. We made homemade cards for each other, and we enjoyed chocolate cake at the end of the day. After we finished our cake, I was about to clean up when Simoi ran to our house and told us their was a spirit no-good (demon) on Elsi, his wife. (You may remember Elsi from one of my previous posts: she had been bitten by a poisonous snake in 2019, I prayed all that night, and the Lord did not allow her to die then.) As we all approached the wind house (gazebo) she was thrashing on the floor, tight lipped, and eyes shut. First I checked if her problems was possibly medical, but it clearly was not. This was no medical seizure; there was a demon in her, and it was controlling her. Caleb and I have never seen anything like that before so we watched for a few minutes and asked questions. Elsi could not even respond to our talk. As we began praying over her she would thrash more. Her hands were in a death grip, grabbing the people next to her. We had a very similar experience to Jesus’ interactions with demons in the Gospels. Elsi had no control over her body. Her heart rate and breathing were both normal. She told me this later, that her mind was hearing the demon speaking to her, but she couldn’t hear us talking to her. The demon continued to bang her head against the floor, and her limbs jerked in unnatural ways; her body shook uncontrollably. Finally her body went limp and she pointed to the corner of the house and said the demon was there. I kept telling her, “Jesus is the only one with the power and authority to deliver you; only He can give you true life; He is the light.” I told her over and over to call out to Jesus, for only His Name has power and authority to deliver her from evil. Her husband told us that the demon has been going into her for the past two months, and it always comes at night. Let me tell you, if I wasn’t a believer in Christ I would be terrified of what a demon could do to me.
Elis later told me that she can see the demon coming to her and it overtakes her “heart” (i.e. her soul). We prayed over her numerous times that night. The windhouse was crowded with people. Caleb and I spoke once again of the Gospel, and of Jesus’ ministry in the Bible. Jesus himself, as well as his disciples, often dealt with this demons. This was ordinary for them, but for us, it was a first.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to make these people born again through His Word, so that they would turn to Christ and be saved from their sin, the control of the devil, and eternal hell.
Two days later I went to talk with Elsi about what she thought had happened to her. She had no recollection of what had happened with the demon. She said that she can see the demonic force come at her and before she loses consciousness it fights her body. The demon makes her roll around in the grass hitting her, banging her head, and causing her to fall. Elsi said she went to hit it with a knife. I explained to her a demonic force you can’t fight with a sword but only with the true sword which is the word of God. When I started to talk to her about God and how she truly needs Jesus, she tuned out. She told me Simoi (her husband) is afraid that it will come in one night and throw her into the river to die. She just laughed it off like it would never happen. I told her that he’s right and she should be very afraid of it. Blows my mind that she would be so afraid of other things and yet not afraid of this. Please pray for Elsi.
I walked away feeling defeated and frustrated but I can’t save her the Lord has to open her eyes.
“Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons.” Mark 1:34
