A Village Under Attack

Yesterday afternoon Luke and I were asked to visit and pray with a friend of ours who was sick.  He has been having severe stomach pains for 2 months and was having difficulty eating and even sleeping at night.  The village where he stays is about 30 minutes out in the bush.  So, we hopped on the motorbikes and headed out there.  When we arrived, we were greeted by the entire family, which lives in this small village of some 6 or 8 huts.

Typically, when we are asked to come and pray for someone, we usually ask a lot of questions first.  Our experience has shown that sicknesses are not always caused by of bad germs or inhospitable living conditions.  We've actually seen individuals and families that have been sick because of their involvement in witchcraft.  Why do we know this?  Because when we've prayed for these dear people, they have been instantly healed after we prayed against the spiritual forces that were attacking them.  This is not to say that a demon is behind every corner.  There are those sicknesses that have their root in natural causes, but there are those that don't.  So, before we prayed with this family, we asked a lot of questions.

As we sat there and talked with the family, from the grandmother to the grandkids, we learned that this sickness was not the only one that had been impacting this family.  We found one precious little boy with a shriveled hand (pictured below) and another baby with swollen lymph nodes.  But we also learned that there had been over 15 children, youth and young adults that have died over the last several years.  We learned that the grandfather, who is now deceased, was heavily involved in witchcraft.  And we learned that the village next to them, who they were constantly fueding with, was involved in witchcraft as well.

Needless to say, there were a lot of signs that the issues that have been plaguing this family might, in fact, be spiritual.  Had we gone there and just prayed for the sick, we might have missed the root of the problem.   We might have put a bandaid on a wound that needed stiches.  But we believe that we dealt with the root yesterday.  Before leaving we were also able to setup a meeting between the villages and will return sometime soon to see if we can help reconcile this relationship.   So please be praying for that meeting.

Please also join us in continuing to pray for this family.  As you can see it is quite a large family.  Pray that the early deaths and sicknesses would end.  Pray that their involvement in witchcraft would finally stop and that Jesus would take center stage.  And pray for the future generation, the young children.  Pray that they would be a generation that will impact this community with the gospel for years to come!