“The thief comes
only to steal, kill, and destroy.  But I
have come that you may have life and have it in abundance.”  
-John 10:10
It makes sense now.  Everything. 
The physical fighting, the knife-threatening, the exaggerated arguing,
the falling asleep during bible study, the fact that I’ve been feeling this
month like the girls home is a black hole sucking the life out of me.  Ever since break ended in late January and
the girls came back from their homesteads, life at the girls home has been
draining, exhausting, disappointing, and full of an undisclosed gloom.  For, unbeknownst to us, one of the girls who
had been involved in witchcraft during break brought back with her a power of
darkness I thought only existed in movies. 
But, as I’ve told my students last year, “What’s done in darkness can
only be healed when it’s brought to light”; so, praise be to God that the
secret is exposed and the light is piercing this monthly “night.” 
These past few days were by far
the most dramatic I’ve ever experienced in all my 28 years.  For some of you, especially Americans who
don’t believe or want to acknowledge that there are real forces of evil
[demons], you may think I’m crazy because what I’m about to disclose is something
that even I thought only
happens in movies… except now… this is not a movie, it’s my life.  I hesitated greatly in deciding whether or
not to post this blog, but truth is truth, and if there’s one thing I learned
from this experience, it’s not to hide.  As I recount an extremely dark experience, I
tell you only to proclaim the power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s name that we
all may rejoice in his victory!  And to
encourage any of you who have not yet met this Victor in your life, to invite
him into your heart, to set you free and fight your battles for you.  For, in the words of my favorite song, “there
is power in the name of Jesus… to break every chain, break every chain, break
every chain!”  
A certain girl, Maria (fake
name), had been different the moment she returned from her homestead.  She had made such incredible strides in the
months leading up to December.  She had
been changing and maturing dramatically. 
Her prayers would move us to tears and send Holy Spirit chills down our
spines.  I became increasingly close to
her and found such joy in spending time with her, while others might say she
was still hard to love.  But I loved her
deeply, with a love that I know was not my own. 
So, when she returned from break acting confusingly cold, I knew
something was wrong.  There would be a
few good days without any problems from her, but those became less and less,
and pretty soon I had to have the same talk and discipline for her every day.  A few days ago, it got to the point where I
was so fed up with her attitude and the way she was treating people.  There were visitors over at our house and she
made a big scene in front of everyone.  I
sent her to her room (mostly for me to cool off before I lost my last nerve
with her).  Awhile later, I went into her
room to yell at her.  She refused to even
look at me or acknowledge what I was saying. 
Finally, I bellowed, “Maria, who
are you?”  I paused and she hung her
head.  I continued in frustration, “Where
is my Maria?”  A few tears fell from her
face.  In a softer voice I finished,
pausing between each word, “I…want…her…back.” 
She knew that question was loaded, and the tears broke the wall she had
built up. 
She crumbled to her knees and
started bawling.  I went to her and sat
on the bed, holding her head in my lap and letting her cry.  “I’m s-s-s-sorry,” she whimpered in-between
cries.  “I-I-I-I-I-I…” she kept repeating
and couldn’t finish her thought.  The
tears wouldn’t stop. 
“Shhhh,” I tried calming her, as
her body was shaking with sobs.  “It’s
okay…”
“I-I-I-I-I…” she tried talking
again.  I held her and waited.  “I-I-I-I killed someone,” she wept. 
Not expecting those words to
come out of a 14 year old, I didn’t know how to respond.  “What?”
“I-I-I killed someone,” she
cried so hard. 
“When?” I asked, not knowing why
that was my first response.
“2013.” 
There were too many questions
whirling through my mind.  It was hard
enough to understand her through the sobs, so I kept silent and waited.
“And, Mama Kate, I’m so sorry,
I’m so sorry,” she continued.  “I-I-I-I
killed Tenele’s baby!”  Her cries were so
loud that Gogo and Sibussa burst into the room wondering what was going on.
When they saw me with Maria they just nodded at left. 
“How?” Now I was getting really
confused.  Did she give her abortion pills? 
Did she give her poison?  Did
Tenele ask Maria to help get rid of
the baby?  Surely Maria didn’t kill
Tenele’s baby herself; for, Tenele was at Project Canaan when she had the
miscarriage and Maria was nowhere near her even a month before that
happened. 
“At night time…w-w-w-with my
chain…” she started shaking again. 
What is going on? I asked myself. 
That doesn’t even make sense!  What chain? 
At night time? When? How would a chain kill the baby?  Before I could verbalize any of my thoughts, Maria
continued.
“He told me to, he told me!” she
wept.
“Who?  Who told you to?”
“Yehovah,” she wailed. 
I was at my wits end.  It sounded like she said “Jehovah,” but I
knew she couldn’t be talking about the Lord. 
Because I didn’t understand what Maria was saying through her sobs, I
did the only thing I knew best: I prayed.
As I prayed she cried harder and
harder.  I tried to calm her down and
said, “Maria, do you believe that Jesus Christ has power over you?”
“No,” she responded without a
moment’s hesitation. 
The moment she uttered “no,” she
renounced the power of Christ and by doing so, she gave the darkness permission
to take over. 
In that one utterance of “no,”
the evil spirits inside of her took over. 
Maria’s body flung to the floor as I grabbed her arm, trying desperately
to hold onto her body.  “Nooooooo,” she
cried as I kept telling her to ask Jesus to set her free.  She pulled herself under the bed, but I was
holding on with all my might on her one arm. 
With my free hand, I shoved open the door and called for help.  Gogo and four other sisters rushed in and I
explained that Maria had demons and I needed help holding her body and
praying. 
Within seconds, we had Maria
pulled out from under the bed; her lips were quivering and her eyes rolled back
into her head and eyelids closed over. 
But her body was strong, very strong. 
I held her head in my lap and in-between my two hands to protect her
from smashing her head on the floor as the spirit inside of her kept whipping
her head and neck around.  (For anyone
who does not know, when a person’s body is possessed by a demon, it truly is no
longer the person but the evil spirit in control.  While a demon is being exorcised, it will
attempt to self-destruct the body in anyway or just run away from the people
praying, which had happened this this young girl before.) While I braced her
head, two sisters were holding each hand and arm and two more were holding her
legs.  Gogo stood above us trying to talk
to Maria who was not responding.
We started praying.  I prayed, Gogo prayed, the sisters prayed.  It was quiet at first; we were all
unsure.  But slowly we got louder.  Slowly, I saw the Holy Spirit overtake two of
the sisters in particular who exercised the authority of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth over these evil spirits.  One
girl in particular is extremely shy, quiet, and very reserved.  This amazing teenager started proclaiming
Truth like never before!  She spoke,
cried, commanded, and then yelled at the evil spirits.  Her prayers overtook us all. I’ve never seen
anything more beautiful. She put the Bible over Maria’s heart and that’s when
Maria’s body went crazy.  She held the
Bible over Maria’s head, and her head whipped violently back and forth trying
to turn away from the Bible, and at one point she almost tried to bite it.  This “quiet” sister called, “That’s right!
Eat it!  This is your bread!  The word of God is your bread!  You need it!”
Another sister who is
exceptionally wise for her age and close to the heart of Christ, commanded the
evil spirits to talk and identify themselves (which they did—they gave names),
this sister and asked question after question. 
During the course of this questioning and praying, we learned of a very,
very dark and scary past that Maria had been hiding from us all.  A past of witchcraft, devil worship, and a
cult belonging to a “king” they call “yehovah.” 
As a part of this cult, they even called it “church,” they are assigned
people to kill.  (Obviously, it’s not by
Maria’s hand that she kills people, but the spirit at least convinces Maria or
these people that they are involved in the deaths of people close to them.)  According to the demon, each person is given
a list where they keep the names of people they’ve killed and add names of
people they are supposed to kill.  The
sister demanding answers from the demon asked who was all on this list.  Four people were named, one of which was
Tenele’s baby.  The sister then asked who
is on the list to kill next? 
“Mama Kate,” came the answer.
At this point, I wasn’t
understanding what was being said, but when my name was spoken, one of the
sisters started crying and I felt something in the pit of my stomach. 
By this time, two hours had
passed, and I was soaked in sweat. Sweat was dripping off my face and my
t-shirt was stuck to my body completely wet. 
Finally, the pastor who was our neighbor and had prayed the demons out
of Tenele last year, came over with his wife to continue praying.  Eventually the demons became powerless over
Maria’s body and then were completely gone. 
Maria opened her eyes, became herself again, and then secluded herself in
my room listening to my Christian music playlist for the rest of the
evening. 
She didn’t remember anything
that had happened, not even me coming in to yell at her and how she started
crying.  After dinner, we had bible study
in which Maria was present and participated; but not all was well yet.  That night, Kiley, who had sacrificed her own
night of comfort to come sleep over with me (because I was a little shaken up,
I mean, who wouldn’t be when you are told you’re on a list to be killed?!),
asked Maria lots of questions about this cult and what was going on and why
Maria was involved.  Maria freely talked
about it, as if by talking about it, she was able to let it all go.  She held nothing back.  She explained how her friend Sarah had gotten
her involved in 2010 and how they claim their king “yehovah” and are instructed
to kill others through witchcraft. 
Explaining further, she said that at night it’s her spirit that leaves
her body and can go to these cult “meetings,” where they drink tea, which she
said is actually drops of blood.  She
believed that her chain necklace, a ring, and an earring had the power to kill
others.  Yet, she knew the difference
between herself and the spirit.  Maria admitted
that during break she had gotten back into the demon worship and was with this Sarah
nearly every day.  When Kiley asked why
she was still in it, Maria answered, “Because if I leave, they will kill
me.”  After telling her that was not true
she stammered, “No, I’ve seen it done. 
They put you in the wires.  One
girl almost got killed, but she changed her mind and said she wouldn’t leave,
so they let her out of the wires.”
Though we prayed with Maria and
things seemed to be fine, I couldn’t sleep hardly a wink.  I tossed and prayed and turned and prayed all
night.  I felt a heavy darkness over me
but I just kept praying the name of Jesus and claiming his authority over
me.  I was glad when light broke through
at morning.
The next day, I was gone so
Rachel and her mom stayed at the girls home to help watch the little ones and
counsel Maria.  I got an update text from
Rachel saying Maria didn’t want to stay in the house because she was afraid the
demons would come back for her.  And she
kept, “Sarah is coming.”  When I got home
and talked to Maria about it, she said she can see that Sarah will come and
that she was hearing these voices yelling at her inside her head. 
“What are they saying?” I asked.
“I don’t know…I can’t
understand.  They’re just yelling,” she
replied. 
So that’s when we got into a
really deep and wonderful talk about the power of Jesus Christ, his love, and
his blood that covers us.  I helped her
realize that the demons were weak under Christ’s name and the whole reason that
everything was exposed is because one of the girls claimed the authority of
Christ over the demon and commanded it to talk. 
That at the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, demons have to
flee and people are set free.  I told her
not to fear, for when she’s under the power of God nothing can touch her.
“Just like me,” I turned to look
her in the eye.  “You were supposed to
kill me, eh?”
“Yes,” she nodded. 
“When?”
“Your name came on the list on
Friday,” she answered.
“Well, it’s Tuesday now.  Why didn’t you kill me then?”
“I don’t know,” she said
quietly.
“I do,” I smiled.
She turned to me.
“Satan’s mission may be to kill and destroy me.  But he can’t.  You can’t.  Because the demons can’t.  Because I am covered by the blood of the
Lamb, and that demon cannot harm me.  I
am not afraid.  I am under the power of
the Almighty, the one and ONLY true God, and demons stand no chance against Him
in me.  And that can be the same for
you.  If you accept God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit as your true King, you, too, will be saved.  They cannot harm you.  They cannot come for you.  They cannot kill you.  But if you still refuse his name, then His
blood cannot protect you.”
I continued.  “Do you think this yehovah king of the cult
loves you?  Does Sarah love you?  Do these demons and other people involved
love you?”
She didn’t respond.
“Do they?” I pressed.
“No,” she breathed.  “They don’t.”
“Maria, do you want to be loved?
Do you know that I would give my life for you if I knew you would then be
saved?  That’s love.  But guess what?  I don’t have to, because someone already did
that for you and for me!  Jesus Christ,
God’s one and only Son, died on the cross, pouring out his blood for YOU, that
you may have life.  Satan comes only to
steal, KILL, and destroy, as you know very well, but Christ is here that you
may have LIFE, and have it abundantly!” (John 10:10)
Later that evening, the pastor’s
wife invited Maria over to their house and she counseled Maria through
Scripture and prayer.  Maria confessed
everything, letting the light expose every darkness.  And with the pastor’s wife, she prayed to
accept Jesus Christ as Lord of her heart and life!
We gained another victory that
night, too!  Another girl came to me and
confessed sin from her past.  At first,
she said, “I’ve sinned greatly.  I don’t
think God can forgive me for that.” 
“Honey, you are never too far out
of reach for Christ’s mercy.  If Jesus on
the cross can say to his murderers, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they are doing,’ then he can surely forgive you!”
She then expressed how being
raped had changed everything for her and she doubted God completely.  After being raped, she became addicted to
prostituting herself, and she didn’t know how to stop.  She also didn’t believe that God could still
love her after that.
“There’s a story in the Bible of
Jesus forgiving a prostitute.  He tells
her that she is forgiven and she should go and sin no more.  Another time, he tells the woman caught in
adultery the same thing.  The people from
the community drug her out to Jesus to stone her to death because according to
law, she deserved death.  That’s when
Jesus says his famous line, ‘You without sin can be the first to cast the
stone.’  Everyone left.  When it was just Jesus and the woman, he asks
who remains to condemn her, and she says, ‘No one.’  He tells her lovingly, ‘Neither do I.  Go and sin no more.’  So again, your sin is not too much for
Jesus.  Not only will he forgive you, but
he will heal you.  Do you want this
healing?”
“Yes,” she cried.  “Yes, I do.”
So we prayed together and she
invited Christ to be the King and Savior of her life!  Just last night, she led bible study (during
which Maria led a worship song) and preached from her heart, saying “For the
past three years I’ve been crying and crying. 
I don’t show it, but my life has been tears.  Now I can see that God is with me.  I still don’t know much about God or the
Bible, but I believe in Him.”
It was absolutely
beautiful!  After such grave darkness, it
was beautiful to dance in the light together! 
For we have much to rejoice over.
We can rejoice that confession
is the best exorcism!  When we confess
our sins aloud, we are ridding ourselves of sin and allowing Christ to take his
rightful place.  Light pierces darkness,
and no matter how powerful the darkness pretends to be, it stands NO CHANCE
against our God of light.  For, “our God
is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.  Our God is healer, awesome in power, our
God.  And if our God is for us, then who
could ever stop us? And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?” 

The battle here is really just
beginning.  But that’s a blog for another
time.  In the meanwhile, my prayer for
you is that you too will embrace the light and ask Jesus to come into your
heart and take the thrown of your life. 
Let him heal your darkness.  Let
him love you like you’ve never been loved before.  Let him whisper, “You are never too far
gone.  You are worth it.  You are mine. 
For, I have come to give you LIFE.” (John 10:10)