Oh New Year’s Eve. Such a time of great celebration. My last several New Year’s Eves have looked much different than this one. To my disappointment, though, I felt a little under the weather for a day or two prior to this glorious day, so when it came, I made the decision to stay behind with two other girls while the rest of my team went to a local church celebration.
We had a very relaxed evening, playing cards, reading books, and skyping home with our families. And of course some much needed girl talk about the last year of our lives and the things we have learned thus far on the Race. We were up pretty late. It was around 2 am before we were even tired enough to fall asleep. All in all a pretty delightful evening.
Around 3:30 am, I woke up to one of my teammates coughing so hard. She was gasping for breath and sounded like she was choking. I had woken up in a panic so it took me a few moments to realize I needed to do something. I tried asking her what I could do. Of course, she couldn’t answer. So, I started to pray out loud. Right about that time, I became aware of the spiritual atmosphere in the room. It was dark and unsettling. I felt a presence in the room so thick I could hardly breathe myself.
After praying for a few moments, she started to settle down. We both attempted to go back to sleep. I closed my eyes but couldn’t get myself to relax. I felt overwhelmed by a spirit of fear. My heart was pounding and my breathing was shallow. I felt like I might have a panic attack at any moment. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and hide. So, I started praying in the Spirit. It came to me at once that I was being silly by trying to ignore my fear. After all, I do serve the God of the Universe. I opened my eyes, still feeling frantic. Directly to my left, hovering above my mosquito net, I saw a gray mass (imagine what a dementor might look like in real life). I will be honest, I was terror stricken in that moment. I immediately called out to my teammate to wake up. All I could manage to say was “We need to pray now. Now!”
She immediately understood what I meant. I sat straight up and started calling out the name of Jesus (better than a patronus, praise the Lamb). I thanked Him for being present with us over and over again. It was about all I could think of in the moment, but it brought me peace. After praying for a few minutes, I was able to explain what I saw. My teammate shared her encounter as well. She couldn’t recall actually waking up. She just remembered sitting up gasping for breath because her throat felt like it was closing.
We made a decision to turn on the light and attempt a quick bathroom run down the hall. We woke up our third friend in the process. I am sure it would have been a comical event to watch us scurry down the hall towards the restroom. We were recounting our stories when we heard noise outside. In the distance we heard the beating of drums and indistinct chanting. We realized that it must have been some kind of ritual celebration for the New Year. Mozambique has a lot of spiritual warfare due to witch doctors and witch craft among the people. It was so thick in the atmosphere that night that you could feel it.
As we meandered back into the room, we took hands in a circle and prayed for the peace of the Lord. We prayed against spiritual attacks and against demonic oppression. For about a half hour or so, we released our fears to God. We managed another 5 hours or so of peaceful sleep before morning came. It was a crazy, unexpected way to usher in the New Year but at least we came into it with a fight.
We came to remember in the morning that our contact would have been here by herself last night had we not stayed back. She often told stories of similar spiritual attacks that wake her up. She got a peaceful night sleep because we were able to pray on her behalf. And on behalf of the other 25 people that are staying in the house this month.
Often times fear grips us in the moments of unknown. But God is always present. Calling upon His name will always illuminate the dark. He is faithful to respond to His children’s cries. And I am so thankful for that. We were able to anoint our contact’s house with oil and prayer the next night. We also placed red pieces of paper around the room as a symbol of the covering Blood of Christ. Remember to pray for Mozambique and Beacon of Hope ministries. They are doing amazing things for the Lord and are constantly against spiritual attacks. Pray for our contact to be strengthened and encouraged. She is doing the work of the Lord and it is such a beautiful thing.
