We arrived at the church after our two mile walk there in what we thought would just be a basic prayer meeting. Expectations that we would pray for the church or certain members or basically anything except what we were actually going to be doing were in my mind. And they were wrong.
Four of my teammates and myself sat down in the red and green plastic chairs and plopped a child onto our laps. This is normal. Seeing a little girl talking to the pastor, be prayed for, and then collapse….not so normal.
What in the world are we doing today?
The pastor’s wife sat by us and calmly told us to start praying because that little girl had demons in her.
Um…excuse me?
Coming from America, where deliverances aren’t exactly a part of a normal church service, at least at my church, my first instinct was that these people were nuts. But, knowing everything that God has taught me so far on the race mixed with some guidance from the Holy Spirit, I knew that this was real. This little girl had demons in her.
We immediately began praying and singing worship songs. The little girl, Ana, remained laying flat on the ground, unable to speak or open her eyes. We went up and laid hands on her commanding the demons to come out. She continued to just lay there.
Okay, God. What do you want us to do here?
We eventually found out that Ana was named after her aunt, a witch doctor. In her clan the name is cursed and basically comes with demons attached. Her mother brought her to the church when Ana started behaving similar to her aunt. Whatever was in this little girl was not letting her speak.
It got close to the time when we have to walk back home because it’s not safe to be out after dark and Ana didn’t look any different than she had at the beginning of the prayer meeting. While it was frustrating walking away without seeing freedom for her, I walked away knowing that she belonged to God, not Satan. God was with her before we got there and He will always remain with her.
Prayer meetings in Tanzania are not your average prayer meetings. I honestly never thought I’d be using my worship degree to cast demons out of people. I have no idea why God has chosen this path for me and is revealing the things to me that He is, but He is. I’m just along for the ride, trusting the process.
