During our initial time in Sulawesi, we were privileged to attend a two or three day workshop with Jo Shetler, who described her work in bringing the Good News of Christ to the Balangao people of the Philippines in her book The Word Came With Power. As she talked to us about power encounters with the evil world of the animistic groups in the Philippines, she shared some wonderful principles to practice to keep ourselves safe and suggest ways that we could help the people we were serving.
What was interesting to me was an encounter I had of a different kind with some of my fellow translators at the coffee urn during the first break. Some were having a conversation over why we had to listen to this nonsense. Some were saying it was all mumbo jumbo and myth; certainly not something we Bible translators needed to be taught. I spoke up and said I thought what Jo was telling us was excellent and it was something we needed to know. Living with the people groups we were living with, meant that we were certain to encounter these kinds of things. Jo was just telling us what she had learned from her experience with the Balangao. My esteemed colleagues laughed me down and then we returned to the next session.
Imagine my surprise when several years later one those colleagues called us one night and asked for help and advice because something had happened in their village that scared the pants off them (figuratively speaking). It is real.