A few years ago in the Christmastime snow, Caleb (name changed) wanted to go shopping. He was new in the Himalayas and wanted to stop in a town before traveling on. He noticed a group of passers-by gathered around a girl who was obviously demon-possessed, screaming and breaking the chains with which people had used to try to keep her under control. A witch doctor was trying to drive the spirits out, but with no apparent success.
Caleb was unsure of himself, so walked past to carry on with his shopping. “But within me, I was sure that Jesus could help the girl, so I eventually went back and offered to pray for her,” he says. “The witch doctor simply smiled, and showed me the long list of sacrifices which he claimed the girl’s family would have to make in order to appease the gods, telling me that I obviously did not realize the power of the spirits here. I remained steadfast, and was finally allowed to pray in Jesus’ name. In my uncertainty, I prayed in tongues for the girl, and within a few moments, she calmed down and was completely free. That caused some excitement. The bystanders started asking where I lived and who I was.
At 5am the next morning, we were all awoken by loud knocking. Ahout 70 locals stood in front of the house, torches in hand, asking if Jesus lived here. Somewhat cautiously, we answered that he did, because he lives in us. At first we thought that the girl had relapsed, and the people had come to kill us. That was not the case! They had brought a number of sick people, and wanted us to pray for them before we moved on. It was amazing: every time I laid hands on someone, I knew exactly what to pray, and every person for whom we prayed was healed or set free.
A steady stream of locals prevented us from continuing our journey that day as planned; we prayed with them until 8pm. There must have been 3,000 in total. We told them about Jesus as well as we could, and remained in the town. In a short time, so many people came to faith in Jesus that we could hardly keep count of how many we baptized. We began to organize them into house churches; the movement has become so strong that I estimate that already 10% of the population in the region follow Jesus.”
Caleb told us recently. “I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had simply ignored Jesus’ voice telling me to pray for the girl on the street that day.”
Source: Name and address withheld for security reasons
[Missions, exorcism, prayer, healing, mass conversions, Asia]