Hello again from rainy (thank you, Jesus!) Oditel!
It's Monday Aug 9th now, and I came back today from a weekend break in Soroti. Much has happened, so allow me to fill you in.
I need to start with Friday night, during our prayer time. There is a certain little boy named Gideon that has been on our minds lately. He has an ulcer on each shin that is literally eating his legs away. There is seemingly no cause (though we wonder if he's diabetic and if it's a circulation problem) and the medical clinic here has tried to treat him many times to no avail. Caitlin and Heather have been cleaning and bandaging the ulcers every day at the Carepoint, but it doesn't seem to be helping. To make matters worse, the boy, who is 12, refuses to make eye contact or speak when spoken to. Gideon, this poor boy, is Brian Strombeck's sponsored orphan.
Every night, we pray for certain kids and their healing. Friday night, as Brian prayed for his sponsored child's complete healing, I had the overwhelming feeling that the boy was possessed by a demon, and that was the root of his issues. As the others continued to pray for this and that, I was silently begging God to take back that idea, to tell me I was wrong, and to assure me there was no demon. But the more I prayed, the more certain I felt. I held it in till I felt like I would literally throw up if I didn't tell the others, and it came out in a rush: "Okay, I really need to say this right now . . . I feel like Gideon has a demon and that's why he has ulcers and that's why he's mute."
The news was met with shocked silence. Then Brian reminded me that two days before he left, he felt very strongly that we would have to cast out demons. Because of that, I have prayed for God to reveal the demons to me . . . And He did.
Our prayers switched to asking for protection, confidence, and peace when dealing with the demon the next day at the Carepoint. We decided that Brian and I would handle it. We prayed that our very presence, and the blood of Jesus that flows through us, would cause the demon to flee the boy immediately, without a fight. We prayed for protection from the spirits around the compound who would surely try to steal our peace, now knowing that we knew about Gideon's spiritual warfare.
After we were done praying, I got out my bible and flipped to every account of Jesus casting out demons and read them out loud. To my surprise, I realized that, with the exception of one case, each demon possession recorded told of how the demon caused the human they possessed to be completely mute, and many times caused physical afflictions to harm the person. In the one exception, the demon spoke through the person, so the person himself was still mute. Crazy, right?
Now for some background. I've dealt with demons before. Without going into detail, in my later teen years, I had a demon that "haunted" me (and only me) in my childhood home. After a year of scary happenings, I finally told my mom, who went into the basement where I slept (and where all the hauntings happened,) and excorsized the demon in Jesus' name. He never came back. My mom also shared the times she's dealt with the demonic, and I read books and did research on other people's experiences, so even as I teen, I was fairly well-educated on how the demons did their work. I have also had friends, who felt there was demonic activity in their selves or their home, ask me to excorsize their demons, and I have, with confidence that comes only with the name of Jesus Christ.
Nowadays, I deal with demons only in my dreams. Every so often, I will have a demon show up in a dream, and it will be very real, and very scary, and very much like any other demonic work I've experienced or researched. There will be the heavy, telltale spiritual oppression, and a sound of rushing, uncontrollable static-type wind, and the demon will be there, sometimes taking form, other times just in presence alone. In my dream, I have to cast out the demon, and every time, it involves screaming into the loud, rushing wind "I cast you out in the name of Jesus Christ! I bind you and throw you back to the pit of hell! In the name of Jesus!" And the more I yell, the heavier the oppression is, and the less powerful my voice becomes, till all I can do is say "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus . . . " over and over till the demon is gone. It always leaves. I always wake up the moment it's gone. But I never wake up afraid, only thankful.
I had this dream again before we left, within 2 weeks of leaving the country. When Brian told me he felt like we'd have to cast out demons in Africa, I told him I felt like I had been preparing my whole like to do it, and shared with him my recurring demonic dreams.
When Gideon's demon was revealed to me during our prayer, I wasn't afraid. I felt calm and confident that we'd be able to cast it out with no issues. I went to bed excited, but once the room was dark, I began to feel the spiritual oppression that I feel often here at night. I prayed against it and tried to occupy my mind with things other than the demon I had to face the next day.
A couple hours later, I found myself deep into a dream where the six of us went on a mission to find Gideon's demon and cast it out. It was long, intense, detailed, and very, very frightening. I won't go into detail. When I finally found the demon, I found, as usual, my voice losing power as I tried to cast it out. But Brian repeated my every command in his deep voice, and in the end, after the demon was finally gone from my dream, the 6 of us chorused "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus . . . " And then I woke up.
My heart was racing. I was sweating profusely. I tried to control my breathing so I wouldn't bother Caitlin, who was tossing in the next bed. I prayed and prayed, but the feeling of the spiritual oppression didn't leave me. I felt like the demon was right outside my mosquito net. I tried to think on the power of Jesus' name, so that my very thoughts would scare the demon away. In the next moment, I felt a hot breath of air on my arm, like a heavy sigh. I assumed it had to be my breath, so I tried to replicate it. My breath didn't even reach my arm.
Sufficiently freaked out, I rolled over away from where the breath came from and found myself whispering "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" while tears filled my eyes. Caitlin heard me speaking those same words in HER dream, and woke up enough to say, "Jaynie! Are you okay?"
"No!" I said. "Did you have a dream?" she asked. She also knew about my demon dreams, so when I said "Yes" she already knew what had happened. She prayed out loud for the power of Jesus to come into the room right then and there and rid us of any demonic presences. When she was done, I let out a huge sigh and thanked her. I then silently praised God for waking her up right when I needed her.
I decided to plug my earbuds into my Blackberry and listen to worship music till I could fall asleep again. Even then, during almost every silent pause between songs, there was a pound on our roof. This happened almost every time. Then, two hours later, I finally shut off the music so I could fall asleep, and within a few minutes, there was a loud knocking on one of the doors outside our room—maybe at one of the huts near-by. It was like a "police knock"—the kind where there are loud, short, forceful pounds on the door that echo in the night air. I took comfort that it wasn't MY door, and since it was almost 5am, I was sure there was a reason, or that at least someone else would hear it and explain it to me in the morning. I finally fell asleep about 3 hours after the dream woke me up.
The next day when I asked, Caitlin said she heard the pounding on our roof, but NO ONE heard the knocking, and everyone claimed it wasn't their hut that had been knocked on. I have no explanation for it, but I know what I heard. Brian did say he woke up at some point, not knowing what time, and said he had the urge to pray over my dreams.
Soon enough, it was time to go to the Carepoint. I packed my bible in my purse, just in case we needed it, and prayed constantly over the inevitable confrontation with Gideon.
When we got to the Carepoint, we set up shop in the church hut and began helping Caitlin conduct a medical history for each orphan. Deb and Brian were doing height and weight and Heather was doing blood pressure and pulse. I was holding (once again) a sleeping Daniel, who found me immediately and decided it was time for a nap (that sweet, wonderful, loving, precious, life-giving little boy.)
I watched as the older children filtered through the room. Eventually, I stepped outside to give a deworming tablet to a couple kids we missed. Within moments, Brian came outside and walked up to me. "Gideon is in the church," he said excitedly. "Okay, let me find a pastor," I told him.
I found Pastor William, an older gentleman with about a dozen beautiful daughters, right away. I also asked Joseph, the discipler, to come with us to interpret if needed (Pastor William's English is weak.) I briefed them on the situation and what had been revealed to me the night before, and both men were like, "Okay, let's go."
We went into the church hut and Joseph asked Gideon in Ateso to come with us for prayer. Then we went into the church's "all-purpose" hut, where the women's prayer team was STILL fasting and praying. Pastor William had the boy sit at our feet, and then told the women why we had come. He explained that the Lord had revealed to us a demon that was working in Gideon, and that we wanted to cast it out and pray over Gideon for protection and healing.
First, Pastor William said, we needed to sing a song of prayer. I forget the exact words, but the song asked for God's spirit, annointing, healing, and love to come down, down, down from Heaven. It was the perfect song, and since it was in English, Brian and I could sing along.
Then, the prayers began. The women, fervent prayers that they are, stretched out their hands and prayed in Ateso, some wailing and crying as they petitioned for the boy. Pastor William prayed quietly in English. Brian and I laid our hands on him and waited. Finally, Brian, in a voice filled with emotion and power, cast out the demon with confidence and finality. I joined in, claiming the blood of Jesus in the boy's life, and commanding the demon to leave and NEVER come back. Immediately, peace came to my soul. We then prayed for protection, for healing from his ugly ulcers, for the boy's mouth to be opened, for him to be able to look us in the face, for his family to be blessed, for him to find joy and laughter, for the spiritual oppression to be lifted forever, for every bit and aspect of this precious boy's life.
This whole time, Gideon sat at our feet with his legs crossed, his face down, showing no emotion. I tried to put myself in his place, but I couldn't imagine what he must be thinking.
When the prayers were over, Pastor William again addressed the women in Ateso. The women then told us that Gideon's mother is dead and he lives with his father, and is the eldest of 4 boys. They said that many times, spiritual oppression is passed down from generation to generation, so he may have other demons at his homestead. Brian asked them to go to his home and pray, and they agreed.
Brian then spoke to Gideon directly, in English, and took his hand in his. Gideon, for the first time, looked Brian in his face, and then took his hand back when Brian was done speaking. Brian asked that Pastor William tell the boy that he is sponsoring him. Pastor William did, but the boy's expression didn't change. Then one of the women chimed in, and the most beautiful look I've ever seen shone in Gideon's face, and he smiled (for the first time) and took Brian's hand again. I asked Joseph what the woman said, and he said she told Gideon "This is your father from America. He is going to help take care of you. Look how he loves you."
I, of course, almost lost it at this point. Already there was a change in Gideon's demeanor. He spoke, though quietly, when he was asked questions, and he made eye-contact and smiled for the first time that we had witnessed. We left the hut with lighter hearts and the kind of hope that only comes from Jesus.
Today, I saw Gideon at the Carepoint, and the moment I looked at him, he looked me right in the eye and grinned at me with a smile that showed all his teeth. The sight of him and the obvious joy in his face just about took my breath away. "Gideon, my friend! How are you?" I asked. "I am fine!" he responded. I then watched him go and play with the other 12 year old boys with a lightness and joy that seemed nothing short of miraculous.
Later, when we left the church to go home for lunch, he followed us out and I said, "Gideon, you come walk with us." And he strolled beside Brian till we got to our compound.
Gideon is a new creature. The progress made is amazing. Brian is feeling called to spend one-on-one time with him during our last week here. Pray for Gideon, pray for his family, his father, and his brothers, and pray for Brian to build up and bless this boy so that he will know Jesus and live the rest of his life in peace, hope, joy and understanding.
Ahhhh, and that's the end of the story 
So long for now,
Jaynie Fawley
