The Wildest Yet!

In my last update I mentioned that I had a hunch that the girl who had been caught stealing might have had some sort of spiritual attack or something, and I was very right! Two other times we had prayed with her I knew something was not right, her movements and actions did not seem normal at all. On Friday night during our prayer meeting I finally got my confirmation that there was demonic activity going on. When Rodel sat beside her to pray with her I noticed that she rocked forward hard and became upset so I went over to assist him. When I sat down and started praying, the girl threw herself onto the ground and I knew that she had a demon inside her. Rodel and I continued to pray with her and she became more violent and tried to move away from us. One of the other leaders came over to hold her down and she continued to shriek at the top of her lungs, which was honestly one of the worst things I have ever heard in my life! We prayed and prayed for a few minutes without much luck and all the scared youth came in and laid hands on her and prayed with us. Rodel then called them off and told them to step back and I continued alone to pray with her as Rico held her down. I demanded her to say that she is a child of God, and after commanding her in the name of Jesus she declared it, and then I made her say that she is redeemed by the blood of Jesus. After that it was as if she passed out and we all began to sing together. After we sang some more I went and prayed with her again and she woke up and grabbed my hand and I new the demon was gone. It was absolutely the craziest thing I have ever experienced in my life. I had been reviewing a book I read with a part about demon possession, and I am sure glad I did because it gave me a good idea of what I was going to have to deal with. It was profound to me to see how powerful God is. When I spoke of the holy blood of Jesus the demon went crazy and she screamed so loud, as scary as it was, I saw first hand how powerful God is, and the authority God has over all things especially demons. It was an experience I will never forget, but after speaking with people about it here, for sure it wont be the last time. The very spiritual culture of the Philippines opens many doors for demon possession.

On a much lighter and happier note it was Bunso's birthday yesterday and we surprised him with a cake. He came in the church and all the lights were off and we turned them on and brought out the cake and started singing. He did his best to hide his tears but we all saw and it just about gave me some. How many birthdays had he spent in the back of a jeepney alone, and now he has a family, it truly was a very beautiful moment! The boy continues to amaze me! Yesterday I came home to find my house cleaned from top to bottom even the cloths folded on the shelves. He is respectful and intelligent and shows so much potential and I am very happy that God brought him to us. He is now part of the family, and I could not be happier about it. We will continue the process of reconciling with his family, but we are not going to rush that because we don't want him taking off again.

Thank you all for your prayers and love, as you can see we must be doing something right because satan sure does like what he sees. Please continue to pray with us as I feel like this is just the beginning of what is coming.

Brett

Our "Bunso"

When I sent my last update I was pretty frustrated with the way things had been going and what I was seeing. I had sent that email in the morning and things got very interesting that evening. I got hauled out of bed at 11pm to find out that one of my youth had stolen about 250$ from one of the missionaries. It was very overwhelming because I was sure there was a deeper issue at hand, and we found out she has a serious problem with stealing. I really appreciate one of my team mates who has a back round in psychiatry and was able to work with the girl a bit and get the whole story out of her. It was clear that her problems are over all of our heads, but God already provided an option and I have been in contact with a counselor and that will begin soon. When we met with her and got her to confess everything thats happened it was clear there was some spiritual activity. When she was asked to say that "she belongs to god," she had trouble and made a few violent movements. We continued to pray and she said it and seemed to have some healing. After speaking to her the past few days I really feel that we are going to have to work through a lot more spiritual healing. I cant confirm that there is demon possession simply because I dont have any experience but judging by her reactions in some of our prayer times and what she has been saying I think its a reality. Please pray for me and the others here that we can properly discern what is wrong with her weather it simply be a deep emotional pain or something spiritual.

Now the good news! A few days ago a women approached me and told me about a boy who was living in our community who had run away from home a year and a half ago. She wanted us to take care of him, so she called him over and we chatted. I was surprised because the boy was well behaved and respectful, which is not normal for 14 year old boys who call the streets home. The more we talked the more I realized that this kid was going to fit right in with us. So the next night he moved into the church. It worked out great that the social worker from one of our other ministries was at the office and she gave me some advice in how to deal with the situation. Vincent, ran away from home because his parents beat him, that is all he has told us, but I would assume there is more to it since terrible things can happen to children in squatter areas. I will meet with the parents and see if reconciliation is possible and go from there. I am not in a hurry so that we can establish a great relationship with Vincent so he trusts us and will not take off again. It was so amazing to see how the youth in the church embraced him as our own. People got him cloths and all the things he needed, and the older girls have been a mother to him. It was so cool because one day he was sleeping in the back of a jeepny, and the next he literally had a family. Now he is staying at my apartment with me and some other youth so that he can be completely separated from his old life and begin a new one. He has very appropriately been named "bunso" which is the tagalog for the youngest in the family. I am blown away with how good of a kid he is, and I really thank God from bringing him to our church. Please pray for him though as we will try and reconcile with the family and figure out what the real problem is.

I will keep you all posted on whats happening with our bunso and with the other youth with the stealing problem.

Thank you all,

Brett