Evil Spirits

Evil Spirits

We have had some unusual happenings in our village over the last couple of weeks. A young man died and 3 women confessed to performing witchcraft on him, claiming to be possessed by evil spirits. The women were then killed by some other villagers. This is actually a rather new thing for our village as the people here have not typically been involved directly in witchcraft. Two of the three women were from other villages and they apparently taught the third woman. I won't go into all the details of the incident, but it has been the main topic of conversation now for several days.

On Sunday, Brother Randy preached about evil spirits, explaining that the Bible teaches that they do exist, but that the Holy Spirit is stronger than any evil spirit. He challenged the Christians to make sure that they were not quenching the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives and confronted the unsaved with the truth that without Christ they are already under the bondage of Satan. Please pray that this incident will have a positive effect in the lives of our people as opposed to the negative effect that the devil obviously intends.

We also held a church business meeting yesterday and voted to church discipline two individuals who have continued in sin despite biblical confrontation. Please pray for the restoration of Micah (a woman) and Ben.

On a lighter note, Tiffany, our short term teacher, is scheduled to arrive back in PNG on Thursday morning. Brother Randy and I (along with a truck load of nationals) are hoping to head to Goroka tomorrow (Tuesday) to both pick her up and do our bi-monthly supply run. If all goes as scheduled, Brother Randy will drive back on Friday, then Tiffany and I will spend the weekend in order to do some more shopping and then fly into the grass strip at Nomane where Brother Randy will pick us up on Monday. I am looking forward to this trip. Brother Randy does a great job of shopping off the lists we give him, but it will be nice to be able to go through the stores myself for a change. Your prayers would be appreciated for dry weather and safe driving as well as safety from thievery in Goroka.