ENCOUNTER WITH THE DEVIL
By: *Afraz & Anisha Muqtadir
One
morning, one of the villagers came to us asking for help. He said that *Pa Gapul encountered stroke
because his blood pressure was high. I
prepared the BP apparatus, some medicines, and went immediately to their house.
I have checked his BP and I found out that it’s normal for his age. But I was wondering why he was
unconscious. Later, he started kicking,
jerking, and became uncontrollable. He
danced and spoke strange words. “It seems that he was possessed by the devil,” I said.
Afterward, he was pointing something in front of him. He expressed that there were a lot of men
with long mustache. However, his
relatives advised him to approach and give reverence to them.
I have realized that the people
here are welcoming the evil spirits. They are not afraid because they treat the
devil as friend. I want to cast out the demon but his family refused. What
should I do? I just stayed in one corner and started to pray to God. Suddenly,
*Pa Gapul started to jerk and kick again. They have called the quack doctor but
he cannot come near him. The quack doctor said, “I forgot my prayer because of
too much fear.” The bystanders were
already scared too so they scurried out of the house. The older men tried their
best to calm the patient. Four men grabbed him and laid him on bed. After I
prayed, God gave me the courage to cast out the devil. I laid my hands on his head and looked at
him. I rebuked the devil saying, “In the name of Isa Almasi (Jesus Christ),
come out Satan from the body of *Pa Gapul.”
He angrily stared at me and shouted, “Let’s start the battle! Fight!
Fight! “Yes, I will fight you!” I responded. “In the name of Isa Almassih, come
out of him!” I rebuked him thrice and he answered, “Why? Why?” I rebuked him
again and after that, he let out a piercing scream. *Pa Gapul became
unconscious. “The Satan was out,” the people said. When *Pa Gapul became
conscious, he cried a lot.
To our faith-partners, indeed, the battle
with the enemy here is so intense. This
place has been his territory for a long time.
He is doing his best to divert the minds of people from the Prince of
Life. We need your prayers. It is faith that connects us with heaven, and
brings us strength for coping with the powers of darkness.
THE POWER OF PRAYER
By: *Afraz & Anisha Muqtadir
One day, someone came for help and asked us to check on her mother. When we arrived there, Ate Fahmi is suffering from beriberi/manas. She was also about to give birth. When we checked her blood pressure, it was 170/150. They told us they’ve already gone to the doctor who said everything is okay. How will it be okay if she already has beriberi and has a high blood pressure? So we advised her to go to another doctor. Then we went home.
That night, someone knocked on our door urgently. It was Ate Fhami's daughter asking us to go to her mother. She was having a seizure. We prayed when we arrived at their house with their family. After the prayer, I checked her BP, it is way to high that our simple BP apparatus could not read. It was too high. I’ve learned that she had 5 seizure already within the interval of two minutes each. She had an attack again, with a frothing mouth & eyes getting white. We decided to bring her to the hospital because we cannot handle her case. I prepared our boat with 2 motors, for faster travel. Before we left, we prayed that she would not have seizure along the way. She had several seizures before they were able to transfer her to the boat.
While we were on the boat, the other machine acted up and we were forced to use only 1 motor. We traveled very slowly, it was very dark along the way. We felt our way through the waters. We left at day-break and we arrived in town by 7:30 in the morning. We prayed again before they went to the hospital in Brook’s point. Thanked God that Ate Fahmi did not have seizures while we were travelling.
In Muslim islands, nothing is more effective weapon than prayer.
