Africa Story #2: Neema (Grace)

On the second day of ministry in Mang'ola, my partner, Sheila, and I along with our translators, Christopher and Jonathon, and Pastor Tajaeli (or MentionGod) Sula went to a secondary school. Pastor Tajaeli wanted us to pray for some students. We first met the staff and learned that the seventh year students (aged anywhere from 13-20) needed prayer as they faced upcoming exit exams. The headmaster of the school also let us know that some of the children had fainted recently due to attacks by demons.

We were ready to pray! Our translators led us into the seventh year classroom full of about 40 students. It was so cool in that instant to realize that God had even planned this trip to this school. It was so fitting that it was Sheila and I who were given the opportunity to pray. I stepped forward and told the class, with Jonathon's help, that I had recently finished major exams. I told them I had doubts that were not of myself and that, when I prayed and gave them to God, He freed me from them. I told them that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. Then, Sheila stepped forward with Christopher and shared how she used to be a teacher and how she understands their desire to succeed as well as their uneasy nerves regarding the exam. We both said we would pray for fears and worries to cease and that they would turn to Jesus in the stressful times. We also told them we would pray for peace. God has plans for them, we said, and He will help them with the exams.

Then, we begin to pray. The five of us stood in the front of the classroom, raised our hands toward the students, and all begin to pray out loud, at the same time, in our own languages. As we prayed, a girl in the middle of the classroom fell crashing down, shaking uncontrollably and convulsing unnaturally. Immediately, the four girls around her, probably her close friends, tied her feet together with a cloth and tried to steady her as she convulsed. Students scattered as we headed to the middle of the classroom to pray over her. Last year I witnessed a woman who was demon possessed be freed by the power of Christ. I understood what was occurring and began praying fervently. Still, I was crying. It breaks my heart to see someone tormented by someone out of their control, especially when it is by forces of evil. As I cried, I prayed. Prayed the authority of Jesus over demons, sins, death, Satan. Prayed for freedom. Prayer that the demons would leave in the name of Christ. Prayed that God would enable her to speak.

She would stop shaking, and then Christopher would ask her friends to lay her flat on the ground. As she lay still, we continued to pray. Then, he would tell the girls to help her sit up. (She is completely unconscious at this point.) While sitting up with the help of her friends, we prayed that she would claim the name of Jesus. Her friends called her name. No response. And then, she would start convulsing again. This happened several times.

The atmosphere was so intense. Students crowded around in the classroom and then outside from other classrooms. Prayers being offered up all around me. I was still crying. So, I headed back to my backpack for a second. Grabbed Kleenex and my Bible. I could not think of anything else to pray so instead I read His Word. Verses that claimed Christ's authority. Verses of freedom. Verses about God as creator. And then, I was singing. And then, Christopher led songs in Swahili, and all the children joined in.

After about an hour and a half, a teacher came in and told us to carry the girl to a house nearby. Her four friends carried her and gently placed her on a mat in this house. They returned to school. The girl was still now, and Sheila and I got on the ground and began praying again. Our translators and the pastor also prayed.

She finally looked at peace, even though she was still unconscious. Christopher told us we needed to go. We had walked a long way to reach the school, and it was necessary for us to head back so we would have time to eat and then catch the bus. I did not want to leave her. Sheila didn't either. Christopher told us that her body was tired from the physical attack, and that after resting a little while, she would wake up. He said that they were bringing several younger children to come and sing quietly over her until she did. Then, there would be adult believers to talk to her about what may have caused the demon possession, did she do something to let them in (go to a witch doctor, for example), and then to talk to her about Jesus.

I did not talk for a while as we walked down the long road. Finally, I asked Sheila if she ever caught what the girl's name was in the midst of the intense prayer time. Yes. It was Neema.

Grace. Does she know the meaning of her name? Did she know before this day all that Christ did for her? Did she know that Christ gave His life and took her place that someday she might choose to follow Him and then live forever with Him? Join me in praying for Neema today. That those adults, that God, opened Neema's eyes to see His marvelous grace. That her testimony, how God freed her from demons, how His grace is sufficient, will touch so many other lives, leading them to Jesus Christ.

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Love in Most Powerful God!