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A Letter from Timothy;
Tarkwa, Ghana, West Africa on Friday, January 29, 2008
Hello! (That's Ghanaian
for "hello")
Had a prayer request I
wanted to share with you all. Put an extra cushion on your
chair cause this might take a while;)
Last night as some of you
may know Ghana's soccer team won another game and qualified for
the next round in the African Cup. So my friend Clement and I
took a break from our painting to go and celebrate in the
streets with the rest of the city, (no joke.)
While we were on our way
home after things quieted down we were stopped by a young guy
named Isaac who said he really needed to talk to me. He had
heard I was in town to help train up people to preach the
Gospel. My friend Clement wasn't very excited to talk with him
because he had a reputation for being a Ju-Ju sorcerer.
But Isaac told us he had
just repented from his traditional ways his grandparents were
training him in and was now following Christ. However, he told
me he had been having doubts because at the Pentecostal church
he wasn't falling down and his pastor told him when he truly
repented he would fall. This was bothering him quite a bit and
so I told him that no where in the Bible does it say you must
fall down to be saved! He was quite relieved to hear this!
He went on to tell me that
he was having many demonic dreams where the old spirits he used
to serve were returning and telling him he was still theirs. He
went on to tell me he still had some black powder he used to
take to get protection from anything. His grandparents had
made it for him out of vulture flesh and many other bizarre
things and told him to take it once a year.
Isaac told me he was afraid
to throw it away and didn't know how but wanted to be rid of
it.
I suggested we go back to
his house right away and throw the powder in the gutter
outside! He wasn't too excited about this and told me we had
better pray hard fro him before we go ahead. I reassured him
that he didn't have to fear those things anymore because he is
serving the Lord now.
As we were walking to his
house Clement told this black powder used to give him tremendous
power and how he would get into fights and when he would shout
out some Ju-Ju phrase, he would become possessed and have super
human strength. Clement said he himself had seen people try to
stab him and cut him, but his skin would become very slick and
impenetrable. After many such stories Clement informed me he
was a little worried about throwing this powder away! I
reassured him we had nothing to fear, but to be quite honest I
was a little nervous myself!!
But we got to his house and
Clement and I prayed that the Lord would give us strength and
that these spirits would no longer bother Isaac.
So he reluctantly gathered
up the malodorous powder and we went outside and uneventfully
threw it away.
When nothing happened we
was quite excited and decided he would walk us home!
So if you would, please be
keeping our brother Isaac in your prayers! Pray for pleasant
dreams and total freedom from these spirits, (both kinds of
spirits.)
We continue to work on the
new place that you saw in the picture. We are almost ready to
move in, just a few finishing touches here and there.
Thank you all so much for your prayers! I trust you all are
well and praising the Lord!
Much love--tim
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