Tanzania: Moshi rally and deliverance, 7/7/2009

Instead of going back to the hotel, some of us took the bus straight on to the prayer rally. This time I was mobbed by little kids who all wanted to hold a hand or a wrist or at least a finger.

Then I moved into the crowd to pray. A few people had headaches, and then a young woman pointed to her chest and stomach. In retrospect, I should have been a bit suspicious that her pain seemed to move around, but at the time I didn't think anything of it. I started praying and she started to sway, then she went limp and I was literally holding her up (luckily she was tiny). What to do? I was afraid she would get trampled if I put her down on the ground.

Suddenly she started manifesting demons -- writhing and contorting, and flailing about. I lost my grip on her, and all the children who were still hanging around me bravely tried to hold her, but it was a losing battle until three of the ushers sailed in -- large women with muscles of iron. They finally got hold of her, but then looked to me for direction, as if to say "you caused this, now fix it." I pointed to the deliverance 'tent' (actually just an area fenced off with black plastic), and followed them as they ran with her in their arms. Once in the tent, I tried praying peace on her, to no avail, and then commanded tthe demon to submit in the name of Jesus.

She instantly went limp again, and they laid her out on the ground, unconscious. I was afraid she was dead. I reached nervously for my money belt hidden under my clothes to make sure my passport was still there, in case I had to make a quick run to the airport. They huddled over her, patting her face to rouse her, and suddenly she was back on her feet, writhing and kicking again. Once again I commanded the demon to submit in the name of Jesus, and she fell down as if she were dead.

But now things were at an impasse. We could keep doing this all night. Without an interpreter to find out her story, there was no way to really help her. If people have an arrangement with a witch doctor, it doesn't do any good to cast out the demons because they come right back. So I left her under the care of the deliverance team, and asked them to tell me how it turned out.


I went back out to the field and prayed for a woman with a deformed hand. I didn't really see much change in it (although perhaps a bit of swelling went down), but she claimed that her pain was a little better. Then a few more headaches and a backache who all felt some relief, and then the sun was setting and it was time to get back on the bus.

Dinner was good, and you wouldn't even have known that it was my 4th meal of the day.

Later on, I heard what happened to the demonized woman. They finally got a translator to help, and someone discerned that she was wearing jewelry that had been cursed by a witch doctor, so they had the translator ask her if she was willing to give up the jewelry and turn away from the witch doctor, and accept Jesus, and after she said yes they were able to fully deliver her, and all her pain left also.