Christian Counseling Center
On
paper, this southeast Asian city checked most of the boxes. The air was clean, there was a
large Western missionary community, good
hospitals, and even Christian counseling centers with Western staff that ministered
to the many Western missionaries in town. But the city itself was spiritually dark
and a stronghold of Buddhism.
One of the first places I visited upon arrival was one of those Western Christian counseling centers to meet with an American counselor who was both a pastor and a medical doctor, and who listed dissociative identity disorder as one of his areas of expertise.
The counselor was cordial and welcomed me into his spacious office, where I began to tell him about Kristin's situation but didn't get far. When I told him about casting demons out of her the night of her arrival from China, he asked, "So you cast demons out of her?" When I replied, "Yes," his face became flushed and his right hand, which had been writing on his notepad, began to shake noticeably. I didn't say anything but he must have felt my eyes on his shaking hand. After a few seconds of silence, he stopped writing, snapped shut his writing pad, declared, "This session is over," said he wouldn't charge me anything, and walked me out to the lobby of the Christian counseling center.
Really? The majority of dissociative identity disorder sufferers were sexually abused and often have demons in their alters. Had he never dealt with demons while specializing in dissociative identity disorder and while pastoring in a city filled with Buddhist temples?
The largest expat church in town was filled with Western missionaries but was equally disappointing. The first 20 minutes of the service I attended were updates on which person from which famous missionary organization had just arrived in town or was about leave; the sermon was very light, as if to avoid offending anyone; and everyone seemed to be in cliques after the service, uninterested in a newcomer.
Spotting the pastor who had given the sermon, I approached him, introduced myself, and asked him if his church has deliverance or counseling ministries. He replied that his church just holds services and advised that for those types of ministries, I should contact the Christian counseling centers in town.