Methodist Pastor
A
few days later, we
took the long distance bus to the capital city, chose a hotel room with thick walls
and facing a busy street whose traffic noise would drown out
the noise of spiritual warfare, and then went
to see the Methodist pastor on Sunday.
When we walked into the Methodist church, the mood was somber and several women were crying. We soon learned that during the week, a truck had crossed the center divider in the country's notoriously dangerous road and crashed head-on into the car of one of their missionary families, killing the missionary couple and their son. Their young daughter was in the hospital, now awake but having lost an arm and still unaware that her parents and brother are dead. As the pastor shared the news from the pulpit and comforted his church, many more cried in the pews.
Kristin and I decided that this wasn't the Sunday to seek help from the Methodist pastor, and got up after the service to leave quietly. But we stood out like a sore thumb and the pastor bee-lined for us. He recognized me, greeted Kristin, and asked us to not leave. When we offered our condolences and said that given how much his church is hurting and needs him today, it would be better for us to talk another time, he still told us not to leave, greeted everyone exiting the chapel and heading to a communal meal upstairs, and then led us to his office.
I began by apologizing to the Methodist pastor for almost having mocked him for saying that demons enter him when I met him several months earlier. He brushed it off, saying that that's a common reaction and he is used to it. He then asked about Kristin and patiently listened as we told him as much as we could communicate.
After being silent for a while, he stood up, walked around the coffee table to Kristin, put his hands on her head, and began to speak in his native Korean language. Kristin began to make the guttural noise, her thorax began to heave, and I sat next to them and prayed as the Methodist pastor cast demons out of her.
After a while, when saliva foamed at the corners of his mouth, he pointed to a box of Kleenex next to me, pulled off a couple of sheets when I held the box near him, calmly wiped his mouth, and continued to cast demons out of Kristin.
After almost three hours of casting out demons, he began to sing a song whose melody Kristin and I immediately recognized; he was singing Jesus Love Me This I Know in Korean. The love of Jesus filled his office as he sang, tears flowed from the eyes of both Kristin and me, and we joined him in singing it in English.
The Methodist pastor sat back down in his chair and apologized to Kristin, saying that all demons that his faith can cast out seem to be out and that he is sorry his faith isn't strong enough to get the rest of the demons out. He told Kristin that Jesus truly loves her, and told both of us that we are welcome to attend his church.
We told him that he shouldn't apologize at all. In fact, we are humbled that he spent this much time ministering to Kristin today when his church needed him so much. He replied that his church needs Jesus, not him, and that he hates it when demons bother Christians.
I asked the Methodist pastor if the demons were bothering him when the saliva foamed at the corners of his mouth. He replied that they were entering him, some came right back out, and others are still in him but will soon leave. He sounded very nonchalant, as if he was talking about some mosquitoes biting him.