Tattoo and Demons
When
I awoke Kristin the next morning, she was back to her adult self and
didn't remember any of what had happened at the
Pentecostal church or thereafter.
But she still had demons that had to be cast out. Since the Pentecostal church had
been a disaster, we took a tuk-tuk back to the local church
where we had spent twelve hours
casting the demons out of her two nights prior.
The youth pastor greeted us warmly but looked concerned and said that the remaining demons cannot leave Kristin because of the tattoo of the Christian fish symbol on her upper arm. Really? A tattoo keeps demons from leaving? God commanded in Leviticus 19:28, "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD," which Kristin had disobeyed; she later told me that she had been unaware of this verse when she had gotten her tattoo. I personally have no tattoo and am against tattoos, but where does the Bible say that a tattoo keeps demons from being cast out?
Just then the senior pastor appeared but not to greet us. His warm smile from the previous day was gone, replaced by a scowl with which he said to me, "Why did you bring that woman back here? Go away. I don't want that type of woman inside my church!"
What was going on? After being so cordial to us just the day before, why was he being so rude today, even calling Kristin, "that type of woman"?
When asked why he is saying that, he replied, "I have enough trouble running this church on a small budget, and you bring a woman like that in here."
His words hinted at the reason for his about-face. Americans are seen as walking ATMs in the developing world, and American Christians are seen as walking ATMs by many local Christians. Even though I dress simply and no matter how much I tell people that I am an unsupported tentmaking missionary, pastors both here and in China tended to cast longing eyes, hoping that I would be another American who hands over an envelope of cash.
Seeing his youth pastor cordially escort us out of his church the morning prior, the senior pastor probably surmised that we must have made a nice donation, hence his own cordiality. After we left, he must have learned that instead of handing over cash, we had come to be helped, hence his scowl and comment about "running this church on a small budget."
As we turned away to leave, the youth pastor tried to hand us a piece of paper on which he had written down the address of a place where he said we could go to have her tattoo removed. As I reached out to accept the piece of paper, the senior pastor stretched out his arms to try to block the transfer and ordered his youth pastor to go back inside. The youth pastor began to cry and reached under the outstretched arms of his senior pastor to hand me the piece of paper.
Kristin, who rightfully felt rejected, became quiet, began to withdraw, and seemed like she was about to turn into a baby again. So I told her to stay with me and tried to encourage her; we had received the address to a tattoo removal place, so we were going to go there now, get her tattoo removed, and cast out the remaining demons.
I handed the address to a tuk-tuk driver, who drove us to a tattoo parlor, but it was closed. Even if it had been open, a tattoo parlor wouldn't have had the laser for tattoo removal, and even if they had had the laser, removing a tattoo takes many sessions over many months, as I later learned.
Kristin began to fade again. Her face was flush, she was sweating, said her stomach hurts and that she is feeling sick. I had to take her to another church but didn't know of one that would welcome her, and did not even have mobile internet access.
Near the closed tattoo parlor was a computer gaming shop that was mostly empty as it was still early morning. I sat Kristin down on a small blue plastic stool, gave her a bottle of water, and told her to wait while I went inside to look online for another church where we can go.
Once inside, I searched online and called every English-speaking church in the city that appeared in the search result, explained our situation to those that answered their phones, and asked if I could please bring Kristin to receive prayer.