Togolese Evangelist
One
day, the French Christian brother who had helped pay for Kristin's flight to
Korea and who had remained one of the few who continued to pray for
and occasionally engage in spiritual warfare with Kristin and me, called and
said an African brother he knew in Paris in turn knew of an
African evangelist in Togo who casts demons out of people. Would Kristin and I be
interested in speaking to that Togolese evangelist via Skype?
The Skype call, voice only because of the bandwidth limitation in the country where we were in, was soon arranged for Kristin and me in southeast Asia, the French brother and the African brother in Europe, and the Togolese evangelist in Africa.
The Togolese evaneglist listened to our situation and then asked us to send him some pictures of Kristin. The request seemed odd but we obliged. After receiving her pictures, he told us to send Kristin to Lomé, the capital city of Togo where he lived, and he will cast all demons out of her. He sounded confident.
We thanked him for his invitation and told him that we will get back to him after talking it over on our end. After hanging up, I asked Kristin what she thought, and she immediately said that she will go to Togo. Really? "Yes," she said, "If he can get all of these demons out of me, I'll go."
Her courage was impressive but there were some unknowns and potential red flags. I had no idea where Togo was in Africa or what the place was like, and had never heard of Lomé. The Togolese evangelist was an unmarried man offering to house Kristin at his house, not the pastor of a church offering to house her with a female member of his church. And why had he asked for her pictures and extended the invitation after seeing them?
A quick search online revealed Togo to be a politically unstable and extremely poor country with very poor infrastructure, even poorer health care, and almost no Westerners.
On our next call, we thanked the Togolese evangelist again for his invitation but given Kristin's fragile health and the long travel involved, asked him if he could start casting the demons out of her via Skype. He didn't seem happy about it but consented, and then began screaming through Skype. He did command the demons to come out in the name of Jesus but spent more time trying to burn them, shouting, "Fire of God on you! The fire of God!"
Neither Jesus nor His disciples ever cast out demons by burning them with the "fire of God," and demons will eventually burn in the lake of fire, but not now. There was a strong reaction from Kristin, however, and she seemed okay with it, so the French brother and I let the Togolese evangelist continue, and even joined him at times in pleading the fire of God on the demons.
The calls, which lasted a couple of hours, took place every few days, sometimes with and sometimes without the French brother, for about six weeks. We had to keep the volume low on my laptop because the Togolese evangelist screamed his commands most of the time. It was exhausting for Kristin, but since the Togolese evangelist was screaming most of the time, it must have been exhausting for him as well. We were particularly grateful for his eagerness to continue to minister to Kristin, as most of the time, he was the one who suggested and scheduled the next session.
At the end of the six weeks, when Kristin and I again thanked the Togolese evangelist for ministering to her, he suddenly asked about our financial situation, so we let him know that it wasn't good. Kristin couldn't work and I hadn't worked since Kristin returned from Korea as we have been immersed in spiritual warfare since then.
The Togolese evangelist then asked about the financial situation of Kristin's parents. That was odd, but we told him that we didn't know as they disowned her when she became a Christian. He then asked if my parents were living. When I told him yes, he asked if they have "money." The conversation was getting weird, but I answered him and told him that they are just retirees. He then asked if they own a house. When I told him with raised eyebrows that they do, he said that since he had ministered to Kristin, my parents should sell their house and use the money to get him and his fiancée to immigrate to USA.
Kristin and I looked at each other with our mouths open and in silence of incredulity. I didn't know if money could buy immigration to USA but advised him that my parents had disowned me as well when I left the States for the mission field, so we couldn't help him immigrate to USA. The call ended soon thereafter. I informed the French brother of what had happened, and we didn't speak to the Togolese evangelist thereafter.
I wasn't sure if his motivation for telling us to send Kristin to him in Togo was purely to cast demons out of her but concluded that if she had gone to him, there is a chance that he could have tried to hold onto her and use her as a bargaining chip of sorts to try to realize his dream of becoming an American.