Palabek - Crusade and Evangelism

Several weeks ago the news hit the airwaves – a primary school in Palabek (a sub-county of Kitgum district) had been closed down because of demonic possession. One of the children became possessed and compulsively started biting other children. Those children, in turn, became immediately possessed and started biting others. Everything turned to chaos as the children were either biting others or trying to avoid getting bitten. The same type of demonic manifestation had occurred in another school in another town not long before. So Favor of God sent a team to pray, deliver children, and hold a crusade.

The first group from Favor of God arrived in Palabek on Monday, Feburary 23rd. They began praying on the ground. The second team from Favor of God arrived on Friday February 27th. The first thing we did when we arrived on Friday was to break into teams of two and prayer-walk the area, and start building a stage for the crusade.

Shortly after we began praying, several girls started manifesting demons. It was a scene right out of The Exorcist. They started having spasms and their eyes would roll up into their back of their heads and they would bite anyone who came near. Some of them began running away from the stage, but they were soon restrained by other kids. Immediately the believers sprung into action, forming a small circle around each girl and commanding the demons to leave. As soon as one person was delivered, another started manifesting demons. This went on for over an hour. In total, about twelve children were delivered. When they were delivered, they were restored to full mental and physical well-being.

During this time we also set up the speakers and played worship music. Some of the girls who had been delivered immediately started praising God and dancing joyfully!

We had an enormous turnout for the crusade on Friday night, since the whole camp had heard about what we were doing. The very first night, dozens of people responded to the altar call and got saved. We held several healing and deliverance sessions during the weekend. Over the weekend many adults were delivered along with the children. Many people were also healed of physical illnesses. One man whose arm had been paralyzed was able to move it freely. Everyone in attendance testified that his arm had indeed been paralyzed. Several of the girls who were delivered also testified to what the Lord had done in them. That night we showed a segment from The Passion of the Christ and everyone was transfixed by the depictions of Jesus’ suffering. Many were moved that God Himself freely chose to suffer alongside of us – He’s no stranger to what we’ve gone through!

Saturday morning and afternoon we continued sharing the gospel and discipling those who had been saved. One group spent the entire morning doing door-to-door evangelism, and brought back many reports of salvations. Another group went to preach at the military barracks in the camp. About twenty soldiers came to listen to us, along with their wives and children. Some of our team led a discipleship class for all who had been saved, so that they could learn more about their salvation and understand the value of prayer, fellowship, and baptism. So many people were saved that we had to hold at least three discipleship classes over the weekend, each with about twenty students. In total, 150 were saved and baptized over the weekend. Most of them received Bibles in their own language and made a commitment to join a local fellowship. This is a tremendous figure relative to most crusades in IDP camps.

When we arrived in Palabek we learned of a Catholic group that had come the same weekend to hold prayer meetings at the school that was shut down. The Catholics invited us to pray with them. This caused some division among our staff. Some of us wanted to work independently of the Catholics and some thought we should be united with them in prayer. We resolved this division by sending a smaller group of about 6 people to pray alongside them at the school. This was a group of Charismatic Catholics and as soon as we started praying together we felt a deep sense of unity. Our shared passion for prayer and for the power of the Holy Spirit was stronger than the theological issues that divided us. Although some disagreement remained, everyone who was present testified to the sense of God’s presence in our prayers. We accompanied the Catholics to various places in the camp that had been used for animal sacrifices and where the LRA was known to have killed many people. We redeemed those areas by our prayers. By joining with our Catholic brethren we also manifested the power of unity to the entire camp.

On Saturday evening right before the crusade we held our first water baptisms. This was for the people who had been saved and who attended the discipleship classes. We built a makeshift baptismal using some logs, a tarp, and several jerry cans filled with water! At least ?? people were baptized that evening and each received an Acholi Bible. The following night we built another baptismal – since it was at nighttime we used the headlights of the van for light, and the rest of the people were baptized. That night we also had a time for dedication for the children who had been saved.

Abayo mountain overlooks the camp. “Abayo” means “thrown,” and it is so named because people believe that long ago God threw down the mountain from heaven because he was angry at the traditional dances that were taking place. During the war, the mountain was known as one of the LRA’s strongholds. Kony and many of his men performed sacrifices there and worshiped demons. Most of the people in the camp and surrounding area are afraid to climb the mountain and believe that anyone who does will die.

On Sunday morning a small group of us – seven total – climbed Abayo mountain and redeemed it from the curses that were placed on it. We also repented on behalf of all the killings and sacrifices that occured there. One of our group, Kenneth, was abducted by the LRA when he was 40 and served as a personal military adviser to Kony himself for 18 years! Having been an LRA member himself for so long, he was the only one of us who could genuinely repent on behalf of the LRA! Needless to say, we didn’t die.

When we got to the bottom of the mountain, however, we did discover how God was protecting us. Of the seven, five of us walked directly over an animal trap that was concealed in the brush. This is the kind of trap that clamps down onto your foot with jagged, rusty nails. If it had penetrated our skin we most certainly would have required an amputation. With gratitude in our hearts we remembered the verse that says, “He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler…”(Ps 91:3)

Although the crusade had been going wonderfully and so many people were saved, there was one major problem that troubled us – witchcraft. We knew that witchcraft was rampant and that it had caused the possessions in the first place. But Sunday afternoon God dealt firmly with those who participated in evil. One of our staff, Victor (who is also a commander in the UPDF) had spoken with one of the girls who got delivered. He asked her how she became possessed at the school. She told him that a witchdoctor had come up to her and blew some powder in her face and that’s when she started biting other kids. Victor told her to remain quiet and point out the witchdoctor to her.

On Sunday afternoon she saw the witchdoctor and pointed him out to Victor. As it turns out, the man was not from Palabek but had come to Palabek some weeks before from the border of Congo. Victor and some other men confronted him and went into his hut. Just as suspected, they found a duffel bag full of the tools of his trade. They included a dead snake, a leopard skin, some small glass vials, and the bags of powder. We got permission from the local authorities to burn his witchcraft tools. One of our staff tried to talk with him about Jesus but he refused to believe. Hopefully he’ll have been put out of business for a while. The witchdoctor’s wife was born again and told us that she wanted him to be born again, too. She was visibly relieved when we destroyed his stuff.

Shortly after the crusade began another witchdoctor (who lived outside of the camp) got saved and told us he wanted our staff to come to his hut and burn all of his tools, too! So a group from Favor of God drove him to his hut and he happily helped to destroy the implements of his trade. Praise the Lord!,

We returned to Gulu early Monday morning, happy but tired! We praised God for everything he had done. We know that the devil is not going to show up in that way again at Palabek. However we anticipate that similar manifestations may occur in other places. We’ll be ready when they do.