An Evil Encounter: Adult Mission Story for November 23, 2024

By Andrew McChesney

A strange heaviness settled on the house as Father reproached his pregnant 15-year-old daughter, Lusa.

“You could have hurt the baby,” he said.

Lusa, who had been smoking traditional herbs, reacted defiantly to Father in the living room of their house in Alaska.

Watching the scene in the living room was Adiv, a Michigan native who was working at a children’s home. He had dropped by Lusa’s house for a visit. He and everyone else in the house were Seventh-day Adventist.

Abruptly, Lusa and Father moved to a bedroom, and the girl’s mother joined them there.

They shut the door.

In the living room, Adiv sensed the strange heaviness grow more oppressive. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he decided that it would be a good time to pray.

As he prayed, loud cursing erupted from behind the bedroom door.

Then Mother came out. “The girl is possessed,” she said. “You need to pray.”

Adiv prayed more earnestly. He asked God for wisdom. Taking his Bible, he knelt outside the closed bedroom door.

“Lord, guide me through this process,” he prayed. “Forgive all my sins. Make sure all my sins are gone.”

Then his prayer turned to the girl and her parents.

Shrieks rang out from behind the door.

Father came out.

“Did you call me?” he said.

“No,” Adiv said. “I never called you.”

“OK, do you want to come in?” Father said.

Adiv didn’t want to go into the bedroom, but he said, “Sure.”

Inside the room, he saw Lusa lying on her back near a wall and screaming.

Father joined Mother in standing near the girl.

Adiv knelt with his Bible near the door. He wanted to be as close as possible to the door if he needed to run out.

Father and Mother opened their mouths and began singing the children’s song, “Jesus Loves Me.”

From the door, Adiv joined them.

As they sang about Jesus’ love for children, Lusa stopped screaming. She began to cry.

“Daddy, I need your help,” she said.

Adiv saw anguish flash in Father’s face.

“I can’t help you,” Father said. “You need to call on Jesus.”

Then Lusa shrieked. “She’s not your daughter anymore,” a low voice said through her mouth.

Adiv looked at the Bible in his hand. He didn’t know what to do next, but he was sure that God’s Word contained power. Opening to the book of Psalms, he began to read out loud.

A moment later, he glanced up. The girl had stopped screaming and was crawling across the floor toward him.

Adiv prayed for faith and kept reading.

When Lusa reached him, she raised a hand and knocked the Bible to the floor.

“I hate this Book,” she snarled. “I hate this Book.”

Adiv picked up the Bible and resumed reading from Psalms.

Lusa knocked the Bible out of his hand two more times.

The struggle between Christ and Satan lasted for another 90 minutes. Adiv and the parents sang, prayed, and read the Bible until the heaviness left the house. The evil spirit had departed.

Adiv found it hard to kneel for 90 minutes, but when he stood up he felt energized and refreshed. In contrast, Lusa was exhausted. She was weak and could hardly speak.

Adiv learned that day that the great controversy between God and Satan is real. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, NKJV).

Lusa’s situation is not unique among Alaska Natives and even some who are Adventists. Adiv, who works in children’s homes and Adventist summer camps, has not met an Alaska Native who has not had an encounter with spirits or knows someone who has.

Adiv prays with all his heart for the everlasting gospel to be proclaimed throughout Alaska.

“I want to stay here as long as possible,” he said. “There is a work that needs to be done. People need to know Christ.”

A huge work remains to proclaim the everlasting gospel in Alaska, where there are more than 200 Native communities but the Seventh-day Adventist Church only has a presence in 11 of them. Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help share the love of Jesus in Bethel, Alaska. Thank you for planning a generous offering on December 28.