Silencing Skin-Walkers: Adult Mission Story for October 5, 2024

By Andrew McChesney

Allison, a horsemanship teacher at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, first heard about skin-walkers when a student sharply told her to stop whistling in the dark.

“Stop right now!” said the girl, Kai.

“Why?” said Allison, who enjoyed whistling both in the dark and in the light.

Kai fearfully explained that whistling in the dark was an invitation for skin-walkers to visit. In her Navajo culture, a skin-walker is an evil witch who has powers to transform into an animal, to possess an animal, or to masquerade as an animal.

Allison reassured the girl that God was more powerful than any skin-walker and that if she joined God’s team, she would have nothing to fear. “I think I’ll keep on whistling,” she said, kindly. “I’m sorry, but I’m not part of any other team.”

When Kai saw Allison wasn’t alarmed and realized that she also could be part of God’s team, she stopped being scared.

Kai wasn’t the only girl scared of skin-walkers at Holbrook.

Fifteen-year-old Enola took a friend with her every night when she went to the school barn to feed and water her horse as part of her horsemanship lessons. She had asked for permission first and, Allison, seeing that she was afraid of the dark, had consented, saying, “That’s fine as long as it doesn’t take you longer to do your work.”

Then one morning, Enola announced that she had gone to the barn the previous night without her friend.

“I went to the barn to do my horse by myself for the very first time,” she said.

Allison expressed surprise. “You didn’t take anyone with you?” she said.

“No,” Enola said.

“Weren’t you scared of the dark?” Allison said.

Enola replied rather sassily, “Well, yeah. Why do you think that I always take someone with me?”

“Well, were you scared?” Allison asked.

“Yes, of course I was,” the girl said. “But I kind of wanted to see if anything would happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, being in the dark around here is not safe. That’s when the skin-walkers can get you.”

Then Allison understood Enola’s fear of the dark. She said, “And … ?”

“And … nothing happened!” Enola exclaimed.

“Of course not!” Allison said.

“No, you don’t understand,” the girl said. “They almost got me before. But then I realized that I’m so stupid. Why would they get me here?”

“Tell me more,” Allison said.

“Well, it’s like nothing can ever get me when I’m on the school campus,” the girl said. “I sometimes wonder, ‘If I put a foot on one side of the main gate and the other on the other side, can they get half of me?’”

She laughed.

Allison smiled. She was glad that Enola was witnessing the power of the God of heaven on the Holbrook school campus in Arizona. Enola’s decision to go alone to the barn in the dark had been an opportunity for God to prove that He indeed was worthy of trust. It was good to be on His team!

The experience reminded Allison that Holbrook is a real mission school in the United States. “This is a mission field for sure,” she said.

Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offerings that have supported Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School. The two most recent Thirteenth Sabbath Offerings for the North American Division, collected in 2018 and 2021, are helping to construct a new Student Life Center on the campus where God lives and students do not need to fear skin-walkers.