This week I began living with a student who has lived in the dorms the entire time she has attended at the university nearby. I don’t want to use her real name so I will call her Manisan. She is now a senior and completing her time her doing her “practice” teaching at the high school in town. There is a different dynamic living in the house with a student. I was blessed to live with a teammate and mentor before I had a student move in. Even though I am only one year older than her, I am seen as more experienced in many ways because I have graduated college and I work for a non-government agency as a teacher and nurse- I am blessed with an American passport and faithful supporters from home. These things all seem to increase my status even though I feel just as inexperienced as the next 24 year old. However, I am seeing direct results of the ways in which I can help right here in my house. Of course, I was already friends with Manisan and I already knew that helping her would be a pleasure and not a burden but since we are of different religions I definitely wondered about the dynamic that would occur between the two of us… The other night I was eating dinner with Manisan and I asked her how her classes were going and how her students were doing. She asked me the same and told me that she hasn’t had nightmares or bad dreams ever since she has lived in my house. This may seem like a simple statement to someone who doesn’t know about the dorm living here. The dormitories are very crowded living situations and look nothing like they did when they were first built. At one point I heard them referred to as a “public health nightmare.” That may be dramatizing it a little bit, but needless to say, the stray dogs and cats aren’t the only things other than the dormers themselves that are roaming the hallways. I listened as Mansion retold the multiple encounters she has had with ghosts and dreams of demonic nature. She said that she has seen multiple girls and their roomates overcome with demonic possession and the cry of children coming from the bathroom. I asked, “little children? Why?” she answered, “because of the abortions that are performed on occasion by the girls there…” I was shocked and amazed to hear the reality stories of things that she has seen and experienced during her 4 years of dormitory living. Many of the stories broke my heart and really made me think. I’m learning a lot about the spirit world here and the ways that it influences the way that people think. Growing up, I felt like the spirit world was not discussed or seen as something that was only told in movies. I still look at it that way many times because my exposure has been so minimal and I haven’t really experienced much first hand. I am certainly glad to have experienced minimal amounts of encounters with demonic presences and spiritual evil but I am still interested in hearing what people have encountered here, especially since I am now living with someone who has seen many of these things occur firsthand and considers a lot of these things to be a normal part of her life. Before I moved into my house, I was not acquainted with the former owners and the house was actually somewhat vacant for a few months prior to me moving in. One of the things that my roommate, Ate Alice, insisted on was that we needed to have a house blessing and pray over the house in the name of Jesus. It is an awesome testimony of God’s protection and presence in the house when Manisan clearly states that she has not had any nightmares ever since she is living in my house. I told her we prayed over the house before moving in and it is God’s protection over us that is causing her to have peaceful sleep. This week I was reminded, and very blessed to know that I can help a student physically and spiritually and that the peace and Spirit from the Lord offer protection for those who ask for it.
Mark 3:11- “And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”