8/13/2012 Lana's Story

Lana’s* mother is Ese Ejja, an indigenous tribe of the northern Bolivian jungles. Her father, she tells me, is also native, but hails from a different tribe in Peru. Her grandparents still live there and she has never met them. Lana was one of our first students to come from the interior. Her acceptance letter had to be dropped from the mission plane and the villagers thought they were being bombed! Since then that little village has seen some drastic changes. Our current directors lived and worker there for about a year, and recently  Lana came to see me because her health class is scheduled to give the morning worship talks this week, and her turn will be on Sabbath at the 11 o’clock service and she is quite nervous. The topic that she has been assigned is on demon possession. We start conversing about cases of demon possession that are mentioned in the Scriptures. What does it look like? She remembers the most dramatic example, the two demoniacs who went naked and lived in the cemetery, and could not be restrained even with chains and terrorized all who passed by (Matt 8:28-34).
“Teacher, how does someone come to be possessed like that?” she asks me.
“It has to do with our choices.” I reply. “When we don’t choose to surrender our lives to Christ, the default is that Satan starts to take control. God in his mercy to us limits how much Satan can do, but if we keep ignoring God’s spirit we move closer toward demon possession. There are all different levels of demon possession. You don’t have to act like the demoniac in Matthew 8 to be controlled by Satan. He has many distinguished, intelligent, cultured people who are just as well quite possessed. Whenever we continuously follow our own thoughts and desires we invite possession because one of the principle tenets of the devil’s philosophy is “do as thou wilt. He has so infused humanity with his character that most of us come to think his thoughts as our own.”
“That’s what I thought, that it happens when Satan can get to your mind. That can happen when somebody drinks alcohol, right teacher?”
“Definitely”
“And when they take drugs?”
“That too. Anything that alters the mind or affects our ability to reason and make decisions can be a door for Satan to make suggestions to our minds, and even to take control. That doesn’t mean that everyone who does those things will automatically be under the complete control of Satan, thanks to God’s merciful restraining power, but it definitely increases the risk! And its obvious that people under the influence are out of control and do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. I think you could fairly say that they are temporarily possessed”  
“My dad had a real anger problem. He used to get mad at us and do terrible things. When the baby would cry too much he used to dunk it in hot water. I was lucky because when I was little I wasn’t a crybaby. But I was afraid of my dad. One time he almost killed my sister. He had the knife in his hand. He could get angry so quickly. In an instant he would become another person. I remember escaping to hide in the jungle with my sister one time because I knew that he was going to be angry. We stayed in the jungle a long time. I guess that’s why I never called my dad papa. I just always called him by his first name. After that my Grandpa Antonor called Dad the ‘assassin’”. Grandpa was always more like my real dad. He is affectionate.  But I could never understand why my father was like that when he is a school teacher. My mom was going to leave him, because besides being violent, he had other women on the side."
“She was going to leave? What happened?”
“My father has changed. He doesn’t treat us bad like he used to. My mom is still with him. They were married when they were 15 years old.”  I wonder how much of the change is a result of the change he has seen in his daughter.
    “I never told you this story. I never told anyone this story before.” She seems pleased to finally have it off her chest. “I told teacher Lyli one story, but it was about my uncle.” So she’s been working up to this. I realize. This is her third year with us here.
    Sadly, Lana’s stories are typical of probably at least 90% of our students. I’d like to pass it off as cultural, a local, national problem, but I know that is just not true. (See the poem below about my experience teaching in what was, at the time, the largest public high school in Washington State.) This problem is universal. We seem to live in a daily-increasing demon-possessed world. The family has failed. Schools have failed. We have failed. All we can do is ask for a miracle and agree to cooperate with the Master Teacher. He can fix anything, including me.

*name changed for privacy

Student Teaching: They call this high school—

Before they draft essays,
my students draft grass
and drink cervezas (1) on the weekends.
After work flipping burgers, flipping rivals
off, turning wrenches, loading dumbwaiters;
they are loading up on who knows what,
and later, loading guns. (2)

The bathroom smells of pot,
 not for being left un-flushed,
although the unplugged stall
was also hard to find. 

The school’s name is written on the wall,
but from where I park I only see the asco (3) part of Pasco,
and I appreciate the irony and step over some vomit
and wonder how many more youth
will puke away their lives before we learn to educate. (4)

(1). Spanish for beer
 (2).  “Sixteen-year-old Christopher Ruesga, [who a few short weeks ago sat in the same class that I am now teaching] was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon by members of the Tri-Cities Regional SWAT Team from a house at 1711 W. Fifth Ave. Ruesga is suspected of fatally shooting Eutimio Vivero-Martinez, 38, of Pasco, during a confrontation Sunday afternoon on North 14th Avenue near Agate Street. See more information on this site and Wednesday's Tri-City Herald”
 (3).  Spanish for disgusting, grotesque, despicable.
  4. See Hebrews 5:12. I need to be taught of God before I can truly teach.