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.
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