SULADS STORIES

A WRESTLING MATCH

By Esmeralda Agunod

Kamansi Mission School

February, 2000

 

Witchcraft has been a practice of the people in the village of Kamansi.  When a child is born, a ritual of killing a pig or a chicken is done to thank the spirit god.  When somebody gets sick, a similar ritual is done to drive away evil spirits.  When somebody dies, marries, builds a house, leaves home, or whatever, a ritual is done.  Killing animals, eating, dancing, and chanting are the order of the day.

They make altars under some rocks, beside a stream, in the woods, in a cave, in a plantation, and even a floating altar in a river.  They make a chanting noise until the wee hours of the morning.

Many of our school children in the village were dedicated to their gods when they were born.  That is how they were assigned unseen friend spirits to go always with hem, guide them, keep them safe from dangers, but most of all, hold them captive as slaves for life.

When we arrived in the village, we learned that the children were dedicated in a ritual to their spirit gods before they were permitted to attend our school.  We noticed some things made of colored beads hung from their necks.  They said these are their charms which are very important to them.  They wear these charms even when they take a bath. 

School to them is another kind of life.  The cleaning of nails, the combing of hair, the taking of a bath everyday becomes a requirement before entering the class.  In school they are taught to sing, pray, recite memory verses among many other things.  “This is fun,” the said.  “We learn many things.”

“Why do we gather in the evening and morning to sing and recite memory verses?” the children asked. 

This is the time we thank the Lord God in heaven for taking care of us and sing praises to His name,” I explained.  “This is what we call worship.  During this time we will tell you stories from this book we call the Bible,” I said as I held up the Book.

The LAGDA Bible Study Guide by Pastor Paterno Diaz is a big help to us during worship.  From it, we can locate texts easily in the Bible that we need for  our study.  We also sing songs form the LAGDA because of the Cebuano songs it contains.  Children love to sing.  They also love to hear stories.  They can memorize memory verses fast.  They come every night and morning to our worship.  Parents, big brothers and sisters also come.  Our blended voices fill the air as we worship the Lord together. 

Eventually, the devil was not happy with what we were doing.  One night, while we were having worship, one of the children got into trouble.  Salio was mumbling.  We just ignored him and we continued to sing.  When we sang “O Safe to the Rock that is Higher Than I,” he began shouting, “NO!  NO!  NO!”

“Whatever happened to Salio?” I wondered.  He was covering his ears.

“Stop that song!  Stop it!  Stop it!” he shouted again.  The children stopped singing but I took hold of his hands.  “No Ma’am,” he pleaded.  “You’re hot.  You are too hot Ma’am.”

“Lord,” I prayed.  “This boy is demon possessed.  Please help me and my partner.  We can’t do it without you.” 

“Let us continue singing,” I told the children.  They couldn’t sing.  The were too afraid.

“Lord, we need you at this very moment.  Please don’t leave us.”  We poured out our hearts to the Lord.  Turning to the boy, I said, “Repeat after me, Salio, ‘JESUS HELP ME!’”   But Salio couldn’t say a word.  He was just mumbling and kicking.

“Let’s sing again,” I told the children.  We opened again our LAGDA and sang the same song, “O Safe to the Rock.”  The children sang it loud and clear from their hearts.  This time, Salio kept calm.  He opened his eyes and he was surprised that we were surrounding him.  I told him of what had happened.

“Thank you, Ma’am, for helping me,” he said.  He joined us in singing and he regained his strength.  Then he began telling us what had happened to him.  He said, “The spirit (his evil friend) does not want to give me up.”  The hosts of evil friends of the people of Kamansi Village would do their best to not give their people up to Jesus. 

The situation is calm now, but we are asking for your prayers for our victory.  We know that Satan, with hosts more, will return with another attack. 

God has won the victory for us.  We only need to claim it.  Let us join our forces now in prayer for victory over the evil “friends” of the villagers in Kamansi..