The truck bumped past the cassava field and stopped in front of the wooden gate. We piled out and walked toward the little house on stilts.

Juntra had been sick for a couple weeks and unable to attend church. So this Sabbath evening, a group of us went to visit and pray for her. We gathered under her thatched veranda on the split bamboo platform and talked with her. Water buffalos, dogs, cats and chickens milled around, watching the scene. Mosquitoes decided to join us, too.

“I’ve been cursed” Juntra spoke quietly. “I saw the footprints around my house. It’s that person.” She motioned toward a neighbor’s house. We knew that neighbor had been involved with spirits and curses before.

“Juntra, if you belong to God, these curses cannot affect you,” Chris encouraged her.

“If there is anything between us and God, we need to ask his forgiveness, and then we can be sure that evil spirits cannot harm us,” I reminded her.

We sang a few songs and prayed for Juntra’s protection, that God would drive all evil from her property. She looked exhausted as we said goodbye.

The following Sabbath, Juntra was at church looking fresh, her face bright and cheerful. “I’m well! Ever since that night when you all came to pray, I have felt better! Thank God!”

“Surely [there is] no enchantment against Jacob, neither [is there] any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” (Num. 23:23).

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