It had been a hard day of work, and my bed had never felt better. As I drifted off into delightful sleep, I was suddenly awakened by shrill, cackling voices. Jumping out of bed and running to the window, I peered out into the inky blackness. A group of dark figures carrying lanterns ambled noisily down the path just in front of our house. The parade stopped outside our neighbors’ house, and the voices quieted to whispers. I realized it was a group of ladies from the Evangelical Church of Papua New Guinea (ECPNG). “What are they doing on our side of the village at this time of night?” I wondered to myself. One lady, whom I took to be the leader, began praying in a loud, penetrating voice, and the others joined in, all praying at the top of their lungs. After 10 minutes of cacophony, the sound died down, and the “prayer warriors” dispersed to their homes. I went back to bed.

The next morning, my helpers were talking about the prayer warriors I had seen the night before. “Those ladies were trying to rid the village of demons,” commented Komsy. Danny chuckled as he told how, when the group of ladies were near his house, some prankster had thrown a stick onto the metal roof of the school building nearby and made the ladies jump in fright. “They only prayed louder,” he laughed. “They thought it was a demon trying to get away.”

Later that day, after working on our new house, I was walking home from the canoe landing. Kadepa and Komsy, two of my faithful helpers, were with me. As we neared Komsy’s house, I heard a strange cry. It was human voice, but I couldn’t tell whether the person was mourning or chanting. I hoped Komsy’s family was all right. I glanced at Komsy, and he looked puzzled, too. As his house came into view, we saw people gathered in the yard, and children stood on the pathway gawking through the shrubs at a young woman who was going in and out of the doorway. Each time she came out, though her hands were empty, she went through the motions of throwing things, commanding the imaginary things in a loud voice to stay out. “This is interesting,” I thought. “Either she has temporarily gone mad or there is something devilish going on here.”

A middle-aged lady came over to us and explained the situation. Komsy’s niece had just come back from a prayer session at the ECPNG church and found a dead bird on the house’s fire pit. “This is an omen,” Komsy explained. “When someone puts a dead bird on someone else’s fire pit, they are trying to curse them.” His niece was trying to rid the house of evil spirits. I still wonder what kind of prayers they are teaching their people to pray.

I learned that the main purpose of the prayer-warrior group was to search out the iwai dala or “magic men” so they could be removed from the villages. Magic men are greatly feared for their secret mystical powers. It is thought that common people cannot detect magic men, but the prayer warriors claimed to have been touched by the power of the Holy Spirit and allowed to see clearly who the magic men were. But is witch hunting the primary purpose of prayer?

Among the Gogodala, even so-called Christians seem to be fascinated by supernatural powers. People lust for power through their prayers so they might have mastery over their circumstances and fellow men. However, Jesus, in His example prayer, simply prayed, “Thy will be done,” submitting His will to that of His Father. We see two contrasting views of prayer here. One says, “I want to have control.” The other says, “I want You to do what You deem is best because I trust You.”

Please pray that we can bring the light of God’s truth to spiritually darkened Gogodala lives.

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