Apache Reservation (pt.2)

Because of the general awareness of spirituality among the Native American cultures, ministry among them often has a very visible and overt spiritual quality.  As Betsy and I had learned in ministry in native villages in Alaska, the native culture is much more open and accustomed to spiritual activity than are most people in western society. Their culture’s historic recognition of spiritual powers, their willingness to associate their daily experiences with spiritual forces, and their continued encounters with actual demonic entities, all support the often-unconcealed existence of spiritual influences in the native community.

            We were only days into our experience serving as missionary pastors of a Jicarilla Apache church in Northern New Mexico before we were reminded of this very thing. We had gone to bed one night during the first week of our ministry there when I was awakened by a loud knocking at our door.  It was just after 11 pm when I opened the parsonage’s front door to find a young native girl standing there panting and out of breath.  In tears she began pleading and crying “help my mama”. As she did this, she pointed back across the church grounds to the two-lane highway about 500 feet away. There I could see the headlights of a car that was apparently stopped in the middle of the road. Thinking they were having car trouble, I stepped back into the parsonage to put on a coat and boots so I could go out and help.

            It was December and we were at 7000 feet in the San Juan mountains with snow on the ground. After inviting the little girl into our home where Betsy could take care of her, I was soon plodding through the snow on my way across the church grounds towards what I thought must be the little girl’s mom in the stranded vehicle.  When I was only a hundred feet or so from the parsonage, I began to see the form of someone coming out of the darkness towards me from direction of the highway. As the form grew more visible, I noticed that it was a woman whom I recognized from church that week. Her name was Dalame. She ran frantically towards me as lights from the church and parsonage reflected off the snow illuminating her.  It was then I noticed that she was not running unmolested, for her body was jerking and lurching as if she was being attacked. Several times as she stumbled towards me Dalame was knocked to the snow, getting up again and again as she frantically screamed and cried out for help. Although she was jerking and shuddering as if someone was attacking her, I could see no one but Dalame. When only a dozen or so feet from me, her body was again thrust to the side as if she had been struck by a car.   Seeing no physical assailant but recognizing she was truly being attacked, I then realized what we were dealing with here was demonic spirits.

I stopped my progression towards her and began praying in the spirit, binding the demons that were so clearly and viciously attacking her. I used the authority given to all believers, claiming the blood of Jesus Christ and commanding the demons to leave.  Only moments after I began praying, Dalame lay quietly on the snow as if the assault upon her had ended. When I did reach her, she was still groaning in pain. After praying over her, I carried her back to the parsonage where Betsy and I discovered she had a broken leg and what proved later to be several broken ribs. Her face was also bruised and bloody but in the warmth of the parsonage she began to calm down.

I would later discover the events that led up to this demonic attack that night. Dalame had been out late at a party where there were alcohol and drugs. She had even brought her 10-year-old daughter along.  On her way home that night, she was driving along the highway near the church when a demon appeared to her in the car. She slammed on the brakes and trembling with fear screamed at her daughter to get out of the car and run for help. By the Lord’s mercy, when the little girl exited the car, she could see the church and parsonage not too far away.  That is what brought her to our door that night.

After her daughter had run for help, Dalame had remained in the car petrified with fear. She said she was only able to get out after the demon began to physically attack her. It was then she opened her door and began running towards the church.  The demon (or demons) pursued her, continually striking her until confronted with the blood of Christ I was proclaiming.

It might be a reasonable assumption to attribute Dalame’s description of the demon to the mental state brought about by the drinking and drugs that night. However, I saw Dalame’s body being jerked and knocked about in such an unnatural and unexplainable way. This along with the fact that she did experience numerous broken bones all testify to the fact that she was actually being attacked by a demon. That the assault ceased when I prayed also speaks to the spiritual nature of what was happening that night.

This was just the beginning of the manifestations of demonic activity that we would experience on the Apache Reservation. When Dalame later shared her story with others in the church, there was little if any surprise from the other native believers.  Even the secular native community was not surprised by these types of manifestations. They all seemed to acknowledge the existence of spiritual forces, even demons.  The Spirit filled Christian community should have that same wisdom when experiencing the Devil’s schemes of greed, lust, and rebellion which are often his methods of attack in much of the western world.  Why would he reveal himself and his demons in such overt ways as is experienced on the native reservations to a people and culture who deny and ignore his existence?   

Regardless of his methods of assault, the Devil continues to go about as a “roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pe. 5:8)   Does not scripture say “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil…” (Eph. 6:12).