Crazy Mark

      The list of colorful characters we have encountered in the many places we have lived and ministered is long.  From a one-eyed pirate-like swashbuckler, to seven-foot-tall Cajun angels, a number of these colorful characters have played parts in the spiritual adventures we have encountered over the past forty years.  One of these flamboyant individuals was a man named Mark I met while living in Pelican, a fishing village in Southeast Alaska.  Mark was known around town as “Crazy Mark”.

            I met Crazy Mark while working for the fish processor in our Island village.  The small missions church we had opened up did not provide any income, so I found a part time job working as a carpenter for the fish processor. Mark also worked in this department so each day we spend several hours together. Mark was a large man with receding red hair who lived in a cabin built over the tidewaters at the far end of the town. Like everyone else in town, Mark knew I was the pastor of the church up on the hill.  Because of this, like many others, Mark was at first very standoffish towards me.

            Marks reputation was well known in town.  He had spent several stints in API, Alaska Psychiatric Institute, and continued in Pelican to provide evidence of just why he had been committed there.  Once while doing trash pickup in town, he had shown up in a three-piece suit.  Another time, he had walked out on the marsh area at low tide and attempted to walk on water. Everyone knew Mark had serious mental problems.

            While working with Mark, I gradually broke through his stand-offish behavior and developed a rapport with him. In our conversations that followed, I was able to convey to Mark the life changing truth that Jesus Christ died for his sins.  Although it was obvious that these conversations caused anxiety with Mark, he continued to come back to me with questions regarding Christianity. Knowing Mark was unstable in both his thoughts and his actions, I combined my testimony of God’s love with continued prayer for him.  One particular day, I began to see the fruit of both the testimony and the prayer.

            We had been at work for only a few hours that day when Mark and I found ourselves alone in the carpentry workshop.  After looking around to make sure no one else was there, Mark approached me and invited me to come down to his cabin after work. I was hoping for such an opportunity to speak further with him, and was glad that day that he had invited me early enough in the day so I could spend time praying before we went to his cabin.

            Knowing what I did of Mark, I was prepared to expect the unexpected.  That proved to be the case as I learned upon entering his cabin that afternoon. Once inside, I could see that his home was fastidiously neat and organized. Not what I would have expected from “Crazy Mark”.  He directed me to a low wood framed couch while he turned his focus to a stereo system sitting on a cabinet at one side of the small room. With his back to me, Mark began shifting around and rearranging many of the music cassettes that filled several cases alongside his stereo.  As he did this, he told me that God often spoke to him through his music.  He began reading off song titles and the artists names on the many cassettes before him. Although these were all secular artists, the songs he referred to all contained “spiritual” topics, such as songs about Heaven, angles, demons, and even the topic of spiritual awakening.   When he finally loaded a song about angels by Whitney Houston, he stepped back from the stereo. Still standing and with his back towards me, I could hear him take a very deep and dramatic breath.

            As the music began and Mark turned towards me, I could immediately see that his demeanor had changed. His eyes were strained and forced wide open, not even appearing to blink as he gazed above and beyond me.  Raising his arms up and out to each side, he began a recital that even today, many years later, I can still hear both the tone and the words he spoke.  In a deep and vampirish voice, Mark proclaimed “Life is like a Nintendo game, I am at stage seven.  At stage one, I was Superman...”  He then told me of the superpowers he had perform as Superman.  Next, he declared “at stage 2, I was Santa Clause, and I traveled the globe…”.  Mark continued with these machinations, describing who he had become at each stage of this supposed spiritual journey.  There was no humor in any of his professions, only an intensely focused and eerily serious demeanor.

            As Mark progressed in his recital of his supposed spiritual personifications, I sat praying and asking the Lord for wisdom. I had encountered similar situation in the past where it was clear that I was being directed to cast out a demonic spirit. Yet, as I prayer, I sensed the Lord telling me to sit quietly and remain in prayer. It was not until Mark reached his crescendo of “stage 7” that the Lord began to speak and give me direction. When he declared “I am at stage 7, I am the Master of the Universe, and soon you shall see my power revealed”, the Lord told me to get up and leave. While Mark was still rhapsodizing, I got up and walked out his front door. 

            Our church and parsonage was at the opposite end of the town as Mark’s cabin. As I walked away from his cabin and down the boardwalk, I noticed Mark following me at a distance.  At one point as I was weaving past a few men standing in the middle of the boardwalk just outside of the bar, I was able to look backwards and see Mark. He had closed the gap and was only a few dozen steps behind me, walking with that same detached stare I had encountered in his cabin. When I turned off the boardwalk at the far end of the village to ascend the dirt path up to the church, Mark continued to follow. I continued to pray!

            When I reached the steep set of stairs the ascended the hillside up to the church, the Lord directed me to stop and wait for Mark.  When he approached, I sensed the Lord’s leading to invited him up into our parsonage.  Mark still seemed to be in the trance like state he was while reciting his 7 levels.  Still, he followed me up and took a seat on the couch in our living room. As the Lord continued to direct me, I put on some worship music, then sat down facing Mark. 

            Almost immediately I could see in his face the effect of the worship music. Like young David playing his harp before the madness of King Saul, the music had an obvious calming effect.  As Mark relaxed into the couch, I was able to share the gospel message with him. Mark sat quietly listening to what I was saying.  I prayer over Mark that day, binding the demonic spirits that had been working through him. He did not resist me praying this way.  Mark did not respond verbally to my words; in fact, it seemed as if he had become mute. However, I could see from his eyes and his expression that he was hearing what I was telling him about Jesus’ love for him and the Lord’s desire to set him free.

            Over the next few weeks, I would often see Mark standing outside the church windows while we were having services. I learned that after our service would start each Sunday, He would stealthily come up the hill to stand outside the church to hear more about Jesus. As soon as service was over, he would hurry back down the hill.  When I did encounter Mark at work after that visit to his home, he was always calm and open to hearing those things I continued to tell him about Jesus.  I knew the Lord had begun a work in him and I continued to pray that He would bring Mark’s life full circle so that he would no longer be plagued by those demonic spirits, but that he would be set free by the Spirit of God.