The Raven Spirit

      While serving as a missions pastor in the village of Pelican in Southeast Alaska, my family and I lived in the attic above the church.  When we first told the state leadership of our denomination that we sensed the Lord leading us to minister in Pelican, they informed us that the church had been boarded up for about ten years.  After driving the thousand miles from the Kenai peninsula north through Alaska, and then east into Canada, and then south back to Haines Alaska, we then boarded a ferry for the eight-hour trip to Juneau. After sleeping on the ferry terminal floor that following night in Juneau, in the morning we boarded another ferry for another eight-hour ride, eventually arriving in the small fishing village of Pelican on the outskirts of Chichagof Island.    

Standing along the rails of the ferry as it traveled south through Lizianski inlet towards our new home and ministry, we joined the other passengers in amazement at the raw beauty of the Alaskan fjords.  Pelican lay on the east side of an inlet that was only separated from the Gulf of Alaska by a narrow strip of land. Although considered a native village because of its nearly fifty percent Tlingit Indian population, it was largely known as a fishing village hosted by the “Cold Storage”, a fish processing plant that maintained the villages few utilities and services. Fishermen in the area would sell their catches of fish throughout the trolling and long lining seasons each summer. The village consisted of a number of cabins built upon wooden pilings stretching out along the boardwalk that ran the length of the small village. The church was situated at the north end of town up a dirt road that wound its way to the village dump.  

The year around population of Pelican was just over one hundred people in the years we were there. During the commercial fishing season, that population would swell to around three hundred, most of which were fisherman living on their boats. The ferry was scheduled to come into Pelican about once a month, with float planes from “Wings of Alaska” landing in the inlet and taxiing up to the docks several days a week. Along with their passengers, those planes would bring the mail and other necessities such as food.

As we departed the ferry that first day and anxiously made our way down the boardwalk in search of the church, we were greeted by several of the town regulars. News of the arrival of a new “preacher” must have gotten out as their greetings included curses and threats to my wife and I and our three small children. Always nice to get off to a good start, even before you have an opportunity to offend anyone with the gospel message.    

As we stood at the base of the hillside that the church had been built upon, we could see that the warnings we had received of a church building in ruins were not overstated. The two-story stairs running up to the church was unstable with several missing steps. The door into the church and parsonage hung crooked on its hinges. Once inside, we had to navigate the holes in the floor that exposed the open crawl space dropping four to six feet under the building. Several of the windows were only covered with plastic. It would be over a week before we could acquire running water, which we ran into the church from a lake high upon the hill. I also had to repair the five hundred feet of four-inch drain pipe that would take the sewage from the church to the inlet waters far below. (This was standard practice in the Islands of the Southeast). By the end of the first week, we were able to convince the Cold Storage to hook us up to electricity.

After several weeks of cleaning out the church and parsonage, we had made contact with numerous towns people along with several men from the fishing boats that were temporarily moored in the harbor.  Late one night in those early first few weeks, one of those relationships would provide me with an eye opening and very unique experience.     

It was somewhere around one A.M. when I was woken out of my sleep by a man standing over our bed. We had by that time gotten the doors into the church to close, but we still had no locks. My eyes opened to see a man leaning over my bed drunkenly pleading “father Larry, father Larry”. What I could see in the moonlight was only a precursor to the experiences I was yet to encounter that night. The man who hung over our bed was a deck hand named Skip that I had only briefly met. Another man by the name of Dennis was standing behind Skip. I had already enjoyed several opportunities to share Christ’s love with Dennis. They were both drunk, and maybe because Skip was the lesser drunk of the two, he assumed the responsibility of waking me.  

In his drunken state that night, Skip had taken an electric razor and shaved two racing stripes from each of his temples running backwards around his head. The rest of his very long hair hung eerily about his face.  After recovering from the shock of the two ghoulish looking men in our bedroom, I quickly got up and ushered them downstairs to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen I put on the coffee to begin the process of sobering them up. 

An hour or so later and only a little more sober, both men insisted they had come up the stairs and into our bedroom with a purpose. They said that there was something they had to show me in one of the cabins along the boardwalk. I attempted to dissuade them, saying I would gladly join them in the morning, but they made it clear they would not relinquish their plan. They were going to show me something in Pelican “that night”.  

Somewhere around two thirty in the morning, we walked down the path and onto the then very quiet boardwalk where the tide beat against its many pilings. About halfway through the village, they turned into a narrow walkway that led to a cabin that although built on pilings so the water could run up under it, it was set back against the steep hillside of the inlet.  Taking me into the cabin, they stumbled about to find the lights. Crossing to a door which appeared to go into a coat closet, they opened it to reveal a ladder leaning up against the back wall. Skip led the way up the ladder, opening a hatch on the ceiling above.  I followed Skip up into the attic with Dennis close behind. Here in the attic was the subject of their mission that night.  

The first thing I saw once the attic was lighted was a sort of altar covered with feathers, beads, candles, and other eclectic objects.  Along the wall in back of the altar was a book shelf filled with all sorts of demonic and occultic books. I then learned that this was a place where a local witch worshipped and performed her rituals. I would also learn over the following months and years that there were others in this town who practiced this sort of occultic spiritualism.  I was even told by one woman in town that whenever her young daughter was sick; she went to these witches for incantations of healing.  

I came out of that cabin that night with a new awareness of what ministry in this village would entail. However, the Lord was not yet done opening my eyes to what I might encounter in the coming years in Pelican. Dennis and Skip had remained in the cabin that night where they were staying while the owner was out of town. I walked out the narrow walkway to the boardwalk and stood silently against the rail facing the harbor, looking across the inlet in the moonlight. My first prayer outside of the cabin that night (I had prayed much when in the attic) was “Lord, what have you gotten me into here”.   

As I stood against the rail praying, I was soon distracted by a raven that had alighted on a satellite dish only fifteen to twenty feet in front of me. There were numerous dishes mounted on poles in the village. I would soon learn that pornography was common there, therefore the many satellite dishes. The raven that had landed on the top of the dish was flapping its wings and aggressively “cawing” directly at me. At first, I ignored it, figuring it was just a bizarrely acting bird. However, eventually I woke up from my ignorance to realize it was something more. It was not common for any bird to be so active at three A.M.  Its aggressive activity was so “unnatural” that I realized that it really did not belong to the natural. I recognized it was a spiritual manifestation. The raven is a common subject of much native American culture and spiritualism in Alaska.

I began to pray. I prayed for the Lord’s wisdom, and for the courage I was beginning to see I would need in Pelican.  The more I prayed, the more I became confident in the Lord’s presence and power that night. I knew the Lord was opening my eyes. I realized that if He would open my eyes, He would also empower me to stand against anything the enemy would through at me because His Word did say that “greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world”. Built up in my spirit through this time of intense prayer, I faced the still cawing raven. Taking authority over the intimidating threats of darkness this raven was representing, I finally pointed at it and commanded it to “GO” in the name of Jesus. As I watched, this spiritual yet very visible apparition seemed to fold into a small silver bullet, shooting backwards across the inlet like a miniature lightning bolt. It crossed the mile-wide inlet in a split second, disappearing against the steep mountains and waterfalls that rose up on the other side.   

Well after 3 AM, I made my way back up the hill to the church that night, still shaken by the things I had seen. Nevertheless, I also realized the authority God had given me over the spiritual darkness that I now knew existed in Pelican. Going back to bed, I was anxious to share with my still sleeping wife the revelations of that night that had begun with Skip hanging over our bed. 

I was awake early the next morning before Betsy, so I went downstairs careful to be quiet so not to wake her or the kids. Stepping out on the side porch of the parsonage to take in the fresh Southeast air, I was immediately confronted with another cawing raven. This one had alighted on the large poplar tree just off the porch. It too “cawed” unnaturally as it seemed to stare intimidatingly into my eyes. Remembering the victory of the previous night, I again confronted the raven, binding it and commanding it to “Go”.  As if I had said or done nothing, it just continued to flap its wings and caw.  I was taken back, unsure why the same prayer that had been so effective the previous night now seemed to have no authority at all. After several more attempts to make it “Go”, I went to prayer, seeking wisdom from the Lord and an answer to the ineffectiveness of my prayer.  

It was after maybe fifteen minutes of prayer, a time when I continued to hear this raven and its ugly “cawing”, when I finally heard from the Lord. He spoke so clearly and plainly saying “the enemy has been deeply entrenched in this place; he will not go easily. He is testing you to see how committed you are”.  That was all I needed to hear. I was not doing anything wrong; I just needed to be determined and persistent. I stepped towards the raven, now only a few feet away from it, praying with even greater intensity, but more importantly with greater resolve. I again bound him, telling him I would continue to bind him until he departed. I once again commanded him to “Go”, and this time he did. As I had witnessed that night on the boardwalk, I again observed the raven fold into a sort of silver bullet and flash across the inlet. Once again, I was left with the awareness of the Lord’s incomparable power He offers all His children.

Over the next three years in Pelican, we would continue to confront demonic manifestations and influences. This has also continued into the many other ministries we have served in from Apache reservations to Mormon communities. The assurance of the Lord’s presence and power has given us victory after victory over the Devil’s various schemes. That same power provides the assurance to see the Lord tear down the strongholds that the Devil has so deceptively constructs in the lives of men today.  His word remains true saying “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and powers and authorities, against and the powers of this dark world, against spiritual forces...”. It also says “I will give you power over the enemy” Lk.10:19