THE DEVIL TRIES A DIFFERENT ANGLE!

He is a sorcerer.   People from our village have called him in because he can do things that normal human beings cannot do. He has power to heal, to change people and turn events etc. He uses water and other trinkets along with incantations and who knows what else?Several older people in this village have had painful arthritis in their knees for years. I have done all that I know to help them, but the pain persists, so they will try TeeCoo, the sorcerer.I did not know anything unusual was going on in my village, until this man appears in my clinic doorway last Wednesday. He does not want any medical care, but is just looking around and meeting people. I did not speak much with him because BletJaw was not nearby at the time and I felt strangely uncomfortable around him. He had an unusual appearance and disposition for a Karen man – sort-of big, flashy, pushy, assertive, and in-the-way. I did not like him and felt relieved when he finally left. The next time I saw him was at Wednesday evening prayer meeting. I thought it was good that he had come to our church. Good that is, until we were leaving and I felt a hand moving across my back. Turning quickly I saw him!“Oh no!” I thought, and dashed out the door. Karen men NEVER do things like this. I then was involved in a conversation with one of the ladies outside, when I glanced up at the church doorway and there was TeeCoo taking a picture of me from the church porch! Horrors. I excused myself and went to my house. The following day, BletJaw shared some things that he had learned from the village people. This man wants to marry a gullawah (American) lady. He is able to do enchantments to make a person like him, or he can put a curse on them. He seems to already be on my path! I know God is holding me and that nobody can pluck me out of His hand! With this thought in mind I go to church the following Sabbath day and sit in my usual place with the women on the mat at the left side of the church. I bow my head and pray. When I look up I see TeeCoo sitting directly opposite me on the men’s side, staring at me.“Oh no!” I thought, and looked down to read my Bible. The next thing I know, he is kneeling right in front of me ready to take my picture close up!“Oh no!” I thought, and covered my face with my hands. Karen men NEVER come over on the women’s side accept to take up the offering. Quickly he pulled my hands down and took the picture! I looked around the church at the handful of people sitting there. BletJaw and Tucker had not arrived yet to protect me, and nobody present seemed to share my feelings of horror.I will preach the sermon today on Daniel chapter 4. I have prayed earnestly over it because the sermon has a real appeal and oh how I need the Holy Spirit to convict and convert the precious people of my village.   You see our pastor, our church, and our church members in this isolated spot, are not like any other that I have ever experienced.  Somehow most of the members of this church still use opium, smoke, drink and eat pigs and everything else just like everybody else, and have done so for years. Their names are in the church books here on earth, but they are not written in the books of heaven. This makes our work harder than if there never was an SDA church or so-called members. Working with the people in any other heathen village is easier than working in this one. I have preached lovingly and earnestly. I have also taught simply about health and God’s standards for us. I have pleaded with God to help the people understand God's health message and really be converted. They listen, but then go ahead and keep living the way they are used to.. . . So. . . I get up to preach. BletJaw is by my side to interpret.   Five minutes later, TeeCoo gets up and comes right in between BletJaw and I. He puts his phone on the table behind us with the recorder on, then, he walks out of the church. He did not return. Just maybe his heart will be touched if he listens to it, because God really took control of the delivery of that sermon! Praise the Lord!Tucker was really upset that this man took pictures of me. He went up to the phone after church to try to delete my picture, however the phone was all in Thai and neither he nor BletJaw could figure the picture mode out.The next day we found out that 2 other villages had called him to come and do his magic healing for them. I plead with God to remove this man and his witchcraft from our villages forever. All the villages around us here are so important and special to me. The pull of the devil on them to continue in their heathenism is so strong, that even after we have been here 5 years, loving them, praying with them, helping and educating these people, they have such a difficult time to understand. I simply cannot bear to have even more concentrated evil come upon them.I read Acts chapter 13 today about Paul and Barnabas preaching in synagogues and going to Paphos because the deputy of that city wanted to hear about the word of God! Elymas was a sorcerer. He tried to stop them from talking to the deputy about God. He wanted to turn the deputy away from hearing the truth. Mrs White writes about it in Acts of the Apostles 167:“Not without a struggle does Satan allow the kingdom of God to be built up in the earth. The forces of evil are engaged in unceasing warfare against the agencies appointed for the spread of the gospel, and these powers of darkness are especially active when the truth is proclaimed . . . But the faithful gospel worker need not fear defeat at the hand of the enemy; for it is his privilege to be endued with power from above to withstand every satanic influence.”“At the present time, when the end of all things earthly is rapidly approaching, Satan is putting forth desperate efforts to ensnare the world. He is devising many plans to occupy minds and to divert attention from the truths essential to salvation . . . But God’s faithful messengers are to go steadily forward with their work. Clothed with the panoply of heaven, they are to advance fearlessly and victoriously, never ceasing their warfare until every soul within their reach shall have received the message of truth for this time!”   Acts of the Apostles 220Please pray for these Karen people.  Pray that the power of God will go forward in this heathen land. Pray that as the time for our labor grows shorter, our efforts will become more intense, and that there will be no limit to our zeal!