A Miracle

today at palo blanco, i ate lunch with a miracle. he is 9-year-old edward, and i thought i'd share his story with you.

at palo blanco, most of the children come from difficult homes where they are regularly starved and abused. edward was no different, infact, his situation was one of the worst ones, and the effects certainly manifested themselves in him at school. he began as a fairly well-behaved boy, but this year when he came back, he was different, and not in a good way. suddenly he was angry, malicious, disobedient, and always intent on hurting his fellow students and teachers. jan burkey was doing a great deal to work on him, and trying to get to the bottom of the situation. we knew he was abused, but so are most of the other kids, and their behavior didn't compare. just last week, in the wake of the dominican halloween, the cause of edward's problems surfaced: he had been involved in witchcraft. near his home, a group of haitian witchdoctors had moved in, and in rebellion against his parents, he had gone over to their house and began helping in their rituals - chanting, burning candles upside down, cursing people around him, and listening to the devil, things i had only heard about before they became so real. after a few of these encounters, edward's father found out what he had been doing, and as punishment, edward was tied to a tree and left without food for 2 days. (this was over the weekend, so we weren't aware of his absence) but this little boy's experience of being tied to a tree was much more than physical. he told us later that while he was sitting there, the devil spoke to him, in his head. at first, edward called him 'pajaro malo', which means evil bird, and said that this pajaro malo had come to live in him and tell him what to do. the bird told him that his name was lucifer, and edward said that it told him to stay away from the christian school, that it and the people there were evil, and it also prompted edward to kill his sister, jericha. edward did infact almost strangle her on the school grounds, until one of the teachers found them, and took him to speak with jan, at which point we found all of this out. even as she spoke with him, we could see past the malice in his bloodshot eyes, and all i saw was fear in a little boy. he didn't like the evil bird anymore, he said, but he had to do what it told him. so much horrible power over his young life, but we knew of a greater power that could save him, and that day in the office, he accepted Jesus, and told the devil that he no longer had power in his life. what an incredible struggle that day, and what a miracle! for the rest of the day, he looked so tired, but at the same time, he was happy, happier than we had seen him in ages. he is such a different little boy now, and loves to tell people the way that Jesu Cristo beat the pajaro malo in his heart. he is free, and his life is now a testimony to the Lord's power. please pray for edward as he continues on in what will certainly be a long hard journey, as he still is in the same living situation. pray also for his sister, and his family, that God would work in their lives as well. lastly, pray that this house of witchdoctor's would be removed from the midst of the palo barrios, so that no more evil can come there. Praise God for what He's done!!

well, other than that, teaching and sponsorship are going well. i actually got to spend a relaxing weekend at the beach with some of my fellow missionaries, which was a wonderful break. (that's me on a palm tree) that got me charged for the christmas project, which i'm now knee-deep in and loving it! it's taken a lot of planning, but it's fun to spend afternoons making it with the kids at ANIJA. if any of you are sponsoring a child at ANIJA through Kids Alive, look for one coming in your mail, it should arrive around the beginning of december. and by the way, for those of you who aren't sponsoring a child, it's a wonderful, wonderful way to get involved with what we're doing down here.......i'll be hopefully giving a presentation all about it when i come home for christmas, at college church, so please talk to me if you're interested. i took the pictures of these kids todya, they're so precious!! haha, ok, well, i didn't mean that to be a sales-pitch, but being here with the kids just makes the coolness of sponsoring much more real! : ) anyways, thanks for your prayers, God certainly encourages me and works in the lives of the children through them. God bless you all, and have a great week!!

~Allison