This is not just a missions problem. My husband and I were in Thailand. Due to a curse (which I did not know about at the time), I became very ill: involuntary weight loss and weakness of my legs which prevented my walking unassisted. My survival was in question. Then a Thai believer identified the problem as a curse. He prayed for me and I was totally healed within 30 seconds, after having been ill for 2 months.

Our church at home was aware of my illness so when we returned, they asked what happened. We told them. Suddenly all sorts of supernatural phenomena started coming out of the woodwork. In a small church (seated 200 and seldom full) five people or groups came to tell us their experience, always with, "No way I'd discuss this with the pastor; he'd think I was crazy."

Thus a conspiracy of silence surrounds those who are afflicted with evil spirits--they suffer in silence because of the defective worldviews of their pastors, worldviews that do not include, in any practical sense, the "middle storey" of demons, witchcraft, curses, and deliverance from the same.

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Mary Vanderkooi
Kale Heywott Church (KHC)
Soddo, Ethiopia