Visitors from the underworld Pt 1 of 2

I was quite surprised, on returning here in Yei—South Sudan, to witness and hear reports of what appears to be an increase in disturbing spiritual activity since my last visit. Stories abound, from alleged demonic abductions of adults and women reporting sexual assaults by mysterious giant men, to troubling patterns of sexual seduction among teenagers. Some days, you simply do not know what you will hear next.

Barely 48 hours after I arrived, my phone rang. One of my disciples urgently needed me to come and help with a deliverance situation. It was already 9:30p.m. A young girl in his neighborhood was manifesting in a way those around her could neither understand nor handle.

We have encountered many situations like this before, in different forms, but the apparent increase has become a matter of serious concern.

Then came Anne.

Anne, not her real name, shared a story that left us with many questions. Before we prayed with her yesterday, she sat with me and two other brothers and recounted what she described as repeated encounters with visitors from another world.

Anne arrived in Yei a few weeks ago from Juba, where she had lived for about three years. Originally from Yambio, a growing town in southwestern South Sudan, she was then a single mother in her mid-to-late twenties.

Desperate to make a better life for herself, she moved around Juba looking for an opportunity. One day, she found five Sudanese pounds on the road. Instead of spending it, she invested it in roasting and selling fresh corn. According to her, by the end of that day she had made fifty-five Sudanese pounds.

The following day, she used the money to buy a carton of beer to resell. Business moved incredibly fast. She said she eventually sold nine cartons that same day. Before long, she had acquired a bar, and within weeks the business was booming.

It was a welcome breakthrough, but, in her telling, something strange soon followed.

One evening, she returned home to the single room she shared with her young son and found the entire room illuminated by a light whose source she could not identify. There were no shadows anywhere.

Terrified, she ran outside and called others to come and see it. They entered the room but saw nothing unusual. She alone could see the mysterious light.

Eventually, she gathered enough courage to remain in the room and lie down to sleep.

Then, she said, a huge, unusually tall white man appeared before her, his body glowing intensely. According to Anne, he reached for her son, and the boy died immediately. She was overwhelmed.

After her son’s burial, Anne said she began seeing the mysterious man more frequently. He told her that if she wanted to see her son again, she would have to follow him to what she called “the other side.”

She said she did.

And there, she claimed, she saw her son again.

She was warned that no one was to know what she had seen or heard.

According to Anne, these visits became increasingly frequent. In time, she said, one of the men there took her as his wife, and she had three children with him, two boys and a girl. She described this man, and others like him, as extremely jealous and possessive. He would not permit her to have sexual relations with another man.

She said this had continued for more than two years.

Anne also claimed that there were many children and adults on “the other side.” What particularly struck me was the way she described its beauty. Each time she spoke about it, there was a strange mixture of wonder and fear in her expression. She insisted that from her first encounter she knew this place was not of this world, even though life there seemed, in some ways, strangely familiar.

I asked her, “How do you get there?”

She motioned with her hands as though something were opening before her.

“They open the gates for you,” she said. “One of them walks in front and another behind. Then the gate opens and we enter.”

She paused before continuing.

“The chairs there are made of gold. There are so many beautiful things there, and beautiful people with spotless skin.”

We listened.

And then came the question that mattered most—How could Anne be set free from something that, according to her, had held her for more than two years?

That is where the next part of her story begins.

Read the concluding part tomorrow.

“The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.”
—Isaiah 42:13