Part 11: The Final Attack

By Andrew McChesney

Two weeks before Father’s baptism, he inexplicably grew angry after guests left the house following a small group Bible study in Manaus, Brazil, on Friday evening. He announced that he would sleep in the living room.

The night was darker than usual. Electricity went out in the neighborhood, leaving the houses and streets in pitch blackness.

About 1 a.m., Junior woke up to the sound of a voice shrieking that Father was not going to be baptized.

Junior was scared and didn’t know what to do. He stayed in his room to see what would happen.

The voice screamed again, saying that Father was not going to be baptized.

Junior waited.

He heard someone enter his room.

“Please, son, pray with me,” Father said. “The enemy is attacking again.”

Another voice spoke. “What are you doing?” It was Mother. When she heard the screams from the living room, she had sunk onto her knees and began to pray. Now she invited Father and Junior to join her in pleading for Jesus to chase away the evil spirits.

After some minutes of prayer, Mother suggested that they step outside the house where they would be able to see one another in the dim moonlight.

Outside, Father said he was thirsty. Junior volunteered to go back in and fetch a glass of water. In the kitchen, he spotted a mysterious dark spot on the floor. Calling for Mother, he pointed at the spot and asked, “What’s that?” Mother looked closely at the floor. “That’s hair!” she said.

Back outside, Junior and Mother took a closer look at Father. Big tufts of hair were missing from his head. It looked as if someone had taken a pair of scissors and chopped off his hair haphazardly.

Father put his hands to the top of his head and winced.

“I’ll have to shave my head,” he said. “I don’t care if I’m bald.”

When the sun rose on Sabbath morning, Father felt terribly tired. He was unusually weak after the nighttime attack by evil spirits, as if he had received a severe beating. He decided to pray at home instead of going to church.

After Mother and Junior left, he prayed, “Jesus, don’t let them take over my body. Please be close to me. I don’t want to be possessed anymore.”

Opening his Bible, he read in Psalms 37:5, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (NKJV).

Father understood that Jesus was telling him not to be afraid. Jesus would guide him to his baptism. Sure enough, evil spirits never possessed Father again after that Friday night. But he could still hear them.

Your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open eight churches in the South American Division, including four in Brazil, where Father (Eduardo Ferreira dos Santos) and his family live.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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