’ll never forget Mariammar. The first night of the meetings her mother brought her to me saying that evil spirits were troubling her. I immediately took her to Bob Paulsen, and we began praying. After 45 minutes of prayer she found relief, and her mother went home praising God. However, the next night the mother found me again and said the evil spirit had come back. Once again we prayed and sang over her for an hour and then sent her home. We were concerned, feeling that she hadn’t experienced full release. The next night I searched for her but couldn’t find her. So the team began praying that God would bring her back to us according to His will.

Four days later mother and daughter returned to where I was working in the children’s meetings. Rejoicing in the answer to our prayer, I told Mariammar that I had a gift for her and asked her to please come back the following night. When she did, I gave her a Bible in Telegu. Immediately she became agitated, and soon her mother came to me and asked me to pray for her because the evil spirits had come back.

Someone took a message to the main meeting seeking help. When no one came, my colleague Mary Jones and I prayed together asking God to give us strength to deal with the situation. As soon as we laid our Bible on her head, she began to convulse and fell to the ground, moaning and writhing as if trying to get away. As we prayed, we were aware that someone else was holding on to her and praying in a strange way. That person then laughed a devilish laugh, and the evil spirit in Mariammar responded back in laughter.

Realizing that Satan was using another woman standing near to keep the evil spirit in, we asked that all the people step back. We again placed the Bible on her, which made her turn violent, throwing the Bible into the air. (I remember wondering how she could throw it so high.)  When she began trying to grab my Bible out of my hands, I held on tightly to it. Then one of her eyes opened to stare at me, and I knew I was looking into the eye of the devil. Bob Paulsen arrived, having received the message for help. The Holy Spirit descended upon him in holy boldness, and he rebuked the devil. Once again Mariammar was released. And for the first time she was able to say “Jesus, save me,” and “I love You, Jesus.”

The next day we went to Mariammar’s village and saw that she had also removed the black circles around her eyes that are common among Hindus. We prayed for her again, and then went inside the house to pray that God would keep out the evil spirits. When Bob began praying, she was attacked, but praise God, it didn’t last long. Within five minutes she was free. Mary and I rode in the truck with the villagers to the baptism.

With singing and rejoicing we drove up to the beautiful Bay of Bengal. A smile of newfound freedom in Jesus spread across her face, and every fiber in her being praised God. The Holy Spirit descended and spontaneous praises and hallelujahs rose throughout the area. Both Mariammar and her mother took my hands in theirs and began running down the beach in newly found freedom in Jesus. We laughed together, praised God together, played in the waves together, sang together. All the hallelujahs in the world could not express the joy experienced that day, not only by those by the Bay of Bengal but in all of heaven.

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Jan Meharry, executive director of the Maasai Development Project, writes from Harvey, North Dakota.