Wednesday, March 24th

I spent a few hours with Jefferson and Helena Zeon from the Orphanage.

While they were there, Samuel Minikollie from Beloved Baptist Church came to visit. He went to Carver Mission. As we were visiting, he was telling us the story of how his church has been given fair warning that there will be a Devil Festival for the next thee months in his town. He was very passionate as he told the story. Part of the celebration will be the change of a demarcation line for the town. They will be dancing all around the town and the devil will come there. This is a Bassa and Kpellee area. As he was telling the story, he mentioned the name DURZON! I couldn't believe what I just heard!

This was the town I used to teach Sunday School every Sunday afternoon when I was a teenager. I went with Obra Bliss, who led the church service. I knew the big cotton wood tree where the girls society was located. I would walk around the town gathering children for the Sunday School. Here is a picture of me with some of the children! I was about 18 years old here.

Samuel started the church in Durzon, that has grown. They have been meeting in a school building in the middle of the town. But now they are told their church cannot meet for the next three months because of the Devil Festival.

He also shared about a small river that runs near the town. The townspeople believe that catfish that live there are their ancestors and children. They worship them, and won't eat them. They believe if they do, they will die. But the Christians are trying to tell them that God has made all creation of it's own kind, and fish are safe to eat, they are not their ancesors. The Christians have shown them that they are still alive, after eating the fish.

Samuel also told of Annie, a Zoe Woman (who is the leader of the girls' devil bush) who doesn't want her granddaughter to go into the girls society for initiation. She moved her granddaughter, Kathryn Smith (13 year old) so she could go to church. But the Zoe Woman has still been blinded and cannot see the truth. The young children are taken into the bush from as young as 4 years of age for a few years. They are circumcized, given tribal markings on their back and sometimes beauty marks on the face. If there is infection from using unsterile instruments and the child dies, they say the "devil has swallowed them up." The parents are instructed not to mourn or cry. There are initiations with sacrifices and formal secret initiation rights. They are taught ancestreal worship, and indoctrinated into having exta powers. They are also taught how to cook, and are prepared for marriage at a young age.

Some of these girls are saved and baptized after they come out of the Devil Bush, but there is a lot of satanic bondage in many of their lives. Please pray for Annie and Kathryn that they will personally meet Jesus, the life giving source of life.

They also talked of their concern with the Boyo in Maryland that happened last week. This is where a "heart man" kills someone and eats their heart and drinks their blood wanting to have more power during the election time that is coming next year. Allen Yancy Jr and Dan Marias both around the age of 60, have been arrested along with 10 others. This is a way leaders in a community try to intimidate the people to vote for them. When they commit Boyo, they feel they are untouchable. What a lier and fool the devil is.

I asked about the village of King Gray that was near the beach where we grew up. That Devil Bush is gone!!! There is now a Catholic school and church there now.

They also told me about General Butt Naked who was Krahn, one of the most feared men in Liberia. By the way, we met Joshua Milton Blahyi on our way back through Accra, Ghana. He also told us his story. He was known as the Hitler of Liberia. He became a Satanic Priest at the age of 7 years, and joined the boy soldiers at the age of 11 years. Satan told him to fight naked, as it would give him greater power. He had super satanic powers. All those who fought with him also fought naked. They were feared greatly.

He had a Saul - Damascus Road conversion. He had just killed a three month baby, ate it's heart and was getting ready to attack a government force when he and his army were crossing over the new Montserado bridge from Bushrod Island. He was stopped by a voice behind him. He said it was Jesus speaking in Krahn who told him that he needed to serve another General! He tried to use his guns and they blew up and wouldn't fire. He felt shame for the first time in his life and clothed himself. He accepted Jesus as Savior. The first woman who was saved after he became a believer was a mad naked woman! Talk about transformation.

He escaped for his life many times. He went to neighboring countries and worked in refugee camps as an evangelist. Many knew him in his former life and believed because of his new life. He felt the needed to come back to Liberia and stand trial for the atrocities and war crimes he had committed. He confessed everything he had done. He had killed thousands. At first they didn't believe all he said he had done. Amnesty International has pardoned him because he is helping so many who he had wounded. He is now an evangelist, living a testimony of a totally transformed life.

Pray for him, his wife and now 4 children for safety and the strength to live a life that continues to transform Liberia and surrounding countries.

In the evening, we went to dinner at Christine's with her staff. Fellowship was so rich!

On our way back to the guest house, we stopped by the Radio Station. Dan led one of the night staff to Jesus and give him his own Bible. It's eternity appointment-moments like this that make a day overflow with JOY!!!