on the 3rd day, we visited this village.. this is the farthest village we've ever been to.. so far the farthest village we've been to take about 2hrs by foot.. but this time.. it's 3hrs journey by 4-wheeler.. so it's really FAR and high up in the mountain.. i really thank God there's roads for cars to drive thru so we didnt have to trek all the way~
but having a 4-wheeler oso didnt mean we can sit back and relax.. the entire journey was so bumpy and dusty.. we have to be mindful not to breathe in too much dust plus not falling off the truck.. busy ar.. in the end we all got aches and bruises from the ride.. but thank God no one fell off or got seriously injuried... and also thank God it wasnt raining.. coz if it's raining, the roads will be muddy.. and it'll be even more dangerous to go uphill...
though the journey was tough.. i fell in love with the village right aft i reached there.. i love the open-concept of the church.. i love the kids/villagers.. i love the river/waterfall.. though i got beaten by leeches twice here (on the way to the waterfall).. !$)*$#(! those leeches.. sucked my blood.. and it hurts when you remove the leeches here.. argh! @$)!@()*%# them... heard that salt will kill them.. i'm gonna bring a packet of salt with me the next time i go for mission trip again..
alright.. though i love this village the most.. this is also where we experienced ALOT of spiritual attacks/disturbances... so this post is going to be long, coz i'm gonna explain them...
before we came to this village, we heard of how "powerful" the evil spirits were over here.. so much so there's disturbances for the villagers every single night.. even pastor lizun and "rocky" min were visiting this village for the first time, so we were all very unsure what we can find/will face in this village.. and it's quite freaking at times to be so unsure.. but we just trusted God and went ahead..
before we began our night service.. it started to rain very very heavily.. but once pastor lizun and us prayed abt it, the rain stopped immediately.. we were glad God stopped the rain coz so more ppl will come and attend the service.. nothing can stop God's people from coming!
the village youth sang a few songs to begin praise and worship.. all the kids and adults were singing very loudly and dancing to every songs.. we were worried that the church might collapse with everyone jumping so hard since it's built on stilts.. and the church was shaking and bouncing as we're jumping and dancing.. but God is good.. He held the church up while we praised Him with all our hearts..
then we had to sing a few songs to lead in praise and worship.. somehow we were all VERY VERY distracted this time.. normally we'll really sing with all our hearts and rejoice at our best.. but this time, we were just very dead and distracted.. uncle john noticed this and immediately warned us in between the service, "you are all very distracted, FOCUS!".. we saw how stern and serious uncle john was and so started to treat this more seriously.. thank God we performed a good skit and pastor lizun had a good sermon with the villagers..
normally for all our services, uncle john will call for those who wanna us to pray for them to stand forward aft the sermon.. but somehow this time, he changed and asked everyone to pray together instead.. right at that moment, all of us lifted up our hands and prayed to God in our own languages.. also at the same time, the dogs outside the church began howling and barking VERY VERY loudly for quite some time.. we know tt's not good but we continued praying to God with all our hearts and trying to block out all distractions.. which also included having MANY MANY insects biting us.. we continued praying and singing a worship song.. and with that, the dogs and insects stopped disturbing.. and we can feel a strong sense of holy spirit with us in the church protecting us.. it was really amazing how God can protect His people.. once again, nothing can stop us from worshipping the Lord!
aft the service, it's time for us to sleep.. well~ tt's when my nightmares began.. many things happened that night but i will just focus on 2 incidents bahz..
because i've heard of how this place will have disturbances every night, so i brought my mp3 along to listen to songs while i sleep.. so i'll only hear my songs and not anything else.. i was listening on a shuffle mode so there's a mixture of pop and christian songs.. but somehow, everytime.. EVERY SINGLE TIME when it came to a christian song, the song was cut halfway.. silence.... then moved on to the next song.. initially i thought nth much of it.. i thought maybe i pressed the buttons accidentally.. so i put my mp3 on hold.. but even aft tt.. ALL the christian songs still got cut halfway! i got really freaked out.. and decided to stop listening and tried to sleep asap...
but then everytime i wanna sleep.. in fact.. on the verge of when i was abt to sleep.. i cld feel a strong pull which causes me to wake up again.. this happened not just once or twice as well so i got freaked out again.. thank God everytime i'm awake, keith or uncle john or other youth will be awake.. so i know i'm not facing all these alone.. all these distrubances lasted from ard 2am to 5am.. i got really pissed off by that time and began scolding against the evil spirits.. asking them to stop and leave us alone in Jesus's name.. right aft tt i finally fell asleep.. haix.. i shld have prayed earlier..
when it's morning time.. the youth then began to share our experiences of spiritual attacks.. i guessed all of us, including myself, waited till morning to share our experiences so we will not freaked one another.. and most of us really experienced alot of disturbances that night.. some of us heard noises, like joshua heard someone calling his name to ask him to come out of the church.. keith hearing a distorted voice singing or evil laugh.. and others.... haix.. all these experiences are so real.. a really testing of our faith... but God is good.. because He is far greater and powerful than all the other gods.. He helped us counter-attacked every single attacks from the evil ones.. i believed because we have God in our hearts, so all the evil spirits could do was disturbing us and not able to touch us.. AMEN and thank GOD for that!
because of all these experiences, all our faith strengthened by many folds.. my first time experiencing such a serious spiritual attack but thank God i didnt give in at all but firmly believed that God will protect us.. AMEN!



not only those spiritual attacks opened our eyes to see the wonders of God.. but we also see how God protects and provides for the villagers here.. for example, the villagers were able to grow rice/padi on dry grounds here.. we know normally u have to grow padi on wetlands.. but they just grow padi on hard solid grounds here.. no wonder we find the rice here tasted very differently but amazingly yummy! God is so good to provide food for his people! everything is possible with Him!
we also discovered giant cucumber here.. it's so so BIG! and YUMMY! pat and me just came to a conclusion that though we have everything we want back home (we do not have to worry about survival or hunger or not meeting any basic needs), God is fair because He also provide for those who did not have enough.. this is just a give and take thing bahz.. we got more of this, less of that, but they got more of that, less of this.. :D
while waiting for lunch, we were supposed to leave before lunch but the villagers insisted us to stay for lunch.. so well we did.. and so we got more time to have fellowship with the villagers.. we played games with the kids.. simple games like throwing the ballons up and down, singing simple songs, just letting them sit on our laps or even just teaching them how to do high-five.. all these simple things made them so very happy and contended.. i'm so glad i have the opportunity to do these simple things to make them happy..
when it's time to leave.. we really cant bear to leave though.. the kids were all upset also.. well they didnt cry but they have sadness in their eyes and they didnt want to come close to us anymore.. haix.. this is so sad.. i had to hold back my tears as well.. i really miss them so much now.. cant wait to go back again..
in this village, we experienced the evil ones attacking us.. but it is also in this village, we experienced the strong wonders and powers of God's love, protection and provision for His children/people.. God will reign in this village now.. the evil ones will never have victory!
i will bring praise, i will bring praise,
no weapons formed against me shall remain,
i will rejoice, i will declare,
God is my victory and He is here!