Soup and Jack and Caroline



On Tuesday we set up an enormous pot of lentil soup on the sidewalk outside the church and passed it out to whoever wanted some.


We made a few hundred invitations and passed them out in the neighborhood the day before. The Filipus students made the soup that morning in a huge pot that we bought at a restaurant supply store. We set up a little gas burner on a table outside the church to keep the soup warm. Inside the church we set up a few tables with table cloths. We bought a bunch of disposable bowls and spoons, napkins, and bread.


It was a cold day and a little rainy so I was a little worried that no one would come, but in the end the cold weather was a good excuse for people to come inside the warm church and have a bowl of hot soup. We passed out around 50 bowls of soup, mostly to people who had never been to the church before. We didn't give them bibles, or cd's, or anything else... just soup. It turned out to be a good way to love our neighbors. Guys who make a living collecting garbage on the side of the road pulled their carts up to the church and came inside for a while. Neighbors came who never realized there was a church just down the road. Families came by out of curiosity and to get out of the cold. It was exciting to see an idea work so well. We'll definitely do it again.


One of the families who came wasn't really interested in the soup... "Mustafa" had come to church the previous Sunday with his parents to ask our pastor to pray for him and now they were back for some more prayer. Mustafa spent some time as an exchange student at a university in the U.S. and that's where he started to hear voices. Since that time he has two distinct voices that have been speaking to him, terrorizing him. Mustafa became convinced that the voices are demons, one male and one female. He wanted prayer but the sanctuary was full of people eating soup, so I offered to take them downstairs to the "nursing room" where we could pray. I took one of the Turkish believers with me and began asking questions of Mustafa. He explained how the voices began to speak to him and how at first he blamed the neighbors for making noise at strange hours. He explained that the voices wouldn't tell him their names but that they had been with him for months and we wanted them to go away. I asked him to think about what he thinks might have caused demons to harrass him this way but he couldn't think of anything. I asked him to read a passage from Luke 8 with me, a passage about Jesus casting out demons. Jesus asks the demons to identify themselves and they answer that they are "legion" because there are so many demons. Eventually Jesus casts the demons out and the man is freed from his oppression.


I explained that there may well be a spiritual dimension to the problem that Mustafa was experiencing and that we would pray for him. I spent some time describing a Christian perspective on spiritual power. Demons are real, I told him, and any spiritual power that isn't from Jesus can only be evil. This gave me an opportunity to give a detailed presentation of the gospel. I also explained that his problem most likely has a psychological dimension... and his parents quickly replied that Mustafa has been going to a psychologist. It was time to pray.


I told Mustafa that I wanted to pray with him first using a liturgy that I have used on other occasions to pray for healing. It's a ceremony that I adapted from a Catholic liturgy. I gave him a copy of the prayer so that he could take it home and remember what we had prayed. After we were done with that prayer the Turkish believer and I prayed specifically for the demon issue. We prayed for healing and then commanded the demons to leave. There wasn't any hollywood style manifestations of demonic activity, but Mustafa assured me that the demons weren't happy that we were praying. I stopped to talk with Mustafa a few times as we prayed and after I had prayed three times, each time commanding the demons to leave, Mustafa said that they had not left. Just as we were about to end our time of prayer for the day I felt like I should do what Jesus does in the Luke 8 passage. I looked at Mustafa and said, "what are the names of those demons?" Mustafa replied, "They don't tell me." And again I looked at him and said "I know, but now I AM ASKING their names." Mustafa paused a moment and said solemnly, "He says his name is Jack. And she says her name is Caroline." This kind of experience was a first for me... but it seemed to flow and God seemed to be blessing our time together, so I prayed for him a final time, this time commanding Jack and Caroline to leave Mustafa permanently.


When it was over Mustafa said that he wasn't hearing the voices for now, but he felt that the problem wasn't yet completely resolved. I invited the family to come back to church on Sunday and again stressed the need for them to consider what Jesus was asking them to do with their lives. They promised to be back in church on Sunday for more prayer... that's tomorrow.


Pray for Mustafa. Pray that he does come back with his family. Pray that he finds the deliverance and healing that he is looking for. Pray that he finds Jesus.


When we finished praying I went back upstairs to a church buzzing with enthusiasm and lentil soup. I served two bowls to Mustafa's parents. Mustafa wasn't hungry.

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