Irvin is a neighbor that lives two houses down from our church building. He is always very pleasant and courteous. In fact, often when he saw that we were having our services, if he was listening to loud music, he would turn off the music in order not to interrupt us. But despite his cordial interactions with us, he never accepted our invitations for him to come to our church services. On a couple of occasions, he came close to the church building while we were meeting, but he would only stand outside by the door for a few minutes.
A couple of Sundays ago, something uncommon happened. While I was preaching, Irvin came in and sat down in a chair for twenty minutes, and then he got up and walked out. I was very surprised.
After the service, as we were all leaving and saying goodbye to one another, Irvin’s wife came over to me and told me that she and Irvin wanted to talk. She said, “Irvin is not doing well emotionally. He doesn’t have a desire to do anything. He thinks that his colleagues at work are doing some sort of witchcraft on him because they said something to him about that. As his wife, I need you to help us. I don’t want him to go looking for help from a witch doctor.”
That afternoon, we stayed in the church talking until 3:30 pm. I preached the gospel to them, encouraged them, and confronted them with the Word of God with regard to their lives and their true need.
Irvin was still discouraged when he left, but with the understanding that he must not go to the witch doctors to fix his problems. We have committed to going to their house each time they would like to talk. I have been going frequently to visit them since our conversation that Sunday. In their home, I have been able to preach the gospel and they continue to listen and they ask us to keep visiting and teaching them the Word of God.
We are praying that God would bring salvation to this family.
