Jennifer sits in the back seat, Ruthie and I in the front.
An hour ago, we registered over 60 kids for our afterschool program and gave out over 30 backpacks. Now we have a window of time to get Jennifer to Best Buy and help her pick out a CD for her fourteenth birthday before figuring out how to get backpacks and school supplies for the thirtysomething kids who didn't get any.
- Ruthie, my mom wants to know if she can send you something, Jennifer says.
- Send what? asks Ruthie.
- It's cause there's this picture, and it's so scary of Leslie. I couldn't sleep last night, and my mom was crying.
As Jennifer tells it, the story behind the picture is this: Jennifer's mom has a friend who lives nearby, and the kids play together while the moms hang out. Jennifer's younger sister, Leslie, has a white hoody which she wears whenever she can, even in the heat of July in Georgia. So Leslie goes with her mom to their friend's house, plays with the two younger kids, and goes home.
The next day, a picture shows up on the friend's cell phone. In the picture, the friend's two youngest kids are walking in the foreground, and a figure wearing Leslie's hoody sits in the center on the bed. But where Leslie's face should be, a pale, grotesque, masculine face stares straight at the camera.
- Well who took the photo? I ask.
- No one remembers it, Jennifer says.
- And you're sure it's Leslie? She was there on that day?
- Yeah.
- Did they have a mask or something?
- No, but that house is haunted, Jennifer says, there's a ghost that throws stuff and makes noises.
I tell Jennifer to send us the picture. I'm a bit of a cynic about spiritual manifestations, and I still wonder if my experiences in the Philippines were just vivid products of my sleeping mind.
Still, I feel familiar chills moving up my spine and crawling into my skull.
There were things in Papua that were unexplainable... not usually things I saw, but things my dad and friends came across in their ministry and personal lives.
ReplyDeleteI audited a class with Isaac at Dallas Theological, and we talked about spiritual warfare. We read The Spirit of the Jungle and talked to a guy who has done research into the anthropologists and missionaries mentioned in the book.
I believe a lot of it... including some of the things you come across ... can be real. I wouldn't just discount it.
On the other hand, there is no need for fear. Just be well-prepared, and if you ever need help and advice on a specific situation, get it. Take it seriously.