12. Isamva

CHAPTER TWELVE

ISAMVA

NOTE: Isamva. The word means evil spirit, in the tribal tongue Kisukuma. The Nsukuma knows that demon possession is by no means uncommon in the tribe, and he readily differentiates between demon possession and mental illness.

One late afternoon a man came “from over the hill.” He begged us to go to his house and drive away an evil spirit that had taken possession of his wife and was driving her into terrible acts of violence. It was with grave misgivings that we consented, as we had never before been faced with such a challenge, but we set out with one of our African converts. On reaching the house, we were immediately convinced that there was something unhuman or superhuman dominating the woman. She rushed at us in a paroxysm of rage, with vile epithets and curses. Her husband, a strong man, held her with the greatest difficulty. I felt an uncanny fear coming over me, and began to pray for our protection. My wife also prayed, and gradually we were led to implore God for the woman’s deliverance. This continued into the night hours, amid frantic efforts of the woman either to get at us or to kill herself. The two African men held her constantly, but despite their efforts she flung herself violently to the floor again and again, and beat her head against its hard surface. For five hours a satanic battle raged, with the woman alternately cursing and threatening us and pleading with us to drive away the spirit (isamva) which was going to kill her if she didn’t go with it. We remained in the hut until 10 o’clock that night, crying to God for the woman’s deliverance. Our clothing was wet with perspiration and we were utterly fatigued. The woman had sunk into a quiet stupor and we felt that we could not remain longer. I asked our African Christian to stay on, and as we rose to go a power impelled me to command the evil spirit, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to come out of the woman and not to return. The next morning, our African Christian came home and reported that the woman had passed from her stupor into a quiet sleep, and he left her still sleeping. The Lord Christ honored our feeble faith and completely delivered the woman, who shortly thereafter accepted Him as her Saviour and has lived a victorious Christian life ever since. For a number of years she has been our senior Bible woman, and has been used on several occasions to deliver others from demon possession.

Today the woman of this story, Maza Nkamba, conducts the daily morning devotions in the women’s wards of our general and maternity hospitals.

Africa Inland Mission Wm. J. Maynard Tanganyika Territory, East Africa ~ end of chapter 12 ~ http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/

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