Spirits

I haven't posted a non-school related post for quite awhile, so here are a few updates.

My best white friend in Indonesia moved to a different island on Wednesday, so it's been an emotional week, on top of being sick-ish for the past five days.  I only got proposed to once this week, but that's up from zero last week. I bashed my knee really hard on my desk and now it hurts to walk. I think I'm going to finally buy a guitar after almost 5 years of borrowing. It snowed a lot in America. I found some extra work for my helper, so now she has some extra income for her family, which I'm super excited about! She's such a great lady. Our girls and boys basketball teams were both UNDEFEATED the entire weekend at the IISSAC championships and both brought home trophies - boys for the fourth year in a row!

So now that an update is out of the way, there is something else that I really want to write about. There's a certain part of Indonesian culture that I've just been reminded of over and over again lately. I don't know if I'm becoming more sensitive to it or if it's just happening more or what. It has to do with demons and spirits.

Six different things have happened to me or to people I know just so far this year. Here are the stories.

1. I have a friend named G. He's Javanese and he lives in a house with dirt floors. He came to me earlier this year and asked me to pray for protection for his family. He said a tuyul was stealing their money. A tuyul is a Javanese spirit that takes the form of a child and is specifically used by its "master" for stealing things. One can buy a tuyul relatively cheaply from a witch doctor. A tuyul, obviously, can be very beneficial to its master, but the master must care for it as if the tuyul were his own child. If he doesn't, the punishment is very harsh. G's family had reason to believe a tuyul was in their home because a substantial sum of money went missing. G's mom had received some money which she had put in an envelope beneath her pillow before going to bed one night. In the morning, 1/3 of the money was missing. That day, G's dad got paid. Since he suspected there was a tuyul on the loose, he put his $100 in an envelope, sealed it, put it inside a box, put the box inside his wardrobe, locked the wardrobe, and slept with the key in his pocket. In the morning, he opened the envelope - still sealed - and found that $25 was missing. I asked G if he was worried about his money being stolen. He said, "No, because I have a picture of Jesus hanging on my wall. The tuyul won't come in my room". It didn't, and since that time, no more money has gone missing. But they still don't know who the tuyul's master is. Most likely someone they know.

2. Also early this year, I was driving to town at dusk when I saw someone crossing the road. I was still quite a distance away, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It wasn't until I got closer that I realized why. He was demon possessed. I've seen several possessed people here, but this one was different. I can't really explain why. Maybe because I didn't expect it. Maybe because he looked right into my eyes as I drove past him. Maybe because as he looked at me, he arced his body strangely as if he was in pain. Maybe because for that split second, I felt like I was in a nightmare.

3. In my closest group of friends, there are three of us white people and thirteen Indonesians. We call ourselves Team AA, and we spend every Saturday night eating dinner and hanging out together. We are a crazy mix of three different religions (Christian, Catholic, and Muslim) and three different nationalities (Indonesian, American, and German). One of the friends in that group has a close friend named U who sometimes hangs out with us when she's in town. I like her. She's super sweet and gives amazing massages. But she's extremely animistic, and for lack of a better term, I guess I'd call her a medium. She's very open about it, and she'll tell us when there are bad spirits around and she talks about our auras a lot. I go back and forth on whether I believe her or not. I'm very skeptical. But something she said a few weeks ago really made me stop and think. She said that everyone in Team AA has spirits that follow them - not evil spirits or good spirits, just spirits - everyone except the three white people.

4. Two weeks ago I was driving home from town. I don't remember where I'd been, but I was coming home later than normal, and most people had already gone to bed. When I got closer to my neighborhood, I noticed a lone man standing on the side of the road quite a ways up. Again, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I thought it was probably a crazy or demon possessed person out wandering the streets. He was facing me and not moving at all. I braced myself to pass by, giving him a wide berth, but once again, I was not prepared for what I saw. I'm pretty sure that what was standing on the side of the road was a straight up demon. It looked like a partly decomposed dead body. It had no face. I didn't believe what I'd seen, and when I turned to look back, nothing was there.

5. Friday, a friend of mine had her car stolen (Casey and Sharon read: Hesty). She and her husband rent their car out to make a little extra money, and if needed, her husband serves as a driver as well. On Friday, someone rented the car and wanted to drive it himself. He took it to Semarang, a neighboring city. While he was there, he was hypnotized by another man who convinced him to turn over the key and registration. That man disabled the GPS, most likely changed the plates, and last  I heard, the car had still not been found. I've heard of this happening more than once with people stealing motorbikes, cars, money, etc. The Javanese say to never let your mind be idle because when it is, that's when people can hypnotize you. But if your mind is full of thoughts, nobody else can get into it.

6. Also on Friday, I was talking to my helper, Ibu Sri. She asked me to pray for a lady she knows. The lady is over 100 and she is trying to die, but she can't. So for the last two weeks, all she has been able to do is lay in bed, crying and screaming in pain. The reason? There is a spirit inside her that won't let her die. It used to be a very common practice for Javanese people to buy spirits from the witch doctor that would give them extra strength or long lasting beauty. And they say it works. But the problem is that the spirit never leaves you, and it keeps you alive when you are ready to die. In most cases, the spirit has to be cast out first, but that in and of itself is very painful and pretty much guarantees death for the affected person. Ibu Sri is very concerned for this family because even though they are all Christian, they won't call a pastor to come and pray over her. Instead, they called in a witch doctor all the way from Jogja. He came and did whatever it is he does and said that she would die on Wednesday. The whole family took the day off work to be with her. That was a week and a half ago. She's still alive and still in pain.


I don't tell you these stories to scare you or to thrill you, but so that you can KNOW. I realize that the issue of demon activity and spirits can be a pretty controversial topic for a lot of people. Many westerners refuse to believe the stories. To be quite honest, I probably wouldn't believe a lot of them if I hadn't seen as much as I have firsthand. If you choose not to believe anything I just wrote, that's fine. If you think I must have an overactive, paranoid imagination, I understand. But don't be fooled - the power of darkness is very real and very much alive, whether you choose to believe in it or not. And just because it manifests itself one way in one culture doesn't mean it looks the same in every culture.

We have a saying over here. In the West, Satan wears a three piece suit. Here, he shows his face.