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BATTLING THE BANANA SPIRITS

Tawetamofi (click on the picture above to see a larger photo of Tawetamofi performing his money ritual)

June 23, 2005

Spiritual warfare looms as evangelistic Bible teaching began Monday among the Hewa people.

As time for the teaching neared, missionaries Jonathan and Susan Kopf and Keith and Angie Copley heard that a Hewa witch doctor, Tawetamofi, was calling young men to come to his village to live for at least three months. The witch doctor also wants to do some teaching.

The disturbing news needed some investigation. Friday, Jonathan hiked five hours over mountain trails to a village he had never visited to meet Tawetamofi. Not knowing what kind of reception awaited him, Jonathan was pleased with the witch doctor's warm greeting.

The two men talked all Friday afternoon and late into the night about the situation. Tawetamofi explained that a spirit from a banana tree told him in a dream that it was his job to be the savior of the Hewa people.

The banana spirit told him that he had the power to keep people from dying, even when attacked by the evil spirits of the jungle. Any person who was sick and not recovering under the care of the missionary's medicine was to come to him immediately so that he could figure out which evil spirit was causing the sickness and throw it out.

Tawetamofi was calling Hewa young men to come learn this craft so that they together could protect everyone from harm, and so they could have the power to kill lots of game.

The witch doctor listened intently as Jonathan told him of the God who created everything and of the judgment day that is coming. Periodically, he turned to the crowd that had gathered around the two men and made sure they understood everything the missionary was saying.

But Jonathan's message conflicted with Tawetamofi's conviction that it was God who had given the banana spirits the power to teach him what to do.

When Jonathan extended an invitation to Tawetamofi to come hear the Bible teaching, the Hewa man emphatically declined. "From now till the time I die, I will not come to your teaching. And then later when I die, I will happily go to God's judgment fire."

Those were heart-wrenching words for the missionary to hear. He took them as a direct affront from the enemy to keep many of the Hewa people in the dark.

Those of Tawetamofi's village will not hear the teaching now. In that village another teaching will be taking place as the young men seek the help of the banana spirit.

The missionary team among the Hewas asks others to join the spiritual war with them.

"We can only make a big impact in these mountains as we push forward together on our knees," wrote Jonathan. "Please seriously pray daily that God will grab the hearts of these people and that they will be shaken to the core in such a way that it will dramatically change the way they think and live. Pray that this will be the beginning of the spread of the Gospel all over these mountains, even into the other language groups that are all around us."