A group of us had gone to the river town of Obidos to help build our church. One
afternoon, missionary Mike heard some weird noises from a nearby wooden house
that was up on stilts. Because he didn’t speak Portuguese, he called me to go to the
house with him. The door was closed, so we knocked. No one answered, but the
noises were very clearly coming from the living room. We could see below the
floorboards that there was a chain coming out of the living room floor and padlocked
to a big rock on the ground. We could not get in.
We waited until after work hours, and sure enough, a young man went into the
house. We right away went and talked with him and asked him what was going on.
He had us go into the living room where his mother was sitting in a hammock, with
her ankle chained. He explained that his mother was crazy and so he left her every
day chained to the floor while he went to work. We asked him if we could pray for
her. As we stood by her side, I asked her what her name was. The demons kept
answering all kinds of things—most of it unintelligible. I finally just got her face in my
hands and said, “I don’t want the demons to speak. I want to talk to this lady. What
is your name?” Finally, I understood her say, “Clara.” I started to minister to Clara,
explaining that Jesus wanted to free her. Once I felt that she was hearing me, then
we cast out the demons in the Name of Jesus! That evening, Clara was completely
set free. Her son unchained her. She was a new woman!
We left the town the next day, but later received the wonderful news that Clara was
going to church with her son and was a completely freed woman! Praise the Lord!