The night after I met Mar, the Christian
woman at the massage parlor, we went back downtown to do more follow up and try
to meet and share with new people. Still on a spiritual high from the night
before, I was not completely prepared for the darkness that awaited us.
The particular street we
witness on regularly is always dark, but that night it seemed even more so.
Almost overwhelming. Not only was the evil visible, but it was felt. With
everyone we spoke to, there seemed to be a presence of darkness. One woman we
met told us that she reads the Bible and likes Christianity, but she cannot
become a believer because she has to keep going to the temple to make merit for
her deceased father. Our whole team left feeling discouraged. Strange how a
defeated enemy can make the appearance of victory. But "we do not fight
with the weapons on the world. On the contrary, ours have the divine power to
demolish strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). There is a stronghold of evil
here: in the false religions, in the spirit worship, and in the sin that is
everywhere. But when Jesus came into the world, He shattered the darkness with
the light of his glory. Our little lights now are just taking that glory into
the corners where the darkness thinks it still reigns.
We told one of the amazing missionary women we work with about the intense
feelings of darkness, and she offered a perspective I had never thought of
before. When we go in, we feel the darkness. But what about the reverse? When
we walk down the street, can they see light in us? Does the darkness feel the
bright light of Jesus as we enter the bars? I believe it does, and the gates of
hell tremble because "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness
had not overcome it" (John 1:5).