Spiritual Insurance

The ribbon and leaf decoration in this photo is very common among the Tamiang people of Northern Sumatra. This decoration is believed to have magical powers to protect the family living in the home. It is also believed to help protect fisherman at sea. Every year the decoration is removed and a new one is hung up as part of an animistic ritual. It is believed that any family that fails to do this ritual will have an unnatural death in their family during the subsequent year.

Fear of supernatural spirits is common among many of the people groups on Sumatra. In Western culture we would laugh about this and call it superstition. We take for granted the spiritual protection of God that we have enjoyed for many generations. The peoples of Sumatra have not fared as well as we have. For generations they have been in spiritual darkness and have strong, spiritual, generational bondages that are not easily broken.

Part of the Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). The peoples of Sumatra need to hear that Jesus is greater than the spirits that they fear. They need to experience that in Christ the strongholds of the evil one can be destroyed. They need to see believers living out this faith and standing firm and victorious against the prevalent occult beliefs of the community.

Pray for believers on Sumatra to have faith in God’s Word regarding Christ’s superiority over evil spirits.

Pray for new believers to make clean breaks from generational bondages so that the power of Christ can be clearly seen in them.

Pray that the sharing of the Gospel on Sumatra would be accompanied by displays of God’s power over the powers of darkness.