Before going to the field, I knew that spiritual warfare existed, manifesting itself in many ways throughout different cultures, but I could not point to a specific experience of it. To my knowledge, I had never seen demon-possessed people or demonic activity, so I often dismissed spiritual warfare as something that existed “out there,” but certainly not in my own life. 

Then, shortly after moving to the field and beginning my work, I began to sense a deep, evil darkness whenever I stepped into our community center, a stark contrast to whatever attitude and energy I brought to work that day. It permeated the small office space, foreboding and overwhelming, tangible and yet, seemingly nonexistent. It wasn’t like the sense of dread that an unhappy worker may experience as they show up to a job that they dislike; it felt like an overwhelming whisper that permeated my body, trying to convince me that all was hopeless, our work was meaningless, and our unbelieving students were too far gone.

I mentioned this experience to my colleague and she readily agreed that she had been experiencing the same thing. In addition to our internal experience of the darkness, our students had been inexplicably out of sorts recently, seemingly more fearful and anxious. Once we declared the sensation to be spiritual warfare, my colleague and I began to pray more intently for the Holy Spirit’s presence to surround our office every day. We prayed for protection for our students and for us and that the darkness would be cast away from our community center. 

Almost immediately, the sense of hopelessness and fear receded from our office. We became more joyful in our engagement with our students, and they became more peaceful and confident in their studies. 

Our intentional acknowledgment that there were spiritual attacks aimed at our work by the Evil One empowered us to pray confidently for protection and safety, and we were blessed to see the Lord provide. 

While this was a seemingly mild case of spiritual warfare (compared to tangible demonic activity experienced by many of my sisters and brothers on the field), I was sobered by the reality of the Evil One working against us, even in our tiny community center. In the meantime, I was encouraged by the immediate response of the Holy Spirit to protect, strengthen, comfort, and encourage us.