Hans is a shaman

Hans was the guy who had approached our group one night, completely drunk and/or high telling his story how his own people had robbed him that day- "My own people!" He lied that he was homeless and then failed to meet up with me a few months ago and I hadn't seen him since.

I was walking on the Prado the other day and someone patted me on shoulder. I turned around and there he was. He had something white painted on his cheeks and big dark glasses. The writing on his shirt looked like swollen veins were growing out of his shirt and was the name of a death metal band.

We went and drank a pop together. He has a ritual when he drinks a pop. He pulled out a tiny treasure chest, turned away from me to open it. He pulled a pill out, put it into his mouth, stared at the sky for about ten seconds, and drank the whole pop in one lift. I asked him why, and he said it was his ritual to protect him and give him power.

He asked me if I still had the pendant he had given me on the first night. I said, 'yes, it is in my drawer at home.' He mentioned it several times and insisted that I do not lose it. Why would that pendant be so important? What if that pendant brings some sort of curse or something. I don't know the realities or power of that stuff but, I need to be prepared in case there is some witchcraft. If I am going to deal with it, I am looking forward to learning the strategies of the enemy and learning how to fight it.

Maybe the devil tempts in many ways, and on many fronts because someday he will break us. But what if we use those times to turn them for good. For example, I can use this pendant for something good. The first time Juan gave it to me, I told him, this symbolizes our friendship. I need to do more to use it for good. I like the idea that if I keep taking the attacks of the devil and turning them into good, he will stop attacking me, because he is just giving me opportunities to do good.

A few days after I ran into Juan, I invited him to the pizza party we had for our English class. He showed up with two friends. I thought I smelled alcohol on them but all the same I invited them to share with us. We had the final exam in the English class and then we all had pizza. Soon after they said they were leaving and they took their pizza and pop and left. But Juan was very slow in leaving, saying goodbye to everybody and then stopping to talk to me some more. He eventually left.

He reappeared a couple minutes later. I greeted him happily and we talked a little more. He said goodbye and slowly left again.

He reappeared a couple minutes later. This happened about 4 times. He would leave, come back and talk and then slowly leave again. I don't know what it was that kept drawing him back. Was it something desperate inside of him being drawn to some sort of hope he sees in us? Or maybe something evil trying to break us down.

Somehow it came out that we both like to write. He said, I’ll tell you a story. My girlfriend was murdered. She was running and the person she was running with left her. He looked at me, held up a fist with a tremendously tortured look on his face, fear and anger overflowing. “They found her dead,” he motioned that they had slit her throat and wrists. A tear dropped to his pant leg.

Another time when he came back he said that we should go to Sorata. He added, you will feel the energy there. My friend, he pointed to the friend that came with him, is from Sorata. Then Juan told me he is a "Chaman". Finally I figured out this meant he was a Shaman, or like a witchdoctor.

During this time when Juan was talking to me, Fernando was talking to his friends. In reality, we were in Fernando’s church and I was a bit afraid to have brought drunks and shamans into his church. I think those are the people who we should welcome there the most, but Fernando was kindly letting us host our English classes there and I didn’t want to insult him. Later I found out that Fernando was trying to talk to Juan's friends about ways he could help them. He was just as concerned about them as I was, and like me, wanted to help them.

Last week at church I caught something that I’ve heard many times but this time it stuck. The Word of God is our sword in spiritual battle. I started to memorize scripture this week to be ready to pull out during this battle. I don’t know yet how to swing the Bible as a sword but I am going to be swinging in the dark until I hit something. And hopefully slowly I will learn and get good at hitting my target.

Eventually Juan and his friends really left, just before the rest of us left. That night our little family prayed for him and his friends. I see that this battle is too big for me to win. All I can do is take instructions and fight my heart out and be ready for God to take the victory.