Emanuel or Demon Child?

Ok, I am MAD!  Really MAD!

In Liberia, children with special needs are often viewed as a curse on a family.  If a family will not destroy their child, the family is viewed as a curse on the community.  

Two days ago, we moved Emanuel into the loving home of Augustine and Josephine.  Augustine and his wife are now experiencing persecution from their entire neighborhood.  The neighborhood has rallied to have Emanuel removed.  The neighbors call Emanuel, “demon child.”  Mothers are afraid that, “The demons from Emanuel will possess their children and will kill them.”  The community has gone to Augustine’s landlord and voiced their complaint.  The landlord approached Augustine and Josephine and told them that the child was not welcome in the house.  He said he didn’t want a demon in his house.  Augustine told the landlord that if the child goes, he goes and that Emanuel was now part of his family.  It is still unknown rather they will be evicted.  Please pray!

The story doesn’t stop there.  A friend of mine told me, “I don’t understand with the problem is, he passed the witch test.”  He went on to tell me that when Emanuel was a newborn baby his family tested him to see if he was a witch.  I asked him what was involved in the test.  He told me that they mixed together a special poison and had Emanuel drink it.  If he lived, he was not a witch.  If he died, he was a witch.  He couldn’t understand why the community wanted him removed after Emanuel had passed the test.  

Later, while expressing my disgust to another person, he told me that Emanuel’s feet where the way there are because of two reasons.  First, his mother must have been out late at night while the demons were about.  The demons must have entered the child at that time.  Second, while the mother was sleeping, the child must have left the mother’s womb several times to go out with the demons and then returned before the mother awoke.  Emanuel’s special needs are the result of his demonic activity.  

Please pray!  I have learned that the problem we are facing is not isolated to Emanuel’s family.  It is the mindset of the culture.  I fear for Emanuel’s safety.