Ask a Missionary - Catch The Fire

well. Sometimes he goes after family members back
home: ailing parents, unwilling grandparents, doubting
“friends,” flagging support. And sometimes, in a
seeming lack of creativity, he’ll boldly challenge our
spiritual foundation with doubts: God’s existence,
salvation, spiritual gifts, our future. 1
With chilling accuracy, he further expounded on the reality
of the principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness in this world.
Finally, he asked Brigada readers, many who are front-line missionaries,
to reply to this question: How can we train for the realities
of spiritual warfare in mission work? Peter, the first reader to
comment, said it well: “Simply being forewarned can make a huge
difference.”
———————————————————
That first week in Moscow was itself a forewarning, a loud
wake-up call for the need to be trained in handling spiritual attacks.
Shirley, my missionary counselor, had guided me station
by station through the confusing Moscow train system. All the
while, she spoke of routinely encountering Satan’s attacks. When
the train approached our final station, we pushed our way toward
the doorway, through the too-close-for-comfort crowd. The real
pressure of the crowd at that moment illustrated with unsettling
clarity the also real but unseen pressures satanic forces can apply.
Missionaries and the mission fields of the world are particular
targets of the enemy of our souls.
Now, one week after my forewarning in Moscow, a different
train is finally slowing to a stop in Perm, the largest city in this
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