Romania Part 4: The Watcher, Witchcraft, and the Angel

We lived in the church’s Mission House in Craiova. For a bit of context, the history of the house (in summary) is that a witch first lived there, practiced witchcraft in the house, and also died in the house. After that, the witch's family took over and locked her remaining possessions in the basement where they still remain today, unable to be accessed by the current occupants: the local church. Shortly after the woman passed, the house was used as basically a brothel, and some time after then the church moved in and reclaimed the space as a place to house missionaries. For years Word Race teams have experienced extensive spiritual warfare just due to the house's historic nature, the neighborhood having a renownd reputation for how many residents actively practice witchcraft, and that neighborhood being located within the city nicknamed "The Graveyard for Pastors, Churches, and Missionaries." But over the years and with so much prayer and standing firm in the victory of Christ, the warfare allegedly became less and less intense. And then we showed up.

Nights in Craiova were usually interrupted by sleep paralysis, night terrors, overwhelming attacks of fear, depression, sickness, lust, anger, exhaustion, and apathy. We were woken up more times than not at 3am, which we learned was called "witching hour" due to the fact that more spells were cast during that hour than any other. Soon we began seeing 3am as an hour to intercede and partner with God in the warfare; we spent

many of the nights praying and reading scripture over one another in shifts.

One night we were anointing the house, casting out demons, praying in tongues, and reading scriptures aloud to prepare for a night of all night intercession "night watch" for the Romanian holiday St. Andrew’s Day (an Orthodox holiday filled with superstition, casting spells, and the like). This next part is an excerpt of my reflective journal entry from December 11, 2023:

"During that time of prayer I sat on the spiral stairs of the mission house and looked out the window and watched. A couple days before this I'd prayed with an aching heart to see what God sees, asking Him for eyes to see. That night God asked me to "open my eyes". When I said yes and surrendered the eyes of my heart, God pulled back the curtain shielding the spiritual world from the natural world and I saw a dark figure outside. It was massive and laid on its belly, it was spread out over the buildings and a large section of the city that I could see from the 3rd floor. Its eyes were yellow and glowed, almost like a snake, and they were watching the mission house closely. Its fanged-teeth bared in a menacing, hungry grimace and it laid over the buildings. It’s black, leathery, human-like arms holding it up, its clawed fingers clutching the rooftops. As we prayed I saw a beam of light shoot up into the sky toward heaven, fully encapsulating the house. It was nighttime and logic would suggest that it would have drawn more attention to us being like a beacon of light but rather the demon's eyes crossed and it was confused! It couldn’t see us anymore.

"I experienced another glimpse into this just the other night (12/8/23). We'd been experiencing more warfare in our room, it's become pretty typical. There was a ton of anxiety, agitation, and chaos going on and I think it was spiritual because most others were feeling it too. The night before I had a nightmare where my body was waking up but I couldn't pull my mind out of the dream and I felt afraid. I was sweaty and my heart was racing for a while after. The next night someone mentioned we needed to pray and anoint again and I'd already been thinking it. So we did and I was really submissive and open to the Spirit's leading. As we prayed scripture over the room and over each other I looked out the window of our bedroom (facing the same way as before) and saw the same demon that was watching us that first night. But this time it had grown angry. It was still looking for us, but this time it looked furious rather than confused. It was baring its fang-like teeth in rage and kinda stirring on the spot like it was restless. It turned to the right and I saw it had 4 arms and 2 legs. Seething, it crawled away over the city, it was going to get reinforcement. I prayed and asked God what else was out there, if there were more and then I saw more. Many more! They were spread out over different neighborhoods nearby. I saw something bigger to the left, towards the center of the city and the stadium. In its height it was looming over the city and over the other demons wearing long black robes. It stood up straight like a human. It had long hands and fingers and it was holding some sort of weapon. The weapon was sharp and long like a sword but with many points. It pierced people and pinned them to the ground and they were hurting and dying. This thing had eyes of death and instead of a beard it’s mouth was hanging wide open while black smoke and the substance of hell rushed out of its mouth and filled the neighborhoods around it. It's mouth hung open wide and it was evil. It was pure evil. What I saw was witchcraft.”

It was then that God began telling me I need to speak to “all who have ears to hear” and make them aware of the things He’d shown me. I remember wanting to so badly that it was burning inside, I knew I needed to. After talking with my Squad Leader I’d felt this very strong sense that I needed to wait a little while for some greater understanding of what I saw and a message of hope and encouragement, because the things I’d seen could have easily sparked fear in anyone, as it already had in myself.

So on the same night I wrote this entry I was praying and asking God for understanding and an interpretation of what I had seen and God asked me to look out the window again. Battling my fearful flesh I eventually looked out in obedience but I didn’t seen anything out of those same windows as before. But when I looked out the door (a different direction) and saw an angel!! It was so pure and so faint that I could barely see it, but it was clothed in radiant, white armor and had a purple hue with a helmet and a sword in hand. Its sword was long and it fought the spiritual walls in Craiova, breaking them down. The angel was massive, much bigger than any of the demons I saw. It was so strong and peaceful and fierce and graceful. It was beautiful! Then I looked away because it was hard to see, and the Lord asked me to look again and this time I saw the angel fighting the demon with the robes. This time the angel looked directly at me and smiled! I was reminded of the stadium one day when I saw a vision of angel feet marching next to us and almost stumbled because I felt the ground shake beneath my feet! Then I found out after marching that day the other girls were all praying to see an angel and for an army of angels to march and fight alongside us.

Then God gave me a word, “Child, why do you fear the terrors of the night? Don’t you know that I am greater than he, for I Am the Great I Am and I created him? The battle is won, no weapon forged against you will prosper. I am your shield and I fight your battles. You have nothing to fear! Release your worries and fear Me instead. Speak these words of life and truth, encourage My people. Something great is coming, it’s searching for you wanting you to be the ones pierced with the swords. But I have come to preserve you, to keep you in life! They must get ready, they must prepare themselves to stand in the victory. Speak my words of life. I am near.”

After sharing this with my leaders they strongly encouraged me to share this with the rest of my Squad and I was able to at our all-Squad testimony night. I was also led to share all of this with our ministry host and some long term missionaries at the church. The Lord has since confirmed that the ones already pierced by the swords are local church pastors, leaders, and missionaries though it’s unclear who specifically, just that there are already some under the sword now. Many people, including myself, were greatly encouraged by this message and emboldened to stand firm in Christ’s victory in the midst of the warfare.