Maria

A young father called the church asking for help. Their 5-year-old adopted daughter had been suffering from a horrible malady. She awoke every night with terrors. Tearing her clothes off and sleepwalking, she would run throughout the house screaming and crying, “Get off me, Get off me!” She wasn’t aware of where she was, and she would run into walls and doors sometimes until her nose and lips were bloodied. They would hold her down but were unable to awaken her. Finally, she would fall down and go back to sleep. Most nights were like this. They were frightened and exhausted and alone.

They had been to every medical specialist, but no one could help, and they were out of options. Neither he nor his wife had been raised in a religious home, but they knew the urban legend that the Church knew something about these things. The Pastor’s wife, who answered the phones, called Helder. It was known that Helder did know something about these things.

The young mother invited Claire and Helder into the family room and motioned to the couch where, curled up in a tight fetal position, a tiny naked person lay on the loveseat—her back to the couch. Helder sat beside her at her feet and placed his right palm on her left hip. The couple filled in the details of the story the father had told the Pastor’s wife. They adopted Maria at two years old from an orphanage in Mexico. She had been born to a woman in her 30s who could not care for her. They knew little of her family other than that.

Asking for stillness, Helder, under his breath, threw the demon out—whose presence he recognized from the moment he sat down—and then continued to talk with the family while the young man served coffee. Maria woke and curled up in her mother’s lap across from Helder, and her mother pulled a comforter over her. She was gorgeous! Big brown eyes and a shy smile.

After coffee, Helder asked to see the place where she slept. Going by himself, he opened the closet door, “gave the bedroom a thorough cleaning,” and returned to enjoy a freshly baked ‘Cowboy cookie,’ and a tear-felt discussion about the good news that we all have a heavenly Father who Loves us—no exceptions! And because She does, we need no longer be afraid.

A week or so later, the young father called to say that since their visit, Maria had slept peacefully every night. To Helder’s knowledge, she has ever since.