Bat in the Belfry

This week I’ve been participating at the first tri-annual IFES conference for students in southern Africa. The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students is the global umbrella agency for student ministries such as the wellknown InterVarsity ministry in the United States. In South Africa, it is called the SCO—Student Christian Organization, which officially hosted this event held at a camp and retreat facility about an hour east of Johannesburg.

There, I joined some 300 young people from ten African countries for four packed days of plenary and breakout workshop sessions all designed to inspire greater vision for and involvement in missions. 

I had been asked to give two workshops on the topics of personal support raising and how to become a faithful steward (each presented twice) along with one evening plenary session on how African young people could invest their time and talent to prepare for mission work.

Averaging about twenty attenders per session, I found the students amazingly interested in my workshops of personal support raising and stewardship. To me, this is so encouraging because it indicates a trend away from African ministry leaders just relying on funds from America but instead exploring creative alternatives for generating support from their own continent.

About a third of the way through my evening plenary presentation, a big bat flew into the auditorium and kept flying around and around obviously trapped and confused on how to get out again. At precisely the same time, the PowerPoint projector screen froze up and wouldn’t budge. There I was, standing on stage having lost the attention of my audience and totally stuck on any way to move forward.

For some reason, I really sensed at that moment we were facing some significant spiritual warfare opposition. So I halted the program, called everyone to stand and pray out loud and reclaim the meeting and meeting hall for Christ. For a minute or so, the room was filled with the sound of 300 students fervently praying. When I opened my eyes, I saw the bat aim for a small open door beside the platform and fly straight out and simultaneously, the projector screen was right back where I needed it. Now I REALLY had the attention of everyone and proceeded to complete my presentation without a hitch.

I can’t tell you the number of times students came up to me during the rest of the conference and remarked about this “bat” incident. I don’t know how much of the content of my talk they’ll ever remember, but it is evident that for many, they will not soon forget their first power encounter experience of spiritual warfare.