Spiritual Warfare

If I have learned anything in the last few years it has been that “there is no victory without a fight, there is no sunrise without a night, there is no purchase without a cost, and there is no crown without a cross.” We came home from out third trip in January to all out war at home, which frankly, always excites me because you only get shot at if you are in the heat of the battle. This war had been building for some time. It actually started back when we took in our African daughter, Mercy. So let me rewind a little back to July 2008. Three weeks after Mercy came to live with us my two sons and I were all laid off from work on the same day. I was unexpectedly laid off from a six figure income job that day and was consequently out of work for almost a year and financially we have never recovered. But the three of us getting laid off was not to be the height of the spiritual warfare for that day. We came home, gave the bad news to the girls and mom, and decided to go to dinner and forget our fears and worries. On the way home from dinner an old man who was off his medication tried to run my wife off the road in our little, safe, gated community where we live. She pulled over and the boys and I got out to see what was going on and he accelerated to about 30 miles an hour and just missed me and hit my oldest son Luke sending him smashing head first into the man’s windshield and then he flew over the car and landed on the pavement as the man sped away. My heart sank to my feet as I watched all of this just a few feet from me. But God! Even though the man’s bumper, fender, mirror and windshield were dented and shattered Luke jumped up off the ground with no broken bones and only a small scratch on his head. The first responders who arrived shortly after and saw the damage to the car could not believe that he had even survived much less was unharmed. That day we knew we were in a war. Over the next several months our entire family’s lives were wrapped up in ministering to Mercy. Here was a girl who had been beaten, had horrible scars all over her body from being tortured, was passed around and rejected over and over again, had been on the run from the guerillas in Liberia, had ingested caustic soda and destroyed her esophagus. Had lain in a hospital bed in Africa for two years begging to die and when we met her was 13 years old and only 48 pounds. Now she was healed physically but spiritually and emotionally she was desperately sick. We poured our lives into her and then 11 months later God sends me to Colombia for the first time. Fast forward now to February 2010 and the war we came home to. Within a week of our third trip to Colombia another abused and broken orphan girl was dropped on our doorstep and a legal battle with her abusers ensued. Because the people had formerly been a significant part of the church I was pastoring, the legal and spiritual battle overflowed into my church and split it to pieces. At the same time the abused girl was an emotional, spiritual, and physical wreck and for the first 3 months she was with us my entire family spent nearly every night praying, singing, and reading scripture over her as she fought with her attackers in horrible nightmares all night long. Of course, during the same time my health was severely attacked and our finances continued to take hits from every side. But with every fiery dart God would also send a little miracle to assure us that, like the 3 Hebrew children, He was with us in the fiery furnace and in the end when we could come out our clothes wouldn’t even smell like smoke! We would pray for money to come in for the orphans and then the phone would ring and someone would donate the exact amount that we were praying for. God continued to send us people to help as well. It was a surreal time in the Bullen family. One day in February, in the midst of all of this, I was down to my last $20.00 without taking something to the pawnshop. I put the $20.00 in my gas tank and said, “ok Lord, I’m in your hands.” That afternoon I was offered a job starting the next day. I was so excited and thankful. The next morning I left to go to my new job and was in a car accident half-way there. It was kind of a freak accident where my car just started sliding and I couldn’t stop it. I had to call my brand new boss and tell him and then be towed to the mechanic. As I was sitting at the mechanic waiting to find out how bad the damage was I received a call that my oldest son Luke (the one who was ran over by the car) had had a car accident that morning at the exact same time as me and that his car had slid off the road and spun end for end into a field “barely” missing several trees and power poles and had landed in the only spot that it could have landed without destroying his car. Later that afternoon I learned that my father had had a very similar car accident that same morning at the exact same time as Luke and my accident. All of us were unharmed and only my vehicle had any major damage. Thankfully my Christian boss understood and I am still working for him today. These are only a few of the things that happened between my third and fourth trip to Colombia and all it did for me was solidify that I was in the right place, God was at work, and the devil was really mad about it. All, wonderful things to know. We survived February and March. The sun began to shine again and in April we went back to Bogota for a fourth trip. But that story is for another post. Here are some quotes from Christians whom God used to change the world that really encouraged me during this time.

“A radical willingness to risk, sacrifice, and suffer is the attitude of authentic ministry.” – John Piper

“Affliction is often that thing which prepares an ordinary person for some sort of an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis

‎”Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus – a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.” — Mother Teresa

‎”God had one son on earth without sin but never one without suffering.” – Augustine