Every day at their mission projects around the world, AFM missionaries work to contextualize the Gospel of Christ, framing spiritual realities in ways that make sense and relate to people’s experiences in their local cultures.

As the editor of Adventist Frontiers, I sometimes wonder if I should be doing more to contextualize our missionary stories, framing the spiritual realities they portray in ways that make sense to you, the reader. So far, I have chosen to leave our missionary stories quite raw, with no artificial sweeteners. But I recognize the risk we take in publishing a magazine so packed with amazing, alien things—the risk that it is so far removed from the polite, rational, Western lives of our readers that it simply does not compute.

How will you respond when you read stories like those this month from Fred Coker (p. 16) about demonic possession or Jason Harral’s article (p. 20) about voodoo sacrifices? I have never personally witnessed demonic possession or the granting of satanic favors as a result of voodoo sacrifice, and I suppose many AF readers haven’t witnessed it, either. But let’s not for a moment think that these are just quaint superstitions playing out in ignorant minds. These are overpoweringly tangible realities for millions of people all over the world. This is the battlefield terrain of the great controversy between Michael and the dragon across Africa, Asia and many other parts of the world.

Please keep praying for our missionaries as they navigate this battlefield each day of their lives, pushing forward and liberating captives.

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