Less than a year out of nursing school, I accepted the position of night charge nurse in a locked psychiatric ward. Up to this point, I had lived a pretty sheltered life. But my worldview was quickly shaken to the core when I saw firsthand the havoc that Satan wreaks on humanity. From 13-year-olds who had birthed three children so their parents could have more welfare money, to other teenage patients so violent that it took four grown men to subdue them, this world became a part of my reality. Strung out on drugs and commercially super-sexed, these children were under satanic control. I had to wrestle with the question, how could God allow this to happen to these children? The great controversy between God and Satan was played out before my eyes as a new Seventh-day Adventist. More than ever before, I appreciated my gift of free choice and the breathtaking cost of salvation.

After leaving that unit, I worked in more benign areas of nursing and wondered why God had put me in that unit in the first place. However, from that experience I learned to recognize the look of pure terror in the eyes of a person who had lost control of their lives. Twenty-five years later, when my husband and I served in Papua New Guinea, I could understand the oppression described in Hebrews 2:15, “Those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” So many people we encountered were trapped in fear of the spirits’ ability to kill, maim and destroy, often through their own family members.

But, thankfully, Jesus does not leave souls in fear. Through His death, He destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and releases those who because of fear were in bondage. What good news! Jesus has destroyed Satan’s ability to hold people in slavery. YOU CAN BE FREE!

Whether in your own life or in the lives of unreached people in foreign countries, Jesus Christ has come to set the captives free. What an incredible opportunity!

Please partner with Adventist Frontier Missions to bring eternal freedom to unreached people so that together, in confidence, we can proclaim, “The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17).

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