I was in my first year in junior secondary school. It was a boarding school. My parents had decided to send me and my sisters to a popular girls’ school in our homestate for ‘exposure.’
At that time, my parents were conservative Christians, and the church we attended was word-based – but quite conservative. Even though they believed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, these were not really exhibited – like they were in other pentecostal churches.
I was there for only one year, but it was in that school I first experienced the excesses of pentecostalism – and why people spoke negatively about the manifestations of the Spirit.
It was creepy. And terrifying.
At night, after lights out, these girls would begin a kind of ‘fellowship’. They would pray, sing, clap – then begin to manifest the ‘gifts of the spirit’:
Speaking in wild tongues. Crying. Screaming. Giving prophecies. Twirling. Shaking. Calling out people by name and giving words of knowledge and wisdom – even shameful ones that exposed the hidden things done by other students.
All in the dark, with just one or two candles…Read full post here.
Debby Osa 