Nicole & Frank,

             32 years ago I was working in Portugal, in a refinery up in the north.

On a five day weekend, we drove down to visit Fatima & Lisbon.

At that time I was an extremely backslid Christian.

For a long time after I was saved I remained in the Catholic Church.

Shortly after I left the Catholic Church I backslid, back to drinking, etc.

My wife & children were still Catholics, so we decide to visit Fatima.

Before I had gotten saved, worship of the queen of heaven was the most important thing to me.

The day I got saved (in Rush Hour traffic on the Kennedy Expressway), I had to make a choice.

I knew I had to choose between the Jesus of the scriptures and the queen of heaven.

I had to deny her and confess him, which I did.

I had done a lot of studying regarding the various apparitions of the queen of heaven.

Like Knock, Guadalupe, Lourdes, & Fatima.

My Grandmother had been greatly affected by her trip to Lourdes.

So all that studying of apparitions, with my old idolatries before being saved, coupled with being really backslidden.

That coupling, together with a trip to Fatima, was an invitation to disaster, a very big mistake.

I don’t ever remember anything more spooky-frightening in my entire life.

One place that was fully opened, but covered, obviously had no air conditioning, and had no breeze or fan.

Normally, stepping from the sun, to the shade of a covered structure, it drops some in temperature.

However, this was like stepping into the walk-in coolers at KFC.

There was no physical or technical way to explain such a temperature drop.

Also, at the same moment the temperature dropped, there was a strong sense of evil foreboding & dread.

I had walked in, in my condition thus totally unarmed with no armor, in to a den of hideous evil spirits.

In my backslid condition, I didn’t think of calling on the name of Jesus.

It was open season & I was the target.

That place is so sinister & full of evil spirits.

 

Years later, we went to hand out tracts at another apparition site, the Hillside Cross.

That time was completely different.

We were far more spiritually prepared, spiritually armed, and full shod with whole armor of God.

It was like sending a cherry bomb, with a sling shot, into a hornets nest.

All the evil spirits there were swarming & attacking like hornets.

Yet we were able to give the gospel to many devotees of the apparition.

We were also able to preach the word of God to them right in front of where the supposed queen of heaven haunted.

 

Fatima is bad news, but the evil spirits are not omnipotent.

We have no need to fear.

However, the devotees are so blinded & addicted to worshipping the queen of heaven.

They real need us to trust that the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

That we can crash those gates with the gospel.

Similar to how those three men crashed through the garrison of Philistines.

They did it to get David a drink from the well at Bethlehem.

How much more can we, in bringing the gospel into enemy territory?

 

Even if the Fatima spirits are joining up with the Mecca spirits, we still need not fear.

The world will tremble before them.

But for us, greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

 

                          Gino