Charles and Rene White with son Sean and daughter Loren

Charles White is a full time pastor with AOG Association and works as a business coach and mentor with several corporations and businesses in South Africa. During our first term we became very good friends and he helped us gain insight into the culture of South Africa and the churches. He also trained Mark in Mentors and Business Coaches International (MBCI). This organization has its headquarters in Australia with offices all around the world. Charles is one of their executives and is responsible for the continuous professional development of coaches internationally.

Charles told Mark about a story concerning his 17 year-old son, Sean, which happened in the later part of 2011. Sean had grown a half a meter (19 inches) in one year. One day when he came home from school he went straight to his room and went to sleep. Charles tried to wake him for dinner and he looked up and went right back to sleep. For the next several days, all he did was sleep. Several doctors examined him and put him through all kinds of tests over a three week period and they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. They thought he may have been drugged by someone at school but his blood work was clear. They thought it was meningitis and did a spinal tap and everything was fine. During this time when he was awake, he couldn’t remember who anybody was, didn’t know people at church, he couldn’t speak coherently, he wandered around in a daze.

Eventually, the doctors came to think it was something neurological and expected to find a brain tumor. A brain scan proved them wrong. At the end of three weeks on a Friday, they ruled out anything physical and decided it had to be psychotic in nature. The doctors made an appointment for the following Monday to meet with a team of psychiatrists and psychologists. Charles and his wife took Sean home on that Friday afternoon sad and exhausted. The next day Charles got away by himself and enquired of the Lord as to why prayers were not answered.

The Lord’s immediate response was that he was praying incorrectly. Charles then asked the Holy Spirit to teach him how to pray for his son. Charles said it was like an audible voice that said, “Pray that his body, mind, and spirit be in unity.” That Saturday night when Sean was asleep, Charles went into his room and through prayer, commanded that his body, soul and spirit would be in unity. Sean suddenly woke from his sleep, looked at Charles for a few minutes and went back to sleep. The next morning he was still the same.

Again, Charles prayed the same prayer before driving the family to church. Charles ministered a sermon entitled From the Pit of the Valley, and Rene sang In the Name of the Lord by Sandi Patti. All this time Sean was present physically but not mentally and emotionally. Without knowing what each other was going to do at church they had each decided to minister to the body of Christ in spite of the fact that they were facing one of the biggest storm of their lives with their son. There was not one dry eye in church that Sunday morning and the room was filled with the presence of the Lord.

On their way home after church Sean asked Charles for his cell phone and started asking about the date and time. As the family walked into their home it started raining and then stopped as abruptly as it had started. The family ran outside to see what was happening since it seemed as if the rain was floating through the air and the sunlight shone through their living room. As they walked back inside Sean started behaving completely normal. They couldn’t believe what they saw. Sean looked at his dad and said, “I was in a dream, and I couldn’t get out.” He has been perfectly normal ever since. The team of psychiatrists were completely confused when they examined Sean the following day.

Sean felt like he was locked in a dark place and couldn’t get out. He couldn’t communicate with anyone and it was as if he was in a walking coma. Charles believes his son was under deep oppression of the enemy. As a result of prayer, Charles heard from His Father exactly how to pray for his son which ultimately saved his life. We know that spiritual warfare is a reality and that Christians are on the front lines of this battle. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans that the Holy Spirit within us will teach us how to pray when we don’t know what to pray (Romans 8:26, 27).