The Year I Skipped Halloween: A Supernatural Experience

Painted jars 2023.

Supernatural is not the unnatural, it’s more natural. It’s… super!

Not on the night of Hallows Eve, but close to that date was supposed to be a usual night of prayer for me. Night had come and I sat upright on the living room sofa where I was alone (I thought). My children had just fallen asleep and my husband was busy in another room which left me time to silently pray which is sitting still and without thoughts going through my mind. It wasn’t long and I began to see small moving shadows and a few apparitions. The only one I can clearly remember the sight of was one that had the body of a small child, around seven years old, but was hunched at the shoulders and had the face of a decrepit old man. These shadows and apparitions moved towards the living room where I was sitting from the hallway before they faded. As I was seeing them, I was rebuking them in a low voice. This was because I had been praying in secrecy away from my husband who was uncomfortable with the time I had been spending in prayer each night.

Very soon after the apparitions had faded, I was completely paralyzed from head to toe. I could not even move my lips to speak. In this state, I was still sitting upright and aware of my surroundings. The benign belief crossed my mind that this may be happening to force me to be honest to my husband about my continued nightly prayer and I waited anxiously for him to enter the living room and see me. That thought fleeted quickly though and I knew a lie had been fed into me from the enemy. I was able to force out of my lips the beginnings of the name of Jesus and I was immediately freed. The night proceeded with no further activity.

I wasn’t left alone after this night, however. Thereafter in the following months were many nights of sleep paralysis and a few times of seeing moving shadows in my room. Now, I am very slow and I didn’t realize why this happened on that night when I was paralyzed until at the start of the next year when I had a dream that filled me with desire to continue celebrating this day in the future. As soon as I woke up from this dream it dawned on me that this most recent Halloween in the year 2024 was the first I never celebrated since I can remember, because of a new found conviction that had consumed me.

That same October in 2024, I hadn’t been sure if I wanted to follow that conviction. Before this event, what further solidified my decision was when I visited the Spirit Halloween store twice! You see, Halloween was arguably my favorite holiday to celebrate every year. The thought of October 31st filled me with excitement and great childhood memories. Creative costumes, delicious treats and even more opportunity for creativity in decorations (I am an artist after all)! Spirit is a seasonal store for all your Halloween needs. During both of my visits that year while I walked through this store, I was suddenly struck with an uncomfortable cramping in my stomach that would not leave me. Once was a coincidence, but twice was enough to keep me away (I really liked those children’s Bluey and Bingo costumes too).

1 Corinthians 10:21 — Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. 

Freed From Crippling Debt by Grace

Acrylic painting on canvas completed by me in 2025.

I was freed from crippling debt. Ever since I was 18 years old (I’m 37 now), I have always been in some sort of financial debt. It was likened to a curse that would not release me. At the age of 18 I endured a medical emergency which left me in debt and from there on I began college and accrued even more debt in student loans. When I started college, I only had $98 in my name and made minimum wage mostly from there on. What prospect did I have?

Faith. I felt the weight of my debt when I finished college, a four year journey. My body would tremble with an anxiety that threatened to end me then and there during that same time each year I had to renew my income-based repayment plan and lay eyes upon the exorbitant balance which I owed. It started at around $60K and each year it (the debt) was much more with the high interest piling on monthly. The figurative rug was my essential escape, that I could brush the thought of this debt away under in my tiring mind.

Even though I wasn’t fully invested into Christ during these times, being curious and dabbling in the beginning practices of ‘New Age’ ideology, I prayed. I prayed and I prayed, and then I let go.

It wouldn’t be until a little more than a decade later, just at the start of this year in 2025. I was roughly $80K in financial debt from student loans at this point and with added medical bills. Each year I needed to renew an income based repayment plan to stave off the payments to my student loan debt. I’ve prayed for freedom from this debt throughout the course of this decade. This time, at the time of the year when I had to renew this payment plan, I’d be consumed with overwhelming anxiety because I’d have to look at the balance of my debt as I logged into my account to gather forms and submit the needed documents. I held nothing against my debtors and eventually I let go of any fear I had and come to peace that I may never pay off this loan. When one year, just in 2024, I heard a disembodied voice in the morning as I woke up. It spoke quickly and said something along the lines of “renew your IBR plan”. I know for sure it wasn’t a thought or something I heard in the room if that makes sense… I NEVER forget to renew this plan, but for the first time I had and I was thankful for a reminder from this voice. I renewed the plan and then a week or so later I received an email which told me my repayment plan request was rejected! This never has happened to me either. So I called their customer service department and I was told that loan payments will no longer need to be made to the educational institute that I attended and all debt from anyone that attended that school will be cleared and previous payments refunded (yikes to that institution, but glory to God!). I also later received this same information from an official .gov email. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but it for certain didn’t read as any tax payer cost forgiveness in case that raises any brows here.

After that I still had what I knew to be $8K owed to a health insurer after I birthed my second daughter. However, a conviction overcame me to ask my employer to cancel my health insurance plan altogether and so I did. Shortly after I was given a raise and thereafter I reluctantly contacted that health insurer to set up a payment plan so I could start repaying the remaining balance which I owed. I was told by the insurer I had no remaining balance. For the first time since I was 18 years old, I had no debt.

God be praised! Some things may happen in a way that we may not think God is involved, but he’s in control of everything. I did not earn my freedom, I could not. Grace and grace alone can only do this. The voice and the events that unfolded around me in the sequence that it did made this miracle for me impossible to doubt.

The book of Matthew in the Bible, chapter 19, verse 26, states in fact that with God all things are possible.

— — — — 

My experience was not nearly as horrific, but I’m reminded of Kathryn Gordon’s story about how she was suffering from a debilitating illness that doctors could not diagnose which was determined initially to be purely mental. Her marriage was falling apart from it and she considered suicide until she heard a loud clear voice one night that told her “your implants are making you sick”. She then made a visitation to a doctor to examine her breast implants and her silicon implants were found to be completely infested with a black mold that would have inevitably ended her life. Her story is featured on the series Monsters Inside Me. 

New Blog!

Hello! Many changes have been made here in the year 2026 including but not limited to my increased activity on social media and opening an online shop. How many changes have you experienced this year?

My initial website has been down since mid May, but now is back up under a new host and will function even more as a blog than a general artist's web site. I will continue to post my art, more about faith and repost prior blogs. There's so much to do!

Some of my paintings are now available for sale in my Etsy shop: SunCrossArtisan

5x7" Acrylic Paintings

If you have a moment, let me know what you think. I always appreciate comments and feedback. If any of my work will be shown in a gallery, I'll also be making a post about it. Until then, peace be with you and have an amazing day with your family and friends.