They Beat The Children In Church! African crowd control.
To this day, the churches in Nigeria have deacons and deaconesses who carry sticks and switches with which to keep order and to keep people awake, young and old alike. These deacons have the power to switch people. On one occasion I felt the need to interfere. It was an open air crusade at the King's palace in Erin Ijesha, near Ilesha. The crowds were great. There was a marked off, designated place in the front where the speakers and leaders could speak and lead. The children were in the front. The crowds were pushing from the back, crowding close, as they wanted to see more clearly, and be more of a part of what was going on. As the crowd from the back, slowly pushed forward, the children were being pushed from behind, closer and closer to the speakers. These children were being pushed over the invisible forbidden line. To stop this from happening, the deacons with the sticks and switches began beating and switching the children while we speakers were trying to minister. Finally, I went to the deacons and told them to stop beating the children, as their forward movement was no fault of their own. They did stop the beating. But some times, the crowd, with good intentions, can become unruly and out of control. For example, the crowd may get it into their head that, as with Jesus Christ, if they can just get an opportunity to even touch a person or their clothes, that they will be healed or blest. So, they can easily get into a mentality where they can trample each other and even sometimes trample the speaker in their rush to touch. It can quickly become dangerous for the speaker in such a case. In one town, the deacons and church officers and helpers, formed a human barrier to protect me from a crowd of about 3000 enthusiastic dear ones who wanted to meet and touch "the man of God".