had. I’m still trying to process everything that happened today, but I
want to share it while it is still fresh in my brain.
We got to the ministry site an hour late. It seems like the more we
try to be on time, the later we are. There was SO MUCH traffic today.
It was insane. Lilongwe is a big city and it is Christmas Eve. We still
should have thought more in advance. By the time we got to Area 36 it
was time for lunch. We ate and then split up into small groups to go
minister.
Background: For the past two days we have been going to the same
village. We have just been walking around and spreading the Gospel.
Our purpose is to plant a church so we share the Gospel with them, pray
with whoever wants to receive Jesus, and encourage them to attend this
church. The first day we were there, Leigh and I prayed for a LOT of
people. It seemed like wherever we went, people just came out of
nowhere to hear what we had to say. We preached the Gospel and a lot
of people got saved. We walked down the road a bit and found some
people sitting on their doorstep. We stopped to talk to them. As we
finished, I felt like we should pray for this woman who was REALLY
pregnant. It was confirmed in Leigh, who had been feeling the same
thing. The woman said she was actually waiting for us to finish to ask
us to pray for her baby. So we prayed for her pregnancy and we just
prayed for God to fill her with joy and for him to encourage her. When
we left, we found some ladies cooking lunch and sat to talk with them.
We ended up spending a lot of time with these ladies. Two of them told
us that they had big problems at home. Evidently their husbands drink
a lot and beat them. Neither one of their husbands were saved. they
asked us for prayer. We prayed over them for a long time.
Ok – back to today.
Leigh and I wanted to go visit these ladies we had prayed for earlier
in the week. We really wanted to do a follow-up with them. So we set
out with our translator. It didn’t take long for us to find a group of
people just hanging out. Our translator talked to them for a minute
and then turned to us and said, “They are ready to hear a word from God
now”. Ok, great. I closed my eyes and asked God if he wanted me to
speak. I felt like I should give my testimony. Many of them were
drunk and/or drinking and I decided to tell them about how I ended up
giving my life to Jesus. My testimony turned into a Gospel message and
I started talking about things like purpose, relationship with God, and
salvation. I don’t even fully remember what I said because God was
just using my mouth to say what he wanted. At the end we asked if
people needed prayer and a bunch of them did. I prayed over a woman
with malaria. By the time I left she was grinning and laughing with
her friends. She said she felt much better. Praise God.
We were still on a mission to visit the ladies we prayed with the first
day, so we kept walking toward the general area they lived in. As we
were chatting with someone Leigh recongnized that she prayed over that
first day, a man named Moses approached me. He had a friend with him.
Moses got right down to business. He said that he was an alcoholic and
that he wanted help. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t do anything – he
just sought me out. He somehow knew we were Christians and that we
wanted to help. I prayed over him and God just kept giving me words
for him. I felt so strongly that God had a calling on his life. I
then told him that I felt like he had no purpose in his life. He then
admitted to me that he had tried to commit suicide three times. I
talked to him about the purpose of life as a Christian and challenged
him to try to find his purpose in being salt and light for the
Kingdom. Then his friend asked if we would pray for him as well. So
we prayed for him. As we were praying, I had a vision of chains
falling off of him. I told him what I saw. I told him that I believed
that he had been set free of alcoholism. Then he told me about how he
was on his way to another bar but now all he wanted to do was go home
to sleep. As far as a know, that is exactly what he did. I didn’t see
him any more that day.
We continued on and found a couple of the ladies that we prayed for the
first day. I could immediately see a change in the pregnant woman.
She was grinning from ear to ear. Her whole demeanor had changed. She
was FULL of joy. It was amazing to see. She said she had been feeling
so much better since we prayed for her. Praise God.
Leigh and I continued on to the house where we prayed for the abused
women. We got there and one of the women just looked completely
different. She had a huge smile on her face. Her clothes were a
little bit neater and so was her hair. She was really happy to see
us. We asked her about how she had been doing since we prayed with her
and she told us that there was SO MUCH more love in her house. She
said that the day before her husband was actually looking for us
because he wanted to receive Jesus. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being
surprised when I see God answer prayers like that. It was so amazing.
We were having a service at 2:00 and it was past 2, so we had to go.
Once we got to the service, Jared was preaching. He gave a shot
message and asked for people to come up for prayer if they needed it.
By this time, I was just full of faith. I have seen God move through
my words and through my prayers so much this week and it has built my
faith more each time. God has given me words and visions for people in
ways that he never has before. So when it was time to pray for people,
I was ready to go. I prayed over a few people for various problems.
The more I pray for people, the easier it gets. God is teaching me how
to pray and it is amazing. Then I get to Chris. I asked her (through
a translator) what she wanted prayer for and she said that she wanted a
husband. What happened next blew my mind.
I put my hand on her shoulder and begin to pray for her. I get three
sentences into my prayer and she just falls out. I was shocked.
That’s never happened before when I pray for people. I sure didn’t
know what to do so I just started praying in the Spirit over her. I
was even more shocked when she started barking. I took my hands off
her, stood back and continued to pray. Then she started freaking out.
She was flailing her arms about and screaming. A couple guys were
trying to hold her down, but eventually she just ran off. She ran off
screaming and waving her arms around. Kids came from every direction
to follow her and laugh at her. I was still trying to figure out what
was going on when I heard Amy say, “She’s fixin to get delivered. When
they manifest like that, they are real close to being delivered”. So
four of us go off to find this lady.
We find her sitting on the floor of a small shack. She was shaking and
obviously scared. Amy and Jared started talking to her in real
soothing tones and calmed her down immediately. They prayed with her
for a long time and went through the process of delivering her from the
spirits that were in her. I have never witnessed anything like that
before in my life. I had no clue what to do, so the entire time I just
sat there and prayed in the spirit. She literally threw up those
demons. I knew she was getting her freedom. Immediately after they
were finished, she just LOOKED different. You could literally SEE a
difference. It was amazing.
The whole time Amy and Jared were praying deliverance over this woman,
my hands were tingling. My left hand in particular. My left hand
happened to be the closest to her body so I just put my hand on her and
prayed in the Spirit. The tingling never went a way. The last time I
felt tingling in my hand was when I was supposed to pray for someone
and I mentioned it to Amy. She told me that it was the anointing and
that I should pray healing over this woman who had just been
delivered. I didn’t think I had anything to lose so I laid my hand on
her and finished the prayer I started earlier. I don’t have any idea
what I prayed because God was giving me the words. When I finished
praying for her, my hand stopped tingling. Wow.
I think that God is bringing me to another level. Twice, I’ve had
people prophecy over me that I’m going to do miracles. I think that
before God can use me the way he wants to, he has to teach me how to be
used. He used the story in my previous blog to teach me that I
actually AM capable of doing great things for him. He showed me that
if I proved faithful in the small things, that he would show up.
I think that because I showed myself faithful in the smaller thing, he
is now trusting me with bigger things. Maybe it isn’t has hard as I
think it is. Maybe all I have to do is be obedient and have faith that
God can and WILL use me to do great things for HIS Kingdom.
