Our time in Tanzania has been divided into two segments of time. Ian and Jacob spent the first two weeks doing ministry with us and then they, along with the rest of the men on our squad, headed out to do their own “manistry” with the Maasai tribe in Kenya. With them gone, the five of us girls have spent the past two weeks doing intense ministry in churches all around the area. We’ve had two completely different experiences, both of which have been extremely powerful! 
Upon our arrival in Tanzania, we were placed with Agape Pentecostal Assembly of God church in Soweto, a small town right outside of Moshi and right next to Mt. Kilimanjaro. Talk about beautiful! I never thought I’d actually gaze upon this masterpiece of creation. We soon learned that the pastor of this church is enrolled in a Bible college in Mwanza, which is not so close to Moshi. He was therefore not able to meet with us and was not expected to be able to make it back during our visit, so we were put in the hands of the church elders.
Mr. Kimathi, the church secretary, greeted us upon our arrival and took us to his beautiful home, which he so graciously opened up to us for the duration of the month. We met with the other elders of the church that evening and learned that they had no program set up for us for the next four weeks. After much deliberation, it was decided that we would spend our time doing outreaches and ministering to the church body.
The Lord soon began to speak “three hours” to several people on our team; three hours of prayer each day. We all jumped on the bandwagon as soon as we discovered that our mornings/afternoons were free to do with as we pleased. Our main objective in spending so much time in intentional prayer was to loose up the spiritual strongholds over the church and surrounding community. We also needed some direction as to why God had brought us here. This was our opportunity to do intentional ATL; Ask The Lord! 
Daily prayer at the church became a beautiful thing in uniting our team and giving us a vision for how the Lord wanted to use us in this place. We began discerning the same strongholds in the people and began to see that the church itself needed encouragement to go out and minister to the community! Through open-airs, hospital visits, door-to-door evangelism, and other such avenues of outreach, we saw the Lord begin to strengthen this body and show them his vision for their unity as a church!
Ian and Jacob left us just as we were beginning to make church calls, so the five of us women were given an even bigger opportunity to step out in faith. We kept hearing the word “deliverance” and decided that this was what God was calling us to do in these churches. As we went from church to church, our mission looked similar. We worshipped and prayed with the people, and then one or more of us would share a word from the Lord. Often times, we had no idea who was going to preach or what they were going to say until we walked into the church. We then called the people to come forward to receive prayer and were often surprised at what would happen next.
I know that many Americans become uncomfortable at the mention of demons, and I have been that person in the past, not even knowing whether to believe in them or not. I think the bigger issue is that I had never once been taught about demons in all my years of church-going until a couple of years ago. However, I know now what I have seen, and I am here to tell you that they are real. We have seen demons manifest in almost every church we’ve been to over the past two weeks as we have laid hands on many people. 
I don’t really know what I’m doing; I am simply walking by faith and trying to live as Jesus did. It’s all a learning process. Jesus tell us in John 14:12-14, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” And again Jesus says in Mark 16:17-18, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Needless to say, I have done and seen things in Tanzania that I never imagined I would do or see. As a young, terrified child, I never imagined myself being able to talk in front of a group of people, hardly knowing the next word to come out of my mouth. I never imagined myself walking in so much faith to boldly proclaim the things God speaks to me about a person I have never met. I never imagined I would be the one to unashamedly command a demon to leave a person. And yet, this is now my everyday life; it’s just what I do.
