Dear Faithful Supporters,
I hope you all had a blessed Christmas with loved ones. I was able to celebrate mine Malawian style with my team mates in the middle of Africa. Our ministry contacts killed & cooked a goat & 6 chickens for us & we had a feast. We had no presents or Christmas tree but we did rejoice in our Savior’s birth & loved & served one another, which is what Christmas is all about! 2011 is just a few days away!Thank You Lord for another year of life! We are traveling to Swaziland this week for the month of January, so please keep our travels in your prayers! Month #6 has ended for us & i would like to share a special story with you.
In Matthew 17:14-20, Jesus heals an epileptic boy who has such terrible demonic attacks that he often falls into the fire.He tells his disciples that if they had faith as big as a mustard seed (the smallest seed in the world) they could move hills in His name! This true Bible story came to life for me & my team mates these last 2 weeks. In our remote village we were living in we met a woman in her early 30s last week,wandering around about a hundred feet from our house. She was acting insane & shouting things outloud in Chi-Chewa language.My team mate Alexandra was the 1st to meet her around 9am in the morning.She noticed the woman had a huge, infected open wound on the side of her leg, about 6inches long & 4 inches wide. Flies were swarming in this deep wound. She had severe burns & scars from burns all over her hands, arms, legs & face. Alexandra entered our house & told me about this injured, troubled woman. My heart broke for her & i prayed that God would lead her to our house or have her somehow cross our paths again soon. We asked one of our local ministry contacts about this woman & they told us that she was an outcast in the villages & was notorious for being attacked by evil spirits regularly & falling into fires after suffering from epileptic fainting spells.
A few hours later that same day, i heard Alexandra shout to me that the woman had come to our house & was sitting on our front porch! Answered prayer! I jumped up & ran outside to meet her. She pulled up her long skirt & exposed her awful wound on her upper leg. I cringed & wanted to turn away but God gave me the strength to be calm. It was the worst open, infected wound i had ever seen & just the sight of it made me naseaus.Alexandra was surprised by how calm & peaceful this woman was, compared to how she was acting a few hours earlier. Julian, Alexandra & i gathered bandages, ointment, & medical tape from our 1st aid kits & bandaged her up. We had faith that God was going to heal her but at least the bandage would keep the relentless flies & dirt away for a little bit. As we treated her horrible deep wound, one of us took turns swatting the aggressive flies away while the other one taped up her bandages. The look that she gave us was as if she was thinking “i have never been treated so kindly or lovingly before.Why are you being so kind?” Since we didn’t have a translator available, we layed hands on her leg & prayed in faith that God would heal her wound & her epilepcy. We also casted out demons in Jesus name. After our prayer she smiled & was very calm & joyful. We also prayed that God would lead her back to our house again & that we would have a translator handy so we could communicate more with her & learn more about her story.We attempted to ask her name, but she didn’t respond. She thanked us in Chi-Chewa & we helped her up & walked her to the boundary of our property, to the main dirt road, & hugged goodbye. The moment she hugged us & crossed over out of our territory, she began to act insane again, even worse than when Alexandra 1st met her. At 1st we were puzzled, but then we remembered the scripture in Luke 10:24-26 where it says when demons are casted out, they will come back & take over the victim again & bring 7 other evil spirits with it, making the person worse off then they were before. Since this woman had not yet accepted Jesus as her Savior, the moment she crossed our protected boundary the demons entered her again, stronger than before. We knew that Jesus was the only way this woman would be set free from demonic attacks. We had prayed over our house & territory the moment we arrived in that village a few weeks ago, so we had already claimed that area as His, & since demons must obey any command in Jesus name, our property was a safe refuge. This was why she was so calm & peaceful on our porch.
We desperately prayed to God asking Him to provide us a translator next time we ran into her, so we could share about the love & truth of Jesus Christ & so she would have the opportunity to choose Him if she desired & then she could be set free! The next few days my team mates & i could not get this woman out of our minds, hearts & prayers. We MUST see her again. Deep down in my heart i knew i would. And sure enough, a few days later, i was sitting on the porch with my team mates & we saw her limping towards our house. Excited, we ran as fast as we could to go find a translator. We found Bronco, one of our ministry contacts, & he was able to assist us. We now had a name to her face. We found out her name was Unis. She told us that she had that terrible, painful, infected wound since last February! With Bronco’s help we shared the Gospel with her & shared how much God loved her. She said that she has been tormented by demons as long as she can remember & that she has suffered from epilepsy since childhood. Unis decided to place her faith & trust in Jesus Christ on our front porch that day! I went into our house & found my purple bandana & gave it to her. We wrapped it around her wounded leg & told her to remember that purple stands for royalty. Now that she has been adopted into God’s family, she is now a daughter of the Most High King. God’s Princess. This made her smile & laugh joyfully. Julian lovingly rubbed some lotion on her dry, itchy cracked skin on her legs. Just the fact that we were touching her, laughing with her, praying with her & being gentle & kind with her spoke volumes. I know God’s love was shining through us at that moment. She was loving all of the attention! Being an outcast i doubt she was hugged or touched much. We mentioned to her that we would love to meet her family & visit her house to pray over it. We walked her to the main road & hugged our goodbyes. This time when she walked home she remained at peace & did not act insane like she did last time she entered the dirt road towards her home. Praise God!
Later that evening James, Julian & i walked to her village with Bronco & her family kindly welcomed us into their home. We had the privilege of meeting her parents, 2 sisters, neices & nephews. As i entered her house i could literally FEEL the dark spiritual, demonic climate. It was so thick in the air i could have cut it with a knife &i could barely breathe. After introducing ourselves to her family members we explained how we had met Unis & shared with them about her new relationship with Christ & that we had bandaged her wound. They were surprised & very grateful for our kindness. They thanked us in Chi-Chewa & shook our hands. My team mates & i stood up & prayed over their house.We casted out the demons & evil spirits that had been dwelling in that house for years, in Jesus name. Several minutes later, i could breathe again & peace came upon that house. It’s hard to explain, but we could see & feel the atmosphere immediately change! We sang a praise song in English & one in Chi-Chewa that we had learned the last 2 months.Before we left, Unis shared with us that due to witch craft practice in the village she had been suffering from terrible nightmares each night. We prayed protection over her dreams & her house/village & gave her a huge hug & said our goodbyes. We believe in FAITH, in Jesus name, that God’s healing her of epilepsy & also going to completely heal her wound! No doubt.I will try to stay in touch with our contacts there as we travel so we can hear the updates & answered prayers. Please pray that Unis grows in her new relationship with Christ & for her protection. Because of God living in her now, demons will NO LONGER possess her again!She has been set free!! Amen!!She will no longer be a victim anymore of Satan, for God’s word says that we are MORE than conquerors in Christ Jesus our Lord! All glory to our Lord & Savior!When God heals her completely, all of the villages will see & hear of this miracle & God will get the glory & praise!More lives will be changed!
(in the photograph: left to right: Julian, Alexandra, Unis, me & Bronco our translator)
My prayer for you all for New Years, 2011: “May the Lord bless you & take care of you; May the Lord be kind & gracious to you; May the Lord look on you with favor & give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26
Love His Servant,
Michelle Smith
