Prayer Request for Amika

At church at the second village we met a really interesting family.  Amika, her daughter and Amika’s
mother live in a community house in this village.  Amika is afflicted with demons.  She used to live with her husband, until he married another
woman and began torturing her in every possible way – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  She suffered mental and memory loss.  She has pills to take, but doesn’t like
them, and is slowly regaining her memory. 
She is still pretty lost though, as far as her mental capacity.  We prayed for her several times and
have witnessed a few deliverance’s as she loses more and more oppression.  It usually manifests in gagging and
spewing.

When we made our treacherous 5 hour hike up and down the Himalayas to the third village, she followed us.  Our contact had no idea why she left her family and Amika didn’t explain herself – but it was clear that she needed us and our prayers for her.  I personally sought out Amika and poured into her for the next 4 days. 

It started with simple things like playing with her hair, and then she would reciprocate with something, like cleaning out my fingernails 🙂 Then we started hugging and I kept repeating I love you I love you I love you! to her until after one afternoon she came up to me, kissed me twice and said I LOVE YOU! in English!  It was the first time I had heard her speak.  It’s really the only English she knows. 

One night I started vomiting and had to rush downstairs and Amika came up to me with some water to clean out my mouth.  About one minute after standing next to me she went into a demonic fit.  She characteristically starting screaming and flapping her arms wildly.  For some reason I knew God had given me authority over her in that moment…I’m crying now as I write this as I remember the unconditional love I felt for this woman…but I just started praying bold prayers over her.  Prayers of enveloping love and light in and over her.  Prayers to bind Satan’s attacks against this woman’s mind and body.  A few teammates started praying with me and she suddenly left our group to stand away from us…we could see a dark presence hovering on her back.  I prayed loudly, over my teammates, and commanded Amika to come back to the group to receive prayer in Jesus’ name.  And this woman, who doesn’t understand English, walked obediently back to us.  It was unreal.  So, we again started praying and again the demon attacked and had her stick her hand in a fire ant nest in a tree.   We were all pretty horrified at this because nobody would inflict that sort of pain on themselves, so again I called out loudly in English for her to let go of the nest and walk back, and she did.  At that time I threw my arms around her and frantically held on as she fought me, and I pictured a white light coming out of me and covering her.  We stayed this way for a while as her fighting turned into weeping and tears and finally a calmness.

That next morning she left us without saying goodbye.

I pray she made it back to the village through the mountains…but I’ll never know.  My heart is broken for her.  Missionary work is difficult for me sometimes because of this.  It is hard for my heart to just explode for someone and never see a real change or know that I’ll ever see them again.  I have to believe in the unseen and unknown more than I’d like.  I’m the type of person who likes to cross things off lists…who likes to see tangible results…fruits of my labor in my personal life, work life – everything.  The World Race continues to call me to a seemingly impossible standard of doing the work set in front of me and literally giving the rest to God.  It’s uncomfortable and painful at times.

I guess this blog is asking for prayers for me AND Amika.  Pray for Amika that her bondage continues to be broken and for her to regain her mental faculties.  I also need prayer, now that I’m more than halfway into this World Race and I need strength from an invisible God to love a very visibly stricken world. 

Thank you