This is how I spent my afternoon today. My sister Dre documented our time together and I needed to share it with you!
God is so good!!
I thought I was just gonna buy a scarf today… but God had other plans.
Birkleigh and I went to the market today to buy some last minute African goodies. We had no idea what we were in store for. African markets are full of aggressive men that yell for your attention and follow you 3 shops down after you’ve left theirs to ask you if youre sure you don’t want the one item you looked at in their store for more than 5 seconds. Needless to say, not my favorite shopping experience.
Then we went upstairs and I saw a whole wall of scarves that I fell in love with… and then out came Pamela, and I immediately fell in love with her. She reeked of alcohol and was ready to just give away her scarves because I was talking with her and loving on her. She was so thirsty for love and friendship. She asked who Birkleigh and I were loving. I told her we were loving Jesus and her right now.
Pause. While all of this was happening with Pamela and I, Birkleigh was talking to the shop owner and telling him all about how she is a princess of the king. He asked which king, and she said “Jesus of course!” Charles laughed, he was also a believer. They talked about our trip, the Lord’s work in their lives and how he had been praying for Pamela for a long time to know Jesus and be saved. So they started praying over my conversation with her.
Play. Pamela was telling me how she knew about the Old Testament- Joseph, Abraham, and the Prophets. But that her brother Charles had been telling her all about this person Jesus. I told her all about how I knew Jesus and I talked to Him everyday. How I had a relationship with Him and how He loves me so much.
She said “Jesus does not live in my heart.”
I asked, “Well do you want Him to?”
She grabbed my hand and dragged me into the back of her shop.
I asked, “Pamela, do you want to invite Jesus into your heart today and set you free?”
“YES! Yes I do!!”
“Repeat after me…”
I prayed with her for Jesus to be the King of her life.
(This is the scarf Dre got from Pamela today!)
Meanwhile, Birkleigh and Charles came in after us and started praying for her and for the Holy Spirit to come in the room. Charles was crying, grown African man, sobbing and rejoicing over Pamela coming to Jesus. He had invested years of prayer and love in her, and He got to watch the fruit of his labor today. He said later that he knew today was the day and that although he had been praying for so long, God sent us as the missing link to reach her heart. Today was the day his sister was set free.
But it didn’t end there.
We talked some more, our friends Stacy and Heather met us upstairs, we got to rejoice with them. Pamela could not stop hugging us, kissing us, and saying how badly she wanted to go home and tell her mom. (She lives with her mother because her kids are grown and her house is too lonely. Charles says that’s why she drinks.) She said that yesterday she bought this video of Jesus dying on the cross, and that she wants to go home right now and watch it with her mom. But before she said, “lets pray.” We went back in the shop and started praying God’s love over her life. I rebuked the Spirit of alcoholism and as soon as I did, she went crazy. Jumping around, shaking, moaning… the devil got pissed and started trying to take control. We spoke the blood of Jesus over it and broke the spirit’s power. After a while she calmed down, and we began to speak the truth over her.
She is a child of God. Loved by the Lord. She doesn’t need alcohol anymore when she is lonely, because she has the love of God now. She is complete in Christ and loved beyond measure. She is no longer a slave to alcohol or anything else that had a hold over her beautiful heart. Today she had been set free and the chains of bondage were gone forever! Nothing can loosen the grip that God has over her now… He is relentless after us. He would send 4 crazy Americans all the way to Africa, just to make sure she knows how desired, loved and pursued she is.
So off she ran, home to tell her mom everything. Full of the Holy Spirit and the promise of eternal life in Heaven, seated next to the God of the universe.
Pamela was set free today and ushered into the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
