Please don't read this blog if you are a young kid. Also the subject of this blog is about the spiritual realm and if it is too much for you please use wisdom and only continue reading if you are able.
I am going to leave the first half of this blog how I wrote it after the first two instances because I want you to walk this out how I had to walk it out. I don't always understand, I try not to sometimes, but I know God has a purpose for all that me and my teammates are experiencing this month. So please open your heart as you read this blog and let the Lord teach you along side our journey.
I want to introduce you to two beautiful women who's lives were recently changed by God's grace. One of the women we met our first day doing door-to-door evangelism, her name is Zena. I briefly talked about her in my first blog about Tanzania. Her mother is a Muslim, but had given her permission to be Christian because she had a demon. My teammates and I prayed for her two different times, once right away during door-to-door and once at the later service. Nothing happened. I just assumed that meant they were wrong and she didn't have a demon but was just sick.
Austin and I went back to the same church this past Sunday and Zena was there again. After service we all prayed for her again and this time the demon we had heard about manifested itself. She convulsed, fell to the ground, and after about five minutes of praying, the demon was gone. Right after this happened the Pastor told the woman to say "Jesus is Lord!" The best part of all of this was hearing Zena confess those words!
The very next day (Monday) our team went out again to minister to some of the families we are living close to this month. The very first home we went to we met another woman named Jennifer. Her mother told us that her daughter was Christian but she was Muslim (the area we are in is mainly Islamic). My teammate, Jenifer, asked Jennifer when she became a Christian. As soon as Jenifer (my teammate) asked her this the woman's eyes shut and she seemed to go numb. When she fell over we knew a demon had just manifested so we went over to pray for her. As she was laying there numb I felt the need to pray for my teammates while making sure the woman was okay and not hurting.
After a few minutes she sat up, but I did not feel a peace like I had felt on Sunday when the demon left. I asked the Pastor to do the same thing as yesterday and have her confess that Jesus is Lord. So Jennifer knelt down and as she was about to speak she fell over again and just layed there like she was paralyzed and we realized that the demon had not left her. We prayed and read scripture over her and rebuked the demon and it finally left her. Jennifer then proceeded to confess Jesus as Lord of her life, which later led to her mother also receiving Jesus as Lord!
I wanted to share these two stories with you for different reasons. I want you to know what we are experiencing here in Tanzania but I also feel it's important for us all to realize how real the spirit world is. One of the best lies the Devil has ever come up with is that he doesn't exist and I believe in America we shy away from these types of stories. I am not trying to give any glory to the devil, but I saw God glorify himself in these two beautiful women in these moments. He took back what is rightfully His. He showed His power because the demons could not even speak or stay once God took over. Please pray along with me that God would continue to be glorified in this area of Tanzania (Tabora). That God would take back what is rightfully His and He would reign in this town!
We have service every night here. After we do door-to-door in the mornings we have an evening service. When we met Jennifer and her family, she came to church that same night. I was thrilled to see her walk in! A lot of times when we meet people they say they will come to the service and then don't show up. With Jennifer it has been different. So at the end of the service she comes to the front so the whole church can pray for her. We all lay hands on her and the minute we do her body goes numb again and she falls over. Immediately I start thinking to myself, "What the heck? I thought she didn't have a demon anymore because we prayed over her earlier today." I was very confused and started even wondering if she was just closing her eyes and falling because she thought it was what she was supposed to do when people prayed for her. Of course my mind will come up with anything to try and figure out what is happening.
After this happened a few times we stopped praying for her and assumed once again that she was ok. Two nights later Jennifer came to service again and came up when it was over for prayer. I would have never imagined the experience me and my teammates were about to have.
The same thing happened where her body went numb and she fell over. I was holding Jennifer's hand, but I was so frustrated I had to stop and just talk to the Lord, when I listened and heard Him speak to me He told me I needed to talk to Jennifer. So I started talking to Jennifer and the demons decided they didn't want any of that. Jennifer started convulsing for the first time and her body was shoving, pushing, kicking and doing anything it could to keep us away from her. I continued to talk to Jennifer through this time telling her she is God's child and in her there is light and no darkness can reside in her.
After about 45 minutes of her going in and out (she never knew what was happening), we stopped and I stayed on the floor with her while everyone was around the church praying and singing. She looked into my eyes and said, "I want to go home, I want to go with you." My heart broke as I looked back into her eyes knowing how badly she was hurting. As I sat with her (she understands a tiny bit of English) I asked her if she wanted to be free. She said yes, so I told her to say "I want to be free!" She repeated this phrase over and over. I also told her to keep her eyes on Jesus. After a few more minutes passed we started talking about the names of all the colors around us. She told me what the words for the different colors were in Swahili and I told her what they were in English.
The Pastor called her over and I went over to talk with Andrew and Jenifer (my teammate) about all that had just happened. As we are talking Pastor asked Jenifer (my teammate) to lay her hands on Jennifer because they were going to pray again. We all came over and she proceeded to collapse again. As I was trying to talk to Jennifer I said "Jennifer, can you hear me?" The demon shook her head no. I said "I know you can hear me Jennifer, remember you want to be free! You are a child of God, Keep your eyes on Jesus!" When she would "wake back up" I would tell her to say I want to be free, so she continued to repeat this until she would collapse again.
Then the demons started talking to us. Andrew was holding her head while I was talking to Jennifer and holding her hand against my chest (She would hold my hand when they weren't in control of her body and they would fight me when they were). At first the demons spoke in Swahili and said "Natoke!" Which means We're not getting out. Then the demons talked to Andrew and I in English and said, "You are the problem here, your program is the problem. When you leave and are not with her we will kill her." This went on for another half an hour. The demons never came out, but Jennifer came back to us and told us she was very tired and was hurting. We stopped and prayed and talked to her and asked her if she would like to come over for dinner.
We ended up walking to her house with her and asking her mother if it was ok if she came to our house for dinner. What we didn't realize was that by asking her to come for dinner we were asking her to stay the night with us as well. (Oh the joys of miscommunication/not understanding each other) Jennifer ended up coming over and staying the night with us. We prayed over the house and each other and were prepared for a potential rough night, but the Lord's peace was all over the house. Everyone slept ok and we woke to find Jennifer reading her Bible in the living room.
I wish I could tell you the story is completely over. In the spiritual realm, it is! The victory is already God's, and it doesn't matter if it takes us two more days or another week to pray these demons out of Jennifer because God has already won! We are continuing to minister to Jennifer and I will keep you updated on everything as it goes by.
