She could sit up unassisted. She responded to her name. She held a cup of water on her own and she spoke.
None of these things sound outstanding, especially if you knew I was talking about a 20 year old girl, but when we met her the first time she could do none of those things. When we walked in to her home seven days ago she was curled into the fetal position, barely able to open her eyes. That is, until we started praying for her. You would have never known that for over a month the demon in her had kept her in bed, paralyzed by fear, unable to move. No, when the presence of God began to fill her home, the demon didn’t like it and our sweet girl screamed, thrashed, and had to be restrained so she didn’t hurt herself or those around her. After praying and singing over her for close to an hour, she began to calm down and our contacts said we should leave. She looked more peaceful than when we first walked in but I still didn’t want to leave. I also didn’t want to disrespect our contact, our translator, or the family of our sweet girl, so we left with prayers that she was really free or that we would get to see her again.
Our prayers were answered, and in true God fashion, in the most unexpected was ever. Caity, Will, and I had stayed back from ministry last night. I was running a slight fever and the pain in my head was so bad I thought my head was going to implode. Caity and Will were sick too. Satan has attacked the health of our squad since day one, so it is not really shocking anymore. Other people have stayed home from ministry this month and had no one bother them after the rest of the team had left. That was not the case last night. Every 30-40 minutes someone would come slamming through the door. Some just to look at us and some just wanted to play. At one point some of the boys who live with us came in to get more instruments for the people doing ministry.
Then things got weird. One of our neighbors – who we love for many reasons including the fact that she protects our living space by not just entering whenever she wants – pushes our door open trying to get us to do something. Since neither Caity nor I speak Telegu we had no idea what she was saying, so we told her to come back in the morning and we gently escorted her out of our home (which just so happens to be the community church as well.) I was just finally beginning to fall asleep when the door bursts open again, this time with no less than 6 people, one of them being our sweet girl. She was screaming and thrashing violently. She was being held up by a person on either side of her. Caity made it to the door first, and after hearing all the commotion I was quick to follow. Once I realized who it was, I got the people to take her into our pastor’s house, hoping Mama would be there. No such luck. We got her inside where we find only a floor full of sleeping boys (who stayed asleep through everything that took place that evening) and Amama, Pastor’s almost 100 year old grandmother.
We lay our sweet girl on the closest open bed we find, I say a quick prayer that the boys stay asleep and that the Lord uses me even though I can barely keep my eyes open due to the pressure in my head, and then Caity and I begin praying over our sweet girl. She continued screaming for a long time and her body thrashed violently. We had to restrain her hands and feet to avoid being hit or kicked and to keep her from doing the same to herself. I don’t know how long we prayed, it was a while though. Will joined us shortly after we started and the three of us prayed over her, sang over her, declared freedom in her, and proclaimed the truths of who God says she is. She looked pleadingly into our eyes and I could have sworn she just kept saying “please” over and over. I could feel her giving up. There were a few minutes I was afraid instead of watching her get set free that we were going to lose her. I prayed that the love of God would just wash over her. Caity kept telling her to let go and find the light. (As in find God, NOT run to the light at the end of the tunnel.)
And then she sat up.
Something she had not been able to do when we first met her. She started pointing out places of pain, and we began to lay hands and pray for those areas. Then she asked for water, and for the first time since we had known her, she held the cup on her own and gulped down the water. Then she did something miraculous. She curled up on one of the ladies there and looked like she had fallen asleep, but she would open her mouth occasionally and these deep gurgles would come out. In between the gurgles she began to take deep breaths. After each gurgle and deep breath she looked more at peace. It was amazing.
At this point everyone else came home and we were asked to move her into our church. We continued to pray over her. By the time she left last night she was responding to her name, answering questions, and standing almost unassisted; a far cry from the girl who was pushed through our door a few hours prior. Today she sat a few people down from me in church. The craziest part about all of this is that after church today we learned she is a Muslim, but they brought her to us for prayer because they knew something was different with us.
Take that Satan! Our God still wins!
