(This blog is three months late, but I am finally deciding to share some of my experiences from my months in Europe.)
A huge part of my Month 3 was coming to terms with spiritual warfare. We had just arrived to Europe (coming from two months in Africa).
________________________________________________________________________________________
These were my prayer requests coming into Month 3:
“..for focus on ministry here and taking advantage of downtime here…especially now that we are back to a place of comfort (it’s not as easy to rely on the Lord when you have more comforts at your fingertips…) but I do know that there are some powerful things happening here, which is pretty amazing.”
“…for health (most of my team is still sick – I’m slightly sick, but it’s been great because I do believe people’s prayers for me are covering me physically). My eczema is starting to come back, too.”
________________________________________________________________________________________
(I wrote this while I was in Latvia in March.)
“A few nights ago, here in Latvia, we were invited to a prayer session from 9-10pm at the mission’s center where we are staying. That night was difficult, though. We were all worn out and just super tired. No one from my team wanted to go – it was optional. I didn’t even want to go to be honest because I was so tired from several long days. I eventually forced myself to go, though.
Their prayer night was more of a worship night…in Latvian. It was beautiful. There is something about the way they sing. As we sang, I felt the presence of the Lord completely rejuvenate me. Every ounce of tired and hurt left my body. I’m not just saying it because of this one night, either. (The same thing happened yesterday during their worship, too, and that was at a pancake party during the day.) The moment we started singing, I was awake and felt whole, in unique and beautiful way. I was so grateful for that experience. That night, I ended up staying up until midnight working on my recap videos. I finally went to sleep – right at midnight (my watch always beeps, which is how I know.) I must have begun dreaming right away because when all of this was over it was 12:11am. So, here’s where it happened…
I was in the middle of my dream – not a good one, but not a nightmare. I believe I was having a conversation with a squad mate, standing and talking face-to-face. Right in the middle of this, I saw hands coming out of nowhere, reaching up, grabbing onto my neck. They were about to choke me. Even in my dream I knew that was really out-of-place. I woke up right away – sounds weird, but I really was awake. My eyes were opened and I was looking at the library ceiling with books surrounding me. (We were living in a library at the beginning of the month.) I couldn’t breathe – it felt like hands were closing in around my neck, choking me. I couldn’t move for several seconds. There was a weight on my stomach as if someone was sitting on me. My hands were grabbing onto the hands that were around my neck, trying to pry them away for several seconds. I tried to call out to Kim and Lindsey, who were nearby, but I couldn’t breathe.
Eventually it stopped. I sat up, gasping for air and prayed. I was scared right when it happened, but when I prayed, I remembered right away I have nothing to be afraid of. I pretty much just began declaring Jesus over myself. I felt good and went back to sleep feeling protected.
The next day, I talked to a teammate and told her what happened. When I was done, she told me how had woken up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. On her walk there, she said she began to feel afraid – more afraid than she had ever felt thus far. As she described it, she felt “more than just a darkness. It was a lack of light.” She felt like someone was sitting in the room outside the library, watching her as she walked through…and another girl on my team told me she thought someone was watching her too that night.
________________________________________________________________________________________
The rest of the month was honestly filled with spiritual attacks as well – teammates having the same nightmare of a demon scratching their bed sheets, on the same nights…and waking up with scratch marks. At the end of the month I even experienced attacks in a completely different fashion, as well, which really shook me up.
Spiritual attacks are meant to isolate, to hurt, to conquer, and looking back, I learned so much from this month. I learned that it is important to fight, to pray, and to call upon the Lord’s protection. I learned that moving forward, we need to pray over every living space we come into and pray over our dreams at night. Now, I’m so thankful for this experience. I was exposed to the spiritual world in a way that brought “spiritual attacks” to reality. It also showed me God’s divine power through this.
