I have to admit before I came on the World Race, spiritual warfare seemed so far away. The closer the time came to me leaving for the Race, the more spiritual warfare I seemed to come in contact with. Before training camp, during camp and now on the Race (the story I am going to share), God has allowed me to see a glimpse of His Power through it all.
(Koinonia girls at the beach)
First of all I am the hardest sleeper ever, my mom nicknamed me sleeping beauty, because I could sleep forever and I sleep through anything. I came back from evangelizing in the mountains Monday night. Everything was fine, I felt great. The night after we got back from evangelizing I woke up all of a sudden in the night (Feb. 10). I had a vision of something latching onto my back and bringing me pain in the left side of my back. I immediately went back to sleep. I woke up the next morning and I had a horrible pain in the left side of my back. I remembered the vision and waking up but I had thought it was just part of a bad dream. I tried to put it in the back of my mind and convinced myself that I had strained something. I continually told myself over the next couple of days that I was crazy to think a spirit had latched onto my back during the night. I kept praying to God for healing from this pain. As the healing did not come I asked for knowledge about what was happening.
The pain gradually became worse, and I could not sleep much. I frequently woke up in the night because the pain didn’t allow me to sleep. I then asked God for confirmation on what was going on because I could not bear this pain much longer (Feb. 12). I checked my email on the night of the 13th and talked with my mom. I had received an email that said, “I have a feeling you are becoming very dangerous to Satan and his minions.” I could not help but cry; I was not crazy. My back pain was a cause of spiritual warfare. My mom confirmed to me that demons can latch onto you and this was not crazy.
I went to two of my teammates and told them to pray for me. I explained about the vision, the sudden pain, the e-mail confirmation, and the continual growing of the pain. I wanted to bring it to light so that Satan would have no more power over this situation that I had kept in the dark. I received prayer from my teammates and the pain had seemed to lessen, but not completely.
I woke up on Valentines Day and the pain had increased dramatically. I went for a walk with a teammate and she noticed I was not myself. I had decided to tell our squad leader because I didn’t know if something serious physically was going on. The pain was affecting me being able to breathe and I was not able to breathe without being in pain.
After breakfast I went to the squad leader, I quickly told her through tears about the pain, the vision, and the bringing it to light the night before. She immediately began praying for me, and the pain increased. She then began praying in tongues over my back and the pain was unbearable. I began screaming but it was not me screaming, there was a spiritual battle all around me. My screaming had drawn people to the situation and the director of the orphanage and nurse on staff were worried it was physical. I was checked by LC (the nurse) and she reminded me of these truths: God has dominion over all and physical or spiritual there will be an end to it.
Physically there was nothing wrong with me that she could see, we prayed and she left the room. All I could do was cry as I realized the pain was still there and there was more fighting to be done. My team quickly joined me and they began praying for me, reading truths from the Bible, and asking for healing over my pain. The pain had decreased dramatically and I felt much relief from it.
