The third trip that I went on was to the Middle East, we went to two different countries and the trip ignited a passion in me I had yet to see till then. On our first day we were able to have lunch with this amazing woman who had recently dreamt of Jesus and our mutual friend but she couldn't remember anything more than that about her dream. After lunch and getting to know her she asked a question about the music that had been playing in the background. It was worship music and so we explained it to her and talked about how we pray and talk to God and get prophetic words. Then we asked her if she wanted to hear what God thought of her and she did so she sat in a chair and we laid hands on her and started praying and prophesying. I was able to lead her into a vision where she radically encountered Jesus and forgave her father and made Jesus her guide. So the first day in the middle east and we were already witnesses to something amazing! I got a new sister in Christ and she got freedom!! That alone made the trip worth it and that was only the first half of our first day. God is good!
I also got to experience my first sand storm and temperatures of 115 degrees which was hot. Thankfully we didn't do too much outdoors and everywhere had air conditioning. :) It’s pretty fun to say that I’ve been in a sand storm and experienced that natural wonder :) it was like a really foggy day but brown and dusty for a few days. Also it made your throat hurt if you breathed it in for a long period of time… but still a neat thing to experience!
One day in the first city we held a healing service and many people received freedom from their ailments. One lady was on a four hour leave from the hospital to come to the service, she still had her IV hook up in her arm and was in a wheelchair because she didn't have the strength to walk. After receiving prayer she was jumping up and down and running around praying for other people and she pushed her wheel chair out off the building she was totally healed. The lady I prayed for had previously had breast cancer and a mastectomy but then the cancer had returned and moved into her right arm and it was swollen and bandaged and she had very little mobility, she wasn’t able to lift it so it was straight out from her shoulder and could only close her hands about half way and doing that much was terribly painful. After about few minutes of prayer she felt some pain in her neck go, so we continued to press in to receive the healing that Jesus paid for on the cross and little by little she got better. After about an hour or more of prayer she was able to lift her arm all the way up and open and close her fist completely with no pain!!!! That was a very exciting moment! I learned that perseverance brings about a brilliant reward, we were faithful to persevere and continue seeking the reward Jesus paid for and He was faithful to deliver it. :)
There have been so many times this past year that I have prayed and not seen anything happen and there have been times when before a prayer was spoken God’s love came and healed and there have been times when it doesn’t take but a few seconds and the pain is gone and like the one I just wrote times when it takes persevering and I am still learning and I don’t know why sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. All I know is that God loves to heal and when I am told to pray I pray and I can only be faithful to do what He tells me to do when He tells me to do it and I don’t have to try to explain everything. I am ok with the fact that He is a big God who works in mysterious and wonderful ways and I only know in part and see in part, one day my eyes will be fully opened and I will see the magnitude of who He is and the fullness of His glory, but that day is still in my future. :)
One of the most heart wrenching experiences in the first city I experienced was when we went to a safe house for runaway maids. It is in conjunction with the Ethiopian and Nepali embassies and we were able to go and speak with the women there. I shared my testimony about how my brother was physically abusive and how I was able to walk through forgiving him even after he passed away. How I realized that he was just hurting and his pain spilled out onto me and wounded me. Many of the women had also been abused and were completely focused on me and the translators. It was the first time I had ever shared my testimony in front of strangers and the first time I had ever spoken with translators which was crazy! I kept loosing my place in my story and my amazing team helped to keep me on track and get me through to the end. The women had many questions and so in between moments of translating sometimes they would ask a question and then it felt so much more like a conversation rather than a time to speak to them. I liked that much better. After I was finished and their questions were finished we went into another room and split up into groups where we were able to bless them with prophetic art and just listen to what God was thinking about them and many of them cried and some told us their stories which broke my heart. One woman in particular, she was from Nepal and had been kidnapped and brought to this country. Her husband followed but was unable to pay the ransom so the kidnapper raped her and then released her. She however was unable to return home because she has no paperwork of entering the country or leaving hers so she was stuck at the embassy. She was able to open up and share with us and we held her and wept with her and prayed over her. She spoke conversational English and ended up helping us by translating with the other Nepali women. These women were so incredible and had such beautiful hearts, they wanted to bless us after we blessed them, so after we drew a picture for them of what God showed us then they started drawing pictures for us… it was so cool!
We also did SOZO’s, which are a type of inner healing the word sozo comes from the Greek and it means saved, healed and delivered. I discovered that I love doing inner healing and have joined with the team at my church to further my training and step into that love of mine! :) I know that inner healing and deliverance will be a huge part of my life and ministry, and I love teaming up with God to bring healing and freedom to His babies!
The second country in the middle east was a bit rougher because we were already exhausted and then had to readjust to culture shock mid trip. Our first day there we went to a gypsy camp and spent time with the poorest of the poor there. It truly was a culture shock to be in a third world setting after the first country which seemed quite rich. The children at the gypsy camp were beautiful, they were so excited to see us and we brought them candy and they hung on us and wanted to hold our hands and picked flowers from the trees for all of us. It felt totally different than the dump in Mexico that I had been to a few years ago though, because there wasn’t this sense of joy in the people here like there was in Matamoras, here it felt much more oppressive and heavy. We were able to pray for the sick there and they actually took us to the sick people in the camp, tent to tent, which was a privilege in that culture. The church that we met up with in this country was so amazing also, they were so hungry for the part of God that we carried. It was wonderful to spend time with them and be mutually challenged as each of us is strong in different areas. We met with the core group at our hosts home the first night and prophesied over each of them, which is a really cool way to get to know people. Asking God to reveal to you who He says they are opens you up to really be able to see them and honor them.
We also held a smaller but still powerful healing meeting here and were able to see God move once again and love on His children. The last night we were there we taught a prophetic art class which was the prelude to a night of worship and prayer kicking off 24 hours of prayer for the country. It was really fun, some people struggled getting a picture from God and some people got one instantly, some had to really press through some other things in order to draw any imagery out of themselves. Others struggle had more to do with pride in creating a put together piece instead of an exercise. It was really fun to watch the process of about 20 people start to create from the little pictures that God was giving them, and to see them prophesy over each other using a piece of paper. During the rest of the evening we were able to visit and pray with other members of the church body there and help them receive some breakthrough, insight and encouragement.
The trip to the middle east was incredible and eye opening and I truly believe I was blessed abundantly by this opportunity to step into the amazing destiny God has planned for me. He has put desires in my heart to love people who have never experienced true unconditional love and freedom in that love to be yourself, a freedom that releases you to be who you truly are, despite terrible circumstances or pressures put on you by your culture and situations, God’s love is bigger than anything and He longs to lavish it on every single person, they were all created to live an abundant life in relationship to Father God. That is what I long to bring to the world, I want them to discover His beauty and for it to restore them to the beautiful person they were created to be, the person that might have gotten lost somewhere in the wounds that happen growing up. That is why I went to the Middle East, that is why I loved every that I met, and that is why I know that one day I will travel the world loving people, transforming cities and nations with the light of the Kingdom of Heaven and the love of the Father. It is going to be a beautiful journey and I plan on sharing it here with you :)
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