Last week we went to a ministry called Iris Footprints for a few days. The main ministry is rescuing children. The woman who started the ministry has adopted over 40 kids in her lifetime and its evident that she loves each one of the kids so deeply. Most of the children come from really difficult situations in the past and she gives them a place to call home and a family to belong in. She teaches them to love God, love themselves, and love each other.
Outside of the ministry to the children, they also do outreach in the communities around them. Sometimes just the missionaries go. Sometimes they bring some of the older children along with them. Sometimes they take teams to visit the communities. While we were there, they took us to 3 different communities that they call squatter camps. They’re basically communities where people live in homes that are put together with whatever scrap metal or wood can be found.
While at the 3rd village, one of the missionaries had it on his heart to heal the sick. He asked the woman who we were talking to if there was anyone in the community who was in need of healing. She said that everyone was healthy. He responded with asking about a specific person that God had put on his heart. The man’s name was Thomas. She informed us that Thomas had passed away the year before, but showed us the general direction that he lived so we could try and find the family and pray for them.
We never did find his family, but along the way we met a man who was desperately in need of Jesus. The missionary was obedient to the leading of Holy Spirit and stopped to talk with this man. He shared his testimony and preached the gospel. I was in awe of how easily he started declaring the good news. I mean, he went on and on like it was a Sunday sermon he had prepared weeks in advance.
He had 4 men intently listening to him as he shared both truth from scripture as well as his own personal testimony of how God had delivered him from a drug addiction. When he finished speaking, one man told us he wanted prayer, He said that his prayer was very serious and he was in deep need. I expected him to tell us that he needed a home and a job because when we first started talking to us he looked at his small shack of a house with sadness in his eyes and told us he had no idea how he was surviving.
Rather than asking us to pray for a better home or a job, he admitted to us that he has been fighting an addition to drugs and that he wants the fight to end. He showed us a picture of what he looked like before he started using drugs and you could see the regret in his eyes that he ever started in the first place. I could tell this man truly wanted to be freed from his addition.
We laid hands on the man and started to pray. Another missionary with us led him in a prayer of salvation and admitting Jesus as Lord and asking for His help. During this prayer, I had my hand on the man’s shoulder, interceding for freedom and victory.
When the missionary finished leading him in the prayer, the man was silent with his head down. The missionary lifted the man’s face to look into his eyes. What came next I honestly was not expecting. the missionary addressed the spirit of addiction and started commanding it to leave the man.
He started aggressively praying for this man to be set free. I took a step back and just watched the rest of it unfold. As the missionary prayed, the man stumbled backward and bit and then fell to his knees. After a couple minutes of the missionary commanding the spirit to be gone from the man, things went silent. I watched, waiting to see what would happen next.
Slowly, the man stood back to his feet, looked at us with a smile on his face and exclaimed “I truly and honestly feel like a new man”
Praise God!!! And that’s exactly what he did. He walked with us back to our car so we could give him some food and the whole time he was walking him and the missionaries were singing songs of praise in their language. The man kept declaring his thankfulness to the Lord and speaking of God’s goodness. The missionary made plans to come back and baptize him and we drove away celebrating the goodness of God that we got to witness in that squatter camp.
Blessings,
Kaci
I am thrilled that you got to experience the Holy Spirit work in this way! I was so moved when you told me all about this on the phone. So many of us never see this in person and can be so skeptical because of that. I pray that your faith has grown even more because of it. Of course, it’s also amazing to hear how God is working in those villages.
Wow what a powerful experience! Seeing someone so broken and in need of God’s love. This man became vulnerable and confessed to complete strangers and confided in you guys. In return, he came to Christ! Heaven gained another brother in Christ. How wonderful it is that you were there to witness this! So cool!
Thanks Mom! I got to witness it and I still struggle with skepticism… but God still works and heals even when we doubt
Thank you Kati!! I was honestly hesitant to share the story but God deserves the glory!
It was amazing! When he started to share his prayer request I thought he was gonna ask for a job or a better house, but no! He wanted freedom from his drug addiction. It truly was incredible
What an incredible story of obedience, the power of the Holy Spirit, and true freedom!! I love it. Really great job telling it!! 🙂