It was WORTH it! Part 1

This month’s ministry has been so amazing and stretching for all of us! 

The ministry we are housed in has so many different ministry options here. Our team of 44 has rotated each week to be apart of them all. 

Two nights of the week we go out into a park or a specific street where there is a lot of witchcraft, homeless, drug addicts, drug dealers, and prostitutes. The first week here I stayed back with half my team for intercessory prayer! We prayed both nights for 2 hours in the rain and on the rooftop! We were drenched but that didn’t stop us. We just kept praying and singing loud together! People heard the gospel and people received their salvation! IT WAS WORTH IT!

We do this twice a week, taking turns going out to minister or intercede. 

If you don’t know what intercessory prayer is, it is where we pray and worship together in an atmosphere where we pray Heaven down. We gather in one location and intercede while half our team are out doing the missions side of ministry. We pray the Lord’s protection and peace of those who are out on the streets witnessing to those who need to hear the gospel. We pray the Lord’s guidance for them, and anything else that the Holy Spirit leads us to pray for. This type of ministry is so powerful!! You can intercede for individual people, your nation, or for your church.

(P.s. your church may have an intercessory team if you feel called to be apart of what God is doing through it)

This past week, I choose to go back out into the street to minister without fear. This was my second time out. In Medellin, the city makes crowd control easier by pushing all the homeless and drug addicts into one street overnight. This street is not allowed to have any violence. The first time I was exposed to the street I was not aware of that rule at the time. I had felt the weight on my chest of the spirit warfare in that street. I found myself and my group who were looking for people to share the gospel with, surrounded by probably about 300-400 people who were homeless, drug addicts, drug dealers, prostitution, and demon possessed people. I’m sure I will never see anything like it again.

It definitely was a scary atmosphere and I was overwhelmed the first night I chose to go. The ministry has found it very effective to share the gospel in this street once a week, while also handing out “Agua and Panela,” (sweet water and bread). They have been doing it for 25 years!! The ministry we live with houses men and women for a 9 month discipleship program to be freed of addictions. At night the ministry also opens its doors for the homeless to rest every night. 

So, again, this past week was my second time I had gone. This time I had gone out prayed up and ready to go. On my way there in the van, my friend Kristen suggested that we sit in silence and ask the Lord to give us a word or sign to lead us to the person that He wants us to minister and pray with. 

I was struggling all month with the thought of having a hard time to hear God. But that was a lie I was believing because we are all able to hear the Lord in different ways. So I took the advantage of those 5 minutes. I told the Lord I was ready to hear him, that I trusted him, and asked him what he wanted to show me. He gave me the word “yellow.”

I questioned what yellow meant, but I trusted the Lord that it meant something. When I got there, again surrounded by hundreds of people in a wild atmosphere, I was at peace. I didn’t struggle with fear this time. I believe the intercessory team was a big part of that for us. I was praying as I walked down the street with my team. Within 10 minutes of being there, I saw a woman walking towards me wearing the brightest yellow shirt I had ever seen. It was as if the Lord had given me tunnel vision. As she started to walk past me I knew that was the person the Lord put in my mind. So I grabbed her real quick and introduced myself to her. Her name is Gloria and she heard the gospel for the first time. I prayed with her. 

She may not have accepted Jesus into her heart that night, but she heard the gospel, was loved on and IT WAS WORTH IT! The first of many seeds had been planted in her before she would receive her salvation in the future. Glory to God for all that He is doing in His Kingdom and through His Kingdom!

“Faith comes by hearing, by hearing the Word of God.” Romans 10:17 

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and a sound mind.”

2 Timothy 1:7