In our previous post, we heard about P and his team in The East, who travelled to X to provide food and medical support for families impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. After abruptly leaving the city when travel restrictions were imposed on the country, the team were herded by the Spirit to some camps of refugees. They arrived at the camps with a truck containing the remaining aid and medical supplies that had not yet been distributed.
Initially the people in the camps were agitated and suspicious. They were hungry and desperate. The camps had no facilities and people were fearful of the pandemic and what might happen to them if they became unwell. This was a dangerous place for the team to be, but they did not hide the fact that they were Christians who came to help in the name of Jesus.
P’s driver had a friend in one of the camps who had been unwell with a high fever for a few days. P asked if he could pray for him and felt led to pray loudly for this man. Instantly the man began to feel better and he was able to take some pain relieving medication. The team unloaded food from the trucks and began to prepare a large meal for over 50 people.
That night, as he slept in the car, P had a vivid dream. In the dream his mother kept telling him to give food to his neighbours. He woke at 4am and began to pray and intercede with his hands raised towards the people in the camps. P began to spend time teaching people through stories from the bible, especially stories about Isa (Jesus) who the Muslim believers respected as a prophet.
One day, P was telling the story of the good Samaritan when a large commotion broke out in the camp. He was told that a man in his late twenties was moving like a snake on the ground so P asked if the man could be brought outside the camp to where he was teaching. The man was brought out bleeding from his mouth and covered with bruises and cuts. P could tell that this was not a medical condition but that he was possessed by a demon so he rebuked him straight away. The man started to get out of control but they continued praying and by the grace of God, within a few minutes he was released. This event served as an ice-breaker for the team to form deeper relationships within the community. After this incident, people started to ask more questions, even kissing their hands and calling them holy men or seers. They explained that they were nobody special but that God is most powerful and had enabled them to perform this miracle.
This opened the way for more healings, an older man who had been demonised was released. Another man came to ask for prayer for his wife who had been in labour for a long time with lots of complications. The ladies side of the camp was separated from the men’s but they prayed for her from behind the curtain and within two hours, she had safely given birth. Her husband wept tears of joy and relief.
The camps were made up of different tribes and one man, second in command to one of the tribes, had a dream where he saw Jesus. Jesus didn’t speak to him but pointed to their car. Although this man didn’t come to faith, a seed has been sown in his heart and at the right time, the Holy Spirit will bear fruit there.
There was a teenager who used to attend every time that P was talking, he would sit at the front and listen to the stories about Isa healing people. This boy had been unable to talk for his whole life. After a few days, P started praying for him and then one day, the boy’s father came running to P and started hugging him. He knelt down to hold P’s feet in thanks because his son had just said ‘Father’ for the first time.
P felt uncomfortable that this older man was holding his feet but the Holy Spirit suddenly reminded him about a time at a leadership conference a few years before when two other men had held his feet, weeping and prophesying that he would take good news to many cities, that God would open cities for him to share the good news. P had never had a burden to share the gospel among Muslim believers but although he had run away from this calling, God had put P in this place so that all praise and glory would go to his name.
These are just some of the stories that P has to share from his time serving God during the pandemic. God continues to do incredible things through his church in this nation. Let’s keep praying and asking God to protect and strengthen P and his team so that they can continue to do the work that has been prepared for them to do.
In case you missed it, you can read Part 1 here.
