Bringing Freedom
Written by Madison Toney, Project Orphans Visitor
My name is Madison Toney! For my second year in a row, I got to travel to Zacapa, Guatemala, with my church on a Project Orphans missions trip. Guatemala 2016 was incredible. I could share about everything God did in me over the week, but that would end up being a whole novel. So I’m just going to share the moment that had the biggest impact on my life.
A couple days before we made our way to Guatemala, I was in my living room talking to my dad about the trip. We had been praying super heavily for our team and all the people we were going to come in contact with for a long time. That morning, my dad said something that caught my attention. He talked about how he heard the Holy Spirit say that he was going to use my team and I too physically heal people in Guatemala. Of course it stuck out to me and got me super excited, but I didn’t think too much about it. But sure enough, our loving Father fulfilled that promise.
Our second day in Guatemala we traveled to a village to share the love of God. We got most of the people from the village to all meet up in one place, so that we could provide a ministry time. Brittany Stokes, Founder of Project Orphans, shared to everyone about what God has personally been doing in her life and how good He has been to her and her family. She talked about who God is and what He has done for every single person there, then she asked if anyone there had physical pain or illness.
As people were raising their hands, she asked my team to just spread out, lay our hands on those with their hands raised and pray for healing. As soon as she said that… It clicked. That was exactly what God told my dad we would be doing.
I immediately jumped up, knowing that God was going to bring healing because that was His promise, and singled out one woman who had her hand raised.
We asked her where she was hurting and she pointed to her foot. We laid our hands on her foot and began praying. We prayed for the pain to leave and we demanded for God’s love to cancel out the pain.
As we finished praying we asked if she was feeling better and she just said a little bit. So we took her down to the front so that we could have more people lay their hands on her and praying healing over her. We started battling in prayer a second time, this time with more people and more desperation for God. As I was praying I could hear that lady whispering her own prayer in Spanish. That was a really cool moment because as we were praying over her in English, she was praying in Spanish and our hearts immediately connected because, despite our language difference, that barrier was broke all because we were praying to the same God.
After the second time praying over her, we asked again if she was feeling better. She looked up at us with her eyes sparkling and the biggest, most beautiful smile I had ever seen and shook her head yes. That day, we had 7 people confirm that they had been healed by the love of God.
God fulfilled His promise and used my team and I to set people free in the name of Jesus. We, as followers of God, are called to do exactly that, obey God, heal the sick, and set people free!