Widows and women living alone have become a common scene here in Butere.

There have been many villages we have visited where women have been widowed, or where their husbands work far away, leaving them with the responsibility of caring for four or more young children on their own. The women here operate out of a strength that is truly admirable. They carry the weight of their families while waiting and hoping that their husbands will return, but sometimes, that simply isn’t the case.

One woman we met had six children, all of whom appeared to be under the age of eight. Her husband had left to work in Nairobi and had been gone for quite some time. She recently discovered that he had started a new life with another wife in Nairobi and no longer seemed interested in continuing their relationship or helping her raise their children, even financially.

Another woman had lost her husband within the last month and was still trying to figure out exactly how to navigate life without him while caring for her children. We met a mother whose two sons had been brutally murdered, and moments later, we met their wives.

Loneliness is common among many of the women here. So we pray that they would know the Lord as their comforter and their strength, and that they would be reminded that He is with them always.

One Tuesday at our church fellowship, a woman dressed in white walked into the room. She didn’t greet everyone like most Kenyans normally do, and I could immediately tell that something about her seemed off.

Eventually, we entered a time of sharing testimonies. Toward the end, she shared that she had not yet turned to Jesus, but instead had been turning to smoking and other things to cope, and was feeling alone in her struggles. But she wanted that to change.

In that moment, I wanted to immediately jump up and begin praying over her, but it wasn’t the right time - not just yet, anyway.

After some more worship, Emily gave a sermon, and we went through a couple of other parts of our normal Kenyan church service. Eventually, we were able to invite this woman into the middle of the room and pray over her.

I could feel the weight of the oppression and addiction she was carrying. As we prayed over her as a group, I began to pray specifically against the things that were holding her captive. As I prayed, I was reminded of the story of Legion in Mark 5, as well as the woman at the well in John 4.

“They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.” Mark 5:1-13

 “A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”  Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”  The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;  for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”  Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” John 4:7-26

As I began praying these Scriptures over her, two things happened: she began to fall over, and I physically began to feel weak.

We continued praying for a short while, and eventually I was invited to say a final prayer over her. As I began to proclaim her new life and new identity over her, it felt like something shifted in the room.

I don’t know where you, reader, stand on spiritual matters like this. I even contemplated whether or not I should share this story. But what I do know is that, at the beginning of our prayer, there was a heaviness in the room that seemed to lift as we prayed over her.

My hope is that she fully turns herself toward Jesus and accepts the new identity that He is speaking over her life.

Spiritual warfare is something we have become increasingly aware of as missionaries. As we pour our lives out for the Lord, the enemy seeks to disrupt that relationship and distract us from what God has called us to do.

In these few weeks of being here, I have finally begun to face some of my own giants; one of which has been my own mind.I have experienced self-doubt, a lack of self-worth, and moments where I’ve wondered if I truly belong on my team.

Our team has been incredibly blessed to become so close with one another, and I believe that is truly for the Lord’s benefit. But I have also realized that when the enemy can’t tear us down directly, he can use the things our teammates say to plant seeds of doubt, comparison, insecurity, or unwantedness.

That’s why I am asking you to pray for us.

Pray that the enemy would have no power over us or over our minds. Pray that we would continue to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. Pray that we would recognize the lies when they come and choose instead to believe what God says about us. And, above all, pray that we would continue to love one another the way Christ has loved us.