Currently, I am sitting at the corner Café in the village, drinking a chai tea. I love it here because I get to people-watch as villagers come and go to buy their daily provisions at the local markets, as children hurry along to their schools and others wait for the local bus to take them to wherever they are employed. Sal and Viju are on their way to a conference about 2 hours away. Yesterday he met with 20 of 30 pastors who enrolled in the next ZOOM Academy which will begin in May.
This morning, I have been thinking a lot about Kavitha. She is one of our widows and also part of Joyful Weave. She is a Hindu woman, but she came to the gospel outreach for the widows on Sunday evening. There were about 130 ladies in attendance. I gave a very simple message based on John 3:16. Twenty women responded to the invitation, and Kavitha was one of them. I was thrilled to see the response to the Gospel, but particularly overjoyed by Kavitha.
After the meeting concluded, she asked me to pray for her because she was suffering from lack of sleep and constant headaches. As I took her hand to pray, I noticed she had on the tightly woven bracelets (kayiru) used by witch doctors to ward off evil. I explained to Kavitha that the bracelets were not keeping her safe, but actually inviting evil spirits to harm her. I explained that now she was God‘s child and that he would protect her as a good father protects his children. Immediately she asked me to cut the bracelets off. As I began cutting each strand, I could feel the weight of oppression lifting off her shoulders. She has slept peacefully since and the headache is gone.
Micha 5:2 is a familiar prophetic passage heralding Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. But further down in verse 12 it says, “I will cut off all sorceries from your hand, and you will have no fortune-tellers.” This verse spoke to my heart as Kavitha stepped forth in faith to remove the bracelet from her wrist. Please pray for her and the other women who came forward.