It's sooo exciting to read about all that God is doing all over the
world! I wanted to share a story from one of our girls who graduated
from high school last year and is sold out to Jesus and transforming
nations. She is currently in Germany doing a Discipleship Training
School for the Arts with YWAM. See how she is implementing Prayer
Evangelism in her sphere of influence! It's kinda lengthy, but I promise
that you'll be blessed!
Love you all!!!
charis ♥
Here's her testimony:
Just this past week we had our Not For Sale (
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/)
conference and mini-outreach in the city of Hamburg which is located
near the North Sea in the north of Germany. Hamburg has the second
largest red-light district (the first is in Amsterdam) called the
Reeperbahn, in all of Europe. A lot of women and children are trafficked
to Hamburg because of the convenience of shipping people in the cargo
boats to the harbor. The week before our mini-outreach God put the
passion in my heart to work in the Reeperbahn and love the prostitutes. I
believed God would open up the doors for me to go there. SURELY HE DID!
Monday evening five other girls and I got to prayer walk the
Reeperbahn. I can't explain the shock I experienced - streets lined with
sex shops, clubs, brothels, and prostitutes. The thing that blew my
mind was that there were also fancy restaurants and couples who would go
on dates! I couldn't comprehend how this could be the norm for them.
How can you HANGOUT in this environment?
While we were walking
to the Reeperbahn on Monday night we passed a flower shop and God gave
me the idea to pass out roses with notes that said "You're beautiful!"
to the prostitutes. I was so excited to do this and on Wednesday
afternoon I went to go buy roses (which are really cheap in Germany!)
and began the "Rose Project" with about seven other people. That evening
we went out and passed out roses to the prostitutes. As I walked up to
the first girl whom I gave a rose to, the Holy Spirit overwhelmed me and
I couldn't help but say "you're beautiful" about six or seven times. It
wasn't me speaking it was our Abba speaking to her. I walked away
weeping because the love of God for her was so heavy…I couldn't help but
cry because my heart broke for her. You could see her choking up
wanting to cry but she couldn't because she was "working". So many of
the women who we gave roses to began to tear up and turn their heads in
shame because they thought they were undeserving. But they are worth so
much and are loved by a King! To simply speak truth over these women was
extremely powerful. My friend Kaitlyn and I walked back to where the
brothels were to pass out more roses and the spiritual climate was so
dark and heavy. You could see the men walking out from the brothels
laughing, drunk, and covered in the spirit of lust. I could sense all of
it and I weeped because God's heart broke for these men…I then realized
God loves the pimps, the men who come for sex, and the prostitutes.
God's love is unconditional…And I couldn't fathom it. God loves everyone
equally…He loves the pimps. He loves the pimps. He loves the pimps…I
still can't understand the abundance of love our Heavenly Father has for
every human being on this earth.
The next day (Thursday) three
of us went to go prayer walk in the Reeperbahn during the afternoon. We
decided to buy salt from the store and spread it throughout the
Reeperbahn as a proclamation of "new life" - as it says in the bible. So
we walked around and spread salt upon the ground. That evening I asked
God what He wanted me to do on Friday since it was our last day. He
clearly told me "I want you to write letters to the prostitutes from
me." I was like "um…okay". So God spoke and I wrote down what He wanted
to tell the prostitutes. I signed the letter with "Love your God…Your
Father". Later in the night I began to wrestle with God and I said "I
don't want to write the letters because I don't want to annoy the
prostitutes as they work…I don't want to bother them." and God said "No
Victoria! I want you to write these letters. I want you to show these
women that I am pursuing them…Like how a man who loves a woman pursues
her - first with flowers, then with a love letter." I said "WOW, wow…I
gotta do this." So on Friday I got one of my German friends to translate
the letter for me. Then four other Germans and I wrote letters in
German for six hours - I wanted to make God's dream come true. We wrote
about forty letters! Praise Jesus…I was exhausted from writing these
looooong letters in a foreign language…But it was so worth it!
Friday
evening four of us went back to the Reeperbahn and began to pass out
the letters. The reactions we got from the women were amazing - "letter
for me?!", "first you give us roses, and now a letter?!"…For them to see
God's heart was all that I desired. I was able to give a letter to the
first girl that I gave a rose to on Wednesday. I left her and God tugged
at my heart and said "Victoria go back and pray for her". I said "Okay
fine" and I turned around and went back to pray for this woman, Vanessa.
The Holy Spirit overwhelmed me again and as I prayed it was His words,
not mine. Man, God loves her so much.
I left the Reeperbahn on
Friday night not wanting to leave. I was like "GOD!!!! I WANT TO STAY
HERE! I LOVE THESE PROSTITUTES!"…But I had to return back home to
Herrnhut and I knew so many seeds were planted in just a week. A piece
of my heart was left in the Reeperbahn and I know I will go back one day
to minister and show the love of God once again. But for now…I will
continue
pray and proclaim life and truth. I am honored that God allowed me to bring His light into one of the darkest places in Germany.
