salem.

for Halloween weekend we headed up to Salem, Massachusetts with some of the Fire and Fragrance Harrisburg crew. Salem is known for its “witch trials” and since then it has been a center in the US for witchcraft and Wiccan. Over the Halloween weekend, about 120,000 people visit the city. So here we were traveling to Salem to share the love of Jesus to everyone we could. The seven and half hours to get there went pretty fast due to amazing friends who we got to fellowship with on the way. As we drove into Salem, we could feel the heaviness of the city rest on us. It was the day before Halloween and the streets were already packed with costumed people.  We went straight to the church that is located in the mall of Salem and joined in with 3 other ministry teams that were already there in prayer. We contended for Salem for the next four hours asking God to once again claim this city for His own.  We then were split into our host homes (there were about 60 of us in all). The next morning we headed back to the church once again to intercede for Salem. We spent about six more hours in the prayer room just asking the Lord to soften hearts and to open ears. Krista and I left at one point to get some coffee and saw for the first time what the streets looked like. There were just thousands of people all dressed up walking around stopping to get their palms read or hear their fortune. Almost every other store was a museum dedicated to witches, ghosts, or witchcraft.  I wondered what it would look like if we of could seen in the spiritual realm. What would we look like in the midst of all of the chaos?! For we change the atmosphere in a room because the Spirit of God is living inside of us!!  We headed back to the prayer room to gear up for street ministry with anticipation in our hearts. We were split into four groups. Two groups had a sign that read “Free Spiritual Readings” and the other two had signs that said “Free Spiritual Healings.”

Krista’s Testimony:

I went with a group that had a sign for spiritual healing. We stood on the sidewalk with our sign in the midst of the chaos and just talked to everyone walking by asking if they needed healing.  And if they had any pain or sickness or anything we just prayed right there with them and declared healing in Jesus’ name and we saw healing after healing. I prayed with a girl who had flat feet and was in pain from walking around all night, she also had pain in her mouth because she had just gotten her wisdom teeth out. She was completely healed, all pain was gone. Kayla overheard her say to her friends as they were walking away, “guys, I felt my feet moving.” Yeahhh Jesus.  I also prayed for another girl with flat feet and well she got arches too!! I even asked her to take off her boots so we could see, she took them off and was able to see and feel the new arches in her feet. She looked at me in full amazement and I just hugged her and told her that Jesus healed her and He did it because He simply loves her. Now that’s my God!!  He is just longing for His children to encounter and know His deep, deep, deep love. There were so many testimonies that night; we estimated that we spoke to about 500 people and 150 people got healed.

 Kayla’s Testimony:

 One of the best testimonies for me that night began before we even left on our trip.  Krista and I had sat down on my living room floor and asked the Lord for specific things we should be looking for on our trip like people, places or things. One of the things I received was a giant round rainbow lollipop. So here we were in Salem doing ministry and a girl walked up with a giant rainbow lollipop in her hand! I asked her if she needed any healing but she didn’t. I felt like the Lord told me that she once knew Him and followed Him but lately has been going in a different direction. I asked her if this was true and she said “yes”. I explained to her about the rainbow lollipop in her hand and how the Lord had told me a month ago to find her. She was really touched and I was able to speak life into her and talk with her about how much God loves her and how He just wants her to come back to Him. It was amazing! There were so many other testimonies and healings that I saw and got to be a part of. The Lord was so present in the midst of all the craziness!!

Here is a little video that the ministry team from Maine made about the night!! go ahead and check it out.