Hello from Romania! I’ve been here for about a month and things have been happening! God has been Goding and I’m so excited to share with you something that I’ve been processing for a couple of weeks now. Here in Romania, our teams have been separated to serve at different church plants. My squad has been placed at a plant called Hope Church in our main location of Craiova. During the first few days of ministry, our host, Raul invited us to assist him by heavily interceding a vision he had about holding a huge event in the Craiova stadium. His heart was set on this vision because of an experience he had a few months ago when a demon manifested in a woman in the middle of his church. Every year, Craiova has a conference for witches of the world and over three hundred of them were here just a few months ago. This city has a population of 30,000 people and about .3% of them are reached with the truth of the gospel. This city is known as a graveyard for missionaries and pastors (being a young missionary having been told that the first day here is less than comforting, yet a challenge well received in my book) because it's so filled with a spiritual heaviness and oppression.
As we all began interceding for this event, one of my squad mates (one of the most powerful intercessors I have ever encountered) started reading Isaiah 43:18-19, “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.” And it turns out that was what our ministry host’s team was praying over the city of Craiova just that morning (which was so God). As she started praying, the Lord gave me a vision and showed me my host, some of his team, and bright lights fighting against these dark figures, but every time they would attempt to strike a dark figure down there would be a wall of darkness protecting them. The light would push through sometimes, but be set back by another dark wall that was up and ready.
The next day our host asked us to go to the stadium and pray around it. Along the way of actually getting there, the Lord brought to my mind the story of Joshua marching around Jericho and the story just kept replaying itself in my head. As I began walking around the stadium itself, I looked up to watch a blackbird enter into the inner wall of the stadium. Then the Lord opened up my eyes to see the bird hit the round wall of the stadium and all of a sudden all I could see was the walls covered with black dead birds; guts, bones, and blood on every inch of every surface of the stadium walls. It was absolutely terrifying, but the Lord showed me that all this death and darkness are the walls that are around the city of Craiova right now. When asking God what we were supposed to do about this, He once again replayed the story of Joshua walking around Jericho and revealed to me that walk not only brought down the physical walls but also the dark spiritual walls that were around that city. The Lord then called me and anyone who would dare to join me to walk around the stadium seven times for seven days. When I asked God when we were supposed to do this, I kept hearing intercession at 3am and 3pm (which are witching hours, meaning that witches do a lot of weird things at that time).
When I told our ministry host this, he gave us permission to start the walk the next day. So on November 17th, the 12 members of the two teams from our squad that started to help Hope Church in Craiova went to the stadium at 3pm to walk around seven times. After the seventh lap, we all came together and told one another what God had been speaking to us, as well as scripture that we heard or recited and prayers we were praying. One of the first things that was spoken was Isaiah 43:18-19 from someone who was not present in the meeting the day before and we were all seriously amazed by God and all the ways He connects things together. Many teammates got more visions for Craiova, one of consuming fire and life bringing water that brings in growing flowers and vegetation (new life). Many were brought to pray for a love so deep that flows down from heaven that casts out fear. Craiova is full of the spirit of fear and so we prayed prayer after prayer about love casting out all fear, interceding with hearts breaking for the people in this city that have never experienced God's unending and never-failing love.
The next day, and the next we walked around the stadium seven times. Five people stayed the course all seven days and we had others join throughout each day. We were hearing new things from God and praying bold prayers for the deliverance and the freedom of Craiova. We were committed to obeying the Lord's calling to march and break down spiritual walls.
Though I would love to write about everything that God did and showed each one of us who walked the walls, that would take a long time and be about twenty pages long. One of my squad mates was given a vision in Guatemala that was confirmed to be about a revival in Craiova, with the confirmation of the exact house she saw in her vision being right by the stadium (she found it during the march). Most of them are small, but together, they fit with other visions and words, and they create a beautiful picture of the revival that God wants to create in Craiova.
Poem of the March (this summarizes the March, please keep reading upon this poem for all the details and all the cool God things):
Walking on Holy Ground:
Around the stadium day by day,
Five of us walk as we pray.
We put on the armor on our first lap,
And pray that God would fill any gap.
We come with open hearts and open minds,
Taking what He speaks and leaving the rest behind.
The walk is so much more than for an event,
We cry out for the city, that they would repent.
We ask the Lord to break down all of the walls,
To defeat the enemy, and make Satan fall.
Our prayers are bold and seem big to ask,
But we know nothing is too big for God, not one single task.
For seven days we will walk again and again,
Knowing that God has already won in the end.
We know God will move so our hopes are high,
So we ask God to remove any pride and hear our hearts cry.
Each step we take we pray and wait,
For a small still voice or something great.
Open the gates, let Heaven come down,
We want to hear the heavenly sounds.
Let nothing stand against or in between,
What God has for us, even the unseen.
Open our eyes, clear our ears,
Let us see and hear the things that are near.
He goes before us, behind us, and with us,
We know He is fighting for us, we just have to trust.
Build our faith Lord, break down these walls,
Make Craiova a new place, let the walls fall.
Father, on our knees we surrender to your plans,
Whether we walk or bow or jump or stand.
Overflow from us, let your spirit seep down,
Make this place we are walking, into Holy Ground.
~ Ashley Dusek~
Thanksgiving morning was the last day of the seven days, seven times march. It was a day of many prayers answered, as our host Raul (in light of his insanely busy schedule) came to pray and walk the walls with us! We first started with worship at gate 17 of the stadium because that was where a few of us felt was the most spiritually heavy. As we were praising God the sun came out to meet us (this is very rare, the sun here in the winter doesn’t come around often.) As I closed my eyes to fully feel the warmth on my face, I felt as if the sun was moving and my whole body began to move from one direction to another and then the Lord called me to open my eyes and look directly in front of me. As I did, He told me that this is where He will build His church, and in front of me was a very large building with many floors. We started walking around the stadium anointing the walls every lap. As lap by lap went by the Lord would reveal to me vision after vision of His church in this building. The first floor being the welcome and sanctuary area, the second being kids and youth, the third with office space for the staff, and the fourth being a place to house missionaries. Around the sixth lap I could see people walking into this building holding dark chains, and then coming out filled with radiating light and lightness. To say it was incredible is an understatement. To express what I left as the Lord was showing me these things was the freedom and the burdens of oppression being stripped off of people. I couldn’t stop crying at one point.
In the last lap of our last day, I anointed the walls while my teammates and host held hands and walked in a straight unbreakable line. As I anointed I would pray in tongues and declare the place holy ground. At one point I looked up at the stadium wall expecting to see them blasted with only black dead birds, and as I did see that, the Lord revealed to me this power sharp piercing light leaking through the dead and causing the cased-in walls of darkness and death to slowly crumble and fall apart. I cried so much in this moment, in complete awe and wonder. As we were about to come around to gate seventy, Raul trailed off from the line and came to me. He pointed at a specific building and asked me to pray over it. The building was directly across from the building that I had been praying for so as I was praying for what he was pointing to, I started praying for the building where I’d been seeing God build His church. After my prayer, I asked Raul why he had me do that and He said that every time he has passed by this side of the stadium he felt God pulling at his heart and saying that he should build a church there. I started laughing and crying and told him that at the beginning of this walk, the Lord revealed to me that He was going to build His church here and pointed at the large building that was across the road from the smaller building that my host was looking at in the beginning. I felt the spirit take over and say through me that His new thing will be His church seen and known throughout Craiova as a place of healing, deliverance, love, true freedom, and hope. This moment alone with my host and his willingness and open heart to hear everything that I felt the spirit telling me for him was a beautiful and sweet moment of the Lord coming and meeting us in this space. This moment alone was worth all the seven days and the seven laps around and around. It was worth the extra three miles a day added to our already six-mile average from just doing ministry around the city. It was worth everything that the Lord had us do as we interceded for hours upon hours walking the stadium.
As Raul and I walked back to our group, we were informed that we were just robbed by someone going through stuff that we put on one of the outside walls of the stadium (We would do this every day and the stuff would be safe. We never put our valuables in the mix, but someone did that this time). They took my teammate's wallet, watch, and air pods and then someone else's pencil bag with notes and other sentimental things. A Romanian who was with us was able to get the wallet back from the man who stole it but didn’t realize other things were missing before the man ran off for good. This was an attack of the enemy messing with our last lap around the stadium so we all did it again. This time, I joined the line and at the very end, we shouted and cried out, “In Jesus' name, we declare this place holy ground,'' three times. And then we walked back home to cook a Thanksgiving meal.
As the sun set and the night began to consume the skies, I looked out the window from the kitchen where we were preparing food and saw this massive, consuming bright light in the sky. I was completely in awe of this light and had a feeling that the light was from the stadium. I wasn’t sure until multiple teammates came to confirm my theory, that the bright light in the sky lighting up the entire city of Craovia was indeed the lights from the stadium. We could clearly see its round spaceship-like shape and the light above it. I was crying as the Lord clearly made a way to show us that our obedience brought light to the darkness in Craiova and that the spiritual walls that once were there, were crumbling down.
This was even more confirmed this week when our whole squad came back from their other locations to help us in Craiova. When they went to the stadium, many felt that the spiritual walls were down and one person received a vision of a bright angel standing in the stadium with a mighty sword claiming its ground. I teared up because the team that walked around for seven days, seven times, felt a lightness and a brightness in the end. This vision ensured and confirmed that the spiritual walls are down, but even with the walls down, revival still needs to happen and that takes building, the building of His church. The Lord will no longer hide His truth and His church from the people that are here, for the harvest is ripe in all of Romania, and more and more people will accept within their hearts the truth of the gospel. This dark and desolate place that has held the lies of the enemy will no longer claim the title of graveyard, but a title of love and full deliverance through the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimonies. The Lord is indeed doing a new thing here and I’m incredibly grateful and honored to be in this place, at this time, seeing all the things God has promised this land. Who actually knows when all this will come to pass, but we do know that our God is a promise keeper, He is faithful, from generation to generation.
On Christmas morning at 3am, twelve of us gathered to walk the stadium once more, and God showed and confirmed to us why He had us walking the stadium and declaring it Holy ground because it's now perfect ground for revival to happen. We had been praying for God to open our eyes to see the unseen, to see the supernatural happen, and right in front of my eyes revival was happening and the veil was being torn down. He was doing it and gave us all the eyes to see it happening! I can feel redemption in the wind, and deliverance on the way, there is revival in the air.
Prayer Requests:
Please lift up the stability of Hope Church in Craiova. Their team is small and they have been given the privilege of serving and loving the people of Craiova, but the harvesters are few. Prayer for more workers to come and serve with an unconditional love for His people here in this city.
Please lift up squad in your prayers as well. We are all together for the Holiday season which is a blessing! We are facing some intense Spiritual Warfare here and every day is a battleground.