Transformation in the Home

When new neighbours moved in, they came to Benjy and Jesica before they even had a chance to introduce themselves. They said they had heard Benjy and Jesica were pastors and that they prayed for miracles, and they asked if they would pray for them.

Their son was very ill, and doctors suspected a cancerous tumour. He was scheduled for surgery the following week. Benjy and Jesica laid hands on them and prayed in the name of Jesus for healing. They also supported the family by providing meals and caring for them through the process.

After the surgery, the family called them and said, "Could you tell us more about that God you prayed to?" There was no tumour, and their son was healed.

One night the Holy Spirit woke Jesica and told her to go downstairs and pray. She went down, turned on the light, and began praying.

About fifteen minutes later, around 2:00 in the morning, there was a knock at the door. A neighbour from another street, who was nine months pregnant, said, "I figured you'd be awake. I saw your light on. I know you pray. Could you pray for me? I'm having some complications with my pregnancy."

They prayed for her. Her baby was breech, and within a few hours the baby turned, and she was able to deliver safely. After the baby was born, the mother brought the baby to them so they could pray a blessing over her.

One day a neighbour came to their door to register a complaint with the board. The man was bent over and wincing in pain.

Benjy said this was a threshold moment for him. Up to that point, he had become comfortable telling people, "I'll be praying for that," but praying on the spot for a neighbour he would continue to see regularly felt much riskier. He felt afraid, but he decided to pray anyway.

The neighbour had just come from the doctor and had been told there might be cancer in his liver. Benjy asked if he could pray for him. The man said yes. Benjy laid hands on him and prayed, even though he admitted he was "praying afraid."

When he opened his eyes, the man had tears in his eyes. A week later, Benjy was walking to his car when the neighbour chased him down from the other end of the parking lot and asked, "Who were you praying to?" The doctors could not find anything at his pre-op appointment. Benjy then got to tell him about Jesus.

One neighbour whose car parked beside theirs avoided them constantly. She would literally wait in her car until they had gone around the building so she would not have to interact with them.

Even so, Benjy and Jesica kept praying for her, blessing her, and speaking peace over her.

At Christmas, she suddenly showed up at their door with her son, gifts, and a Christmas card. Jesica looked through the peephole and was shocked to see it was the neighbour who had been avoiding them.

The card said, "Benjy and Jesica, I want you to know, I feel the blessings coming from your unit."

They were amazed, because they had never really spoken with her, yet she knew their names and had clearly felt the spiritual impact of their prayers and blessing.

As part of their duties on the homeowners association board, Benjy and Jesica had to choose the paint colours for the buildings. When the paint was delivered, they prayed over it — asking the Lord that as the buildings were painted, the neighbourhood would be bathed in peace, love, and His presence.

One of the clearest miracles that followed involved a woman named Vicki, one of the last neighbours they had not been able to connect with. Jesica was grocery shopping when the Holy Spirit told her to buy Vicki flowers and chocolates and tell her that Jesus loved her because she was contemplating suicide.

Jesica immediately left her cart, bought yellow roses and Ghirardelli milk chocolates, and raced back to the complex. About fifteen minutes of knocking later, a very annoyed Vicki opened the door.

Jesica handed her the gifts and said, "These are from Jesus, and He wants you to know He loves you." Vicki began crying and fell down, saying, "How do you know? How do you know?"

She explained that she had woken up that morning and said that if there was a God, she was giving Him until 4:00 p.m. to make Himself known to her. She also asked how Jesica knew yellow roses were her favourite and the exact chocolate she liked. Jesica told her she didn't know — but her Creator did. Vicki entered the Kingdom that day.

When Benjy and Jesica bought a new van, they anointed it with oil together with their children. They anointed the tires symbolically and prayed that wherever the van went, it would carry the Lord's presence and peace.

That very night, at 9:45 p.m., Jesica sensed the Holy Spirit telling them to go on a prayer drive. Even though the kids were in pyjamas and nearly in bed, the whole family got in the van and went.

As they drove and prayed, they came to an intersection and saw a severely handicapped teenage boy in the middle of the road, disoriented and dodging cars. They used the van as a shield to stop traffic. Benjy got out, grabbed the boy, and moved him to safety.

When his father arrived, they told him that at 9:45 p.m. God had prompted them to go on a prayer drive, and that was how they had found his son. The father began crying and said that at 9:45 he had told his wife, "Let's pray. If there's a God, ask that someone would help save our son." Benjy and Jesica told him that God was Jesus, and asked if he wanted to meet Him that night. He said yes.

They said it was especially powerful for their children to witness the whole experience and see what it looked like to be available to God as a family.

In another neighbourhood they moved into, Benjy and Jesica quickly identified a drug house nearby. Instead of cursing the darkness, they decided to adopt the home in prayer and intentionally shine the light of Christ there.

Their oldest daughter Melanie, who was five years old at the time, joined them in praying for the people there. One day she told Jesica that she felt she needed to buy a Bible for the ringleader of the house as an act of faith, because one day the woman would get saved.

So they bought the Bible and wrote the date in it.

Exactly three months later, through a series of events involving another neighbour, they were able to lead that young woman to the Lord. They ran home, brought her the Bible, and gave it to her. She was overwhelmed that someone had cared enough to pray for her and buy a Bible for her ahead of time.

She carried that Bible everywhere. Benjy and Jesica said she then went on to reach many more friends than they ever could have reached themselves.

The young woman from the drug house later passed away suddenly, about a year after coming to faith. Before she died, she asked Benjy to do her funeral so he could tell her friends about the hope of Jesus.

Years later, while Benjy and Jesica were prayer walking, they encountered the young woman's mother. She told them she was on her way to see a psychic because she wanted to know how her daughter was doing.

Jesica stopped her and said that instead of going to a known liar, they could ask the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. Jesica began to pray, and the Lord showed her the daughter. He also showed her that the mother had previously had stillborn and miscarried children — something Jesica had not known.

Jesica described what she saw, including that the daughter was holding babies, and the number matched exactly the mother's miscarriages and stillborn children combined. The mother broke down crying.

They were then able to lead her through a reaffirmation of her faith in Jesus. Later, before she unexpectedly passed away, she also asked Benjy to do her funeral and tell her family about Jesus and where she was going.

One day their son Eden noticed a dog in their front yard that would not leave. The dog had no collar, but it was very well trained. Jesica quickly realized it was likely a service dog.

They loaded the Labrador into their small car with all the kids and took it to the vet, expecting it to be chipped. But the vet could not find a chip. Instead, Jesica noticed a tattoo with numbers in the dog's ear. After researching it, she found that before modern chip systems, service animals were sometimes identified with tattoos. About ten hours later, she was able to trace the dog to its owner.

They drove the dog to the house. In the front yard, the man's daughter was crying and holding the dog's collar. She could not believe the dog had gotten out without it.

Jesica told her the Holy Spirit had prompted them to help return the dog. The daughter said, "I was praying, and I'm an atheist. I said, if there's a God out there, could He bring my dog back?" Jesica told her, "There is a God, and His name is Jesus, and He loves you and your dad."