A woman who was kicked out of her home and left with nowhere to go was helped by the prayers of two first responders.
Pastor Justin Pratt told News 10 it wasn’t the professional expertise of two men that supported a lady in distress. An unidentified woman suffering from emotional abuse said she didn’t want to go to the hospital or report her partner to the police.
She just wanted prayer.
Pratt, a senior pastor at Clear Springs Baptist Church in Corryton, Tennessee, was leaving church on Sunday when he came across the domestic violence victim. He spotted a van speeding out of a shopping center’s parking lot — left behind was a lady who was sitting on a curb sobbing.
At first glance, Pratt wanted to help but walked away and went on about his business. He said:
“Something in my gut just told me to go back and check on her to make sure she was okay.”
The pastor thought he would let her be but instead, he found two first responders at a nearby fire station. Pratt wrote about the incident on Facebook. He said:
She shared that she had been verbally abused and kicked out of her home. I asked her if we could call the police or anything and she begged me not to.
The story behind the picture, you gotta read it: I love Knoxville. I love living in Knoxville. I love raising my kids…
Firefighter Grant Hickman recalled:
“I asked her if I could do anything, if I could get something to eat, and she declined.”
Then one of the firefighters asked if there was anything else they could do for the woman and she replied:
“Please, will you please just pray for me!”
Pratt continued:
What happened next stirred me and lit my fire. These [two firefighters] instantly, at that very moment, in the middle of a crowded parking lot followed her requests and prayed for her on the spot… just stopped and done it immediately.
Hickman told the outlet:
I led us in a word of prayer, and from her emotional expressions … you could tell that doing that for her was more than anything medically we could have given her.
Pratt said he hopes the woman is “safe and secure somewhere today.” The unnamed lady said she’s going to seek help from her brother until she can get back on her feet.
She told Hickman and his partner, Blake Sexton, she believes God put them there for her that day.