After being burnt in a fire August 1989

It was Monday 7^th August 1989 and I was getting up to go and make the bread for the Panassac camp. I had been helping at the camp with the bread and the music. It was a camp never to be forgotten. I had seen God move in a mighty way by His spirit. I had seen lives changed and seen God anointing the music by His spirit. I had made so many friends and loved France and the French people. I still thought about Ireland and how far I had come because God had called me and I was thinking about those things. I got to the big oven at 5.30 am. As I looked inside I realised the fire was almost out. The oven was so big it was hard to reach the fire which was 12 feet at the back of the oven. I thought the fire might catch alight so I put some thin branches of wood on it and left the door open. I then started to mix the bread dough and was working away. At 5.50 I went to look at the fire and saw it was doing nothing. I knew that I had to get the fire going so the oven would be hot enough to cook the bread. I went to fetch some liquid barbecue firelighter which I had used, thinking it would be safe, as the fire was 12 feet back. I threw some on the fire…nothing happened. I tried again…still nothing. I realised I would have to get a flame in the oven. I thought it would be safe to throw a match in as the fire was so far back. What I forgot was that the vapour in the alcohol had built up inside the oven and its only way out was at me. So I picked up the matches in my right hand and in my left hand the bottle of firelighter, struck the match and was trying to throw it on when an enormous explosion took place. I thought I was having a bad nightmare but then I realised it was real. The explosion sent out a jet of fire and I could hear my hair burning and feel my flesh burning like I was rubber. The force was so strong it knocked me to the floor. I very quickly got up and tried to carry on making the bread, but realised this must be part of the shock. This time it was about 6.10 am, I felt like I was burning and the pain was so bad. By this time I was starting to shake and tremble with shock. We were driving down from the doctors to the hospital. My flesh was burning so badly and the pain was bad. In the car Andre and Helene were praying in the spirit. Then Andre spoke out a scripture from Isaiah 43:2B. “When you walk through the fire you will not be burned the flames will not set you blaze”. God spoke that right into my spirit. I took hold of that word and believed it deep inside of me. A peace and strength came and a boldness to fight from the moment I heard this word. I did suffer burns to most of my right hand side some of them were second degree. I was black and blue. When I saw my face in the mirror part of me wanted to cry. A lot of my hair had gone no eyebrows, my lashes had been burnt, my face and arm and hand were so swollen. After four days, big crusts developed over my burns. If I tried to eat my lips bled. People prayed and I prayed mainly from Romans 8:28 “God works for the good”. I prayed…Lord, bring good out of this”. In Romans 8: 38 – I prayed, “Nothing can separate me from your love, and I am more than a conqueror”. Lastly Rev 12: 11-11 “Satan had been held down and I had overcome him by the blood of the lamb and the word of my testimony”. This just kept giving me strength and boldness. Hospital staff were amazed that I was alive and that the injuries were not as severe as they could have been. When I eventually returned to Ireland the doctors there were totally amazed as well. I certainly know that God had protected me from death and I am a walking miracle. Even after returning from England to Ireland the doctors said the same thing – “How did you escape from death like that”. Finally, one part of the testimony, while in Hospital, Sergine came in to see me with Jacqueline. They prayed with me. I could see by Sergine’s face she was a bit shocked by what she saw. She prayed against the spirit of fire. God showed me this was right and reminded me of different times when my mum and brother had been burned, and that the house had caught on fire at one time. When Sergine prayed, she said it was a spirit of fire from the generations. I felt this spirit leave me in waves of heat. After I visited my mother in England I told her about this. First of all she shouted, “be quiet”, then later on I said “mum, the curse of the fire had been broken over our family”. She said, “When your grandfather was small he kept playing around a big open fire, and on one night was in his night-shirt. A witch was present and put a curse on him. Later on he fell in the fire and was badly burnt, but lived to pass on the story”. When my mum told me this story I felt the tears coming in my eyes and a deep sense of “Amen” in my spirit, because one and a half weeks before that was exactly what the Holy Spirit showed Sergine. I was thinking a lot about the scars on my right hand and felt God say, “You will bear a mark for Jesus so you can share this testimony for Him”.

My testimony is… I went through the fire and I was not burned.  My spirit was not touched. Why I’m God’s miracle, alive today to tell others.

Marina Price