A 57-year-old mom and grandmother not too long ago wrote an open letter alleging that Worldwide Home of Prayer Kansas Metropolis founder Mike Bickle sexually abused her when she was 14 years previous.
Tammy Woods, who used her maiden identify, printed a letter detailing the alleged abuse through The Roys Report on January 30.
“Please don’t take this as defamation of character, consideration looking for, gold digging or vengeful revenge. We now have an excessive amount of historical past for such imposition. Through the years and on this disaster, you have got mentioned time and time once more that you simply belief my judgment. Please consider me. This letter is the fruits of a 21-day quick and a decision to stay in mild and fact as a substitute of shadows and lies,” Woods defined.
“I enter the sector not with a smoking gun of braveness hoping to take down a terrific man of God and his legacy, however with a bleeding coronary heart masterfully cheated and enchantment to my mentor, buddy and abuser – please personal them. chapters in vulnerability, humility and repentance,” she continued, urging him to free different survivors of his alleged abuse to cease overlaying for him.
Along with the letter, Woods additionally informed her story in an interview with the Kansas Metropolis Star, noting that the abuse started when Bickel was pastoring a church in St. Louis, Missouri, earlier than transferring to Kansas Metropolis and beginning IHOPKC in 1999. Woods was 14 years previous and began babysitting his two sons.
“He would kiss my neck, he would kiss my cheeks, he would kiss my brow,” Woods informed the Star. “The primary, like, 'meringue' kiss was at my home. He form of pulled me into the lavatory. And he kissed me like a person kisses a girl.”
Based on The Christian Put up, she additionally claimed Bickle informed her she might be the mom of his sons and that his spouse Diane would die younger. Woods defined that the abuse took her in his automobile, at her dwelling, at church and in his workplace, nevertheless it didn't finish with intercourse.
In an investigative report launched Jan. 31, Bickle admitted to “consensual sexual contact” with a girl related to IHOPKC's 24/7 prayer service, in addition to a earlier relationship with major Jane Doe, who claimed Bickle had saved the lady for a number of years.
“Based mostly on all credible proof, together with his affirmation of contact with two Jane Does over twenty years in the past, it’s extra seemingly than not that MB engaged in misconduct, together with sexual contact and clerical misconduct, in an abuse of energy for an individual ready of belief and management,” lawyer Rosalee McNamara wrote within the report. “As beforehand reported, after these allegations surfaced, in December 2023 the IHOPKC introduced that it was 'instantly, formally and completely' separating from the MB.”
“MB additionally admitted to a few counts of inappropriate contact with a person related to IHOP round 2002 to 2003. He described the contact as 'consensual sexual contact that concerned her touching me however me not touching her,'” McNamara defined. “He mentioned they each agreed it was incorrect and the assembly ended. MB's account and the person's account are very related, together with that it occurred between 2002 and 2003, and I discover the person's account credible.”
Final December, Bickle pleaded responsible to “inappropriate habits” however to not the “extra intense sexual actions some have urged” after receiving decades-long allegations of abuse from a gaggle of former IHOPKC leaders generally known as the Advocates Group.
“It’s with a really heavy coronary heart that I need to specific how deeply saddened I’m that my previous sins have led to a lot ache, confusion and division within the physique of Christ at this hour. I sadly admit that over 20 years in the past I sinned by inappropriate habits – my ethical failure she was actual,” Bickle mentioned in a press release posted on his Fb web page.
“I don’t condone the extra intense sexual actions that some recommend,” he continued.
Photograph Courtesy: Fb / Mike Bickle Official Website
Milton Quintanilla is a contract author and content material creator. He’s a contributor to Christian Headlines and host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast dedicated to sound doctrine and biblical fact. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
