Katie Souza’s story doesn’t begin with a church altar call; it begins in an empty prison unit.
In a powerful interview on Kap Chatfield’s Directed Life podcast, Souza recounted how after years of arrests and running, she found herself alone, certain she’d spend decades behind bars. Overwhelmed and ready to explode, she opened her mouth to cry out—and tongues poured out. “I started praying in tongues in prison,” she recalls. “Without anybody laying hands on me or anything.”
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What she didn’t realize in that moment was that God had already marked her years earlier. A cousin once took her to church, where a minister prophesied over her—“You’re a drug dealer and God wants to redeem you”—and told her to open her mouth. Tongues came then, too. But she didn’t walk with God; she simply filed it away and kept moving. Now, locked in a cell, the Holy Spirit reawakened that gift—and with it, a hunger for Scripture.
With nothing to read in her unit but a Bible, Katie began devouring the Word. The ancient stories suddenly made sense. She saw herself in the pages. The revelation ignited a fire. She started teaching Bible studies behind bars, baptizing women in the showers, and leading songs she’d picked up from a Christian radio. “Everybody out of the cell,” she’d announce. “We’re going to sing and I’m going to teach.” They came—some because they were curious, many because, as she jokes, they were a little afraid of her.
Souza’s faith was real but raw. She listened to worship through foam headphones while playing spades and still working out the rough edges of a soul that hadn’t yet healed. But the Word was working, and God was just getting started.
To order Kap Chatfield’s new book, The Power to Prosper, visit Amazon.com.
To hear more of Katie Souza’s incredible testimony, watch the full interview below.
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Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
