Tammy Woods, a now 57-year-old mother and grandmother who claims she was groomed and sexually abused by International House of Prayer Kansas City founder Mike Bickle in the 1980s when she was just 14, has penned an open letter to him explaining why she went public.
The letter, published by The Roys Report (TRR), was written on Jan. 30 to Bickle and his wife, Diane, prior to her detailing to the Kansas City Star earlier this week how she was abused. In addition to helping her find the courage to tell her story to the Kansas City Star, the letter, according to TRR, also helped her share her story with the police, her pastors, and noted attorney and Billy Graham’s grandson, Boz Tchividjian.
“Please do not conclude this to be defamation of character, attention seeking, gold digging or vindictive revenge. We have too much history for such impositions. You have said over and over throughout the years and in this crisis that you trust my judgment. Please trust me now. This letter is the culmination of a 21-day fast and a resolve to live in light and truth instead of shadows and lies,” Woods, who used her maiden name for the story explained.
“I step into the arena not with a smoking gun of bravado hoping to take down the great man of God and his legacy, but with a bleeding heart as one masterfully duped, and an appeal to my mentor, friend and abuser — please own these chapters in vulnerability, humility and repentance,” she reasoned, urging him to free other survivors of his alleged abuse to stop covering for him.
In her interview with the Kansas City Star, Woods said the IHOPKC founder abused her in St. Louis, where he pastored a church before moving to Kansas City and starting IHOPKC in 1999.
Woods claims Bickle abused her in his car, at her home, in the church and his office. She said the abuse, which began when she started babysitting his two sons, involved sexual contact but not intercourse. She revealed that the IHOPKC founder also told her several times that his wife, Diane, would die young and suggested that she could be the mother to his sons.
“He would kiss my neck, he would kiss my cheeks, he would kiss my forehead,” Woods told the Star, recalling the first time Bickle kissed her like a lover at her house when she was just 14. “The first, like, ‘kiss’ kiss was in my house. He kind of pulled me into my bathroom. And he kissed me like a man kisses a woman.”
Woods’ story emerged after an independent report released to the public on Jan. 31, and prepared by attorney Rosalee McNamara. In that report, Bickle confessed to engaging in “consensual sexual contact” with a woman connected to the 24/7 prayer ministry in addition to a previously confessed relationship with a primary Jane Doe who alleged she was his kept woman for several years.
Another woman, identified as “TH,” also added to Bickle’s alleged pattern of abusing minor girls when she told TRR this month that Bickle began grooming and sexually abusing her when she was 15, and he was a 20-year-old church intern in the mid-1970s. TH said she is the ex-wife of self-styled “prophet” Bob Hartley of Hartley Hope Ministries, who was recently banned by IHOPKC from its 24/7 prayer room after he was publicly accused of sexual assault and a pattern of predatory behavior impacting multiple alleged female victims.
Bickle confessed last December to engaging in “inappropriate behavior” but not “the more intense sexual activities that some are suggesting” after a group of former IHOPKC leaders, known as the advocate group, leveled abuse allegations against him spanning several decades.
“With a very heavy heart I want to express how deeply grieved I am that my past sins have led to so much pain, confusion, and division in the body of Christ in this hour. I sadly admit that 20+ years ago, I sinned by engaging in inappropriate behavior — my moral failures were real,” Bickle said in a statement published on his Facebook page while adding, “I am not admitting to the more intense sexual activities that some are suggesting.”
Bickle’s confession came after a woman, identified as Jane Doe by TRR, alleged that for approximately three years, from 1996 to 1999, before he found IHOPKC, Bickle paid for her apartment, gave her a key to his office and engaged in every sexual act with her except copulation. She said the IHOPKC founder wooed her with Scripture when she was just 19, and he was 42, then made her a kept woman for several years as he established his now popular ministry.
IHOPKC leaders previously noted that they identified five of some eight women who the advocate group alleged are Bickle’s victims and found the evidence thin. Three of the alleged victims called the allegations “lies.'” One of the alleged victims refused to communicate with the attorney for the ministry. Only the primary Jane Doe, whom Tchividjian currently represents, was found credible.
“Please free the others from their life sentence of shadows and lies. Please allow us to faithfully wound as former friends instead of scripting our cover-up as pawns to be manipulated. Please let us exhale together in closure,” Woods urged Bickle in her letter.
“My name is not Jane Doe; it was Tammy Woods when it all began. This is not meant for law craft fodder or social media fuel. It’s a wounded heart offered in honest confession to my spiritual leaders and family and extended across the miles, decades, plot twists and contexts in earnest appeal to you, the son of a boxer — this is a technical knockout; please throw in the towel; please do what is true and honorable before the Lord.”
Contact: [email protected] Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
Free Religious Freedom Updates
Join thousands of others to get the FREEDOM POST newsletter for free, sent twice a week from The Christian Post.
