KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Michigan woman has come forward with allegations that International House of Prayer founder Mike Bickle sexually abused her starting when she was 14 and before he formed the Kansas City ministry.

Her allegations, which some say are the most damning to surface yet about Bickle and come after four decades of silence, are the first claims that involve sexual abuse of a minor. She alleges the abuse began when she was a babysitter for Bickle’s two young children.

Tammy Woods, who told her story exclusively to The Star this week, said the abuse occurred in the early 1980s in St. Louis, where Bickle pastored a church before moving to Kansas City and later founding the 24/7 global prayer ministry IHOPKC in 1999. She said the abuse took place in Bickle’s car, at her home, in the church and in his office, and that it involved sexual contact but not intercourse.

Woods, now 57 and a mother and grandmother, said she didn’t tell anyone for 43 years. But after watching the details unfold about a woman identified as Jane Doe, whose sexual abuse allegations were made public in October and led to Bickle’s removal and upheaval in the round-the-clock prayer movement, Woods said she couldn’t keep silent any longer.

She told her husband, some family members and her pastors last week. And on Saturday, she called St. Louis police and filed a report.

“This is my story. It really happened. I’m not Jane Doe, I’m Tammy, and you did this,” said Woods, who is using her maiden name, referring to Bickle. “But I don’t want you to continue controlling the narrative of my life today, as Mimi, as mom.”

She said she hopes that by speaking out, “somehow it helps the others to find their voice and say, ‘You know what? We don’t want to have a life sentence of shadows and lies. We don’t want to be given a script, like we can be manipulated as some pawns.”

Bickle, when contacted by email several times on Wednesday, did not provide a comment. The international prayer movement has been in turmoil since allegations against him first surfaced in late October.

IHOPKC’s attorney, Audrey Manito, said in an email on Wednesday that the organization didn’t know about Woods’ allegations until a Star reporter reached out to ask about them.

“Information coming from another individual claiming to be the victim of sexual misconduct by Mike Bickle, remains a deeply disturbing theme,” Manito said. “We note that while the timeframe of the claimed misconduct is more than 40 years ago, and decades before IHOPKC was even in existence, the claim still resonates, and even much louder so, because it is the claim of an individual who was a minor at the time.

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