"We had 4-5 witchdoctors come by, offering to practice traditional medicine to heal our daughter. We told every one of them no, that we choose to trust that God will heal her." We were sitting on the porch of the birthing house - turned - insane asylum as Maman Durman told us what had happened while we were gone.
Rewind about 10 days. My friend, Casey, another student missionary who is the dean of the girl's dorm, was telling us how a couple of the girls in the dorm had been acting strange and after prayer meeting, there had been quite a scene. She wasn't sure what had happened because of her limited Palawano vocabulary, but she was thinking there was some spiritual warfare going on. We started lifting Casey up in prayer, praying that she would have wisdom to deal with the situation. These two girls are from a village that is a ten-hour hike from where we are in Kemantian that is steeped in animism. The family is newly converted, having been baptized last year; the father is the lay pastor of the church there.
Things seemed to quiet down until Friday and Sabbath. First one of the girls started having strange physical problems (which thankfully resolved in a short amount of time), then the other girl started displaying some strange behaviors that were out of character for her. The second girl ended up staying at our house Sabbath night, but continued displaying more and more bizarre behaviors that were not normal. We started realizing that this had to be more than a medical or even a mental problem - this had to be spiritual warfare.
The following day, Sunday, the girl's father showed up. He had a dream that something bad had happened in Kemantian, so he hiked 10 hours to come make sure that everything was ok. He talked with his daughter, encouraging her and praying with her, and spent the night with her. By morning, she'd only had one hour of sleep, and was continuing to get worse. Her father had to head home, so we set up a shift schedule so one of us would be with the girl at all times.
That was one of the most challenging weeks of our lives. We spent hours praying around her, singing hymns, talking with her. After Sunday, she wasn't responding to her name. As I looked at her glazed eyes, I could tell she was being controlled by a demon. Several times we tried restraints, trying to prevent her from hurting herself or others; however, they only worked for a short time - she always figured out how to get out of them.
After having her in our house for a couple days, then at Carrie and Justina's (the other nurses) house for a couple days, we ended up moving her to the birthing house. The birthing house was recently built, but hasn't been finished yet. A couple weeks before this incident, it was used as a TB ward, now it was being used as an asylum. There wasn't anything in there she could damage, so we were hoping to be able to keep her off restraints.
As the week continued, all of us nurses started to feel the strain of the situation, even though the girl was improving somewhat. I was so tired and really starting to wonder when God was going to answer our prayers. We spent one evening praying as a team and searching our hearts, making sure there was nothing between us and God to prevent Him from hearing us. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God would heal this girl, but really started to wonder when He would. I knew I wouldn't be able to continue the way we had, watching her constantly, for much longer. I began to be very angry at Satan. Who was he to think he had the right to take over one of our students? Why did he think that he had the power to take over the life of this girl who seemed to have such a soft heart toward God?
On Wednesday or Thursday, we started to hear that if the girl was better, we may be able to go to the lowlands for the weekend. Mrs. George, the project leader, was heading to the States for furlough and was hoping to have one more team meeting before she left. We were excited about the possibility of going down the mountain, and started praying that God would make it possible for us to go. If anything, we just needed a break. It was discouraging to wake up again and find her still the same. One of the local workers for this project called the parents again and asked them if they'd be willing to come watch their daughter while we went to the lowlands to have our meeting. They willingly made the 10 hour hike to come relieve us. We were amazed at Maman Durman's wife, who hiked that trail being 7 months pregnant!
I felt very encouraged after our debriefing of the situation in the lowlands, and felt ready to come back into the mountains to face it again after the weekend. We got back Sunday just as it was getting dark, so I didn't end up having a chance to visit our girl until Monday after lunch (her parents were still staying with her). When I went to visit her, she came out of the birthing house and smiled at me! Her eyes were clear and she was talking normally! I sat there staring at her in awe, wondering why I was so surprised. After all, I knew that God would heal her! As we talked with her and her parents, Maman Durman told us what happened on Sabbath - how so many witch doctors had come wanting to practice their traditional medicine, and how they told them that they were choosing to trust that God would heal their daughter.
Carrie talked with our patient afterwards, who told her that she had many demons in her, and they all had different personalities. She knew when they came in as well. When Carrie told us all that, I started to feel fear for the first time since this started! I felt like it was a miracle of God that I'd sat with her for hours on end, mad at Satan, and yet he had no power to touch me. And if he did touch me, God gave me the power to refute him. I had a lot to reflect on after that.... God is so amazing - so powerful! And He sat there with us hours on end, whispering comfort into our hearts and encouragement so we would not give up on our prayers for this girl. I was also amazed at God's timing of His healing - it almost seemed as though He held back His healing in order to test and strengthen the parent's faith, to see if they would put their trust in Him or fall back into their old ways. We also all learned the importance of persevering in prayer even through the discouragement of not seeing our prayers answered right away - even if we feel like we're praying the same thing over and over. Most importantly, we were reminded that God is in complete control over everything, and His timing is perfect. Please pray that this girl's testimony of deliverance will be a light in these mountains.
