"Does Jesus love you?" Andrea was asking our girl who I wrote about last time. "I don't know," she responded. "Do we love you?" Andrea pressed. "Yes, I know you love me." "Well, we love you because Jesus loves you and we are showing His love to you," Andrea informed her.
We were at church three weeks before this when I got the news that our girl was starting to declines again. My heart dropped when I heard that. I went back home to find my roommate, Talice, and tell her I was not mentally prepared to deal with this again. Carrie and Justina came by that night to ask if we could take her, but when she came by, she was so far progressed that we asked them to take her for the night. Talice and I spent a long time that night talking with God and telling Him how unprepared we were to deal with this again and how much we needed His help. I needed that conversation with God so much, and felt a lot more ready to face the situation the next day. I watched her that morning while Carrie and Justina were called off on an emergency visit to Kepgen (where our girl's parents are from) because of an outbreak of fish poisoning. They transported several patients to our clinic and were able to bring our girl's parents back with them. The parents were able to watch her while we were up every two hours around the clock caring for the 8 inpatients we had. Halfway through the week, as all of our inpatients were improving, watching the girl was taking a toll on Maman Durman and his wife. We had to start taking over some shifts watching her to give the parents a break. There was so much going on that week that we could feel God carrying us through every day, giving us the strength to keep going. By Sabbath, both parents were basket cases. We knew we would end up taking care of the girl full time, since the parents were unable to continue. I was kind of disappointed with them, having thought that they were so strong the last time, they should be able to help carry the load this time. We were even more disappointed when they decided to use traditional medicine (witchcraft) on her that Sunday. Sunday evening, she was much worse. Her whole demeanor had changed - she had a wild look on her face. We spent night and day with her, praying, fasting, pleading with God to heal her. We were getting more and more exhausted. We would take our shift, go home and sleep, then go to the next shift. We finally got so tired we had to have two of us stay with her, just so we could encourage each other and keep us strong. Around Wednesday of that week, we started being harrassed by Satan as well. Carrie went into the bathroom at the clinic, and had the door shut behind her and held shut (no one was there). Wednesday night, Carrie and Justina heard walking on the porch outside the birthing house and knocking on the door (again, no one was there). Thursday night, Talice and I were sleeping there and heard knocking on the door - so loud it woke me up. When we realized no one was there, we were terrified! We held onto each other with all our might, praying, singing, and reciting promises. The following day, we held an anointing service for our girl. During the service, she was foaming at the mouth and very disruptive. However, after the service, we knew God had delivered her from some of the spirits, though there were still more remaining. By that time, we were so emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted that we called for backup. Andrea from the lowlands was able to come up and take some shifta for us, giving us a much needed break. Also, by some miracle, Lawrence from the AFM office was in Manila when we called. He and Jack (our field director) and John (another AFM missionary here in the Philippines) came the folowing week to provide extra spiritual support. By then, our girl was much better, still very much abnormal, but calm enough that she started eating some and sleeping through the night (she went two full weeks with no sleep, nothing to eat, and hardly any water - and at the end of that, it took all my strength to hold her down). We took turns having her sleep in our houses so we could get some much needed sleep. She still required supervision, but we were finally able to give her projects to do to keep her busy. At that point, I was at a loss to what else we could do. We had prayed so much that I'm sad to say I was tired of praying. We had fasted, sang, rededicated her and the grounds to God, anointed her, and she was still possessed (just not as badly). Toward the end of the week, Lawrence had us get together to share our testimony of what God had done in our lives with her. The first time we tried that, she listened for a while, then sat there and plugged her ears the rest of the time. We were disheartened, but Lawrence got us together the following day and we tried again. She listened that time, and after everyone had shared, Lawrence told her that God was willing to do the same in her life. He asked her if she wanted to give her heart to God and ask Him to forgive her and to work in her life. She responded yes. However, when he tried to lead her through a prayer, she couldn't pray it. We all left, except for Carrie and Andrea, who stayed with her to talk with her. That's when Andrea asked her if Jesus loved her. After that conversation, she opened up her heart and prayed with no prompting, asking Jesus into her heart and asking for forgiveness. When that prayer was finished, there was a noticeable difference. Everyone knew then that she had been delivered - her personnality that we'd been dealing with for the past three weeks was gone. What an answer to prayer! What a praise to the power God can work in someone's life. What a powerful testimony. Please continue to pray for her - she is having a difficult time after this last episode. The culture is very shame - based, and she's very embarrassed about what happened. She's not sure she wants to come back to school after Christmas break. Please pray that she will come back and her heart will continue to be touched by God's love! (Also, pray for her father - he's struggling with demon possession right now).
