Gina arrived as a heap of skin and bones in the back of a truck Sunday evening. God knows what her ride here must have been, bouncing over rough dirt roads. The lovely 20-year-old had recently experienced an amazing deliverance from demonic oppression and was now horribly ill. It was the middle of our Bible school and all the pastors were arriving, preparing for another week of class and getting settled into their rooms. Tawnya and Kristen took and bathed Gina who couldn’t even hold her head up.
At the hospital here, they provide maybe one meal a day and little to no bedside care—that’s left up to the families. Since Gina has no family, a woman pastor stayed with her at night and we tended to her throughout the days, bathing, feeding, and changing her. We thought we were just taking care of her until she died.
But she pulled through! About a month later, she could sit up and was going to be discharged from the hospital. She was still in no condition to go back to her bush village, so we housed her here on the base and continued to care for her, take her for walks, and feed her until she was strong enough to go home. It was incredible to watch her go from less than 60 pounds to close to 100, literally from death to life. She is as sweet as ever and we see her often when we go to our favorite village in the bush!