Faith in Christ renewed
A quiet Sunday night was disturbed as Nalsito, a man who was obviously gravely ill, was carried to the village. Knowing how sick he was, he had asked to be carried to the church to die.
When he got there, he pulled off a talisman his wife had tied around his waist, asking my co-worker, Job, to take it and get rid of it, though his wife protested.
But Nalsito was feverish and at times acted strangely.
Job and the folks gathered and prayed for Nalsito.
Then some of the men took off through the night with him by motorbike, arriving at the little bush hospital some miles away. The doctor there diagnosed Nalsito’s illness as rabies.
The doctor said there was nothing to be done for Nalsito, and told him to pray.
Nalsito promptly responded to the doctor, "I know where I'm going! I trust in Jesus, who died for me. Do you know where you’re going?"
The doctor later admitted, "He really made me think!"
But the rabies was causing bizarre behavior. Later in the evening, Nalsito bit Pupoy, one of the other guys helping him.
Thankfully, Pupoy was wearing a jacket and the skin wasn't broken. But all the guys helping out had to get rabies shots, anyway.
The doctor then sent Nalsito home to die.
A world-wide prayer network went into action on his behalf. And amazingly, Nalsito was still alive the next morning, though he wasn't always lucid.
After a few days, he seemed better and began asking for food.
Then, last Friday night, our home was suddenly invaded by 15 or so women and children. It turned out that these were Nalsito’s neighbors, who had run away in fear when Nalsito suddenly went crazy and tried to strangle his little girl.
We fed the frightened people, and spent the evening having a good sing-a-long, using Palawano hymns and choruses to help calm their hearts.
Poor Nalsito had to be tied up that night, and sedated, and eventually everyone drifted home.
When Nalsito made it past the 8-day mark, we were amazed that he had survived and we began to wonder about the diagnosis of rabies. When the men took him back to the hospital for a check- up, the doctor stuck to his rabies diagnosis, but was stunned to see Nalsito alive!
There is much we don’t know about this sickness, but whatever it is, we pray that God will continue to be glorified in Nalsito's life and in the Palawano church because of it.
Nalsito and his family attended the believers’ meeting on Sunday, celebrating his recovery with the rest of the church.
What an encouragement it has been to us to see a weak believer turn to Christ and become confident in the face of trauma and suffering and possible death, and to watch him boldly sharing his faith in Christ even then.