Nurgina

Dear Folks,

We are currently in the USA on Furlough and our student missionaries are running the Palawan Project. We just received the following e-mail from Kiana Binford, one of our SMs. It is in regards to a young girl of about 14 who was baptized this last December. Her name is Nurgina and she is one of our most staunch and committed church members. She comes from a village where Devil worship is very very strong and In the past her family has been harassed by Satan. Several years ago her mother was possessed by an evil spirit for 10 days and on another occasion it was reported that her brother was killed by a spirit creature. Some of the strongest and most powerful witch doctors live in her village. I believe that Satan is feeling the attacks of the gospel and it fighting back in any way he can. The following e-mail will tell you the situation and we ask that you will pray for Nurgina, the church in Kamantian and the student missionaries who are in the midst of this spiritual warfare.

Kent George

I know this is long, but I beg you to read all of it. And pray....pray like you've never prayed before...petition the throne of God for my friend.

Please, just pray.

June 11, 2006
Sunday, Kemantian

I'll never forget it as long as I live. Nor will I ever be able to get the sound out of my mind.

I was helping out in the clinic earlier today with the normal flow of patients for a Sunday morning, when around 11;30 am we heard someone coming up the trail wailing. We looked to see Buba carrying his younger sister, our friend, 15 year old Nurgina on his back. She had her eyes closed and was screaming at the top of her lungs, "Meningkag siu ne, meningkag siu ne..." (let's pray, let's pray) over and over again almost as a chant.

We forgot all things we were doing at present and thinking perhaps she had a horrible bout of cerebral malaria, we knew she needed quick action. We rushed to her side and took her temperature and to see what we could do.

Upon questioning Mami (her uncle and one of the most influential witch doctors of the mountain) and Buba, Wendy realized that there was more going on than a mere physical problem, she was being attacked by the evil one himself. Barely taking a breath, she said over and over in a voice of nothing but shear desperation, "Help me. Where are you all? where's my brother? my sister? my mom? help me. I'm going to die. I don't want Satan. Satan leave. Father God, where are you? Jesus, help me. Where's my Bible? Where's everyone at? Help me, Help me." She calls for each of her family members, begging for help, begging for prayer, for worship. She repeats herself about 5 or 6 times and then moves on to the next phrase in no particular order. She even proclaims the name of the Lord as stronger than anything. Even now, I can here her cries of urgency.

She isn't awake though she's aware of her surroundings it seems because she sometimes responds to a certain person talking to her by calling out there name asking where they are. She starts out slowly then gets more and more desperate in her pleas for help. She doesn't really move except to tense her body and tighten her hands. Always crying, her eyes are very puffy and red.

Reports say that she began bing attacked yesterday afternoon when she was leaving church. They said on the trail headed back she drank some water, turned her head kind of funny then started screaming for help and telling Satan to leave. Then she turned and ran the rest of teh way home. She collapsed onto all fours when she got home and called out to her family saying not to forget God, not to forget to pray, not to lose faith. They said she could walk and was semi-coherent. After sleeping all through the night, she woke up as she is now wailing and crying. Someone carried her all the way from her far jungle home to the clinic.

All my life I've been taught that nothing can harm you if you believe in God's holy angels protecting you. I heard that all you have to do if you're being attacked is call on the name of Jesus and they will leave you. Little Nurgina has been doing nothing but calling on the name of God since this started and we've all been praying constantly on her behalf. Still she's suffering and struggling in this unseen battle. Perhaps this fight is not so wrapped and packaged like I thought. It requires our participation and constant faith. Nor is it as abstract either, it is right here at this moment, all but visible within Nurgina.

I couldn't bare to look as she cries out "Father God, help me." And then she cries for Sublitu her close family friend, and one of the pastors of our church. Sublitu's heart was torn. His Palawan culture tells him not to cry, and yet his dear friend is lying in obvious agony calling for him to help. He wasn't sure what to do. I broke down and cried when I heard him answer, "I"m here little sister, I'm here." She only responded with more screams for help. Her voice never seems to give out, nor does she seem to be able to respond to us but I think she knows what's there. It seems to be rather visual too because her eyes move a bit under her eyelids. She rebukes Satan and tells him to leave in some of her most intense pleas. A this point we don't know what to do except pray and plead with God on her behalf as weel. We're each taking two hour shifts tonight so that someone is with her all through the night praying and so that her mom and two of her brothers are not all alone.

Tonight in a half hour it's my turn to pray. Lord, give me strength, keep me awake, Help me to keep the prayers for dear sweet Nurgina. I just want to see her laugh and be her old self again, so strong, and so faithful.

June 12, 2006
Today (Monday) Kemantian

Before I had fallen asleep I heard her shrill cries pierce the night. Cries for help, cries to her loved ones, cries to God. All the way from the clinic to my house they woke me up and gave me shivers up and down my spine.

A little after 1AM Becky and I were relieved from our shift with prayer for Nurgina. I hadn't slept at all before then and was in dire need of some shut eye. Nurgina had slept quietly the whole 3 hour shift that we were there, but shortly after we left and were settled into our beds, I was awakened by her scream. It seemed even more intense and urgent than it had all day.

We'd thought perhaps that she was better, she's so peaceful when she sleeps. She had even turned on her side and opened her eyes briefly. But she was not yet out of the torment. God in his mercy had merely granted her a respite. All night long we prayed, claimed Bible promises, and prayed some more. I"m not sure how long this will last but she keeps hanging on to the fight, and we will too.

Lord Jesus, cover us with your blood, hold us in your hand and never let go. Do not leave Nurgina nor forsake her, your daughter. Keep fighting, we give you permission to keep battling the evil one until he has left.

Come quickly Lord Jesus and make this world a dark memory. Help us, Help us, Help us! May this all work out for Your glory. Give us weapons to wage war as well. Give us employment to fight on her behalf. That Your name and the precious blood of Jesus be exalted above any thing else is our prayer.

As the drizzling rain calms our spirits, may we also dwell in the peace that You have already won.

"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strenth and honor and glory and praise!" Rev. 5:12

In regards to Nurgina. We woke up this moring with this message waiting for us. God is so good:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Our prayers have been answered!!!

Shortly after talking to you online I left and went back up to the clinic. I could hear her hoarse cries from the trail so I took a deep breath that God give us reason and strength to rejoice for Nurgina.

Shortly after I got there Agus and some school kids came and prayed and sang with her for an hour. The prayers were beautiful, begging for her to be released and praying for the faith of all the church members. I went in to join them and when we finished, I went to talk to everyone about what you guys had said regarding what to do in this time of struggle. I had no sooner finished telling all the advice and things you had said when we heard Nurgina say, I can hear my mom praying for me...

Nurgina's mom called for Wendy and Sublitu to come because she was starting to come to and we all quickly rushed to her side. Nurgina was thanking Ama` Empu` for making satan go away and then she recognized each of us. She recognized her mom and thanked her giving her a great big hug followed by thanking us all by name and hugging each of us. At first she still seemed a little bit out of it but the more she talked (in a matter of maybe 10 minutes) she became more and more coherent. She recognized everyone that walked into the room and insisted on giving each of us a hug no matter what. Sublitu had tears in his eyes as he listened to her praise God for her relief.

She kept saying, I'm very weak, but she would answer each of our questions and thanked Ama` Empu` as though she were back from the dead. I'm not quite sure there was a dry eye in her room as we listened to her tell about what happened. She said, "I have a story for you" and she told us about how when she was walking home from church with her family she drank water in Erisurang and then she couldn't see or hear. She said it was like she was blind and deaf and that as long as she was praying for her family she could sort of recognize them and hear them praying for her. But the minute she stopped praying, she couldn't hear anything and she felt alone, so that's why she kept praying, praying praying.

I could go all night about how we rejoiced with her and the things she said, but I just want to say that God has worked the biggest miracle I've ever seen through the life of Nurgina. She just keeps thanking God and thanking us for praying for her. We feel so unworthy to be witnesses of such a powerful transformation in her life. All I can say right now is, "Salamat Banar, Ama` Empu`."

Amen

Nurgina later told us that the night before Satan began harassing her, a Friday night, she had attended a Siburan. The Siburan is a party of sorts, to try and appease the rice god for a good harvest. They drink a lot of rice wine and sometimes roast a pig. There's a lot of drunken dancing and the drumming goes for hours and hours.

Nurgina knew it was wrong to go, but she reasoned that it wouldn't hurt; she didn't drink after all and she didn't really even take part. ...But the truth is that it is still Satan's territory and she had chosen to enter into it. So she went to the Siburan on the Sabbath, to the territory of the enemy and on God's Holy Day. ...Satan doesn't miss an opening. He sinks his teeth in as deep as they will go. The following day he claimed his ground, though he was given just a crack in the door, and Nurgina spent the next 48 hours crying and pleading in the darkness for her freedom.

Pray that all of us will recognize the power of our choices in determining who has control.