This Time, She had Time to Get Attached
Steve Dennie
November 1996
One day in class, a nursing student sneezed.
"Bless you," Neita Dey said.
The students all looked at her, confused.
"That's what we do in America," Neita said. They all laughed.
"They thought it was pretty neat that we would bless people," Neita says.
* * * * * *
Neita Dey loved her year at Narsapur Christian Hospital in India. She was forced to leave the country much sooner than planned, but she took some great memories with her.
This was the second premature departure for Neita. The first time, she had barely arrived at Mattru Hospital in Sierra Leone when she, along with all other missionaries, were evacuated from the country. Then an opportunity came to serve in India.
Neita got to know the doctors and wife who interviewed her when when they were in the States in 1994, so she anticipated having some friends when she arrived. But then the doctor suffered heart problems, and he and his wife went off to another city for an extended period of treatment. "I felt very isolated for quite a period of time," Neita says.
But she had work to do, and the nursing students quickly found a dear place in her heart.
She taught one class a day, but also spent three hours on the ward supervising. Then there was preparation, test correction, her weekly Bible study, and other things. "I pretty much had my day full," she says.
Neita's first week of teaching didn't go well.
"First of all, I assumed that they all understood me, because they all knew English pretty good. Second, I assumed that their background was such that I could teach them oncology nursing and they would understand what I was talking about. Those assumptions, when I gave the first exam, went right out the window."
Neita sent a paper around the class asking what they needed from her so they could learn better. She discovered some things. The couldn't understand her English; the accenting and phrasing of Indian English is very different from Neita's use of the language. And they weren't as far along as she thought.
So she did the first week all over, and adjusted her teaching style.
"I had to print everything on the board as I worked with them. I would be printing all of the important aspects of what I wanted them to study and wait for them to copy it. Since you can't waste paper there, I couldn't print things out and give it to them. It just took me more hours to teach what I needed to teach. But in the end, they did well."
"They don't question you," Neita says. "It's not in their culture to question someone in authority, and I think more so with young women than with young men. I had so much trouble getting them to talk."
Finally, she sent a paper around inviting them to anonymous write down questions they would like to have answered. She could stand in front of the class and answer their questions, and they didn't feel threatened by that.
After returning to the States, Neita received a letter from her supervisor saying that only one girl failed this year, compared to two girls the year before Neita arrived. "So I guess I didn't do them any damage," she smiles.
* * * * * *
Neita led an hour-long Bible study every Tuesday night. Along with her 75 students would be a number of Hindu patients sitting around the fringes, even though they couldn't understand what Neita was saying. "Because Jesus is known as the healing God, I think they thought that because they were in proximity, they had a better chance of being healed."
It was mandatory that students attend; being a Christian hospital, that requirement could be made. But, Neita says, "I knew the lord was working in that group. Most of them were Christians, and you could tell by the prayers that the Holy Spirit was there. I would have trouble sleeping afterwards because I would be pumped up about it."
She says that witnessing, initially, is fairly easy in India. "They have over 30,000 gods, and will believe in any god you hand them. They refer to Jesus Christ as a healing god, and will put a picture of Jesus on the mantle with all the other gods. The hard part is getting them to take him as the God, Creator God, and to forsake their other gods."
Do they think that's close-minded?
"It's hard to tell. They're so polite and respectful, they probably do at first until they actually come to know Him."
Neita describes a "game" she says they had to play, since they're not allowed to admit being a Christian.
A couple of strangers would come up on the street and ask, "Are you a missionary?"
"I'm a teacher," she would respond.
"Who is your god?"
"Jesus Christ," she would say, unwilling to deny Jesus.
They would look at each other and say, "She's a missionary."
* * * * * *
Neita traveled to Nepal to renew her visa. That's where she learned that it wouldn't happen, and she would have to leave India. She remembers returning to Narsapur and having four students come running up to her.
"I just started crying right then. I loved them so much, and knew I wouldn't be able to stay. Word spread real fast in the compound. Within an hour, everybody was crying.
"They started doing things for me, making their love known the rest of the time I was there. Every time we got together, they would sit there with soulful eyes singing 'In the Sweet By and By.' I couldn't get through that time without crying. They sang it every single time."
* * * * * *
Neita spent this past summer as the nurse at Camp Living Waters in Luther, Mich. She loved it, and plans to fill that role again next summer. But through the winter and spring, she'll work as a traveling nurse, possibly in Florida.
Does she see herself back in missions?
"Twice, I ripped myself away from my country and my family, and God sent me back sooner than I planned. I don't think God is asking me to do that again, because if he was, he would certainly make his will known. So right now, unless I get led differently, in the next months or years I expect that I'll stay here. Maybe go on short-term missions.
"I would be very comfortable going back to India, because I liked the culture and learned to love the people, and I have friends there. But I don't know that I would be comfortable going to another country at this point. I don't want to go, again, to something I'm not familiar with.
"I wasn't in Africa long enough to get to know people or the culture. They say that your first three months in any culture are kind of a honeymoon. Then, the fourth month, you go through the deprivation of your own culture and learn to live with and be comfortable where you are. See, I wasn't allowed to go through that in Sierra Leone. First of all, I got sick, and second, I wasn't there long enough. But I did go through that in India. I think any country where you go through that and get to know and love the people, you could go back."
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