"Ghost! Ghost!"
Someone screamed as a 14-year-old girl who had already been declared dead and was covered in white cloth on her hospital bed suddenly moved, Bibles for Mideast reported.
The girl, named Lydia, who's the daughter of Bibles for Mideast missionary Yoonus, was a victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) gone awry.
Muslim radicals waylaid her as she was walking home from school in western Africa, Bibles for Mideast reported earlier.
Lydia was then dragged to a nearby home and subjected to brutal FGM. She was later rushed to a hospital.
According to The Guardian, FGM "involves the removal of the clitoris, inner-and-outer lips of the vagina, and the sewing or stapling together of the two sides of the vulva leaving only a small hole to pass urine and menstruate."
The procedure can lead to "severe bleeding, pain, and complete loss of sensitivity" among other serious health issues for women. Some girls have died as a result of this much maligned tradition in some countries, mostly in Africa.
On Thursday, doctors confirmed that Lydia had died after six days in coma. Grieving family members and other believers gathered at the hospital to take one final look at her. Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff were also there.
Suddenly, the cloth covering her began to shake. Moments later, to everyone's utter surprise, Lydia rose, joyously exclaiming, "Mummy, our Lord Jesus, our Lord and God Jesus Christ!"
At first, they all backed away in terror, thinking that they were seeing a ghost.
But Lydia reassured them, saying, "Mummy, I'm Lydia ... not a ghost."
"I'm alive! Jesus gave me my life back, and healed me!" she told all the stunned people gathered around her.
Lydia vividly described what happened to her.
"My soul left my body and I was dead. Angels came to receive me to heaven. But Jesus appeared before me and said, 'I cannot turn back from the prayers of my children. My eyes are upon my children and ears are open to their prayer. So I give you your life back, for the issues of death belong to me. You go, and be my witness.'"
Jesus then breathed into her nostrils, "and my soul went in. Then he moved his nail-scarred hands over my body and healed me completely!" Lydia said.
There have been many other stories of the dead coming back to life with the intercession of Jesus.
Last November, gospel singer Tony Davis was shot five times and died. But half an hour later, he opened his eyes and came back to life to his doctors' utter surprise.
Just like Lydia, Davis narrated later how his spirit floating away from his body and went to heaven, "a huge beautiful city" with "beautiful colours he had never seen on earth before."
And also just like what happened to Lydia, God told Davis that He's sending him back to earth to fulfill a new mission.
