An 18-year old German, Jacob (with the Chinese name Dawei), has been teaching for free in Yumen, Gansu, China since July 2016.
On March 23, 2017, he was feeling ill with severe pain under the right ribs of the abdomen. He discovered after a preliminary examination at a local hospital that he had an infected gallbladder and liver damage. After more than ten hours of travel by bus and plane, he finally made it to the International Reception Center of the Amity Foundation in Nanjing. He was admitted in a liver center at a hospital in Nanjing after being assisted by the workers from Amity, who handled his paperwork.
Jacob has no relatives in China, so Amity was his agent and guardian. It sent two workers to see to the entire treatment for him. Amity talked to both St. Paul's Church of Nanjing and Mochoulu Church and recruited many volunteers to take care of him. They also set up a special WeChat working group called "Help Jacob from Germany." Fellow workers at Amity, pastors, Christian volunteers, German friends, international teachers in colleges, and others are also in the group. They made a schedule to keep him company day and night and fully cooperated with the treatment if their assistance was needed.
On March 26 and 27, Jacob started to have difficulties moving. Upon examination, he felt severe internal pain when his stomach was pressed, and he was constipated and also had a minor fever. With some physiotherapy, he succeeded in relieving his bowels two days later. The examination also showed that his condition was getting better and symptoms had been progressively reducing. His fasting status was also removed.
Jacob is still recovering and the volunteers will take care of him until he has fully recovered. He was asked whether he would go back to his country or Gansu after he was discharged from the hospital. He said, "I will probably continue teaching till July, then return to my country for college."
Translated by: Grace Hubl
