Sent from Idaho Falls – Genita to Gaza

 

In late 2023, the only Christian hospital in Gaza was frequently in the news.  Known as the Al-Ma׳amadani (“the Baptist”) Hospital, it was founded by Anglican missionaries in 1882 but for many decades in the 20th century was operated by the Southern Baptist Convention.

In the 1970’s Jesus sent a young woman from Idaho Falls to work in this hospital in Gaza.  Genita Fast and her family attended Calvary Baptist Church in Idaho Falls.  She was a skilled pianist and accompanied choirs at Calvary Baptist’s Christmas and Easter programs.  Genita graduated from Idaho Falls High School in 1966, obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Baylor University in 1969 and then completed a 15-month program of the School of Physical Therapy at Baylor University Medical Center.  Jesus used her skills in the Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

The following is taken from “People Living in Gaza Strip Learn of Jesus through Baptist Hospital,” The Post Register, July 18, 1975, p. A-8:

"The people that we work with in Gaza are largely Moslems and it’s through a continued contact with these people that we are able to show them the difference that Christ makes in our lives.”

This was the observation of Genita Gail Fast, who returned about a month ago from two years of serving as a missionary journeyman for the Southern Baptist Convention in Gaza.  She was telling of the work she was doing in the Baptist Hospital there.

Miss Fast is a physical therapist and the hospital there has the only physical therapy department in the Gaza Strip.  ‘We not only treat our own patients, but we also treat patients referred to us by outside doctors,” she said.

”The reputation of the hospital is quite wide spread,” she said, “Of course, our prime responsibility is to the Arab refugees, but we sometimes get patients from as far away as deep in the Sinai. The people value the services provided by the hospital, but the acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is very slow. Nevertheless the Lord is opening doors and the Gospel is being heard by many people who would otherwise have no way of every knowing the Truth.”

“There’s probably a half million people who live in the Gaza Strip and about 58 to 60 per cent of these are refugees,” she said.

The hospital has training programs for nursing students…Miss Fast helped with the teaching program for the physical therapy assistants, along with (another) career physical therapy missionary…

When asked what prompted her to get into missionary work, Miss Fast responded, “I was praying about where God wanted me to be and through various people and events He led me a step at time into the journeyman program.  And He continued to reaffirm that was the direction I should go.  The two years I spent as a missionary journeyman for the Southern Baptist Convention I would consider to be the two richest years of my life.”

“I found in a very real way the reality of the person of Jesus Christ and am now convinced more strongly than ever that Jesus is the only way to God.  He not only promises those of us who have accepted Christ as our personal Savior a home with Him for eternity, but also makes life on a day-to-day basis worth living.  I have found a love for people and an inner peace and joy that I had never fully known before.  The most important thing in a person’s life is not where they are geographically but that they are in the center of God’s will wherever that is.”

 A little over two years after Genita returned to Idaho Falls, she married Larry Angel in Fort Worth, Texas where he was pursuing a degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  While in Fort Worth Genita also attended Southwestern for a year, studying theology.  She and her husband now live in Post Falls.  After a career as a physical therapist in several places around the country, she retired, but returned to work for a biotech company and volunteers with Hospice of North Idaho.

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