Rita Chretien read her Bible, wrote in her journal, read books, and prayed that God would protect her as she survived for seven weeks in the Nevada wilderness.

A Nazarene from British Columbia, Canada, she was ready to either "go home to be with her Savior or be rescued," said her son, Raymond Chretien.

While stranded in the van, Rita often returned to a passage from Psalms 86, "In the day of my trouble, I call upon you, for you answer me," reported CTV News-British Columbia.

He answered as Rita was rescued last Friday and taken to an Idaho hospital. She was released from the hospital Tuesday evening and transferred to a facility in British Columbia, but the search continues for her husband, Albert.

"We are celebrating, but we are also, of course, praying for another miracle and praying it will have the outcome we desire," said Raymond at a press conference this week at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho.

According to her pastor, Neil Allenbrand, Rita's desire was to draw close to the Lord and to accept His will for her life.

Allenbrand, pastor of the Penticton Church of the Nazarene where the Chretiens have attended for 12 years, spoke with Rita this week.

"When I talked today (Tuesday) with Rita, she told me that every day she felt like Jesus was sitting right there beside her and that at the time she thought she could just reach out and touch him," he said. "She said she felt the Lord had told her that her ordeal was going to end Friday, and that is the day she was found."

The Chretiens left Peniticton, British Columbia, at about 6 a.m. March 19 and made a stop in Baker City, Oregon, on their way to a trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their stopover was the last time anyone saw them. Their Chevy Astro minivan got stuck after they slid off a deserted road later that day in the northeast wilderness of Nevada.

But the couple had a church family at home praying for God's protection and grace over them.

"After seven weeks of prayer and anticipation of finding Al and Rita it was like receiving someone back you thought had died," Allenbrand said. "Though all along we were declaring that our Lord would have the last word in this situation, we prayed, fasted, and trusted the Lord to do as He willed."

God's promise to Rita came true on Friday, although at the time she didn't know whether God meant she would be rescued or she would go to be with Him. 

His promise unfolded when Chad and Whitnie Herman, and Whitnie's father, Troy Sill, took an unintended turn themselves and came upon the Chretiens' van. They were hunting for elk antlers in the high desert.

The minivan sat in a gulley just off a two-track, rutted road in the Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest. A road long abandoned by mining and logging trucks and a place only hikers and hunters went.

Rita, 56, dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt, stuck her head out the van window as the trio, riding on all-terrain vehicles, approached her. Chretien had lost more than 30 pounds, surviving 49 days mostly on melted snow and creek water.

"She's an amazing woman, I'll say that," Sill told Postmedia News. "She must be a God-fearing woman. She did everything right."

Rita said they left Baker City and decided to take a scenic route to Las Vegas. They became lost just south of the Idaho and Nevada border after taking a few shortcuts using a GPS device. The van got stuck in the mud when it slid off the road March 19.

The couple was reported missing when they failed to return home March 30. The Baker City Police Department, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Oregon state police searched miles of roadway and wilderness, but scaled back the search after finding no sign of the Chretiens.

On March 22, after staying three days in the van, Al Chretien, 59, decided to find help, using his GPS tracking device as a guide. He left on foot and never returned, Rita Chretien said.

Rita was weak by the time the Hermans and Sill found her. She ran out of her rations of trail-mix snacks after the first week, and she couldn't make her daily trip to a nearby stream for water anymore. She drank stagnant water for several days from the gulley the van was stuck in.

Rita's survival instincts saved her, said doctors at St. Luke's.

She said it was her faith that kept her going.

Depending on the person, the human body can only survive a few days without water and only a few weeks without food, and although the person may survive, the lack of nutrition can have permanent effects, doctors said.

The rescuers provided Rita with a bottle of water and a bag of Doritos - she could only drink the water - but they needed to figure out how to get her help.

Whitnie Herman could not reach 9-1-1 on her cell phone. The van was out of gas and its battery dead from Rita trying to keep warm in the harsh wilderness conditions.

Rita was too weak to ride on an ATV and that's when Chad Herman remembered a rancher who lived near the abandoned mining town of Rowland, which was about eight miles away. The trio left Chretien at the van, reached the rancher's house, and called 9-1-1.

They directed a sheriff's helicopter to the site and found that Chretien had cleaned the van, packed her bags, and even fixed herself up. She was waiting for them with her purse over her shoulder, ready to go.

"I was shocked to see her like that," Chad Herman said. "She was like a different person."

Doctors upgraded Rita's condition from fair to good before she was released Tuesday. In a statement from the hospital, doctors took her off a liquid diet Monday. "She has been enjoying yogurt and dairy products" and eats rice, the statement said. 

The medical team said Chretien's chance of recovery is "very good" and her spirits are "extremely high." She continues to take physical therapy, but her main concern is for her husband.

"People are referring this to be bitter-sweet but we are people of hope," Allenbrand said. "We believe Al will either be alive to us or alive with His Lord. This Mother's Day we (the church) had a celebration service. What a celebration it was - we laughed, we cried, we sang, and praised the Lord. We felt like this was the best Mother's Day gift for all of us, to know that Rita was with her family on Mother's Day."

Authorities resumed their search Tuesday for Al, after an unsuccessful weekend. Bad weather and rough terrain have made the search difficult. More than 30 people on horseback, ATVs, in the air, and on foot are searching the Humbolt-Toiyabe area.

Searchers instituted the use of GPS, similar to the device Chretien used.

"We hope we will be able to retrace, with some degree of accuracy, his steps," said Sgt. Kevin McKinney of the Elko County Sheriff's Office. "We hope the same software will provide us with the same information he got on the 22nd when he left the van - what roads it said to use, what pathways."

Al told his wife he was going to Mountain City, Nevada, about 22 miles away. McKinney thinks the Chretiens' GPS, which could have contributed to the couple getting lost and was new to the couple, may have led Al Chretien into more unfamiliar territory.

GPS manufactures such as Garmin caution users about the proper use of such devices - some personal devices can map out roads in remote areas, but do not describe the type of road or its condition.

The search team hopes Al found shelter in one of the old ranch or mining buildings that dot the national forest, the largest in the lower 48 states at 6.3 million acres, the Associated Press reported.

Rita is taken aback by the international attention her story has received from the media and the public.

"I told her, I know she does not like to be in the limelight or to have a lot of fuss made about her, but for whatever reason God has chosen to place you as a light on the hill for this moment to bring Him glory, and that is just what you are doing," Allenbrand said. "She said she felt so humbled by all this and she said I just want people to see Jesus. That is just Rita: humble, compassionate, and very caring for others."

Related videos: "Heavenly Father" guided hunters to Rita Chretien (CTV), Good Morning America interviews rescuers