Picture this…you are watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom…and suddenly you realize you are the man having his heart ripped out through his chest…this was me at 6am this morning but instead of my heart, my intestines felt as though they were being pulled from the center of my body.
As I made my way into the hallway of our residence, my body collapsed to the floor and the only help in reach was a teammate’s door that I tried to bang on as I fought through the pain. Because it was so early in the morning I tried to muffle the agony I was in, but before long everyone in the house was awake. There was nothing else I could do but stay, curled up in the floor, gripping the rug and scream as I prayed not to die. About 7 people were surrounded around me at this point, laying hands on me and praying for relief and peace over my body and mind. I cannot thank my teammates enough for their diligence in prayer during this time.
I hope you are ready for the really interesting and funny (at the time NOT funny at all) part of the story from this morning’s events. Because Transnistria is not recognized as a “real” country and is a communist country, upon entering the border all of us were registered under different addresses within the country for legalistic purposes. The government does not sit very well with a bunch of missionaries being registered to live at a church for a month, so technically we were not living in our actual residence. As the ambulance is on its way, all I remember hearing from our translator and the pastor is, ‘everyone except her and 2 other people needs to go be hidden and not seen at this time.’ All that was going through my mind (besides the pain) was how much I felt like we were in World War II and we needed to hide people from the Gustoppo.
At this point the doctor arrives, walks in carrying what seems to be a tackle box of medical supplies with a medical sticker on it, and is telling me to get up off the floor so she can look at me. After she realizes I am unable to move at all, I am allowed a few moments to collect enough energy to walk outside to the waiting ambulance. As we open the gate and I peer around the corner, I see it…the “ambulance”. I am immediately taken into the TV show M.A.S.H as I look at this green army medical van with a red cross sticker slapped onto the side. The van looks as if it had to go through a bombing zone just to arrive at the church and the seat I sat on in the van is an army cot suspended from the ceiling with bungee straps. My squad leader just kept repeating to me over and over…breathe it’s going to be okay…just breathe.
On the way to the hospital, the ambulance driver notices that one of his friends is standing on the side of the road waiting for a bus at the bus stop…so naturally we pull over and pick him up on the way to the hospital. Finally upon arriving at the hospital, I am taken swiftly into a room and quickly notice that it is a “woman doctor” room. At this point I come to the realization that they have no clue where to even start or what is going on within my body. As two nurses are pawing at my clothes trying to rip them off my body, I am screaming from fear and also frustration because I obviously cannot speak or understand Russian and my translator has no idea why they are doing these things to me. After several minutes of refusing to do anything they are saying, we are taken to another “department” 5 minutes away in another building. (Later on in the day, our translator informed us that in Transnistria, it is a LAW that any woman needing to go the hospital is required to see a gynecologist before any further treatment will be given…no matter what is wrong).
When we arrived at the next hospital I was quickly shown to the XRay area and pushed to the front of the line because of my American nationality. The Transnistrians were terrified that something would happen to me while I was in their country and America would not sit very well with this outcome. Even though they were worried about anything happening to me, this could not change the quality of any XRay equipment they had at their disposal…and for the record…I am almost certain I was XRayed with the very first XRay machine ever made. For those of you who are fans of the show LOST, you will understand my next comparison as your journey through this experience with me. As we were waiting for all the test results to come back…I took a moment to take in my surroundings from the office and that’s when I saw it…a small black and white television in the corner of the room. At this point, I was expecting a Korean scientist to appear on the screen and tell me not to push any button and then tell me a sequence of meaningless numbers. I definitely felt as if I were being taken care of in the Dharma Initiative.
When I look back on all these events the only thing I can say about this day is that God was in control. He was in control of all the small details that got me through the day… he listened to the prayers and worship of my teammates as I was going through every step of the day… He was just in complete control. The first time in my life I had a fear of dying, the Lord’s peace overcame me in scary moments and my fear just went away. How wonderful to rest in the peace of my Father.
To Be Continued…
