At the end of last month, my teammate Kathy and I came to Nicaragua’s capital city, Managua, to see a little girl that she has been sponsoring. Some teams from her home church in Indiana were there as well. Look out for a video coming soon to know more about that! Here’s a blog I wrote from that time…
The past few days my chest has had some sharp pains, but yesterday it got really bad… it was a debilitating pain. A few hours later it didn’t get any better so Kathy prayed for healing. About a half an hour later we asked around and within 5 minutes found that there is a doctor here with one of the teams! He checked me out and discovered I have bronchitis, on the verge of pneumonia. He also just so happened to have sponsored a little girl starting 20 years ago, who now runs a pharmacy. He was expecting her in the morning with some medicine for someone else. All he had to do was call her and ask her to bring some extra antibiotics.
I’ve heard some pretty intense stories of miraculous healings all over the world. But who’s to say what’s miraculous and what’s not? I think it’s a miracle that I haven’t needed a doctor all year, and when I do, it happens to be the one day out of the year that I’m with one… and an American one at that! That’s something that there’s no explanation for.
It makes me wonder, how would someone without access to healthcare deal with this? I couldn’t even imagine, but it happens all the time.
Then of course I get to the classic question, why was this so easy for me?
Do Kathy’s prayers “work” and some people’s don’t?
Did I do something “right” in my life and those suffering did something wrong?
Do I have the “right” beliefs?
I don’t think so. The closest explanation I’ve ever been able to come up with is that everyone is blessed in one way or another. Healthcare has always come quite easy for me. I’ve only ever been sick when I’ve had health insurance and easy access to a hospital and pharmacy.
I’m not sure why I’ve been so fortunate to great healthcare, while others are not, but hopefully at the end of my life, whenever that may be, I’ll have something to show for all the years I lived in health and took advantage of them.
“I can’t fix the world’s problems, but I will do what I can to make a difference where I can”
