How do you make a memory in Vietnam? You get hurt! I will agree that it’s not the best memory, but it is unforgettable.
From the beginning…it was a Thursday morning about 11:00 and my team had just stepped off a public bus near our ministry site. We were walking to the corner to cross the street when we stopped to pray for a man with a deformed leg. After Rachelle and Rachael finished praying we continued to the corner, stopping to make sure everyone was together and ready to cross the street. There is a specific method to crossing the streets here in Vietnam – walk, together, in a horizontal line. We stepped out into the street and down I went. I had found the perfect hole to step in and roll my ankle as I fell to the ground.
Love my team…they all jumped into action and walked me to a place to sit. At first I thought it was no big deal, I would just walk it off, but I quickly realized as my ankle began to swell that that wasn’t the case. A nice lady ran to our aid and pointed out the hospital directly across the street and urged us to go there. We realized I had a pretty good scrape on my knee, so Skylar began to pour water over it. Ekow and Erik picked me up (thank God for the guys on my team!) and carried me across the street. Later Helene told me that at that moment it was like there were no cars/buses/motorbikes on the street, and if you could see the traffic here, you would know that was a God thing.
We reached the hospital gates and the guards pointed us to the international building where we were quickly met with a wheelchair. I was quickly pushed into the hospital, straight back to a room where a nurse helped me into a bed. In those moments I thought something was broken for sure…I had never felt such pain. Rachelle, my pray worrier, came back with me to the room and all I could hear was her voice praying for me and I felt a calm come over me. At that moment, I knew it was all going to be okay.
A few minutes later, the nurse and doctor walked in and began to evaluate my leg. The doctor told me they would clean up the scrape and x-ray my ankle and knee. Soon after, the nurse brought me my pain medicine and cleaned my knee. Ekow came back to stay with me in the room while the rest of my team headed to our ministry site…because who really wants to sit in a hospital waiting room?
About 30 minutes later an x-ray tech comes to take my x-rays (I now have x-rays from Vietnam – pretty cool souvenir). Luckily, the x-rays revealed that everything looked fine, and I was able to breath a sigh of relief. God had answered my prayer!
The doctor came to re-explain that nothing was broken – just a bad ankle sprain. She was going to give me a brace for my ankle, anti-inflammatories/pain meds, and an antibiotic for the scrape on my knee. And since I was unable to walk on my foot she threw in some crutches, too! She told me that I would need to eat before she could give me my meds. So, what do you do when you need to eat at a hospital? Go to the cafeteria? No. You get a menu of all kinds of food that can be delivered right to your room! Of course I find a cheeseburger and fries, and I order an extra fry for Ekow and Rachelle for hanging out with me all day! The food was good. Ekow says the fries were the best he had ever had, but I think he was just really hungry. My new ankle brace brought me little relief and the staff was in no hurry to get me out of there, so the three of us decided to watch “The Game Plan,” because what else are you going to do when waiting in a hospital?
The nurse brought me five pills (anti-inflammatories, a pain reliever, and an antibiotic) to take. Sadly they don’t have their medications “all-in-one” here. The hospital staff called us at taxi, and I practiced using my newly adjusted crutches while we waited. Finally, after about six hours of x-rays, a cheeseburger and fries, an ankle brace, a movie, lots of medicine, and crutches we were headed back to our hostel!
Not exactly the day I had planned, but who said I was in charge? I know God is in control, and His hands were in every moment of the day. Thank you to my wonderful team and amazing ministry site for all their love, support, and prayers. Stay tune to find out more about what God does in Vietnam.
My cheeseburger at the hospital.
Went to the War Remnants Museum on Saturday, crutches and all.
