A few days ago we were presented with the chance to make our own ministry opportunity when our hosts didn’t have enough for all of us to do one day.
Those of us from my team that stayed back got together to figure out what we should do for ministry. Andrea came up with the idea to each share a worship song with each other, and as we listen to them listen for what God might be leading us to do.
As we were listening to the first song, the word “hospital” came to mind. I clearly heard “go to the hospital”. Once everyone had had a chance to share their songs and share if anything had come to mind, I shared what I had heard. I thought that we should go to the hospital and pray for the people there. We were all excited to go and do this, and all pretty scared about doing it as well.
Since it was so out of our comfort zone we were kind of delaying leaving and getting this started. While this was happening I got an email from a friend at home, in which she shared a verse she had for me:
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” -Deuteronomy 31:8
I took the hint and we headed out. The day was filled with God making connections for us starting with our taxi driver who had driven a group of us to church this past Sunday and remember us.
We had planned to stay outside the hospital and pray for the people outside so that we wouldn’t step on any of the adminstration’s toes. I could feel God calling us to more. Trust him more.
There weren’t many people outside of the hospital and I felt God telling us to go in. We went to the waiting room and were just planning on praying for the people there but the nurse at the check in station seemed confused that we weren’t checking in. Eryn was the only one of us who spoke Spanish, so she went up to talk to her. The nurse told us to talk with a doctor so we waited for one to come out.
Eventually a few popped their heads out looking for us. Eryn went over and in her broken Spanish started to explain who we were and what we wanted to do. He waited for her to finish and then says “I think this will go better if we speak in English”!
He introduced himself, but we had trouble with his name so he told us to just call him Al from ER
Al is a Christian and was incredibly excited about us coming and praying. However, he said that we would have to get the OK from the director who would be in until next week. We would be welcome to come back before then for open visiting hours
This morning, Britteny was trying to get a group of us together to head down to the hospital for open visiting hours. I honestly did not want to go. At all. I wanted to stay back and work on projects that I had on the go, and just take it easy, but something inside me was stirred, I said I would go anyways.
We finally got a group together (which turned out to be the same 4 that had gone before!) and arrived at the hospital with about 20 minutes of visiting hours. We were able to pray for a few women waiting out of some of the rooms. We were gearing up to leave and wanted to leave Al from ER a message thanking him for his help. As we’re about to leave out the door, another doctor that we had met earlier showed up. As we were chatting with him Al walked by and took us to the pediatric section and set us up there. After praying for those there we went to find Al (as he instructed us to) so that he could take us to other units
He ended up being in the middle of surgery so we waited outside in the hall for quite some time. Eryn commented that we must be waiting here for some reason. Looking back on it, the most memorable interactions we had happened while because we were sitting on that bench.
The first was a nurse who hesistantly approached us. After chatting briefly, we were able to ask her if we could pray for her. She told us about how she had a growth that they were unsure about, and she was scared that it was cancer. Fear is something that I’m all too familiar with, I know how suffocating the “What ifs” can be. After praying for her, she told us that she was feeling peace.
The very first woman we prayed for was there because her daughter was in labour. She had been there all day, and seemed quite tired. It was when we were waiting on the bench that she saw us and thanked us. Her daughter had just given birth!
Another was a women who approached us first asked if we were tourists. After some confusion about why we were in the hospital when none of us were ill, we somehow were able to communicate that we were missionaries there to pray for people. She got really excited and asked if we knew Bob.
The funny thing about that is we did!
When we were last there, we had met him at the store outside the hospital! He even took us to the missions compound where he’s been living for the past three years and gave us a tour.
This woman, went and found Al and then took us to the other units to pray for those there.
The whole time we were at the hospital, we had been seeing this one janitor near us. As we were about to leave he was there again. We were able to pray for him, and talk with him. We asked him if he was a Christian, and he said no but he wanted to know more about God and how to follow God. We told him what we could with our limited Spanish, and we able to find out that he doesn’t go to church but wants to. We got his contact information to pass to our contacts so he could find answers to the questions he had.
God uses us no matter how flawed we are. He uses what we bring to the table- whether it’s a passion for medicine or knowing some Spanish or a willing heart, and he’ll use us even when we approach his will begrudgingly.
Both times we went to the hospital it would have been much easier to say no. Say no to sharing what I heard God telling me to do, or say no and do what I wanted instead of what he wants, say no to approaching strangers, say no to staying longer, etc…
We all have a role to play in this divine story. Sometimes we’re main characters in the narrative and sometimes we just have cameos. Nevertheless we’re all integral to the story, if we didn’t show up the story couldn’t happen or it would be distinctly different. We have so many opportunities to disengage when things get uncomfortable or hard, but then we wouldn’t be engaging with the stories that God has for us. Being present and engaged isn’t always fun, it isn’t always safe, it isn’t always what you want to do, but it’s where God shows up.
God tells us that his name is “I am”. He doesn’t say that it’s “I will be” or “I was” because it’s in the present that we find him. There’s no use in wallowing in past shame or guilt because he’s forgiven us. There’s no use in worrying about the future or the suffocating “what ifs” because we can’t control them.
God is calling us to show up, will you answer?
