Yesterday I met an American nurse here in Uyuni. She was stopping through on her way to Llica traveling with our squad’s main contact in Bolivia. They met us at church and we spoke briefly as she handed out medicines we may need along our trip that had been extra on their previous medical mission.
It’s always refreshing to meet other Americans while away from the States. Its comforting to know that someone else knows what your going through while in the desert places, both literally and spiritually.
The music began playing. I barely could get through the first verse when I was overtaken with a wave of emotion. I began to cry. I suddenly felt overwhelmingly homesick. Song after song, no matter what I did I couldn’t stop crying. The more I tried to stop, the more tears came. I finally had to leave the service. I sat on a bench outside and cried a bit more while my sweet teammate Kay talked through it with me.
The service went on and we worked with the children’s ministry. I was able to fight back any more tears that tried to sneak out the corner of my eye.
After service we returned to the house and I took a log nap. I was emotionally drained.
When I awoke I went in to the kitchen only to look down at my hands that have been darkened by the sun and are dry and slightly wrinkled from the dry desert air. I no longer recognized my own hands. I now saw my grandmother’s hands preparing a snack for me. Once again I couldn’t hold back the tears. I couldn’t understand why I was feeling such strong emotions.
As my team comforted me, our leader Kate told us there had been a bad accident on the salt flats and some of our squad mates were going to help with the relief. We crossed the salt flats the previous week and could only imagine how bad the accident could have been. It takes two hours by bus to cross the expanse of salt deposit that is as smooth as ice and as hard as rock.
We suddenly realized that our contact and the young nurse we met earlier that day had been heading across the salt flats on their way to Llica. Minutes later, our pastor’s wife showed up at our house. She told us that our contact and the nurse had been in the accident and the young nurse had been badly injured.
Once again tears flooded my eyes.
We walked to the hospital across the little city of Uyuni to see them and pray for them. As soon as we walked through the doors, we could feel the pain of the patients and their families. Our team began to cry and pray.
When we got to finally see the girl we had just met that morning, the nurses wheeled her past us on a gurney on their way to do tests on her. In that moment I felt like I knew her my whole life and grieved for her injuries.
When we got to go into a room to see her, I walked up beside her bed. She slowly opened her eyes and said very calmly with a slight sense of relief in her voice: “American”.
In that moment I realized why I had felt so homesick. From the moment I met her something in me connected with her. Maybe the Lord wanted me to understand on some level how she felt. I couldn’t imagine being in her situation in a rural hospital so far from home, but I did understand how comforting it is to be in the presence of another American.
We prayed with her and she began singing Amazing Grace. Tears filled the room once again and she began cracking jokes. They soon took her to the airport to get her to a more equipped hospital in a larger city.
Bolivia has not been a month where I have felt a strong connection. I don’t feel particularly connected to the culture or the ministry we are working in. In that moment, if the only reason God has brought me to Bolivia is to bring some sort of comfort to this American girl lying on a gurney in the middle of nowhere, Bolivia- all the disconnect I feel here is worth it.
As we walked away from the hospital towards the center of the city to find some comfort in the fried goodness of a Salchipapa dinner, we remembered that our team was supposed to be on the bus with them.
Our plans had been changed just a few days after arriving in Uyuni. We were supposed to cross the salt flats to go to Llica yesterday to visit our squad mates and help them with their ministry. When plans changed, through much prayer we were prompted by the Lord to go a week and a half early.
We would have been on that bus in which many were injured and three died.
I am amazed by the Lord’s protection over us. He does indeed go out before us and knows what is to come. He is with us in the present and is patiently waiting for us in what He has for us in the future.
I ask for prayer for all those affected by this accident and thank all of you who keep Y-squad in your prayers.
