This week I did something I never, ever thought I’d do: I wore scrubs, worked in a hospital, and was mistaken for a nurse. Yes, family and friends, it’s true. I put on scrubs. I was given a hair net and a face mask. I washed my hands. And then our team was put to work in the sterilization room at the hospital. Notice that we were not given gloves, which you’d think would be the most important part of our charade and the most effective way to keep us from contaminating the great heaps of gauze we spent hours and hours folding this week.
I don’t know much about hospitals back in the US, let alone what an American sterilization room looks like. But in our Guatemalan version, the sterilization room is a colorless chamber where nurses prepare the items doctors use in surgery. Such as gauze. Every piece must be taken down from a rusty metal shelf, folded by hand, and deposited in a beige plastic hamper. Materials do not come prepackaged here. This is the work that we’ve done for about 8 hours a day. Folding gauze. Yesterday, I will say, we mixed it up by wrapping little vials in paper. I asked, “Por que nosotras, uh, con paper…?” and pointed at them, and the nurse said something that sounded vaguely like “urine.”
The last few days we’ve spent in the sterilization room have been my favorite ministry days yet on the Race. Team Brazen Hearts has had some of its best conversations yet, on topics ranging from the end times to elementary school crushes. Also, the nurses that work in the sterilization room are absolute characters. It was Lacey’s birthday yesterday, we informed one Maria Magdalena, and she informed Lacey that people born in February are crazy. But that didn’t stop her from inviting us back to the hospital this Sunday, where she will bring us homemade tamales and rice, which we will presumably feast on in the sterilization room. Gloves will not be provided.
However lax the hospital’s cleanliness standards may be, they’ve served us well enough to keep us healthy. Two of our teams have been working at a daycare this week with dozens of sick babies and I believe 7 people are currently bedridden with the stomach flu. We’re trying to avoid them, but the real trick will be avoiding germs when it’s my team’s turn next week to go there. And at this daycare, it’s not just us helping. We will be the teachers. The real teachers have been on strike since December.
But today our job was simpler. We stayed at the compound today and were asked to do some work in a little garden by the house. It was a damp day, and little worms were creeping out of the soil as we pulled weeds out. We bundled up in our rain jackets and made instant coffee and enjoyed an easy day of ministry. All of us felt at peace digging in the dirt.
This week a question came up: are you worried about not making a big enough impact? Some of us got to give hand-powered bikes to people who can’t walk this week, which has the potential to change lives. Others have, like I said, taught in daycares and given a lot of children a lot of love, and an understaffed school a lot of support. But what about the team that spends hours folding gauze and putting it in a hamper? Or the team that pulls a few weeds in a garden very few people have access to? Is that work important too?
Yes. I absolutely believe that’s the answer. People, and World Racers especially, seem prone to this compulsion to DO everything, and to change the world, and to be suspicious when the work’s too easy because that means we’re not doing enough. But the same God that sends us all over the world to do crazy things is the same God that makes us fall asleep in a hammock with a good book. Blessed is the person who is satisfied in Christ no matter where or what is happening.
The work this week was very comforting to me because it reminded me of my time working at monastery in college with my friend Brother Victor. Some of my best college memories are of my time at the monastery. Brother Victor has taught me and many other students much about the joy of doing simple, slow, prayerful work. He would usually have jobs for us like planting and harvesting potatoes, shoveling manure, or bottling homemade vinegar. These kind of jobs may not be big and flashy, but they are beautiful, because through work like this we care for others and for the earth. The focus is on God’s beauty rather than our competency. I’m sure that’s the posture we should have when serving, no matter what the service looks like.
The thing about the World Race that some people really don’t get sometimes is that it’s almost a year long. I mean, sure, everyone knows the whole “11 countries in 11 months” thing, but think about it!
When you’re on a mission this long, the days aren’t engineered for drama and big results and emotional roller coasters and quick burnout. We have the honor of not just sampling life as missionaries, but actually adopting it. And that means that we don’t need to be focused on whether we’re doing “enough” work for God every day, or if we’re “growing” enough as individuals. This is a mission trip, and it’s also life. And sometimes, in real life, God doesn’t need you to go look for someone’s world to turn upside down. Sometimes God needs you to take a nap and paint your nails red and maybe water some plants.
The World Race isn’t always a race. The point is never to change the world or make a difference from your own measly, fickle energy. The point is to live your life with your eyes fixed on Jesus (see Hebrews 12:1-3ish).
Then everything will fall into place, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
That said, I ask you to keep my team in your prayers. This week, pray that we would embrace this “there’s a time for everything” mentality, and that we have wisdom in knowing when to work and when to rest. And pray that whatever our ministry involves, we would do it with joy, knowing that nothing is done in vain when we’re fixing our eyes on Jesus.
