Hospital Ministry
Day 1-Monday
I went to the local hospital today with Allison, Courtney, Jessie, Ezekiel, and Elizabeth. We squeezed into a cab, the taxi driver laughing at us as he isn’t used to seeing so many people jam inside a car. The hospital used to be a jail and so is set in blocks of small rooms, each leading to the outside. We split off into small groups, Elizabeth and I went off together to look for patients to pray over. We wandered just a little ways before we came to a room with 3 women lying in beds. Two of the women had visitors and Elizabeth (in Spanish) asked them if it was ok that we came in.
We sat down with a women that had tears in her eyes. She told us that she had just gotten three tumors removed. She was upset though because eight days after surgery she still hadn’t been able to go to the bathroom. The doctors had told her if she didn’t start going then they’d have to do another surgery. Elizabeth gave her a hand massage. I quietly prayed for her. We spent about an hour sitting with her, her daughter, and son in law. We learned that she was 48, had 10 children and 14 grandchildren. We also learned that she was a believer as were her 4 daughters, but not her sons.
Elizabeth did most of the talking as she speaks proficient Spanish. I spent my time praying and looking around the room. It made me think of how scared I was in the hospital in Hong Kong.
The room we were in was painted two shades of blue. The walls were dirty and blood splattered. The floors hadn’t been scrubbed in a long time. The beds were rusty and looked as though they were decades old. An old broom stood against one wall near a succession of IV drip hangers. Spiders and spider webs dangled from the ceiling and there was the constant sound of water moving from somewhere else in the building. A street dog walked by the doorway. This isn’t what a hospital should be like.
Later in the day Courtney told us about the many patients she had seen. One 29 year old girl had gotten shot and was paralyzed. She had machete slashes across her arms. Then there was the baby with a huge head and a tiny body (water on the brain).
We go back tomorrow. 
