Unexpected Happenstances …and Bolivia
After chapel this morning, I headed to the Great Hall for lunch. I usually try to catch some friends to sit with while i’m there… but on the way up, I guess I came out ahead of everyone because I didn’t see or find any of the people I usually eat with. I walked into the Great Hall full of Covenant students, faculty, and some 150 prospective students who have been attending Covenant for the scholarship weekend. It was packed out… :) I grabbed some food and spent a few minutes walking around, trying to find a seat …let alone any of the friends I usually sit with. I found a table in the corner of the Great Hall. It’s my favorite spot to eat, as well as just to study or think. It’s right in front of the huge glass windows that overlook Lookout valley, as well as the surrounding mountains. Sometimes in the morning, I’ll be up there for breakfast before class… and the clouds will have settled in the valley, while the sun is rising over the tops of the mountains. The sun’s rays just seem to spread all across the horizon. It’s a beautiful view.
So enough said, I found a seat at a table in the corner. I pulled out my philosophy notes to review for a quiz I would be having in my 1:00 philosophy class. As I started to go over the notes, as well as eat in between sentences, a couple came and sat down at my table along with three other prospective students. The Great Hall was packed, and there was hardly room for anyone, let alone me, to hoard a whole table to themselves. I invited them to join me, and they sat down.
To avoid the awkwardness of sitting down with complete strangers (and it goes both ways - I was as much of a stranger to them as they were to me), I introduced myself and just asked them if they were here for the scholarship weekend. They said yes, and started to tell me some of the scholarships they were applying for …. the Emerging Artist, the Maclellan, the Donaldson.
The gentleman sitting next to me then asked me why I was here. He asked me what major I was looking into studying… I told him I was looking into a Biology major with a concentration in physical therapy. I told them about my parent’s missionary experiences overseas for 13 years, and told them that someday I had thought about going to Peru or somewhere in South America to do medical missions. I went to Bolivia on a short term missions trip this past summer, and I fell in love with it! The people… just even the need for spiritual guidance, let alone medical or physical needs. And when I say that I fell in love with it… I don’t just mean it was an exotic trip to another country and the adventure of traveling to South America was what I loved.
I can vividly remember those times… it was during the VBS that we were conducting at two of the small local churches there. We had maybe twenty people on our team. The first day of VBS, some 200 - 300 Bolivian kids showed up… ranging from 3 years old to 18 years old. I remember one afternoon we were trying to get together some games for them all to do. Some of the other leaders on our team were talking and organizing the games, so I just sat down inbetween two Bolivian kids around the age of 5 or 7. I picked up a picture Bible story book that we had been teaching from…
I never learned Spanish in high school. After living in France and learning the language there, I decided to take French in high school. So naturally, it was harder to communicate with the kids. The only word I really knew in Spanish that would have pertained to the Bible story book was “Jesus.” As I started flipping through the pages and the pictures, I would point to a picture of Jesus and say, “Jesus.” They quickly caught on and started pointing to Jesus every time I flipped the page…
Less than two minutes later, there were a good 10 to 15 little boys and girls crowding around trying to see the pictures… as well as reading off the occasional Gospel verses that were written in Spanish. I’ll never forget it. There was nothing exotic about going to Bolivia. There was nothing nice or comfortable or convenient about it. But the love that the Bolivian kids and people showed me taught and witnessed to me the love of Christ FAR beyond anything I ever did for them. I hope I can go back there some day…
But all that to say… I want to someday go back to Bolivia or Peru - or somewhere in South America. There is such a need for missions, as well as medical needs. I talked with the gentleman at my table about it and why I wanted to go back to South America someday.
He started telling me about a couple he knows in Peru. He said they are in charge of a Christian organization that has two hospital ships that travel up and down the rivers of Peru… stopping at various villages, cities, and towns along the way to treat people. The gentleman told me that doctors, nurses, surgeons, and yes - even physical therapists - go down to Peru to work on the hospital ships for sometimes just a week or two at a time. Then he pulled out his business card and wrote on the back the name of the couple, as well as the name of the organization. I looked at the name, and then turned the card over.
I was blown away - the gentleman was also part of the medical field of therapy. I believe he works in integrative stress therapy, as well as pain relief. But the fact that I came into lunch, couldn’t find my friends, sat down at any random table, and had the gentleman and his family come sit down with me…. and that he was a therapist, as well as knew a medical mission in Peru…. just blew me away! God truly is amazing.
You may not think it was all that important. It was just a coincidence, right? I don’t think so… God is a living and working God. He brought that gentleman to me to talk to me about physical therapy, as well as to tell me about the need for medical missions in Peru. It has been something I have thought a lot about.. and if God so desires, I hope that I can be a part of someday. Thank you, Father.
Published on 20 Jan 2007 at 4:27 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under A Day in the Life, Thoughts.
Wow! Our God certainly is the Awesome God! “I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.” Psalm 7:17
Hansen on 20 Jan 2007 at 10:01 pm.
It’s definitely a God thing. These Bolivian kids… they capture your heart, don’t they? I have a few photos stuck in my Bible of Dominican kids whose gaze haunt my thoughts throughout the days. They’re so hungry… so empty and desperately in need of the Gospel. May the Lord direct your steps in the future.
p.s. that really is a great table :) Our God is so amazing.
Jess G. on 20 Jan 2007 at 11:57 pm.
You have a great way of expressing things, PLC.
LLC
LLC on 21 Jan 2007 at 7:27 pm.
that’s amazing. it’s funny how when we’re least expecting it, God comes right along and blesses us in a way we didn’t even ask for. he is so gracious.
also, the way the kids responded despite the language barrrier; i think that some things in life are universal, and language doesn’t really matter at all. Christ’s love is one of them.
Amy Mulholland on 26 Jan 2007 at 5:43 am.