Just two days ago I had a very interesting experience in the Hospital. Many of the main roads had been blockaded by Trufi drivers, because the drivers were fighting policies that the government was trying to impose. Adding this inconvenience to the general population of Bolivia pressured the government to lift the policies(trufis are a very common form of public transportation that many people use). However, since the roads had been blockaded many Doctors and patients were unable to reach the hospital.
I was going to shadow the Orthopaedic Doctor, but all his patients were unable to reach the hospital that day due to the blockades. Fortunately, he reached the hospital and performed a surgery. I watched him screw a rod into a woman's shoulder to repair her broken clavical, which was certainly interesting to see. But, that was not the highlight of my day. The Orthopaedic Doctor's work was done after he had finished the surgery, so I was done shadowing him around 11:00 A.M and had more time on my hands than usual.
I remembered that the Pastor at the hospital asked the volunteers to share their testimonies with the people in the waiting room, but none of us were sure if we could handle the Spanish involved in sharing a testimony, so we quickly forgot his request. I decided that if I went to him and told him I was willing to share that God would find a way to do something with it even if I had a language barrier to overcome. So, with my new found time I searched for the Pastor's office. After asking the receptionist where he was and searching in all the locations she had suggested, by a sheer stroke of luck(or perhaps divine providence) I saw him enter his office and followed him.
I sheepishly knocked on his door and was greeted with a slightly broken English form of the phrase "Good Morning!" The Pastor was very excited that I had come to visit him and quickly told me to sit down. He was so excited that I could hardly get a word in and was certainly unable to ask him about sharing my testimony. Our conversation started out as a typical one but deepened over time. He asked me where I was from first, and I showed him on a map. He then told me that he had a brother in the United States in "Washington, Virginia!"(which I can only assume is Washington D.C), and he showed me several pictures of his brother and other family members.
It turns out that only he and one of his siblings still lives in Bolivia. He has two brothers and a sister living in Australia, and one brother in the U.S. He briefly told me about his recent acquisition of a Doctorate degree in Christian Psychology from Central Christian University in Orlando, Florida, and he showed me his degree(apparently, they have a branch in La Paz, Bolivia, and the pastor took online classes through that branch). I smiled as the pastor showed me his accomplishments like a young boy after he has hit his first home run or scored his first touch down.
Of course, the Pastor asked me if I was a Christian and baptized, and I said yes. I was surprised when he said to me, "Kevin, pray for the Doctors in Hospital. Many of them not Christian yet." I raised my eyebrows in response and said "Really? Es Verdad?(is true). And he nodded his head up and down to indicate that his statement was true. From that moment on our conversation was strictly focused on prayer, and I felt empowered by the faith of the pastor, simply because he believed so strongly that God was always at work and that praying to him was always helpful. He told me that his name is Nestor Hugo, and he asked me to pray for his brothers and sister. He said "none of them Christian yet. I cry every night for them all."
I told him that I would pray for them, thinking that I would take a passive approach and silently pray for them all later away from him, but this pastor would have none of that. He loved his family, he loved the people in the hospital, and he loved the people of Bolivia, so what he did next surprised me. The pastor bent his knees and said "How you say in English "aurodilla?" The word Rodilla is the Spanish word for knee, so I linked his expression and the action of bending his knees with a posture of prayer, so I said in response "on your knees?" The pastor, elated that I had understood him said "yes! yes! on your knees! Okay, we pray now, you in English and me in Spanish! Just moment." Before I could even back pedal and ask questions the pastor had grabbed pillows and laid them at the foot of a couple chairs in his office. It had all happened so quickly that I didn't have time to think. For some reason, we don't pray this way in the states. It's strange, as if we think that we are somehow above kneeling before our Lord and Father in Heaven. I realized all this in that moment, and decided that I would not let myself back out of this or look for a more comfortable situation. Nestor Hugo was right to want to pray in such a way, and I had decided that rather than wondering if it was okay, I would embrace the situation.
So Nestor Hugo and I got down on our knees, and all I asked him was "do you want me to pray first, or you?" He told me that he would pray first, I would pray second. I nodded my head in agreement and closed my eyes to begin talking to the Lord. I could only understand bits and pieces of Nestor's prayer, but I remember I will never forget the first two words of his prayer: "Padre Celestial"(Heavenly Father). After Nestor was done I prayed for all the things we had agreed upon. I loved this moment. I remember feeling that God was more real to me than ever, not that he never was real to me, but Nestor's faith had clearly rubbed off on me. I remember my prayer feeling more full and alive. I felt like I had picked up a telephone to call God, and he was really, truly listening on the other side and even responding from time to time.
After praying with Nestor, we stood up and shook hands. He asked me when I could come again, and I told him tomorrow at 1:00. In all the excitement of prayer, I had completely forgotten to ask him about sharing my testimony, but I realized afterward that God had me there in Nestor's office for a different purpose. As I left Nestor's office he said to me "I can't wait to see you tomorrow, my new friend and brother in Christ."
I remember being amazed that even though I was not fluent in Spanish and he was not fluent in English, we still managed to communicate nearly perfectly. This was just more evidence that God was completely involved in this encounter. After going back and telling everyone about my adventure, Anna said that she wanted to join me tomorrow, so the two of us went to see the pastor the next day. We were more pressed for time the following day, but the pastor was just as excited and jubilant as he was the first day. This time, our meeting was more focused on teaching English and Spanish to one another, but the meeting was still very fruitful. He had also invited one of the PT's that worked in the hospital, Sessia, and she was just 21 years old. Sessia has even less English skills than Nestor, so we had to pause every now and then to clue her in on what was going on, but we still had no trouble communicating. At the end we all picked one thing(per the Pastor's request) to pray for, and we all prayed together. Nestor wants to keep meeting with me and other volunteers from time to time to continue to learn English and to help teach us more Spanish. Even now, I'm not sure when I will get to share my testimony with the people in the waiting room, but even if I never get to that point I feel that my time with him has been truly fruitful.
Please pray for the family of Nestor Hugo De La Fuente, the Pastor at Hospitals of Hope. My favorite thing that Nestor always says when he talks about someone who isn't a Christian is "He(or she) is not a Christian yet." He always puts the word "yet" in there, because he believes so strongly that God cares about all those people and is going to do something to draw people to himself. Indeed, Christianity is not just a North American religion. It is a religion of South America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and even Europe, and it is even more than a religion. It is a movement that, given time, has swept over the globe. How do I know? Because even in countries like Bolivia, countries with devout followers of tribal traditions, countries where people bury llama fetuses to appease mother earth, or even bury people alive, there are people like Nestor Hugo following Christ and leading the way, boldly showing others that God is good and loves all.
Kevin Quinby
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