Hospital chaplains learning as they teach

Colombia Focus:

by Larry Jerden, freelance photojournalist

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The women volunteer chaplains in the hospital ministry they call Dios te habla hoy (‘God Speaks to You Today’) tell hundreds of patients about the hope found in Jesus Christ. As they do so, they themselves learn just how powerfully God can work in people’s lives.

Nelsy Barreto has overcome cancer to share God`s love with others in Bogotá`s hospital while pursuing a career as a computer systems analyst. Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (COL01DJ-85.JPG)

Ana Mercedes Suárez, the ministry’s founder and leader, tells of one encounter which demonstrated that power.

“I spoke to one patient at the Cancer Institute but he did not want to listen,” she says. “His wife and children came into the room and said they were glad I was sharing Christ with him. His wife urged him listen.

Salvation not cure

“‘I’m not here to offer you a cure,’ I told him, ‘I’m here to offer you salvation.’ “‘I have cancer,’ he replied, ‘and the doctors have said there is nothing they can do! I want a cure!’

“The man’s neck was totally black from the tumour,” Mrs Suárez recalls, “but I told him to have faith; God could cure him and I was only there to give him what God had given me.”

As she set out the Gospel to the dying man, he accepted Christ as his Saviour. The following Sunday in church an usher approached her to say there was a man outside who wanted to see her. Going to see who it was, she found the man with cancer waiting to greet her.

“Sister Mercedes, God has cured me!” he cried. The women are also learning, however, that the miracles they frequently witness do not always preclude death.

“When we started this ministry we wanted everyone to recover,” she says. “We would still like that. But one young lady come to Christ, aided by the Bible Society materials we shared with her, and then died soon afterwards. When that happened, I understood that it was more important to God that she came to know the Lord. It was more important to save her soul than her body.”

Nelsy Barreto is a young, married volunteer whose own battle with cancer has threatened not only her ability to have children but her life itself. She, too, has learned that not every ‘victory’ means a cure.

Prayer

“I went into a room at the Cancer Institute where I heard a man complaining,” she says. “As I approached him, a nun pulled me aside and whispered, ‘I am a Christian, but that woman with him is not. She is a Mormon!’

“I told the Sister to relax because I was only there to guide the patient in a prayer of faith.

“When I entered the room, I felt a great compassion for him: I felt that he needed to know Jesus urgently. This was the only day I could visit for two weeks so I just looked into his eyes and said, ‘Christ loves you with an eternal love, and his power will fill your days. Don’t be afraid, because he is with you’.”

For the next two weeks she was preoccupied with her computer studies, but her thoughts kept returning to the man in hospital and she continued to pray for him.

Then on a visit to the hospital later she saw a different woman at his side. Guided once more by a strong feeling, she started sharing the Gospel with them. The woman began to cry.

“I am a Christian,” she told Mrs Barreto. “This man is my ex-husband and the father of my child but he abandoned us to go with my sister. When I heard he was ill, God put it on my heart to come and visit him.”

“At that moment,” said Mrs Barreto, “the man accepted Christ as his Saviour and both he and the woman prayed prayers asking for forgiveness.

Died

“Three days later, I telephoned her at home and she told me that he had died. God had let him set his affairs in order with those he loved. Most importantly, he received salvation.”

Mrs Barreto’s story also illustrates the point that, while the primary focus of the chaplaincy is on the patients, their families need spiritual counselling as well.

“We always try to have as many family members as possible around the patient,” Mrs Suárez explains. “That way we can share the Gospel with them all.”

They are also careful to avoid ‘hit-and-run’ outreach. “With patients who are from Bogotá, we take their name, address and telephone number and an evangelism team follows up,” Mrs Suárez explains. “We have a Christian directory so we can direct others to a church in their home town.”