07.15.2017
Today is the last day of SMI. Last Day! Last Day? I had to check the date on my phone again just to make sure. I had been looking forward to this date since last week. I had been looking forward to my nice warm bed, my mom’s cooking and the smell and sound of trees blowing in the wind. I had been looking forward to comfort! But for some reason, on the last day I was still feeling quite uncomfortable. While I’m glad to be at home writing this post, I can’t help but still reflect on the amazing people I served with in SMI and particularly my last medical screening. As my team and I were walking down the street performing medical screenings; a young girl shouted out, “hey, what are you guys doing?” We answered that we were from Esperanza Health Center and that we were doing medical screenings such as blood sugar, HIV screenings, blood pressure, asthma education, height, weight and BMI.
She immediately requested that we perform these screenings on her. My group and I spent a lot of time with this woman and two of her friends who happened to be outside at the time. We prayed with her and conversed with her and her friends. She cried about a number of the challenges she was facing, but thankfully she had very normal screenings. After about an hour or so we said goodbye and headed down another street to continue our outreach. As we were walking around the neighborhood performing screenings, a young man walked by our group twice. He looked bewildered, anxious, and frightened. I personally said hi to him but got a very stand off response.
About a half an hour later, the same girl we previously performed a medical screening on and prayed with waved us down. She asked us to help the same man who passed us twice on the street. She and two others with her had been encouraging him to get the help he needed. She already knew his name, knew his story, knew the details and logistics of the context in which he was injured and debriefed us on it. She had already gotten his phone number to ensure that she could follow up with him at the hospital. I was amazed at her desire to help this man despite all of her challenges she had just disclosed to me. We walked up to him and noticed swollen hands and feet and several open wounds that looked infected and oozing with puss. The side of his stomach was inflamed and looked very badly bruised. The girl who flagged us down purchased him some items he requested and then we all tried to continue to convince him to go the ER. He refused to go out of fear of getting in legal trouble. We tried to rationalize with him and explain to him the urgency of prioritizing his health. After speaking with him for about 15-20 minutes I called an ambulance.
The young man looked terrified and told us that he did not want to go to the hospital because he thought that he would get into criminal trouble. He associated the ambulance with the police and refused to get inside of it. Everyone there immediately prayed over him. We asked God to empower him to get the help he needed. We asked God to heal him, pour his Holy Spirit into him and take his fear away. We asked God to reveal himself to this young man and pursue his heart in a way where he could no longer refuse help. I ended the prayer once I heard the ambulance approaching. The young man looked even more terrified than before, but after some more encouraging words from the EMT and some of us there, he proceeded to board the ambulance. As mentioned, I cant stop thinking about the young’s mans wounds, fear, denial, and hesitation before everyone laid hands on him to pray and compare it to his desire for healing, courage, acceptance, corroboration and determination after the prayer. I will continue to reflect upon this incident, however I have already come to a couple of conclusions of what God was trying to show me. First, God was already at work in this community long before I arrived and perhaps was probably was even born. He has placed strong, caring, and empathetic people in this community to be a light. Secondly, the importance of prayer. My credentials (or the lack thereof) and the credentials of those in my group were the same before the prayer, and it did not matter. What we learned in school did not make that young man get into the ambulance. My race, my personality, my skills, my smile, my advice, and the results of screenings were all there before the ambulance approached us; and they all proved inadequate, but the prayer we all lifted up to God on behalf of this young man was the last thing that occurred before he was escorted into the ambulance. Please do not forget to pray, it makes the difference!!!
Sincerely,
-Ahrin Gibbons,