It’s about time part 2 made its way onto the internet.
I lay down on the table and stared up at the ceiling. It was dark and a little chilly in the room. A little woman with bushy hair entered after a few minutes and pulled up a seat next to me. She began fiddling with her computer.
“Hi,” I said at last.
“Hello.”
I rolled my eyes around the ceiling again. I was about to start my echocardiogram, a test that would take half an hour. I was hoping awkward greetings wouldn’t be the only thing the technician and I said to each other in that time.
“So…how are you doing today?”
She looked over at me. “Uh, I guess I’m okay.” She turned back to her computer while continuing, “How about you?”
“Oh, I’m alright. Kinda hoping to figure out all this business soon so I can go back to work. But can’t complain too much.”
“Well that’s good…” She started her test, her eyes scanning my heart on the monitor. “Where do you work?”
“At a summer camp. I’m usually a counselor there, but I haven’t been there in a week because of all this.”
“Oh yeah? Sounds like a tiring job.”
“A bit.” I laughed. “Days off are always nice. But it’s really great. I love working with kids. You have fun and get to do a lot of good. You give them a chance to really be who they were meant to be, you know? You get to step out of yourself and just spend a summer helping others. At least, that’s the hope.”
She nodded and smiled. “Yeah, that’s really nice. You like service?”
“Oh definitely! It’s the way to go.” I smiled.
“That’s what I like about working for Virginia Mason: it’s all very service and people oriented. I worked for another company in California where, I don’t know, everything seemed to be about business. But here it’s about people.” Her eyes were starting to light up in the dim room.
“That’s awesome!” I let her work in silence for a few minutes. “You know, I’m really hoping to get everything figured out soon—I’m supposed to be flying to the Philippines to serve as a missionary for the year.”
“Oh really? Where? What will you be doing?”
I filled her in on some of the details. Then she asked, “Is this church-related? Or is it a program with your school?”
“Well, kind of both. I’m a Seventh-Day Adventist and our schools are very mission oriented. About a hundred from my college go every year.”
“Huh, I dated a Seventh-Day Adventist a couple years ago. You know, if everyone just followed what Ellen White wrote, we’d only have half as many people in our hospitals.”
I laughed in surprise and agreed with her. For the rest of my echocardiogram, we talked about Ellen White, Adventism, service, and our purposes in life. When she was done, we thanked one another for a good conversation, and she wished me the best of luck in the Philippines.
I’m pretty sure just about every medical person I’ve come in contact with these last few months knows I’m going to the Philippines. I’ve had a number of conversations about service and humanitarianism and God, sometimes in very unusual ways. Well, maybe all in unusual ways. This whole time, it’s felt like I have this team of medical staff all prepping me to go. Every new nurse, technician, and doctor is sort of sucked into this deal with me, making my solitary little flight over seem to be much more.
My final post-op appointment with Dr. Crider, she made me promise to send her a post card once I arrive in Pagudpud. She’s been on a couple of mission trips herself and hopes to return to the mission field soon. She’s been doing her best to make sure that I can leave as soon as possible, and I don’t intend to disappoint.
At times, I’ve felt like a sort of rallying figure, or that little voice of a reminder. All these people from all these clinics and hospitals, they’ve all been serving in a mission field for years. Not only do they help heal people and bring the tremendous blessing of healthy living, but they help make it possible for others to go out and serve as well. It was my pleasure to remind them (and seriously thank them) for all that they’ve been doing and all that they stand for in their careers. And after receiving such a blessing from them, it’s my turn to take this healthy life I’ve been given and use it to pass on blessings to others. I’ve seen that it’s quite impossible to go out and serve just as myself. As I leave America, I represent so many people who have put their energy, money, time, and prayers into my year abroad. They are all serving. Through all this, I’ve come to understand just how, well, big mission work and service is. It’s not about the single student missionary off in some corner of the world. It’s not about me.
It’s about us. And it’s about God. All together. That’s big.
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