God called me on this trip knowing that I could speak Spanish decently, not fluently.
While at the children’s hospital, I went into the little girl’s section first. I made friends with one little girl who had an overwhelming cast on her fragile leg. We didn’t have much conversation; we mostly played with her doll. Her face lit up as I began to play with her. The next little girl I went by was crying nonstop. I tried to talk to the woman who was with her, but she informed me that she was only there to keep her company because her family hadn’t visited her in a while. I tried to calm her down, but words meant nothing, all I could do was hold her hand and wipe her tears away.
As I was leaving the room I saw a little girl in the hallway laying motion and emotionless on a little bed. Her mom was with her. The girl’s name was Allison, she was 2 years old, and she had a severe case of dengue fever. It was obvious that she was not in good condition.
When a few other girls on my team and I began to pray for Allison I grabbed her little soft hand to hold. I kept feeling her tiny weak fingers grasp tighter and tighter around mine. She was too weak to speak or move much and her face looked so empty and dull that I decided to grab a few others from my team to sing to her with me. As we continued to sing, Allison’s face lit up so brightly. It was clear that she wanted so desperately to smile but was too weak.
It didn’t matter whether she smiled or not though, the joy on her face had shown through anyways. When it was time to leave I was sad to say goodbye to Allison not knowing whether she would be okay or not, but I also felt surprisingly happy at the same time. It brought me so much joy to see that we had brought light to that little girl’s face.
It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I had barely talked at the hospital. I had barely talked yet somehow I was able to comfort those girls. I was so reminded after this experience that God’s kingdom doesn’t have to be spread through words. God called me and my teammates on this trip knowing that we wouldn’t all be fluent in speaking Spanish, but in speaking a voice isn’t always necessary. God uses us in many ways to speak life into people; language is just one of them.
Psalms 145:17 The Lord is just in all his actions, and exhibits love in all he does.
