Tears at the End of a Long Day

After a long, hard day, Dr. Luz Pena  and Dr. Martina John are almost done,  only one more patient to see but this last case seems quite complicated. A young man shows them a large tumor that has been eating its way through the wall of his chest. “We can’t help you here,“  Doctor John tells him, “You need to get to the big cancer hospital in Lima as soon as possible“. The patient shakes his head. “I´ve been there. The doctors there sent me to you at Diospi Suyana!“ Martina John suddenly realises that there is a reason the man  took the 17 hour bus trip to Curahuasi and asks him to wait  while she gets something.

A few minutes later, the  dying patient is holding a tract about faith and the book containing the story of Diospi Suyana in his hands. There they stand in the  empty waiting room,  the two doctors, a young man who has already reached the end of his life, his wife and brother.

The missionary doctor comes straight to the point: “You know,  when I cross the Panamericana out there, a car could knock me down and kill me and then where would I be going?“ Until then the waiting room had seemed  completely deserted but then there is a shift in the atmosphere. “I know where, “she continues, “because Jesus died on the cross for my sins heaven would be waiting for me. Do you want to go there too?“

As the patient nods his head the doctor bends down to him and slowly formulates a prayer, which he repeats sentence by sentence, placing his life in the hands of the God of Love he has never met. Tears run down every face.. the man, his wife and brother weep… and the two doctors. But these are not tears of despair or self-pity. It is what happens when five people sense the holy presence of God in the midst of a waiting room, surrounded by 120 empty chairs.