The prayer of faith will save the sick person,
and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins,
he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another
and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous person
is very powerful in its effect.

— James 5:15-16

             Being a nurse, I find myself on the spiritual frontlines, so-to-speak. My hospital patients suffer not only from physical ailments, but quite often, from spiritual ailments as well. It’s taken me a long time to build up the boldness and confidence to offer aid to alleviate the spiritual suffering of my patients. Most connections with patients are superficial, as medical-surgical nurses often have a heavy patient load and many tasks to complete besides administering medications. Every once in a while, though, I get the chance to form a deeper connection with a patient, and God continues to amaze me with how he can work through me, if I allow Him to do so. This post is about one of those times.

             One patient from my recent nursing contract in the Virgin Islands stands out above all others in my memory. She was in the hospital due to a knee surgery-gone-wrong. She’d had multiple revisions, and she was in the hospital this time due to a serious infection. She had also contracted COVID during her hospital stay— this meant that she was put on “isolation precautions”— no visitors allowed. Also, each time I went into her room, I stayed for quite a while, as I tried to “cluster” her care as best I could, to avoid excessive exposure to myself— and thereby to other patients. I was her nurse for a couple of days in a row.

             At some point, she asked me about travel nursing, as I’d told her that I was a travel nurse from Arkansas. I shared with her that I was there on a short contract, because I didn’t want to stay away from home for too long due to my mother’s illness— mom was on hospice. We got to talking about current events, which led to a discussion of the war in Ukraine, which led to me telling her about my experience in Ukraine with the mobile medical clinic (see “Ukraine – Mobile Medical Clinic” post). She asked me if I was afraid to go to Ukraine. I told her no, because I felt that it was God’s will for me to go. I then shared my sunflower story with her (see “God Speaks – My Sunflower Story” post).

             She told me that she used to go to church, when she was growing up, a few times a week. That she used to pray. But that she hadn’t prayed in a long time. I shared with her that I was a relatively “new” Christian— but that even in the short time since I had invited Jesus into my life, the things He’d done were incredible. I told her about my father quitting drinking (see “Holy Groans” post) and about my fingers being healed (see “God Speaks — Amputation Anxiety” post). She uttered a quiet little, “Wow.” And then the shocker— she asked me to pray for her. I was caught off-guard, for a moment or two.

             But then I threw up a quick and silent prayer-in-my-head like a Holy Spirit “Hail Mary” from half-court. I clasped her hands in mine, closed my eyes, and thanked our Heavenly Father for creating her and for bringing us together, for allowing me to share my testimony with her. I asked for His mercy, His grace, and His healing, and for Him to remind her of His great love for her, as his beloved daughter, in Jesus’s name. Amen. She thanked me, tears in her eyes, and called me an angel. She told me that she felt like God had sent me there to be her nurse that day. And maybe He did. He is in the business of divine appointments, after all. Shortly after, I had to leave her room and go on to the next task on my list.

             When I returned to her room later that day, she excitedly exclaimed, “I got my sunflower!” I said, “What? What do you mean?” And she explained that a social worker had come in, not long after we had finished praying, and had promised to help her in her efforts to get transported to a hospital stateside. (Previously, they had told her that they couldn’t help her). She was so thrilled. I celebrated with her— but privately, I found myself doubting, unsure.

             Had God really just used me to draw this hurting woman closer to him? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that! When I left for the day, I promised to keep praying for her. She promised to pray for my mother.

             God really spelled it out for me a few days later. I was working on a different unit, when I saw a stretcher being rolled down the hallway. It was my patient! I said hi to her and the EMTs paused to allow us to talk for a few moments. I asked her if she was finally getting off the island. She said yes. Then she told me that she was still praying for my mom. Which meant… she was still praying. Truly moved, I thanked her and wished God’s blessing upon her for her journey.

             This was a real growth experience for me— an encouragement to be bold. Let me try to explain how absolutely uncanny it was that I happened to catch her in the hallway as she was leaving— first of all, I wasn’t working on her unit, so I had no idea what was going on with her. Second of all, I happened to be at work that day and she happened to leave during my shift. Third of all, during those few moments when she was being wheeled down my hallway, I happened to not be on lunch, or in the bathroom, or in the medications room, or in any of my five patients’ rooms. The sheer improbability of me seeing her as she was leaving leads me to believe that God intended for us to meet again. That God intended to encourage me with a small spark of her renewed faith. Hopefully, those few moments encouraged her, as well.

Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth
to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For this,
I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold
enough to speak about it as I should.

— Ephesians 6:19-20