Hope in garden of suffering
Ann Dominguez is a doctor at a Community Health Center that serves a poor community of immigrants–and the everyday suffering that surrounds her is almost too much to comprehend. In a recent article at InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministries site, she talks about what it means to be a Christian healer in a place where despair is everywhere:
Most of my patients suffer from poverty. A large proportion of my patients suffer from depression, anxiety, alcoholism, or domestic violence…on top of their diabetes, hypertension, chronic pain, and heart disease….
When my patients come to see me, I loathe giving them just a pill. I want them to know the healing that comes from Christ’s presence, from the wholeness that he can give despite diabetes, despite sciatica, despite back pain. But to offer this healing, I need to enter into the garden of their suffering with them.
What does it mean to “enter the garden of suffering,” and how could that be a way to bring hope and healing to the downtrodden? Dominguez found out after one harrowing night at the clinic, when a medical crisis and a miraculous birth showed her what it meant to stand with someone in the “garden.” Read the full story.
