By Brittany Ramirez, CBF field personnel, Baguio, Philippines
When something goes wrong, when you are in a foreign country and you do not have family nearby, who do you call? Honestly, this is one of the scarier parts of living overseas. Not knowing how to navigate the medical system or even how to call for an ambulance or which hos
pital to go to. This is hard enough for me as an English speaker here in the Philippines where English is widely spoken. But for our overseas Chinese community here in Baguio, with the language barrier it gets even more challenging and overwhelming.
As I was getting into bed at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, I received a call from one of our Chinese friend here in Baguio. I knew immediately she must need help and I was so glad she felt that she could call me.
She is a single mother who moved here to Baguio and found our English class last fall. She had recently been dealing with pain from a herniated disc but was on the mend. When she called me something had happened and she was in extreme pain and could not move. She asked if I could come help. I arrived by 11 p.m. and started helping her pack up things she would need and call the ambulance. She has a young son and so I helped him pack up some belongings and snacks. The ambulance arrived with a stretcher and I followed them to the ER. The EMTs were incredibly caring for her and her son. And they helped me know what I needed to do to help. They handed me the paperwork and showed me the line to get her registered.
It was a late night but I was able to advocate for her to get the medical attention she needed and get admitted to the Ortho department of the hospital. I got home and went to sleep around 3 a.m.
The next day I checked in on her and asked if there was anything she needed. She hesitated, I had to assure her it was okay to ask for help. She told me she needed my help because her immigration paperwork for her visa extension was due this week. While going to immigration is never a fun task, I was happy to be able to do this for her.
It took a few trips around town having to go back to the hospital, get her house keys, go get their passports from their home and then back and forth to immigration after the first trip failed. But on the second trip to immigration with all the paperwork needed and some help from her son’s school registrar, the mission was a success!
I called her to let her know it was all taken care of and she didn’t need to worry. I could hear the relief in her voice. I realized later that when I went back to the hospital to drop off some things, I forgot to return her house key. Her response was, “It’s okay, you can return it later, you are my most trusted friend.”
Those words brought tears to my eyes. This is what it means to be the presence of Christ, to build beloved community, to build trust and friendship, to be available to be the one who someone calls when things go wrong.
Learn more about Brittany and her husband Casey’s mission work here.