A hospital deals with a lot of death. Doctors and nurses act as warriors against death but in spite of everything, they can’t prevent it in the end. In trying, sometimes they manage to cheat death and this the motivation to keep trying.
The missionaries at Diospi Suyana have to travel over a 4000m high mountain pass to get to Abancay where they can do their shopping, pick up the mail and visit the offices of the local authorities. On this pass they must travel past a memorial site that commemorates a tragedy that happened of the 21st of Janaury, 2004 in which 34 bus passengers were killed when the bus went off the side of the mountain.
The inscription on 1 of the tombstones reads, “From this world he has passed on into the everlasting magnificence to be together with our Lord, Jesus Christ”.
This hope of eternity is the cornerstone of the work of Diospi Suyana. Even in a world where the entertainment industry tries to push out all thought of death, the question still remains: What happens afterwards?
The cross in front of Hospital Diospi Suyana daily proclaims our complete dependence on God. It does not symbolize hopelessness, but rather hope. Because Christ gave himself as an atonement for our sins, we now have the hope of eternal life, just as is written on the gravestone of the roadside grave. KDJ
