Is she French, Huguenot or an idealist?
1661 was a bitter year for all Protestant Christians in France. The persecutions that took place under King Louis XIV eradicated almost all protestant communities within months. A quarter of a million Huguenots, as they were called, fled in other European countries. Not few of the refugees found a new home that also guaranteed a freedom of belief in German speaking regions. Vera Garçon’s ancestors were among those hundreds of thousands migrants that trekked for miles from West to East. That was all a long time ago. But Vera who many still say still looks French, despite a family saga spanning 15 generations who have lived in the Federal Republic, can hardly believe her luck. The medical student has achieved that what she wanted and has fulfilled her dream of working at the Hospital Diospi Suyana. She worked hard to reach this clinical traineeship and despite adverse circumstances she never lost hope.
Vera describes herself as someone who embodies the joie de vivre. She wrote the following paragraph in her application: „I love dancing, be it ballet, modern dance, standard dances or Tango Argentino. I find great joy in singing and piano-playing. I am part of a medic-chor. Every semester together with our orchestra we perform a concert. The money raised via the ticket sales we give to medical organisations worldwide!”
On 1st August 1996 Vera Garçon saw the light of the world in the German city of Bitburg, close to the French border. Prayer is one of her earliest childhood memories: “I always knew that God existed. I felt his love and simply started trusting him!” she tells us full of enthusiasm. She is not sure how this relationship with God started, since her parents did not have much to do with church or church activities. Occasionally her grandparents took her to Catholic Church services, but no life vibrated there, but just dead religiosity. Interestingly enough it was her religious studies teacher who encouraged her to live out her Christian faith.
Spring 2019. One night Vera dreams of church at the sea front. It is huge and looks totally different to all the other churches she has ever seen in her life. The sun is shining and she is filled with a deep feeling of peace and joy. Almost half a year later while spending a day at a swimming pool with her friend she shows her a copy of the Times. The cover story was about the “Sagrada Familia”, Antoni Gaudí’s epochal work of art. Vera is electrified. The church in Barcelona is the church she saw in her dream. Will she one day be able to admire this masterpiece of art from within! Vera muses: “What does this all mean?”
The medical student who had passed her Abitur (the German equivalent of A-Levels) with straight A*s entered a massive period of doubt in December 2019: “Why am I studying medicine?” she asked disenchanted. She feared that being in hospital day-in day-out has more to do with economics and furthering one’s career than with compassion and dedication. All around her she hears and sees power games and competitive scheming. Suddenly the brutal reality blurs her former picture of practised charity.
One evening in December 2019 she prayed: “God show me the way I should go!” The next day a friend of hers tells her about Diospi Suyana for the first time: “That is the place that you are looking for” he says and goes to www.diospi-suyana.org. Vera’s eyes open more and more the further she reads into Diospi Suyana’s story.
On 9th January 2020 missionary doctors Dr Werner Kessler and his wife Sonja give a presentation in her church in Heidelberg, entitled: Diospi Suyana. Once again Vera is gripped. She must go there, but how? She has zero Spanish and the worldwide Corona-lockdown is just taking hold. Borders are closed and within days full airport buildings are turned into solitary places. Before they go their separate ways after the church service Dr Kessler says a prayer for Vera. He radiates a security that nothing is impossible for God.
Two days later Vera is lying in bed. The girl who has won the Scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation ponders her small chance ever to go to Diospi Suyana. Once more she gets up, goes to her desk, logs onto the Foundation’s website looking for a language course. The deadline has long passed, but amazingly enough she still finds the last remaining space on a Spanish course that is being held in Barcelona. Vera is knocked for six and applies immediately. The next morning the email is in her inbox saying that she has got the last place!
At the end of her three weeks in Barcelona during which she studied Spanish extremely hard she is given a certificate that states that she has reached the language level A1. And of course she seizes the chance to see the Sagrada Familia for herself. She is breath-taken by the impressive nave. Does not the architectural beauty point both Christians and non-Christians to the Creator of the World? Her dream, the day going swimming and her own journey with God find their fulfilment at this moment. But this is just an intermediate stop.
Back in Germany she electronically send her documents to Diospi Suyana’s home office. But is told that a language level of B1 is necessary in order to work at the missionary hospital. Vera does not do things by halves and with an unmistakeable finality speaks into the telephone: “I will manage B1, regardless of the price!” Diospi Suyana’s Karin Straßheim was impressed: when was the last time that she saw such deep conviction and strength of will.
Ten months remain of 2020. She plans to start working at the Hospital Diospi Suyana beginning of 2021. Her studies are extremely demanding and her doctoral thesis devours hours of time. Add to this the mammoth task of learning Spanish. By the time she leaves in the Spring of 2021 she has achieved what very few would achieve in such circumstances: B2!
Because of her mental strength Garçon would be an ideal hurdler, because she had to overcome all sorts of obstacles and difficulties before she boarded the plane.
In January 2021 no European airlines flew to Peru. All the same she bought a plane ticket via Sao Paulo to Lima. In March aeroplanes do start flying again to Peru, but not via Brazil due to corona variants. Vera is constantly kept on tenterhooks. But after every setback she turns once again to God and prays. Her prayers are not monotonous or boring or said out of habit, but they are pleading requests presented before an invisible power that has to date so often visibly acted in her life.
While sitting at my desk, taking notes, Vera sits next to me. Her inner enthusiasm about a God who is alive and fills our existence with meaning and hope shines from her eyes. “Without God I would ask myself for what I am spending time on this earth,” bubbles out of her, “he means everything to me!”
I put my fountain pen down and answer instinctively “I feel exactly the same way!” /KDJ
