In April, a Solidarity Visit with three of our closest Bolivian collaborators reminded us that we are one: somos uno.

The gap in high-tech surgical care available to wealthy and poor patients has narrowed a bit in Cochabamba, thanks to a partnership to donate a new laparoscopic tower and supplies to the city’s most important public hospital.

Dr. Meredith (Gay) Garrett received Solidarity Bridge’s top honor, the 2018 Solidarity Award, at our annual gala on April 14.

As Christ’s passion unfolds we soon see that we are not being invited to live lives of pleasure or power but of suffering. We are invited to empty ourselves to make room for God in our lives. So what draws us to accept such an invitation? It is astounding that Christ should have so many followers in the wake of such an unattractive proposition!

In today’s Gospel, we hear the story of Martha and Mary, and their feelings of despair at the death of their brother, Lazarus.  The human experience of struggling to maintain hope in the face of despair unites Martha’s story with our own, and teaches us to find  God’s goodness and grace in our most fragile moments. 
 

Three mission teams heading to Bolivia in March 2018 will take part in important “firsts,” either for Solidarity Bridge, for our partners, or for patients in need of specialized surgical care.

In today's Gospel, Jesus heals the blind man, and Chaplain Jim Manzardo, invites us to consider where in our lives we may have been blind, with closed hearts and minds. 

In the third Sunday of Lent, we hear about Jesus’ choice to visit Samaria, a place and a people looked down upon by the Jews. Once there, he engages in a theological discussion with a woman, and not just any woman, but a woman that the Evangelist’s audience would have frowned upon.   

In the second Sunday of Lent, we reflect on this week’s Gospel, recounting Christ’s transfiguration, which has commonality with my experience as a missioner in Bolivia. Five words came to mind sequentially as I reflected on this passage and my work with Solidarity Bridge: privilege, remoteness, intensity, uncertainty, and humility.

“In the gospels, the particular word used for repentance is metanoia. Literally this means to do an about face, to turn around, to face in an entirely new direction.” And this is the invitation for this first Sunday of Lent - to turn our lives around - to face in an entirely new direction. Jesus is urging his listeners - and us - to change our lives, to see anew.

Many missioners find that their memories of Bolivia remain vivid after they return to work and life in the United States. Following her fourth Gynecologic Surgery Mission Trip, Dr. Janet Tomezsko offered these reflections.

There is more to healing than simply providing an operation. During their internships with our partner organization, Puente de Solidaridad, two Bolivian social work students learned to offer true solidarity to patients and families in the face of complex medical challenges.