After a week or so of being in our home and listening to us, Elias began to tell us that he was interested in learning. You have to understand that in Bolivia, there is no culture of volunteerism. Most people live from payday to payday, and when they meet people from the US, it is generally assumed that we are rich, and can pay well. So we thought maybe he didn’t understand us, after all, our Spanish was very poor in those days, and so we kept saying, “you don’t understand, we aren’t paying anyone, we are looking for someone who wants to do this as a ministry, because God called them, and they want to serve their people in this way.” To which Elias would reply, “yes, I get it. I want to serve. I know there is a need and I think God is calling me.” He told us about a man he knew from his village that lost a leg, and that he had seen other people as well.
Meet Elias
Elias is a quiet and humble man. When we first met him, he was painting the house we were renting in Cochabamba. We had just moved back to Bolivia, and we were just starting the process of figuring out how to make this dream of a prosthetics ministry turn into a reality. As Elias painted, we talked. We had lunch with him. He had a lot of questions about what we were doing in Bolivia, and with our poor Spanish we tried to explain to him our dream to see amputees walk and to use that as a means to share the Good News of Jesus.
“In Bolivia, there is no culture of volunteerism”
Humble Beginnings
Elias came from humble beginnings himself. Having been raised in a village, in a rock hut with no running water or electricity, he knew what it was like to be poor. He left home as a teenager to go to the city and find work. He married, and he and his wife had a son and a daughter. Unfortunately, when their daughter was five, they found out she had a brain tumor, which took her life. Through the grief and the tragedy of that, Elias and his wife found the Lord, and hope. God blessed them with another daughter.
To be honest, we were hopeful that Elias would want to get involved, but we also had our doubts. Other missionaries would tell us that we better have Elias sign a paper that he is volunteering, otherwise he might sue us as had happened to other missionaries, saying he worked for us, but we never paid him. He also did not have an education. But prosthetics began as a learned trade and Elias knew how to work with his hands and use tools. So we choose to put it in God’s hands and trusted that He would lead. We didn’t ask Elias to sign anything, but instead gave him opportunities to help.
It is very difficult to find needed tools and materials in Bolivia, so the first thing Steve had Elias do was help him build some tables and some equipment. They slowly became friends. It took some time to get our prosthetic equipment purchased in the US through customs, and when it finally came Elias helped Steve set it up in the little shed at our home. Elias brought us our first patient, Agustin, the man he knew from his village that had lost his leg to a gunshot wound twenty years prior.
Eight years later, we can’t say enough how much of an answer to prayer that Elias has become. He has taken on this ministry and has been a dedicated volunteer, giving countless hours to learn and to serve others. He has proven himself to be a trustworthy assistant and has learned a great deal, to the point of being able to take a patient from start to finish on his own. Steve has learned from Elias as well. They balance each other in their working relationship. They come from two extremely different cultures, so it’s not a surprise that they would have different perspectives when it comes to how they do things. Steve is all about productivity and efficiency, getting as much done by squeezing as much as possible into our daily schedule, but that’s not Bolivian culture and certainly not how Elias works. It has been a good balance and when things don’t go according to our Western ideas of how they should, Elias is there to remind us that it is no big deal.
Much more than a volunteer, Elias and his family have become part of our family. And we are part of theirs. We are so proud of our brother in the Lord and so proud he is part of this ministry.
Today, you can find Elias working hard doing odd jobs and driving a taxi to support himself, working at the clinic each week, and now going back to school in the evenings. It is our dream to one day open the first school for prosthetics in Bolivia, and Elias is determined to finish his education so that he can be the first one certified. He is excelling there as well, even being named class President. Quite an accomplishment for a guy that was forced to drop out of school at an early age to work. He is more motivated than ever to share the gospel with the lost, not only in the clinic, but in the villages as well.
Through Elias, we have been reminded once again, that God uses our weaknesses and shows Himself strong through them. We experienced this firsthand when we began the ministry. We felt unqualified and unsure of how it would all come together, but God blessed those steps of faith and has worked through us despite our shortcomings. Honestly, most people would have considered Elias unqualified, but he did what some of the most qualified people do not, he gave what he had to God, and God has done far more through him than we could have ever hoped for or imagined. We are so proud to partner with him in this ministry and are excited to see what else God has planned for him!
