I am María Mercedes Cuevas de Pedreros, from Chiquinquirá, and I have been a Volunteer of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, in the Colombian Province, for the past 12 years, when I became a volunteer with the San Rafael Hospital in Bogotá; it was then that I began to become acquainted with the spirit and the values of the Order which have motivated me, following the example of the Brothers who live Hospitality as faithful witnesses of the charism; their vocation and their testimony has been a stimulus for dedicating myself to the service of the sick and needy. It has been a wonderful experience to support the mission of service to the sick and the poor in San Rafael’s Hospital, in Chía and now at the Nuestra Señora de la Paz hospital. I thank God for my vocation of freely-given service which I manifest as a witness to Hospitality because I have been able to share with the Brothers, the Co-workers and the other volunteers, feeling integrated and committed with them. I pray that the Lord will ensure that the Order’s Vocations Year will be stimulus to foster the Hospitality of St John of God. 

In this wonderful vocation I feel happy and fulfilled, because I have grown in human and spiritual terms, and as a volunteer of the Order. I consider it a gift of God to have known our Holy Founder and to have become a member of the Hospitaller Family, because “together and integrated we can serve better”.