I just spent over an hour writing out a very very long blog post only to finally click 'publish post' and have the entire thing lost. Not even the title was saved. The whole post had been about recent events that I have to praise God for, and then with a click of the button my praise had turned to long groans of frustration! Sad at how easily I can be affected by my surroundings sometimes. :(
I am sorry, but I am not going to write out the entire post again. But in summary, I ran some errands today. Knowing that, due to the type of errands, a lot could go wrong (Paperwork usually goes wrong before it goes right in Mexico) I woke up nervous about my day and praying things would go smoothly. Skipping to the end...I felt as if it was Christmas and I had just been given the most amazing gift. It was almost to good to be true.....could I really have just experienced a bit of efficiancy? Here? In Mexico?
And then I moved on to something even more amazing and on a much bigger scale of praise. Yesterday I received an email, a group email to the Apostolic Christian Medical Fellowship. Even before I started on this road to MD back in high school, I first wanted to be a medical missionary. At the time I knew that to do long term medical missions I would have to do it on my own, which I do not want to do. But I also knew that it would be years in the future, and that My Future Is Not My Own. The email, that I will include below, does not make promises, but it is filled with possibilities. And once again I am reminded to never ever underestimate the power of prayer.
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Listen to what our Lord and master Jesus Christ was busy doing while here on earth, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people (Mt 9:35)! Healing is mentioned > 50 times in the gospels!
Remember what Jesus instructed his disciples to do, And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick (Lk 9:2)! And what did the disciples do? ... And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where (Lk 9:6).
Now this is exciting ... we who are true disciples of Jesus Christ are called to likewise minister to a hurting world. This may be close to where we grew up or in a land where the language is difficult, or both.
Over the past several years, when our paths would cross on the mission field or in our local church, many of us have visited about the opportunities and challenges of medical missions. Our desire to further this work prompted the discussion during the Apostolic Christian Medical Fellowship meeting last year in Chicago to request the formation of a Medical Committee under the jurisdiction of World Relief. A presentation on the need for a medical committee and the potential contributions thereof was given to the World Relief Board this past Saturday.
The World Relief Board has, as requested, charged the ACMF with implementation of a Medical Committee for provision of a professional foundation and guidance for our medical works teams, for quality assurance of provided services, and for evaluation of opportunities as they arise.
This provides us with an opportunity to facilitate combining the interest and enthusiasm that we have seen on work teams with a sound professional science-based approach. It also provides accountability, deadlines, and organization. The next World Relief Board meeting is scheduled in December and it would behoove us to have a committee with goals and objectives setup by that time.
The initial challenge will be to bring together a motivated group of medical professionals who are committed to providing quality medical care through the opportunities, current and future, provided through our Apostolic Christian World Relief. Initial search for these individuals will be via the Apostolic Christian Medical Fellowship email list. However, we also will need to reach out to pharmacist and therapists.
A tentative list of what the committee may look like is:
3 physicians (MD, DO)
2 (NP, PA, nurse educator)
1 pharmacist
1 PT or OT
2 dentist(s)
1 elder
1 non-medical person
Bro. Kent Heimer will either be, or provide, the elder for the committee. I am also willing to serve on the committee and can initially serve as a clearing house for correspondence. As one can imagine, there is a lot of work to do to get organized and up-and –running. After that, we will be focused on the opportunities of medical interest and can continue to make a difference serving others. I would envision we will want both experienced and recently (or currently) trained professionals, representing a broad array of specialties, practice arrangements, and geographic locations with interests in Haiti, Mexico, USA, and anywhere we’re needed.
So please, each and everyone of you who could invest yourselves in shaping, improving, & expanding our medical mission outreach step up to the task at hand. Also, please pass along the opportunity to other pharmacists and therapist who are interested and have participated in missions.
As soon have we have a significant number of potential committee members, we will arrange a meeting for working our the myriad of details such as terms, responsibilities, and goals & objectives.
serving together to His glory,
Lee
P.S. Please forward a copy of this to any pharmacist and physical &/or occupational therapist within our brotherhood (and any any additional physician or APN). If you also cc me, I will add them to the database.
Hasta!!!!!!!!!
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