In The Beginning....

I never planned to be a doctor. I never planned to be a missionary.
When I was 5, I wanted to be a jockey - the horse-riding kind. When I was 13, I thought I would be the next Stephen King.

It’s a little intimidating - meeting people who received their “call” to medical missions while I was entering poetry contests.

I began pursuing medicine in high school when it became apparent that writing fiction was not going to be my sole bread winning endeavor. I wanted to do emergency medicine. Then in college, there was my love affair with Forensic Pathology. Finally, in 2002, I discovered the two things that would form the pillars of my future: Ob/Gyn and medical missions.

It’s interesting to see how God works through the twists and turns of our lives- what seems to be the longest possible route - is exactly the road we needed to travel. And human plans and expectations are often not those of our Father.

Over the next 6 years, I studied medicine, entered Ob/Gyn residency and made medical missions a favorite “hobby.”

In February 2009, I went to Sudan. I often tell people that the trip changed my life. It’s not hyperbole. There are just things that happen sometimes and you KNOW - you know - that nothing can be the same. That was Sudan. Far away from home, in a land that time and man has forgotten and forsaken- I collided with fear, and hope, and suffering. I realized how we can smother and cover the grace of God with bells, whistles and technology, but out there - there was nothing... it was me, a patient, a prayer, the heat and the thirst. It was so easy to feel and see and hear the presence of God...all the time. Suddenly, medical missions was my purpose...it was on my mind nonstop...I was consumed with how I could do more...train to be better....make time for more travel. Names, faces and stories crept into my prayers and my dreams. In short, I was homesick for a land that was not mine.

I know how it feels too be called to do something. I wasn’t called at a young age. I haven’t always been the best role model, but I have been called. I don’t know what God has planned for me in 2 years or even 2 months. But if I continue to follow God’s call with obedience, no doubt the journey will be amazing!

"I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”- Isaiah 48:17

Sudan 2009- Koli
Koli was 23 years old and had 2 sons
She had a complete uterine prolapse, protruding outside the hymeneal ring
At first, her husband did not want her to have a hysterectomy because she
Had not yet given birth to a live female infant. After much prayer and discussion with her husband, he was able to understand that a hysterectomy was necessary for Koli’s longterm health. She traveled to Kijabe, Kenya, and had a vaginal hysterectomy and was doing well when we returned to the village in 2010.

 

Sudan 2010 – Wuno
6 years old
Adorable little girl with a history of a “bug bite” that got infected(?) and then was “cut” several times by local healer and others. She developed chronic osteomyleitis and was unable to bear weight when she found us, months later. She was taken to Kijabe Hospital and had multiple surgeries, grafts and antibiotics, but praise God! lived and maintained use of her leg. Her grandmother, who I believe was a loving Christian woman, stayed with her in Nairobi.