The Test of Faith, A Missionary Journey

Hours of prayer and many small steps of faith over the past several years led up to the recent conference for Christian medical students and young doctors in Ukraine.  Often missionaries say, “What I thought I was going to do changed after our arrival on the mission field.”  Transforming the medical culture of Ukraine through medical students was not our initial plan.  As time passed God opened more and more doors with Christian medical students thirsting for direction regarding how they could express their faith and encourage one another.

Some of these doors were seemingly random opportunities to connect with students and young doctors, but in retrospect we can clearly see the hand of God preparing the way.  Every connection is important and provided the necessary links between different denominations, different cities, and different organizations that literally span the world that resulted in a successful conference.

These connections came from a willingness to meet with someone not knowing if or when there would ever be any possibility of cooperation.  Meeting with someone not knowing if I could clearly communicate with them.  Or maybe traveling somewhere that took me out of my comfort zone – riding on a bus or train not knowing all the details of knowing where I was going.  All these were small steps of faith and trust in what was not seen.

Our first trip to Ukraine was to Belgorod-Dinestrovski in 1999.  I met a pediatrician with a daughter.  This daughter now attends the Crimean State Medical Institution.  She came to the conference.

In the fall of 2006 Marianna met a woman at a retreat for Christian missionaries living in Ukraine.  This resulted in the presentation of the Saline Solution program to teach doctors how to share their faith in a city called Burdansk.  At this conference I met Rostyslav who Introduced me to James Tomlinson, an Englishman, who is the director of the Eurasian Region of the International Christian Medical Dental Association.  He in turn put me in touch with Dennis Gorenko, co-director of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship of Ukraine.  Also two students from Burdansk came to the conference.  

So in the Spring of 2006 I attended the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine’s annual meeting in Rivne.  There I met some young doctors from Chernivtsi.  In October of the same year  Ukraine Medical Outreach partnered with Caring Partners International to sponser a conference in Lutsk to teach how to develop an Early Intervention Program for children with disabilities.  A speech pathologist in Chernivtsi heard of this conference, found how to contact me and asked if I would hold a conference there.  We held a conference there on autism, an introduction to Biblical counseling and an introduction to Biblical healthcare in the Spring of 2007.  There were 8 students and young doctors from Chernivtsi at the conference as a result.

All of these were thin but vital threads God was weaving into a still not completed tapestry, yet more opportunities to trust in God.  In January of 2008 I met with Dennis Gorenko.  We developed a budget based on 65 people attending the conference including staff. Based on this educated guess, we determined how much money we would need to raise. Amazingly one Church responded with the whole sum.

About five weeks before the conference we learned the cost of the conference almost doubled due to the decreased value of the dollar and an inflation rate in Ukraine of almost 30%. Then we learned the two main speakers for the conference could not come, one from Belarus and one from Russia.  Next my assistant resigned to return home to care for her sick grandmother.

Events were rapidly spinning out of control.  I began to realize we planned in faith, but God planned from complete foreknowledge.  He knew exactly how much money we would need because He knew how many would attend.  One by one God provided for each of the challenges I faced.  The solutions did not depend upon my ability, but upon God’s.  He gave me the desire to make contacts within the Ukrainian medical system and now He was using these circumstances to increase my faith in Him.  He provided sufficient funds to meet all our needs.  He provided for two speakers from Lithuania plus the non-budgeted money to get them to Kyiv. 

Now we are looking at the possibility of a winter conference and several regional conferences.  Our only desire was to glorify God through medical ministry.  When we began we did not know what would happen or how it would happen, but now we clearly see the hand of God at work.

Reality for Young Ukrainian Physicians

Today I met with Vita, a very bright young Ukrainian physician who just finished his residency a year ago.  Our initial meeting was at the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine annual meeting about two years ago.  Then he was full of excitement for his profession and to serve his God through the practice of medicine.

 As we continued to catch up on what has transpired in each of our lives since then, it became obvious that he no longer practiced the profession it took him so long to learn.  He currently is the sales manager for a company dealing with dialysis machines.

I could not help wondering why this intelligent young doctor had to throw in the towel so early in his career.  He said, “It is impossible to make a living as a Christian doctor.”  He went on to describe how the paperwork was going to kill him.  The salary just did not allow him to support his family.  He just got married 2 1/2 months ago.

He was not complaining of the amount of paperwork even though everything is hand written but about being able to write the truth about his patients and their diagnoses.  Once again it was an issue of trust.  He said as a physician he does not know why any one would go to a doctor in this country.  In addition, he said the state of technology in this country does not enable you to make a diagnosis with any reliability.

The reality for young Ukrainian physicians is in this current system it does not take long before they just stop caring.

What is the answer?  Building Christian clinics and hospitals, evangelizing and discipling  health care professionals, modeling compassionate and competent care are all part of the solution.  I pray to God how long must your people suffer.

How to treat your patient!

Thomas Syndenham(1624-1689), a famous English Christian physician known for his work in describing the illnesses associated with Group A Streptococcal infections, described the proper role of physician’s regarding the care of their patients. 

Quote: It becomes every person who purposes to give himself to the care of others, seriously to consider the four following things: First, that he must one day give and account to the Supreme Judge of all the lives entrusted to his care.  Second, that all his skill and knowledge and energy, as they have been given him by God, so they should be exercised for His glory and the good of mankind, and not for mere gain or ambition.  Third, and not more beautifully than truly, let him reflect that he has undertaken the  care of no mean creature; for , in order that he may estimate the value, the greatness of the human race, the only begotten son of God became himself a man, and thus ennobled it with His divine dignity, and far more than this, died to redeem it.  And fourth, that the doctor being himself a mortal human being, should be diligent and tender in relieving his suffering patients, inasmuch as he himself must one day be a like sufferer.

It used to be a chicken!

As a medical missionary I no longer worry about payments from insurance companies. I pray I never did show too much concern for this aspect of medicine when I was in private practice. However, people are grateful when they receive care and want to show their appreciation. I am told doctors used to accept payment in chickens or potatoes in what we thought was a by-gone era.

Recently I saw a 9 month old with a cold who had kept his mom up one too many nights in a row. Now she was wondering if he might have an ear infection. They have a Ukrainian doctor but they rarely look into their patient’s ears, which is routine for visits in the USA. Why? First, Ukrainian pediatricians typically do not own an otoscope.   Second, this is the responsibility of the ENT doctor.

Well the child thankfully did not have an ear infection. The mother was so grateful about my seeing her child at the end of the visit she reached into her bag and pulled out a jar of Skippy peanut butter and a jar of cake icing. No it was not a chicken, but in Ukraine where you can not find good peanut butter or icing this was quite a treat and a sacrifice on the part of this thankful family.

Despair turns to Hope

Weekly I meet with a group of Ukrainian physicians who are believers but need lots of encouragement when working in a very oppressive environment.  In most countries physicians are taught a very man centered view of medicine.  If only we could discover the cure for this disease, man could live for ever.  Christian physicians often behave only as doctors Monday through Saturday and Christians on Sunday.  Of course, this is not always the case, but the medical system does not allow them to express there Christian opinions freely without ridicule.

This is especially true in Ukraine where for the past ninty years science and evolution were promoted as the true basis for the philosophy of medicine.  Not only were Christian ideas ridiculed but there were economic consequences for holding such beliefs as well.  Christians were not promoted.  If you shared your faith with your patients you were removed from your position.  Despite being an independent country with one of the highest levels of religious freedom in the post-Soviet era compared to other countries in the former Soviet bloc, things have not changed much in the medical sphere.  Christian physicians are the overwhelming minority, making up only a small percentage, 1 or 2 %.

In our weekly meeting we have been examining how the Great Physician dealt with patients.  Previously these same physicians have been taught  how to share there faith with there patients in a course called The Saline Solution.   We studied how compassionate Jesus was in caring for His patients, as He proclaimed and revealed the truth of their condition to them.  You could visibly see the anguish on some faces and the joy on others as they wrestled with how they could share their faith with sensitivity, permission, and respect within the time constraints every doctor faces.

We ended our time with prayer for God to work in the hearts of their colleagues and for them to be the most Christ-like physicians towards their patients.  May they make the most of every opportunity to be Christians first, who happen to be doctors, seven days a week.  May God use health care providers to relieve the despair we all felt once, providing an everlasting hope to their patients. 

A Sure Foundation

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Cor 3:10,11).

Every Wednesday evening I meet with a group of Christian physicians to build “A Sure Foundation” for healthcare in Ukraine. The expert builder or author is Dr. Patrick Pulliam.
The center of this study is Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. Despite being from different confessions we grab hold of the truth of Scripture and apply it to the practice of medicine. We become Bereans, searching for what is true about what we believe, being careful how we build placing each brick on a solid foundation.

Christian physicians are definitely in the minority in the medical workplace. They struggle with how to reach their colleagues and their patients in a system that is antagonistic to the Gospel. We pray for those doctors who are in authority in the Ukrainian medical system. May God soften their hearts and make them receptive to the truth that will bring healing to both body and soul, for themselves, their colleagues, their patients and their country.

Then and Now

If you were a medical missionary 100 years ago, you would have been sent to a far off country.  It would have taken weeks if not months to communicate with you.  Your task would have been to have compassion for the sick and dying, to care for people.  There would have been little in the way of treatment but much in the way of comfort and eternal hope.  There would have been little chance that you would see the shores of your homeland again.

Now you are able to reach any populated portion of the world within 24 hours, definitely 36.  You have any number of options to communicate with any one, any where, any time instantly.  Your task might involve hands on care, but you more than likely be involved in teaching and providing technology.  Everyone wants the technology to cure disease, so obtaining humanitarian aid and teaching new methods of treatment would help you build relationships with your colleagues in a foreign land in order to share the Gospel and advance God’s kingdom.

 Today was a remarkable day.  During my time in Ukraine I have developed relationships through out both Ukraine and the United States.  A few weeks ago I was asked to assist in obtaining heart surgery for a little one year old boy with complex congenital heart disease.  This child’s problems were so difficult that it was reccommended that he could only be helped in America.  I contacted my friend Dr. Stephen Daniels, who is now the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital-Denver.  We had trained together back in Cincinnati.  He connected me with Dr. Francois Lacour-Gayet, a cardiovascular surgeon and head of the Department of Surgery  at the same hospital.

We had previously arranged a calling time by e-mail.  It was 5 PM in Ukraine and 8 AM in Denver, CO.  We called using a laptop computer and a head set with microphone.  Despite thousands of miles our voices sounded as if next door.  The young 26 year old surgery resident assisted with some of the details with the computer.  Then he asked what is the purpose of this call and who will I be talking with.  There was instant recognition of the surgeon in the USA.  The resident was in awe saying, “I can’t believe I will shortly be chatting with one of the most famous pediatric heart surgeons in the world.”

We truly live in a global community.  Because of being born and trained as a physician in America, but now living in Ukraine God has given me an unique opportunity to serve both countries through the referrals I am asked to see.  Despite the technology and new treatments, I am still called upon to give true hope which is everlasting and can only be found in the Gospel.  Then and now are really not that much different, as it is writtenin Psalm 90, the days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  So let us give thanks to the one who truly heals, both body and soul,  providing us with all wisdom and knowledge for our future is in His hands. 

It is a Small World

How life changes and how small the world has become!  I never would have imagined when I was in medical school I would become an international physician.  Never would I have imagined I would feel like the whole United States would be my consultant base.  It really is just a variation of the “Good Ole Boy” system, only now we are linked by computer.   Today I have been in communication with Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Kyiv regarding patients I am caring for in Ukraine.  In the not so distant past missionaries were sent to far away places with many never returning home for various reasons.  Communication by what we now call “snail mail” took months.  We receive airmail in 7 to 10 days providing it is not the Christmas season.

Speaking of when I was in medical school, the last thing I would have thought about was being a missionary.  My next to last thoughts would have been about God himself.  God does have a way of grabbing a hold of you, enabling you to do things you neither desired to do or thought were even possible.  I thank Him for the gifts and talents He has given me as well as the opportunities to serve others and share the love He has lavished upon me and tell  of His wondrous deeds with the people of Ukraine, the United States and the rest of the world because of this technology.  The health needs of ordinary people allow me tell of the Great Physician using both word and deed. 

My Musings for your Amusement

During the past year I have witnessed how family and friends have been using this form of communication to pass on their thoughts for the day both serious and amusing.  I have been encouraged by these same friends to share what is occurring in my life.  As a medical missionary in Kyiv, Ukraine I want to share what God is doing in me and through me.  Now I am beginning another journey I never thought I would start.