Memories from my first airplane flights are really more emotions rekindled than events remembered. I recall the magical feeling of lifting off the pavement, of seeing the clouds up close, and then the first bump of turbulence. The bumps didn’t bother me at first. But as the speed of the airplane increased, the jolts became more frequent. I tightened my seat belt against the growing nausea in my stomach. The flight attendant offered me some peanuts. No thank you! I tried to rest my head back, but it only seemed to increase my queasiness.
Just when I felt as though I would hurl, an experienced flyer noticed my distress. Without my asking, he leaned over and whispered in earnest, “Just focus on the horizon in the distance!” I made a skeptical reply, but none-the-less turned my eyes to the skyline ahead of the aircraft. It continued to pitch in the unstable air, knocking glasses, magazines and an occasional passenger to the floor. Still, I kept my gaze in the direction we were flying. After a few moments, my nausea began to subside.
Around me, other people were still grasping their air sickness bags and holding their stomachs. But the pangs of illness with in my body had given way to a growing fascination with the scenery ahead. I could make out mountains and towns and lakes. How quickly we were closing in on our destination! But I would have never recognized we were progressing, nor driven away the motion sickness, until I focused on the distant goal.
The parallels between my flights and the first year of INMED are remarkable. In early 2004, the Institute for International Medicine was only a distant objective shared by my self and a few colleagues. We charted a course, invested heavily to purchase the tickets, left our jobs, and took off.
The initial phase of INMED’s flight was marvelous: our first international medicine seminar, our first donations received, and our first students going overseas to Honduras and Ghana. But then came some bumps: financial limitations and prolonged hours of administration. Personally, I experienced an occasional nauseating pang accompanied by the thought I should have just stayed on the ground.
“Hold on course!” my mentors encouraged. “Where will the next generation of medical missionaries come from? How will young doctors catch the vision for missions unless they actually experience it?” On this theme, my thoughts frequently turn to the new, 80 bed Lubango Evangelical Medical Center (CEML) in Lubango, Angola. Conceived by Steve Foster, MD, and financed through Samaritan’s Purse, CEML will be a beacon of hope for the impoverished city when it opens this summer.
But the heart of any ministry is not in its facility, but it’s people. CEML has but one, occasionally two physicians to serve the thousands who will seek assistance. Foster described the shortage succinctly. “In November we did 32 surgical cases in 3 days. One 16 yr old gal from Chicuma went in to labor 5 days before coming to the hospital. When she arrived the baby was dead, squashed into a vaginal canal. I managed to get the baby out, but the gal promptly went into septic shock. Only massive doses of IV fluids and antibiotics brought her round. By the second day she was hungry and wondering what happened to her. Without a doctor present she wouldn’t have made it. Even a well-trained Angolan nurse doesn’t understand septic shock well enough to manage these cases. So keep telling the message. We need another doctor or two!”
Perhaps one of Angola’s new doctors will come from the ranks of INMED graduates. Chrissy Vandillen, a medical student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, spent the month of November, 2004, at the Nilerigu Baptist Medical Center on the edge of the Sahara Desert working with an experienced medical missionary, George Faile. Of her experience Chrissy wrote, “Working in Ghana changed my life. My mentors were Christian physicians who treated patients the best they could, even if that meant being on call every night and not eating for an entire day. Most people just ignore those on the other side of the world dying of diseases that could be easily treated – yet these physicians chose to serve. Their example helped strengthen my own faith in God. I would now like to work in a developing nation to help those who are less fortunate.”
Testimonies like these are powerful antidotes for the inevitable gyrations that have accompanied the launch on INMED into flight. Words and messages of encouragement from my friends and coworkers are also particularly inspiring to me. Please keep these coming! And to everyone who has charted a commendable journey, remember that bumps are inevitable. Together let’s keep our eyes focused on the horizon and hold on the course