I am currently a first year medical student studying at Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine. During my spring break this year, I embarked on my first Christian medical missions trip with CMDA’S Global Health Outreach (GHO) to serve the people of the Dominican Republic. Prior to leaving, my reasoning for going on this trip was to learn more about delivering medical care outside of the comfort of an affluent hospital setting, while learning to be a more culturally competent physician. I knew that the trip would have some sort of Christian focus, since it was arranged through a Christian organization. Since returning from this trip, I can say that God definitely showed me something more important: that he has called me to the field of medicine to not only provide physical healing, but even moreso, spiritual healing to my future patients.
Our GHO team consisted of wonderful practitioners and students from different walks of life, from all over the country. We partnered with a local Dominican church called Oasis, to set up a pop-up clinic at an elementary school in a poor city called Cotui, about 2 hours from the capital of Santo Domingo. Throughout the entire week that we were there, I got to meet amazing people, take vital signs for patients, and shadow incredibly faithful physicians who spoke to their patients about Christ. It was a very exciting and new experience for me to witness medicine practiced not only outside of an affluent US hospital, but actually in makeshift-medical setting. The medical care delivered ranged from treating simple URI’s and giving Albendazole for parasites, to performing minor surgeries on top of student desks pressed together. While the medical aspect was certainly a great learning experience,
God opened my eyes to something even greater: using medicine to witness to His lost people. Every single physician that I shadowed spoke to their patients about Jesus, not in a superficial way, but in a way that allowed the patient to reflect on the fate of their own souls. This is the first time that I have ever seen a physician talk to his or her patient directly about Christ, let alone, one of the few times I have ever seen anybody speak directly to a stranger about Christ outside of a church setting. While for some patients, these encounters may have just been a seed planted, for others, I was able to witness not only the physical healing by the physicians, but also the spiritual healing by God through the physicians. What I later found through discussion and sharing time is that these Christian physicians do not only talk about God and pray for their patients in a foreign country where nobody will give them a difficult time for it, rather, they implement these practices even with their own patients back at home. The way that these physicians live their lives have changed my perspective of what it means to be a physician for God. Being "His hands and feet" as a physician doesn't just stop at providing medical care, but also includes being a witness for Christ and making Him known. These are things I must remind myself as I continue on my journey to becoming a physician.
This trip has been a life-changing experience for me that has ignited a fire and a desire in me to go on many more trips in the future. My motivation to go is not because the people out in this world need me, or because I want to “be a good person”, rather, it is because God has given me the privilege to become a physical healer, so that I can reach his people in a spiritual way by proclaiming His name and glorifying Him.
Our GHO team consisted of wonderful practitioners and students from different walks of life, from all over the country. We partnered with a local Dominican church called Oasis, to set up a pop-up clinic at an elementary school in a poor city called Cotui, about 2 hours from the capital of Santo Domingo. Throughout the entire week that we were there, I got to meet amazing people, take vital signs for patients, and shadow incredibly faithful physicians who spoke to their patients about Christ. It was a very exciting and new experience for me to witness medicine practiced not only outside of an affluent US hospital, but actually in makeshift-medical setting. The medical care delivered ranged from treating simple URI’s and giving Albendazole for parasites, to performing minor surgeries on top of student desks pressed together. While the medical aspect was certainly a great learning experience,
God opened my eyes to something even greater: using medicine to witness to His lost people. Every single physician that I shadowed spoke to their patients about Jesus, not in a superficial way, but in a way that allowed the patient to reflect on the fate of their own souls. This is the first time that I have ever seen a physician talk to his or her patient directly about Christ, let alone, one of the few times I have ever seen anybody speak directly to a stranger about Christ outside of a church setting. While for some patients, these encounters may have just been a seed planted, for others, I was able to witness not only the physical healing by the physicians, but also the spiritual healing by God through the physicians. What I later found through discussion and sharing time is that these Christian physicians do not only talk about God and pray for their patients in a foreign country where nobody will give them a difficult time for it, rather, they implement these practices even with their own patients back at home. The way that these physicians live their lives have changed my perspective of what it means to be a physician for God. Being "His hands and feet" as a physician doesn't just stop at providing medical care, but also includes being a witness for Christ and making Him known. These are things I must remind myself as I continue on my journey to becoming a physician.
This trip has been a life-changing experience for me that has ignited a fire and a desire in me to go on many more trips in the future. My motivation to go is not because the people out in this world need me, or because I want to “be a good person”, rather, it is because God has given me the privilege to become a physical healer, so that I can reach his people in a spiritual way by proclaiming His name and glorifying Him.
