Participants: Gary Krause (Host)
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS000902A
|
00:09 The San Antonio River walk is one of the most popular
00:12 tourist destinations in all of Texas. 00:15 Just 20 feet below street level, 00:17 it's like a different world down here. 00:19 The sights and sounds of San Antonio 00:21 and much more coming up next on "Global Mission Snapshots." 00:30 Just before He went up to heaven, 00:33 Jesus gave us a command. 00:36 He gave us a mission. 00:39 Jesus said, "Go" "Go unto all the world." 00:44 Telling them of His love. 00:46 This is our mission. 00:48 This is our Global Mission." 00:56 Hello and welcome to today's program. 00:58 I am Gary Krause. 01:00 The San Antonio River walk is a network of path ways 01:04 in downtown San Antonio, that makes its way 01:07 along the banks of the San Antonio river. 01:10 It's a beautiful area where tourists love to come 01:12 and just walk 01:14 and this river walk goes under bridges, 01:16 around buildings, through streets, 01:18 connecting and intersecting the community. 01:21 And for me that's a wonderful metaphor of the Christian life 01:24 because we too are called to connect and intersect 01:27 with our communities just like Jesus did. 01:30 On today's program 01:32 we will meet a young missionary doctor, 01:34 who has been fighting Ebola in West Africa. 01:37 We'll also talk with Doctor Richard Hart 01:39 the president of Loma Linda University, 01:42 which supports medical work around the world 01:44 particularly in very needy areas. 01:47 But first up, let's visit some Waldensian students 01:51 making a difference in the Middle East. 01:55 We are here in the Waldensian Valleys 01:56 in Northern Italy. 01:58 It's so incredible to be in such a historic place. 02:02 Ellen white herself visited here on numerous occasions 02:05 and she wrote that it was "here, 02:07 the light of truth was kept burning, 02:09 amid the darkness of Middle Ages." 02:15 I'm privileged to be at one of the caves, 02:17 where Waldensian people used to come 02:19 and worshipped in secret. 02:20 For centuries these mountains where home to Waldenses, 02:24 who's simple faith in God and the Bible 02:27 endured through horrible hardship and prosecution, 02:30 freezing winters, sheltering in rough caves 02:33 and witnessing the massacre of friends and family. 02:38 One of the reasons why Waldensian were prosecuted 02:42 is well, because they couldn't keep 02:43 the good news of gospel to themselves. 02:46 They felt that God required more of them, 02:48 than to just simply just preserve truth in its purity 02:52 in their own churches, 02:54 that a solemn responsibility rested upon them, 02:57 to let their light shine forth to those who are in darkness. 03:03 This is the old school where young Waldenses 03:06 came to receive training as missionaries 03:08 and then they were sent out as students 03:10 to many universities in Italy and France. 03:13 Their clothes had secret compartments 03:16 where they could hide precious manuscripts, 03:18 portions of scripture, 03:20 that where the results of months even years of toil 03:24 and when it was safe 03:25 they shared those precious pages 03:27 with the people they met. 03:33 Today, in Middle East and North Africa union 03:36 Adventist young people are going out 03:38 as modern day Waldensian students. 03:41 They attend universities in areas where it is not easy 03:45 or not possible to preach the gospel. 03:47 They mingle, they make friends and when possible, 03:51 they share their faith. 03:53 These students come from all over the world. 03:56 They learn the local language they can study 03:58 but it also helps them to share. 04:01 Sam talked with some of these modern day Waldensian students 04:05 and because of where they're working 04:06 their identities will remain hidden. 04:12 We go to universities and meet students 04:15 and we share about gospel. 04:18 So your primary purpose is to study or to meet people. 04:23 Meet people, study is second thing. 04:27 So you're like a secret agent. Kind of. 04:30 Okay, so you're there to specifically try and mingle 04:34 and mix with people and how has that been for you, 04:37 has it been easy to try and connect with people? 04:41 Of course, first time not easy but always when we ask God 04:48 we want to meet friend and you know, 04:52 this is not our work, this is heaven's work, 04:55 so you have responsibility to meet people, 05:01 when we pray God, 05:04 He'll always give us some friends. 05:07 Right, right. 05:08 I've got some opportunities but people come-- 05:12 usually people come and ask 05:14 because they are curious, I see. 05:17 I'm thinking of one friend in particular. 05:20 We were sitting and in class one day, 05:23 the teacher was absent for being sick 05:25 and so we are just studying 05:27 and we struck up a conversation together. 05:30 She told me that she has been seeking 05:33 to understand God better. 05:34 I shared with her that, 05:36 the best way that I've been able to understand God 05:39 was to look at Jesus 05:41 and to see His love and compassion. 05:45 At the end he asked me, "Do you have a Bible?" 05:50 He asked you for Bible? 05:51 Yes, he asked me and I got one 05:53 and I put some verse in the Bible about Jesus 06:00 and I gave the Bible. 06:02 We went to-- in this Mall Street in the night 06:04 and the last day I gave the Bible 06:06 because he was soldier. 06:09 This is like a scene out of the Bible 06:10 like your Nicodemus coming by night; 06:12 this is like OO Agent stuff. 06:14 It's exciting. 06:15 Yes, and I was little bit afraid 06:18 because he was a soldier, 06:19 he was my friend but you'll never know. 06:22 So that why I always ask God. 06:25 And when you ask God? 06:27 Please help this friends open eyes to you. 06:31 Is there something that we need to do more? 06:34 Yes, of course, 06:35 when I was there I was thinking, 06:37 oh, the church, they need to send more people, 06:40 we need more help. 06:42 There's a lot people there that they want to listen more, 06:44 love Jesus really and-- but there's no people. 06:48 He cares individually about each of us. 06:50 I firmly believe that He is already 06:53 powerfully working in this country 06:54 before I ever set foot there 06:56 before anyone else has ever come. 07:04 I'm delighted to introduce to you, 07:06 Doctor Gillian Seaton 07:08 who is one of the infection control directors 07:10 at SDA Cooper hospital in Liberia in West Africa. 07:14 Thanks, Gillian. You're welcome. 07:15 You know, over the past several months, 07:18 the whole world has been focusing on a country 07:20 which many people had never even heard of before, 07:24 Liberia with Ebola, we use the word crisis, 07:27 and I guess, it was a crisis, 07:29 I mean, can you just describe for me, 07:31 what it was like living in Liberia during that time. 07:35 It was a bit of chaos and a bit of a same old story 07:40 of something going wrong without the resources to fix it 07:44 that happens very often. 07:46 Unfortunately, this was an outbreak 07:48 that you would only think about in terms of Hollywood, 07:50 the drama, the danger, etc., etc. 07:53 It was a bit unreal through the whole crisis actually. 07:58 It was difficult to watch others 08:04 struggle with the fear of diseases, 08:05 you know, I like to think that I understand 08:07 that the science behind the disease, 08:09 that the risk of contact etc. but for most Africans, 08:13 they don't really understand germs and viruses 08:15 and what that means to them in terms of the risk. 08:17 So you have this significant threat without actually being-- 08:21 something you could focus the blame or the anger on. 08:24 You just have this thing that's happening to you, 08:26 in your family, in your community. 08:27 And it was so wide spread 08:29 so far reaching that not many individuals 08:31 escaped some grief. 08:34 Most of our workers had family or friends 08:36 that died of the disease. 08:37 The medical community was decimated, 08:40 doctors, nurses, aids, cleaners 08:43 so many people died due to exposures. 08:45 Even security officers of the hospitals, 08:47 would often lend a hand to help patients in and out, 08:50 take care of them, 08:51 where all sort of significantly had risk of that, 08:53 without really understanding how there were getting it. 08:55 And so it was this huge struggle with education, 08:57 distribution of resources to help, 08:59 even just a pair of gloves can make a world of difference 09:01 in terms of your exposure risk. 09:03 But those were not routinely distributed 09:06 to hospitals and clinics and so they were facing 09:08 this out break without any training, 09:09 without any of those basic resources 09:11 that we take for granted here in US. 09:14 And so it was just massive struggle to try to get people 09:17 to continue in their life saving capacities 09:20 and yet not put their lives at such high risk 09:23 as well as their family lives 09:24 because if one person become sick 09:26 the entire family is likely to be exposed. 09:30 It wiped out whole villages, whole families, you know. 09:34 One family member might survive 09:37 but then there are neighbors, there are carpenters, 09:39 their extended family were all be at risk 09:41 of getting the disease. 09:43 There is a lot of denial, 09:44 the first three to five months of the outbreak 09:47 that people didn't want to believe Ebola really exist 09:49 and it was a conspiracy of from the government 09:51 to get money from the West. 09:52 It was a curse, it was-- people stealing bodies 09:56 for spiritual rituals in face of politics 09:59 and soon to be elections. 10:03 That was difficult because people didn't want to believe 10:05 that they could get this disease 10:07 by helping someone else 10:08 and so they would go and reach to the family members 10:11 take care of them, 10:12 without any protective equipment 10:13 or soap or chlorine to wash their hands with 10:15 and so the disease spread further 10:17 and further and further. 10:19 For me, I felt like I can understand the risk 10:21 and so I can take calculated risks 10:25 or take measures to protect myself. 10:27 But everybody else didn't really have that assurance, 10:30 and so for them it was hard 10:32 to watch them go through that fear 10:33 and answer that fear 10:35 and really put their lives on the line. 10:36 Their bravery in the phase of all this 10:38 was pretty profound. 10:39 Yeah, now during this time, 10:42 what were your working hours like? 10:46 They escalated pretty rapidly. 10:49 We struggled with the idea of whether we would close 10:51 or stay open in the phase of the crisis, 10:54 be it some more people who are willing to risk, 10:56 we decided to stay open 10:57 but be a non Ebola treatment center 11:00 and that mean we treat malaria and strokes 11:02 and traumas and other things 11:05 that might come up on a day-to-day basis, 11:08 most of the other hospitals in the country closed 11:11 and that meant that we were 11:13 the one of the that few facilities 11:14 that were actually had normal capacity, capabilities. 11:17 So operating room, 11:19 the laboratory and things like that. 11:20 So the only reason I didn't work 24 hours a day 11:23 is that the President enacted in 9 p.m. curfew, 11:25 which people couldn't get transport to the hospital. 11:27 They'd have to wait till next morning. 11:28 So generally until about 8:30, 9 o' clock 11:31 we would be treating patients as fast as we could 11:34 and then at 9 'o' clock things would slow down 11:35 then the only thing we have to worry about overnight 11:37 was it'll be emergencies 11:38 that maybe we'd already admitted 11:40 and still had to deal with. 11:41 And that was exhausting very quickly 11:44 but the curfew alone saved us from sheer burnout. 11:49 Now talking about burnout beforehand you were telling me, 11:52 how many days you work straight without a break. 11:54 Well, I was very lucky in the sense 11:57 that Loma Lindan HI 11:58 contacted some of the previous more experienced doctors 12:02 to come and help and we had three volunteers 12:04 that had previously worked in Africa, 12:06 James Appel, Greg Saunders and Greg Shank, 12:09 and they all provided significant relief for me. 12:12 We were generally so busy when they were there 12:14 that took both of us working as fast as we could 12:15 to manage the issues. 12:18 And then after that 12:19 we actually had a volunteer intern 12:22 come over for three months. 12:23 And her work was profoundly appreciated, 12:25 she took our lot of infectious control, contact with NGOs, 12:28 that were coming in to help and things like that. 12:30 But as she didn't had full training yet, 12:34 she'd basically did out patient in clinic work 12:36 and I took care of the in patients, 12:37 which meant that I was on for 70, 80 days work in a row. 12:40 Unbelievable. 12:42 Yeah, So how does a doctor 12:45 trained at Loma Linda end up working there, 12:48 why not just set up practice here in United States? 12:51 Well, there are certain disadvantages working there 12:53 in the United States. 12:54 Malpractice being one of them. 12:55 Medicare, documentation, 12:58 there is a lot of work without necessarily 13:02 an equal distribution of payment for doctors. 13:05 which is bit of the struggle 13:07 because you get paid a healthy salary, 13:08 which is not necessarily 13:09 reflective of the hours you work. 13:11 But why Mission service? 13:13 Because I felt like that was a way that I could work 13:15 the same amount of hours and get paid less. 13:21 But I wanted my work to mean something directly 13:24 not that helping people in this country 13:26 is less rewarding than it is other places, 13:28 but these are low resource areas, 13:30 especially, in terms of surgical care 13:32 and I'm willing to provide that. 13:34 So why wouldn't I go to those kind of scenarios. 13:36 And the rewards are definitely outweigh 13:39 the disadvantages in my mind. 13:40 Fantastic, well, Gillian, thank you so much 13:43 for what you have done 13:44 for the people of Africa for Mission services, 13:46 just quickly for anyone 13:48 considering being a missionary doctor, 13:49 recommend or not? 13:51 Absolutely, but I think the key 13:53 for any job that you pick in life 13:55 is that you're sure that's what you want. 13:57 All right, one doctor gave me advise, 13:59 if you can imagine yourself happy doing anything else, 14:01 do that other thing. 14:03 And I would say that it's true for this too, 14:04 when you certain you are, where you supposed to be 14:07 then it makes handling all the challenges doable. 14:10 When you are sure that God called you to be 14:12 a certain type of person or certain of professional, 14:15 certain type of missionary, 14:16 then you can handle what comes. 14:19 So I think it's just a matter of an individual making 14:22 that choice yourself, 14:24 certainly made my life survivable, 14:26 is that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt 14:29 that God wanted me in Liberia for whatever reason. 14:32 He lead, clearly lead me in that direction 14:34 and so that meant obviously, 14:36 I was supposed to be there during Ebola, 14:39 for a while now afterwards. 14:40 So we'll see what he has next. 14:42 Fantastic. 14:43 Thank you so much for sharing with us. 14:45 Sure. 14:46 We'll be right back straight after this break. |
Revised 2015-11-16