Medical missions appears to be extremely challenging and will involve a lifetime of learning. It avails the opportunity to see many broken bodies, but also broken spirits. It will allow us to study the body that God made and to see that all of medicine points to the creator. Through medical missions, with each patient, we will get to see the image of God.

The international medical learning experience will drastically change our perspective on medical care and ministry. A valuable aspect of working in underserved areas will be the opportunity to experience first-hand what we have only encountered through lectures and reading articles on how health care in a developing nation operates. We will see how a medical system maintains health amidst great poverty. Given the number of patients that are seen each year, most hospitals need to carefully allocate their resources. In fact, we have heard from other physicians working abroad, that after being in underserved areas, one might think that the way medicine is practiced in the U.S. is excessive. To these areas overseas, we plan to bring medical supplies donated by area hospitals.

Through medical missions, we will care for people in several regions of the world that many do not encounter in the west. Some patients end up presenting to the hospital much later than they should, due to lack of knowledge or earlier attempts at alternative treatments. We will encounter grave illnesses because some of the foreign hospitals and clinics have high mortality rates. Furthermore, there are many practices routine in these areas that would not be acceptable by U.S. standards. Disposal of sharps, waste, gowning, and gloving may or may not be present as a standard. On the other hand, in certain areas there will be wealth and access to excellent health care. It will be a learning experience to view the contrasts. In areas of prosperity, there may be an increase in the citizens’ propensity for acquiring similar diseases to those seen in western societies, such as hypertension, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Through the medical missions trip, we desire to improve our Spanish-speaking skills as we travel to Bolivia. One major national shift is that many Latin-Americans are immigrating to the United States. In clinics around the nation, there is a strong need to be bilingual and culturally sensitive to the needs of Latin-American populations. Similarly, there is a need to be multilingual and adjust to new cross-cultural contexts. Learning Spanish clinical vocabulary is a very practical and important skill to acquire in the context of medical missions. During the intended trip to Bolivia, we will be immersed into a Spanish-speaking culture and will have many medical ministry experiences. In addition to the medical experiences, we will be taking an intensive Spanish language course with individualized one-on-one training.

We believe this medical missions experience will provide us with exposure to new challenges and cross-cultural training experiences.  Secondly, it will develop our medical skills with less reliance on modern technology.  Third, it will provide a cross-cultural medical experience beyond what is possible in the US. Most importantly, we will get to see God work through medicine. We embrace the imagery of God being the potter and we as the clay. All that we are, including any skills gained through medicine can be molded for His purpose. In light of this, we eagerly anticipate this trip as the beginning of future long-term service in medical missions.