PreField

Greetings from Boone, North Carolina. We are in the midst of PreField Orientation here at Samaritan’s Purse HQ. We’ve heard from veteran missionaries, doctors, pastors, a psychologist, and the current and prior CEO of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. After a few moving days of stories from missionaries, we transitioned to an intensive 2 day ultrasounds course. Next week we have two days of security training followed by more lectures about life overseas, along with a more standard new employee orientation.

The best part of orientation is meeting the other post-residents. Its amazing getting to talk to other people that are in the exact same moment in their journey as we are. God has worked in so many amazing ways in the lives of everyone to bring them to this place. Even though we won’t end up working at the same hospital, or even in the same country as most of these people (there are two other families on team Kenya!), we are making life-long relationships here in Boone. There are two large families moving to a Pacific island, 4 groups moving to the desert of West Africa, including two single women, and several teams moving to Europe for language studies prior to starting their two year assignment in Africa. It turns out we are probably moving to the nicest area out of anybody. Clearly everyone here has heard God’s call for their lives. Uprooting your family to Africa is challenging, and has already caused us a fair bit of headache, but it would be more frustrating to ignore God’s call. We commiserate with Paul when he says “yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!” So we are among great company now, and are learning a lot both practically and spiritually about this journey on which we are about to embark.

It’s hard to compare this first week to anything I have done before. We have worship time in the morning, with corporate and small group prayer time. This part is reminiscent of church camp. We did lots of powerpoint with fill in the blank handouts, like undergrad. Meals remind me of my time in the youth group, with lots of people to talk to who understand Christian inside jokes. Ultrasound training was a medical school throwback to my modeling days (of my mitral valve, that is). There is the “new job” paperwork and HR stuff as well. But the lecture topics include how to cope with all your patients dying, how to ration medical supplies to the ones most likely to survive, the theology of dying, cross cultural communication, the psychology of transitions, moral injury, and the list goes on. All of the presenters have spent a considerable time on the mission field. They all have stories that bring tears to our eyes (and theirs). It seems, at the same time, that I have been preparing for this all my life, and that I am utterly unprepared. It is very clear that God’s grace and peace, along with your prayers, are the only chance we have of coping on the field. We do covet your prayers more and more each day as we hear from more missionaries and as we get closer to departure.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 

_{Philippians 4: 6-7}