I joined 6 other Kansas Citians in a 8 hour drive to Louisville, KY to the Global Missions Health Conference held at Southeast Christian Church (aka Six Flags Over Jesus, per Dr Condra from Children's Mercy - no offense meant to anyone - but it IS a flippin' huge church). I don't even know how many thousands of people were at this conference - dozens of hour-long breakout sessions over topics like urban neighborhood transformation through community-based medical care, refugee health in Afghanistan, how to allocate limited resources in the mission field, how to be a medical missionary despite your student loans, community-based primary healthcare and how it reduces the under-five mortality rates in rural India, how to avoid dependence syndrome and promote sustainability in overseas medical projects.........
Yes, if your mind gets boggled just reading all of the above, imagine being completely immersed in it for 48 hours.
I loved every minute of it.
What was even better was the fact that every person in the conference, or at least the vast majority of them, were motivated by the fact that their relationship with a Compassionate Creator motivated them to work in transforming the spiritual and physical lives of people who are born in utter poverty in the darkest corners of the world - from Memphis, Tennessee to Kabul, Afghanistan.
High points -
- Meeting various relief workers who had been in Sudan and worked with my coworkers (the NGO world is really incredibly tiny)
- Listening to Dr Carl Taylor, Dr John Patrick, and Admiral Zeimer
- Hearing Dr Donlon speak about his work in inner city Memphis, providing low cost medical care to refugees and how his work positively impacted the development of skills the ministry workers later used in their long-term work in places like Somalia and Sudan
- Talking with the physician who will be leading the team to Afghanistan in May of which I will insha'allah be a member
- Receiving total confirmation from the Lord that - yes - Kansas City is where I want you to be right now; and yes - I am sending you to the mission field in the future; and yes - I want you to go back to school!!!
There were so many quotes, words of wisdom, practical resources, just information that was poured into me over the few days of the conference, I feel it's going to take me weeks to sort through it all and start applying towards my future and current work.
Maybe even just as incredible as all the speakers and lecturers was the group I went with. I cannot even begin to describe the comeraderie and unity of spirit in that group - despite our very diverse backgrounds and experiences, male and female, nurses and med student, frequent fliers and non-passport-holders, country music lovers and folk music lovers and rap music lovers (that becomes very crucial information when you are in a car for 8+ hours with someone!), Catholic and Protestant - it is amazing how the passion for the Lord and for his people joins such diverse people together, and how much you learn and grow when you open yourself up to new experiences and new friends. I loved it!!!!! :)
Needless to say, I am terribly excited about what God has for me. I have no idea what I'll be doing in 6 months, where I'll be living, if I'll still be a "night owl" or not, but I just long so much to draw closer to God and see him take me down an incredible path of faith.
Let's rock 'n' roll!!!!
