After a mere nine months, it's time for the next post on this blog! Our hope is to use this as a reliable means of communication and updates. Ergo, new posts are soon to follow!
We have now become missionaries with an organization called Global Outreach (GO). GO is a non-denominational sending agency that exists to facilitate getting missionaries to wherever the Lord is leading them. GO does not maintain its own projects or ministries under its own institutional name so it does not dictate to its missionaries where they are to go or what they are to do. Obviously, they remain vigilant to be sure all of its missionaries and their activities are consistent with GO's beliefs and standards. We have been very impressed with their integrity and devotion to the Gospel and are happy for their help and accountability.
Becca and I have now started the process of support raising for Ethiopia. If you are reading this, you have probably already received a letter from us. I wanted to give a brief explanation of how we are going about all of this. The first letter was an introduction, intended to share just the basics and let you all know that the time of departure is approaching! Over the next nine to ten weeks, we will be getting in touch with each person in order to share the details of what God has laid on our hearts. We know you all have busy schedules and we want to honor them. While letters are helpful, we do want to share face to face with you, if possible, or at least on the phone, if not.
KEY POINT OF POST:
As a typical, prideful American, I am fearful and leery of the whole idea of asking people for money. As a Christian, though, I must move beyond that and try to explain our process. We feel God is leading us to leave our jobs and move our family to Africa. There we will be ministering to the needs of the people of Soddo, Ethiopia, through the avenues of surgery and other medical care, nutrition and evangelism. In addition, we will be involved with discipling and training African doctors to become surgeons so that they too can carry on the ministry of Christ across Africa. If this is to succeed, there are many needs that must be met. This will include God's blessing and grace, consistent and persistent prayer, the relational and emotional support of family and friends, and funding. We are absolutely confident that God is faithful to provide those needs. As we discuss these needs with you, please understand that we wish only for God's will and direction in all this. As we head into this ministry, we want to invite you into it, as active and necessary participants. That is, we want you to be a part of it, an owner of it. Therefore we want to point not to ourselves but God in heaven as we share with you. Please pray that He would lead you to a "yes" or "no" about this, and then obey! Again, we are confident that God will provide, so please do not worry if the answer is "no".
We look forward to meeting with you and sharing with you!
In service of the King,
Paul and Becca Gray
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Introduction
Hello, all!
We are Paul and Rebecca Gray. This blog has been created to serve as an informational platform to share what God is doing in our lives and, hopefully, in doing so, encourage you in your own life by pointing to the source of our joy, Jesus Christ.
I am completing my last year as a resident in general surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Becca is a dietician, also at Baylor, serving in the trauma department. We feel God has called us to serve as career medical missionaries and are making plans to serve in Africa. Here in America it is difficult to imagine the experience of having a illness that requires surgery and yet having no chance of seeing a surgeon. Yet this is the reality for most people in third world countries. In Africa's best served countries (excluding South Africa), there are only one surgeon for each 250,000 people! In its worst served countries, there are only one surgeon per 1 million people! Furthermore, even if medical care is nearby, there is no chance of receiving help unless you are fortunate enough to have money to pay for these services. Most do not. Therefore, mission hospital represent the vast majority of medical care for most people in these countries.
How can one surgeon ever make a difference in this setting? As one of my attending surgeons argued to me, it's like peeing in the ocean! (I don't think "pee" was the word he used, but you get the idea.) First, God has never demanded that we help the entire world's problems. We are to love and care for our "neighbor" (Luke 10:25-37), that is, the person before us. We are only responsible for the people God brings into our lives, so Becca and I are content to help whatever people we can. Second, there now exists a unique opportunity in Africa to share our lives in an expanding way. There is a saying that states if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but if you teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. The Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) is an international organization dedicated to developing quality training programs in general surgery at Christian hospitals in Africa, and to assuring a high level of professional competence among its members.
How about some algebra! Instead of spending a career treating x number of patients, we can treat those patients while training y number of residents, who will each then go out and treat x number of patients in their lifetimes. For you math folks out there, that's a total of x times y patients! Now, let's really get crazy. If z number of those residents then go on to become attending surgeons and train y number of residents themselves, who each will then treat x number of patients, that leads to (x times y) raised to the z'th power number of patients impacted by one career spent with PAACS! Granted, there are multiple unaccounted for variables that will slightly skew this computation, and I'm clearly slightly weird, but I think you get the idea. PAACS is currently training African surgeons at four mission hospital across Africa and will likely soon expand to two more. In addition to serving the sick of Africa, we want to be involved with teaching and mentoring these African residents as they learn to serve Christ in mission hospitals and operating rooms across Africa.
One of these hospitals is Soddo Christian Hospital in Soddo, Ethiopia. Dr. Duane Anderson, an orthopedic surgeon from Minnesota, is currently serving as the interim program director and there are five residents training there. The program is in need of a long term general surgeon to serve as the program director and Becca and I are prayerfully considering offering ourselves to fill that post. Here's where we are at.
I will be working with the trauma department at Baylor for about one year after I graduate in June, 2007, to complete my board certification and pay off my student loan debt. This will also allow me to gain experience as an independent surgeon, taking care of the wide variety of patients in the trauma and urgent surgery settings. In addition, during the intervening time, we will be raising prayer and financial support to go to Ethiopia long term.
One of the purposes of this blog, as mentioned before, is to share what God is doing in our lives. We are the branches and Christ is the vine; we are completely dependent upon Him. If I am the finest surgeon in the world but have not the guiding and strength of Christ in my service to Him, I will utterly fail in Africa. We will desparately need your prayers! My hope is that this web site would serve as a generic update to keep you all informed of what is going on, to enable your prayers to be specific. This is merely to supplement our personal correspondence with you, however! We want to hear from you and share personally with you. Please feel free to email us at anytime!
For more information about PAACS or Soddo, please the web links on this site. I've also included a power point presentation I gave at a grand rounds at Baylor regarding a month we spent with Dr. David Thompson at Bongolo Evangelical Hospital, Gabon. Dr. Thompson is the field director of PAACS and was instrumental in its inception. Bongolo, a hospital with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, was the first training site for PAACS. Beware, however, some of the pictures are not for the faint of heart!
God bless you!
In service of the King,
Paul and Becca Gray
We are Paul and Rebecca Gray. This blog has been created to serve as an informational platform to share what God is doing in our lives and, hopefully, in doing so, encourage you in your own life by pointing to the source of our joy, Jesus Christ.
I am completing my last year as a resident in general surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Becca is a dietician, also at Baylor, serving in the trauma department. We feel God has called us to serve as career medical missionaries and are making plans to serve in Africa. Here in America it is difficult to imagine the experience of having a illness that requires surgery and yet having no chance of seeing a surgeon. Yet this is the reality for most people in third world countries. In Africa's best served countries (excluding South Africa), there are only one surgeon for each 250,000 people! In its worst served countries, there are only one surgeon per 1 million people! Furthermore, even if medical care is nearby, there is no chance of receiving help unless you are fortunate enough to have money to pay for these services. Most do not. Therefore, mission hospital represent the vast majority of medical care for most people in these countries.
How can one surgeon ever make a difference in this setting? As one of my attending surgeons argued to me, it's like peeing in the ocean! (I don't think "pee" was the word he used, but you get the idea.) First, God has never demanded that we help the entire world's problems. We are to love and care for our "neighbor" (Luke 10:25-37), that is, the person before us. We are only responsible for the people God brings into our lives, so Becca and I are content to help whatever people we can. Second, there now exists a unique opportunity in Africa to share our lives in an expanding way. There is a saying that states if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but if you teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. The Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) is an international organization dedicated to developing quality training programs in general surgery at Christian hospitals in Africa, and to assuring a high level of professional competence among its members.
How about some algebra! Instead of spending a career treating x number of patients, we can treat those patients while training y number of residents, who will each then go out and treat x number of patients in their lifetimes. For you math folks out there, that's a total of x times y patients! Now, let's really get crazy. If z number of those residents then go on to become attending surgeons and train y number of residents themselves, who each will then treat x number of patients, that leads to (x times y) raised to the z'th power number of patients impacted by one career spent with PAACS! Granted, there are multiple unaccounted for variables that will slightly skew this computation, and I'm clearly slightly weird, but I think you get the idea. PAACS is currently training African surgeons at four mission hospital across Africa and will likely soon expand to two more. In addition to serving the sick of Africa, we want to be involved with teaching and mentoring these African residents as they learn to serve Christ in mission hospitals and operating rooms across Africa.
One of these hospitals is Soddo Christian Hospital in Soddo, Ethiopia. Dr. Duane Anderson, an orthopedic surgeon from Minnesota, is currently serving as the interim program director and there are five residents training there. The program is in need of a long term general surgeon to serve as the program director and Becca and I are prayerfully considering offering ourselves to fill that post. Here's where we are at.
I will be working with the trauma department at Baylor for about one year after I graduate in June, 2007, to complete my board certification and pay off my student loan debt. This will also allow me to gain experience as an independent surgeon, taking care of the wide variety of patients in the trauma and urgent surgery settings. In addition, during the intervening time, we will be raising prayer and financial support to go to Ethiopia long term.
One of the purposes of this blog, as mentioned before, is to share what God is doing in our lives. We are the branches and Christ is the vine; we are completely dependent upon Him. If I am the finest surgeon in the world but have not the guiding and strength of Christ in my service to Him, I will utterly fail in Africa. We will desparately need your prayers! My hope is that this web site would serve as a generic update to keep you all informed of what is going on, to enable your prayers to be specific. This is merely to supplement our personal correspondence with you, however! We want to hear from you and share personally with you. Please feel free to email us at anytime!
For more information about PAACS or Soddo, please the web links on this site. I've also included a power point presentation I gave at a grand rounds at Baylor regarding a month we spent with Dr. David Thompson at Bongolo Evangelical Hospital, Gabon. Dr. Thompson is the field director of PAACS and was instrumental in its inception. Bongolo, a hospital with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, was the first training site for PAACS. Beware, however, some of the pictures are not for the faint of heart!
God bless you!
In service of the King,
Paul and Becca Gray
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