Self-supporting Medical Work
C. J. McCLEARY, M.D.: Director, Clinica y Hospital Adventista, Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, C.A.
There are many places on this sin-sick globe where self-supporting medical work could be successfully carried on. There are also many faithful C.M.E. alumni who would be willing to go to a self-supporting field if these needs were presented to them in the proper light.
To bring a doctor to a needy field presents a number of problems. Most of these problems might be solved by those interested with careful study and an earnest desire to establish the right arm of the message in mission lands. This is in harmony with the counsels of the Spirit of prophecy.
A Fundamental Need
Wherever possible every division and union conference should avail itself of the services of a medical secretary. Aside from the secretary's other duties he could devote time to investigation of his field for possible development of self-supporting medical units. Fields suggested for self-supporting work should be studied by one who is familiar with medicine and the economics of medicine as well. Personal investigation of a prospective field by a fellow practitioner should be carried out, and a carefully prepared report should be given to the appointee in question and to the field concerned. This will probably be necessary if a successful self-supporting work is to be established. The medical secretary could be continually on the alert for openings where our medical graduates are needed and wanted. Many times this may prove an opening to an otherwise closed field.
The Small Institution
It is always better to settle where one is really needed and not be just a competitor of a practitioner of equal training. If the field ap pears sufficiently lucrative, this need not be a weighty factor.
I do not see how a mission post could be so primitive that our graduates would need to practice without some hospital facilities. This does not mean that one needs to set forth immediately with plans for construction of a forty- or fifty-bed structure. Buildings already present may be rented and temporarily converted to hospital use at a low cost. They could be utilized for a while until a small unit could be constructed. Perhaps public hospital facilities could be had in large cities in mission lands. However, hospital facilities will always be necessary. To start cautiously is wisdom. A twenty-bed or even a ten-bed hospital will suffice until it is evident that the income would permit construction of a larger hospital. / am inclined to believe that more people would be reached and more- work could be accomplished if we had ten 12-bed hospitals in ten different locations than one 120-bed hospital in one location.
These small units should be made attractive and inviting. If they are established in a tropical climate, there should be a wide, spacious veranda facing a direction from which the wind is most likely to give a continuous breeze. Here in Nicaragua we are on the east coast. Our hospital faces the shores of the blue Caribbean Sea. We have a continual breeze, and thus we utilize its cooling effect. Our screened-in porch is wide and roomy and made attractive with ferns, hanging vines, chrome nonrust furniture, and chaise longues for the patients' convenience. We have soft music playing during meals, this music being records of the Voice of Prophecy and tape recordings of music from the last General Conference session. We have an amplifying system to broadcast the music throughout the building. Our hospital rooms have colorful draperies at the windows and Venetian blinds to keep out the bright glare of tropical sunlight. Bright pictures are on the walls. This clublike atmosphere makes our lounge porch a favorite place for town officials and government men to come to relax and visit. These restful and comfortable surroundings are needed to offset the monotony of the tropical climate. We have created a feeling among the "visitors that our Seventh-day Adventist medical work is not ordinary. It must be the best!
A reasonably resourceful doctor with mature judgment would probably need no more than a good internship. I hope I never become so well trained and skilled that I do not feel the need of the Lord's help. A call from the General Conference is considered a call from our Master to go to another post. This should indicate that He considers you qualified. A short special course in surgery and tropical medicine would certainly be desirable.
The appointee's wife is a very important part of the team. She must be motivated by the same unselfish desire as the Master while here on earth, and be willing to give up many personal luxuries. She should know how to practice economy.
It is certain that self-supporting medical work is not the last word in our medical missionary program. It has many obvious difficulties. However, it can be a very helpful adjunct to our organized medical work. It only needs to be put into operation carefully and prayerfully. It may be the only means whereby medical work can be had in some mission locations. I am sure it is the only way medical work could have been started here in Central America. Today there are other locations in Central America that could be developed if studied carefully by one who has time to devote to such study.
Should not all of us who are in positions of responsibility give prayerful study to the development of this branch of the medical work?
The Right Arm in Action
WAYNE McFARLAND, M.D.: Associate Secretary. General Conference Medical Department
many letters come to our General Conference Medical Department that we feel should be shared. One came to us the other day which so aptly shows what the right arm can do when put into action that we feel it should be passed along to the readers of THE MINISTRY.
The richest fruit is yet to be garnered by the proper and effectual use of our health message. Kenneth Mensing, now in the Florida Conference, during his ministerial training attended the field school of evangelism conducted by the Southern Missionary College under the direction of E. C. Banks. During the time of this field school instruction was given on how to conduct a health program in conjunction with an evangelistic effort. "I count the field school the high point of my educational experience," says Brother Mensing. He writes of three experiences, one of which we pass on to you.
"Our neighbors living west of us are a good testimony to the response to the medical-spiritual ministry in their behalf. The doctor was not too hopeful of the husband's recovery from a violent siege of bronchial pneumonia. A minister from another church in town refused to offer prayer for him because he was so-far gone. Well, the Lord had used me in times past to be helpful with an hour or two of physical labor, helping them load some of their products from the little woodshop they run. So when visiting in this crucial time I mentioned that God would be less likely to consider a prayer for healing as long as the person concerned persisted in a harmful habit. In this case it was tobacco. He was mindful of that fact. I prayed with him that night and several times after that. His condition became so critical that he was re moved to the hospital. I had the privilege of shaving him several times, finishing with an alcohol rub. He was under professional medical care, and of course I do not say that my treatment alone was the cause for the turn for the better. But his wife confided to me that he had covenanted with God that he would give up his tobacco if God would spare him. The man has been spared, and today he is able to be up. He works some almost every day during the week in his little shop.
"Now, the best part of the story is that two weeks ago his wife was baptized by the evangelist whom I have been assisting here. This couple had attended a series of meetings in the city, taken the Bible course used with the effort, and we had made the neighborly contacts. God used all these means to preserve two souls for Him. Her husband has assented to her convictions, and they are ordering their household after the pattern of the Lord's instructions for healthful living. The Lord be praised for this wonderful experience!"
