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Stories of Redemption and Renewal · The World Knowledge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, good afternoon, listeners. Thank you for listening to Lament
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Hope podcast, and I'm very grateful. This is going
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to be a little unconventional, because if you're watching this,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to see it's just the logo for the podcast,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: but Dr. Katina and I really tried, and unfortunately, we
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  Speaker 1: weren't able to do video, but that's okay. What is,
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  Speaker 1: because you were originally from New York, right? You graduated
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  Speaker 1: with mechanical engineering?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am.
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  Speaker 1: Um, and then you served, was it in the Navy
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  Speaker 1: as a, as a doctor for a while?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly.
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  Speaker 3: So I grew up in upstate New York, a smaller,
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  Speaker 3: a small city called Amsterdam, New York, near up in
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  Speaker 3: the upstate area, maybe about an hour from Albany. And then, uh,
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  Speaker 3: I went to Brown University, studied mechanical engineering. That's what
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  Speaker 3: I always wanted to do. That's what I thought I
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  Speaker 3: wanted to do. Anyway, changed my mind after graduating to
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  Speaker 3: go into medicine. And then to pay for medical school,
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  Speaker 3: I joined the Navy, took a Navy scholarship for medical school,
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  Speaker 3: and that allowed me to kind of get through medical
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  Speaker 3: school without incurring any debt. And then the payback was
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  Speaker 3: five years in the Navy, which was awesome, great time.
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  Speaker 3: Finished up my Navy time in the 90s and then
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  Speaker 3: went to my postgraduate training in family practice and then
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  Speaker 3: came to Africa in January 2000 and have been there
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  Speaker 3: ever since.
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  Speaker 1: What led you to want to do missionary work? Why
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  Speaker 1: did you change your mind and want to go to
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  Speaker 1: Africa and serve? And obviously, I mean, you're not going
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  Speaker 1: to make the kind of money you'd make if you
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  Speaker 1: were here, if any. You're going to be supported by
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  Speaker 1: other people. You're going to go to people you don't know,
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  Speaker 1: and you'll have to learn their culture and be able
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  Speaker 1: to serve them, really, be a bond servant in a way. Um,
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  Speaker 1: what led you to, to do that?
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's, it's, uh, I can't.
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  Speaker 2: Say there's any one thing.
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  Speaker 3: It was weird when I was in college. Uh, I
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  Speaker 3: kind of fell in with, uh, Campus Crusade for Christ. Uh,
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  Speaker 3: they were, had a pretty active chapter at Brown and
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  Speaker 3: got the, got the, meet some very good people, made
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  Speaker 3: some good friends there.
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  Speaker 2: And I, people there in.
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  Speaker 3: The group, I, I'm a Roman Catholic and, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in the Catholic church, most of the missionaries are, are
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  Speaker 3: priests or sisters or brothers. Um, So this is the
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  Speaker 3: first time I met people that were lay people that
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  Speaker 3: were not consecrated religious that had talked about doing mission work.
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  Speaker 3: And they just kind of planted a seed in my brain.
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  Speaker 3: At the time I was doing mechanical engineering, I was
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  Speaker 3: enjoying the work. I thought, okay, I'll be an engineer,
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  Speaker 3: but how do I do missionary work as an engineer?
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  Speaker 3: And that was really kind of bothering me the whole
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  Speaker 3: time I was in college.
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  Speaker 2: I just got this bug. I want to do missionary work.
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  Speaker 2: I want to go and serve Christ. in a very
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  Speaker 2: tangible way.
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  Speaker 3: And, uh, the biggest problem was there wasn't really any,
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  Speaker 3: any outlet for an engineer.
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  Speaker 2: As a mechanical engineer to do that. So it was
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  Speaker 2: kind of after I graduated, uh, that I had the
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  Speaker 2: idea to go into medicine, but that would make much
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  Speaker 2: more sense.
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  Speaker 3: I could, uh, kind of, you know, uh, um, That
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  Speaker 3: was a much better path to do mission work as
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  Speaker 3: a medical doctor than as an engineer. So everything just
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  Speaker 3: kind of fell into place. I thought, hey, let me
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  Speaker 3: go into medicine. That makes more sense. I can go
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  Speaker 3: into mission work, which was just kind of this itch
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  Speaker 3: that was kind of eating away at me.
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  Speaker 2: That's something I felt I had to do. And I
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  Speaker 2: still So kind of medicine was the avenue that I
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  Speaker 2: chose to do that.
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  Speaker 3: But of course, I, I, I think as a believer,
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  Speaker 3: all this stuff was the, was due to the inspiration
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  Speaker 3: of the Holy spirit. And, um, this is just how
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  Speaker 3: it manifested itself. Um, you know, who knows why it
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  Speaker 3: took the circuitous route, but that's how it, how it
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  Speaker 3: ended up.
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  Speaker 1: That, you know, it's cause I, I've met, and I'll,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I'll ask you this. I've met several Catholics who, um,
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  Speaker 1: they really believe that what they do is something that
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  Speaker 1: contributes to their heavenly home or like getting to heaven.
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  Speaker 1: And I saw your, you know, when I was looking
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  Speaker 1: you up and seeing all of the amazing accomplishments you've done,
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  Speaker 1: because I mean, so many people wouldn't do what you do.
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  Speaker 1: And I know for you, it is just what you're
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  Speaker 1: called to do. But when I look at, I think
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  Speaker 1: going to Africa, mountains, living in a hut or living
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  Speaker 1: in a brick hut now, no, don't want to do that.
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  Speaker 1: And I, um, like I just, it's, it's so inspiring,
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  Speaker 1: but I also saw that in so many of the
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  Speaker 1: articles written about you, people referred to you as like
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  Speaker 1: a Christ of sorts, or even people in Sudan may
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  Speaker 1: look to you as a savior type, which I can
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  Speaker 1: understand because I mean, you can heal and you know,
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  Speaker 1: it seems like you can do these things that they
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't know about at all because they haven't had that.
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  Speaker 1: They don't have the American medical system. which I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I won't say is the best ever. I mean, it
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  Speaker 1: has its problems, but at the same time we can
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  Speaker 1: get care, you know, that's not, we can walk in,
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  Speaker 1: we're sick, we need help now, you know? How did, like,
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  Speaker 1: do you see your work as something that,