CALGARY, CANADA — Dr. Ivan Meiszinger shares the challenges and rewards of volunteering short-term in a mission hospital in Togo and seeing God provide.

Dr Ivan Meiszinger – Hospitalist Physician:

I wanted to become a physician for the chance to help vulnerable people.

The desire to become a doctor goes back quite far. There’s actually a picture of me in diapers with a stethoscope in my ears, listening to my brother’s heart. So it goes back pretty far.

My older brother has Down syndrome. And watching the medical community surround him and serve him made me very passionate about being able to do that myself.

Medical missions was definitely on my radar when I got accepted into medical school. I would regularly be looking up, actually Samaritan’s Purse World Medical Mission as motivation during the extra long days of studying and being like, I think this is where God wants me and this is that extra kick I need to put in those extra hours.

So pretty early on into practice, I decided to venture out into a short term mission trip. Some of the obstacles I felt when I initially thought about doing short terms missions was one. Would I even be able to get the time off? How will I get there? I’m a family doc. I’m not a tropical medicine infectious disease physician. I’m not a surgeon. Will I be helpful?

I found that if you’re willing to enter into the unknown that God will meet you there and provide a way through the obstacles. I did a short term trip with World Medical Mission in Malawi and now I’m serving in Togo.

My experience serving in Togo has been kind of a mix. There’s been days where I felt great joy and great accomplishment, like I’ve made a significant difference. There’s been days where it’s felt the opposite.

When on my night shifts, I had a really sick child come in and I did everything that I could. And then he just didn’t recover. Having to tell the patient’s family was very difficult, but it’s also a chance to show God’s love in one of the most difficult circumstances. In North America that’s the assumption that children make it.In Togo that’s not an assumption at all. I’ve heard one long termer say he feels like during malaria season it’s just his job to try and get these kids to their fifth birthday. It’s been overwhelming at times for sure.

Through this trip, I’ve learned to become more reliant on God, knowing that when we call for help, God is there. The first couple of shifts, you know, being exposed to, I guess, paediatric fatality, you know, that’s a hard thing to go through when you don’t see that regularly. And that’s something that you go home from and ask God for help. And God was so good to provide the encouragement I needed.

When talking about short term medical missions I feel like the elephant in the room is that it’s hard. It absolutely is going to be hard and it is going to be challenging. God doesn’t always call us to the easy, comfortable thing. How do we develop more trust in God? Do we do it by staying in a place that’s comfortable?

No. We do it by going to the challenging places that He calls us to and learning to rely and learning to trust on him. If you’re struggling with trusting in God, maybe the answer to that is exposing yourself to things like a short term medical trip and trusting God through it.

There will always be an obstacle to going on a short term medical missions trip. Don’t let the excuses hinder what God would do through you and for you during a short term missions trip with World Medical Mission.

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Samaritan’s Purse International Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) program is committed to meeting the critical needs of victims of war, poverty, famine, disease, and natural disaster. We stand ready to respond at a moment’s notice whenever and wherever disaster strikes. The DART specializes in providing water, food, shelter, and medical care while sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

CONTACT: Gabrielle Bouquet, news@samaritan.org

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