2019 Zambia Global Mission | White Memorial
Story 156

Laurence Spencer-Smith MD: Medical missions, I think, are not so much about the organization or what you're actually doing, but it's connecting with the people. It's letting somebody know that you really care about them and that you're interested in wanting to make a difference in their life. They're just looking for somebody to listen and hopefully impact and make a difference in their life. That's what I think gives us the opportunity to really be able to spread God's message and the love of Jesus to these people, and also help them considerably with medical conditions and clinical conditions that they would really never have a chance, otherwise, of being able to deal with or take care of.

Sharlet Briggs: So for me, the impact of this mission trip, and I realized we're only here for four or five days, so it was a very short period of time to have an impact, if we just made an impact on the nursing students, because we worked side-by-side with them, and we were able to work with them on things that maybe they needed to do different, that was more efficient. If we just did that, I would say we were successful. I do believe that we made an impact on some of the children or people who are coming, through, as we taught them how to brush their teeth, how to wash their hands. So there's simple things that we did. So did we make an impact? We absolutely made an impact.

Mary Spencer-Smith MD: Mwami hospital needs a lot of care. Number one, the facility needs tender loving care, to say the very least. It needs maintenance, major maintenance. Just the bathrooms alone need major maintenance. The operating room needs so much. It's absolutely unbelievable. One of the ORs needs new lighting, new instruments. I mean, they basically need everything. They really, really do.

Elfi Lumiah-Ricks RN: I know that God is working with me even up to now, because being here at Mwami, it feels like, how can I say it, I've been bitten by something and I will never let go. I must come back again. So I've been smitten. I've fallen in love with Mwami. It's God's hand working through me and being able to provide what the people need the most here in Zambia.

Meredith Shake: So one thing I have learned from the people of Zambia is to have joy in the midst of whatever. Every place we have gone, there's that one person that comes in dancing and singing and happy, and that they're a person that buoys those around them. They care about people. And so having that joy and that perspective of retaining joy, even in the midst of adversity, has been really uplifting to me.

I think the idea of this being one world, that we're all in it together, is so important. Every person is an individual that has a story that wants to be heard, that wants to have somebody listen, that wants to have a connection, and that it matters that we listen and that we reach out to people and that we are all in this together, because what touches one has the ability to touch another, and then sometimes it reaches that right person that can affect a broad population of people. Christ said, bring one soul to me and that's what we need. And so even just the one makes a difference.

Mark Kach: In being associated with Adventist Health and the emphasis that they put on missions, it was time. It was as if, OK, here is your moment to move to a place here in Zambia for a mission to help. I received far more than I ever gave, and people told me that when you go on a mission, it changes you. And initially I had the bubble over my head going, OK, but wow, did that change a day after being here.

Ackson Ngoma: What the Adventist Global Health team has come to do in Mwami Hospital, I'm very much happy. From what I've had, the equipment that this team has brought to this hospital, that's the way to go because the equipment that you have brought today is not only going to help people that are living in this part of the world. There are other people that are going to come and be assisted with the same equipment that you have brought in. I don't even have ways that I can appreciate the person who came up with this such kind of an initiative to come and assist people in this part of the world.

Leeanne Patterson: So the type of surgeries that we did, we ran one room that was primarily gynecological surgery where they did a couple of C-sections, they did hysterectomies, they did myomectomies, and then I worked primarily in the general surgery room with Dr. Faisal Khan, and we did thyroidectomies, we did hernia repairs. We did removal of lots of lipomas and hemangiomas and various other general surgery-type cases. When you give, you're not only giving of yourself, but you receive back, as well, from the people that you're sharing with it. It's a two-way street really. I gain a lot from coming on a trip like this.

Laurence Spencer-Smith MD: I think the impact of this trip really is seeing the inner peace, the relief, knowing that somebody has tried to address a need that they've been dealing with for years and years and years. Feeling that satisfaction that, I'm going to be OK now.