I have been reading a book from the shelf in our apartment, “Surgeon on Safari” by Dr. Paul J. Jordan, MD and William Adair. This is a story of Dr. Jordan’s year in Kijabe, Kenya with his family that happened in 1973. The book was published in 1976 and 1985. What is amazing is how similar the stories are after almost 40 years!
There is no question that Dr. Jordan had a Christian calling as well as the other physicians who preceded him. As an orthopedic surgeon, he believed that there was immediacy and visibility to the results. “Mission medicine, I soon concluded in the days and weeks to follow, is to a great extent surgical” (p. 68). There was also the sense of adventure and challenge that was part of his experience. What he also describes is how these experiences influenced the lives of his 9 children that accompanied him and his wife.
There is always the nature/nurture argument related to behavior and it could be concluded that there is a “missionary” gene! I was certainly influenced by my parent’s love of Christian missions and they were particularly impressed by physician surgeons. Like Dr. Jordan, if a gene is present its effects appear in midlife and continue into the advanced years.
For me, the effects of this “gene” began at Duke in 1993 and have continued until now. All of my children have had a foreign mission experience and now we have the opportunity to communicate this experience to our grandchildren. We have seen similar stories in the lives of our neighbor physician surgeon family.
As you have seen in the previous blogs we have many names that end our blog. I hope that the communication in this blog will continue to influence the lives of our family, but maybe they have already inherited the “missionary” gene!
Love,
Dad aka Poppy
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