OBSOLETE?
Third, and perhaps most important, is the imperative weighing u p o n every representative of Christ to re- spond in practical ways to the cries of human need. The ministry of healing is an essential part of the missionary enterprise, not because it represents an excellent medium for the winning of souls (all-important as that may be) but because it represents the spontaneous impulsive expression of the heart that overflows with the in discriminate love and compassion of God for all mankind, poor or rich, friend or foe, responsive or unrespon sive. That love will distinguish with a wisdom that is from above between the higher spiritual need and the less important, but none the less real, physical and material needs. But it will not ignore the one or the other. In a day of highly developed tech niques and urgent programs of prop aganda, when church and missionary motivations and activities are all too generally mixed unconsciously with self-interest, it becomes all the more important for true Christians to do good, to feed the hungering, to minis ter to the sick without any other purpose than to express the compas sion within them. Any study of Christ’s ministry of healing here on earth will bear that out. He did not heal to win followers. He did not heal to reach people. He did not heal to prove His deity or to illustrate His mission. He merely healed because people needed heal ing. And, of course, He came not only that they might have life but that they might have it abundantly and eternally. That same need exists today and that same constraining love of God is the essential reason that lies at the heart of all medical missions in every place. So the answer to the question mark that hangs over the medical mission ary enterprise today and that throbs in the heart of every medical mission ary—young or old— is a ringing, un equivocal, positive one. The day of medical missions is not over! The medical missionary is not obsolete! It will take fresh vision and faith and a fresh baptism of love—but a new day may be dawning for missionary medicine and its servants. MARCH, 1960
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AViS CROWDER’54, Heroes, Mexico: “ W e now have 5 Tzeltal clinics— two large ones which we plan to use as training centers and 3 new small ones which were started this spring. We are setting as our goal the establish ment of at least 20 clinics within the next 3 years.”
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DONALD and Eunice RICHTER ’52, New Guinea: “Most of my medical work has been pulling teeth. In one village a woman was weighing over in her mind if she’d keep her bad teeth, or endure the pain of getting them out. Another native standing by rebuked her saying, ‘You no fright, he put in nail inside long mouth belong you, and tooth him die, you no savvy feel im!’ I had a good experience the other day too, I pulled out seven teeth of a dear native Chris tian. She was so grateful to get them out. She said, ‘Me going to pray for you, and work belong you.’ I do appreciate the training received at S.M.M. As a fellow I haven’t had much O.B. opportunities on the field; only one emergency case, but the den tal is wide open; as well as the other medical work.” GLEN and EDITH REAVIS ’52, Pu san, Korea: “ Our combined family now numbers close to 200.” They are in charge of the Baby Home, caring for their illnesses.
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Ernie and MARJORIE RICHTER ’48, New Guinea: “Please pray for the people here who are ridden with malaria. Marjie needs your prayers in the medical and teaching of the boys.” Elcho and MILLIE (KOOISTRA ’47) REDDING, East Khandesh: “ The travelling dispensary has been valu able not only in treating an average of 25 p a t i e n t s e a c h morning after preaching, but as a means of entry into the villages and into the hearts of men and women.”
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