“Long and loud the Master calls us, rich reward He offers free; who will answer, gladly saying, “Here am I, Oh Lord send me,”

 

            I remember singing this hymn many times as a child. Even though I was born in India, I was raised in New York, and remembered little of my homeland. It was the arrival of my grandmother from India that evoked past memories of my original homeland. I was raised hearing stories of great missionaries of the past. Since then, I had always wanted to get involved in some form of mission work.

 

            When I started medical school, seeing the videos presented in chapel, and hearing the stories of my classmates only deepened the desire. So, when I learned about an opportunity to go abroad during my fourth year from a classmate, I was very excited. I made the arrangements to go to the SDA Hospital in Bangalore, India, and arrived there early in February. The hospital was not very large, but I was impressed with the amount of respect and admiration that the hospital garnered within the community. The hospital treated all religions, and offered discounted treatments for the extremely impoverished. Although, I worked in the hospital daily, and enjoyed my time in all the departments,

 

            I especially enjoyed two portions of my stay. One was the worship service we had every morning before we started our day. Every morning, we had song service and a short little lesson from the various staff at the hospital. It really set the mood for the day, and got it off to a great start. On the last day at the hospital, I was given an opportunity to lead out the morning worship. It was an opportunity that I treasured and still remember very fondly.

 

            The other especially memorable portion of my trip was this activity we had once a week called “CAMP.” This was a p [program in which, we took a doctor, a few nurses and some medical supplies, and headed out to one of the local slums. Here we saw between 15-20 pts over an afternoon, and addressed most of their basic medical needs. It was also an opportunity to get involved with this program called OASIS, which helped the slum inhabitants improve their lives through, education and trade skills. It was a bittersweet experience, because although we helped many people, we also had to turn certain people away, because otherwise their sheer numbers would overwhelm our limited resources. I loved my time in India. I especially am impressed by the staff at the hospital, who were so willing to give up other, more lucrative careers in the outside world, to work at our facility with the underprivileged members of the population. 

 

            My time in India, gave me a new perspective on my medical career. It helped me appreciate what I had, and also helped cement my desire to get further involved in missionary activities in the future.