Western Region Mid-Summer Progress Report
Medical & Dental Students
New second year med students are enjoying the last vacation of their lives, though some who cannot tolerate a complete break from school are doing some research on the side. Those who have agreed to serve as campus leaders are planning and praying for this coming year, club fair, re-connect forms, planning their first event, etc. Having just completed their Step One Boards, most third year med students are starting their first clinical rotations usually in hospitals. Fourth year med students are continuing their rotations, deciding on a specialty, beginning to think about their interviews coming up in the late fall and winter.
Dental students continue working with their noses to the grindstone, many research, too. About a third of the fourth year dental students plan to apply for a residency for their fifth year or beyond.
Docs are doing a variety of things: covering for partners on vacation, on vacation themselves, doing mission trips, etc. Some even invite a student to join them on a mission trip. (hint! hint!)
In short, summers are no picnic. They are very busy. If it were also the height of cold and flu season, something might have to change. I am hopeful that recognizing the busyness of the season and the expectations we place on ourselves (much like the Christmas season), we will choose to take some time to slow down, to read and pray a bit more, to reflect on the middle of the year (akin to January 1st) and evaluate our walk with God, our priorities, our very raison d'etre.
For example, our habit is we attend church on Sunday evenings. So, this morning, in addition to my devotions and some writing, I watched Darren Clarke win the British Open at 42 years old. At the conclusion of the Open, I was struck with the contrast between the "world" watching with me and the stark situations of many of our brothers and sisters "for whom this world is not worthy," those the writer of Hebrews admonishes that we should remember, "as if chained to them." They and their grieving families don't give a hoot about who won the Open or the World Cup. Neither does God, I'm guessing. As much as I enjoy watching and playing sports, it gives me pause.
So, as you go about your lives enjoying the summer season, take time every day to put life in a proper perspective - God's perspective.
West Coast Health Mission Conference
Wow! Take a look at the vast list of speakers we have lined up for you this year at the West Coast Health Missions and Ministry Conference, Aug 18-20 in Pasadena.
Since most of you reading this issue of PN will not make the trip to the Global Missions Healthcare Conference held in Louisville in early November, Peter Yorgin, MD et al, has been planning and hosting this annual conference for several years now with the same purpose in mind. Each year, the speakers are nothing short of spectacular. And the fellowship is sweet, as is the ever-present challenge to consider how we might better serve those less fortunate than we are. Speakers address domestic missions, ethics, foreign missions and more.
Please peruse this website for a few minutes and then consider who you might invite to attend this event with you. Colleagues, docs, nurses, NPs, Pas, mission committee members, trip planners, missionaries home on furlough, pastors, friends.... Your investment of time will be returned to you many times over.
Southern California – CMDA Area Directors
Four years ago, Mike Roberts, DDS, resigned from the position as CMDA Southern California Area Director, officially. He returned to full time dental practice. But all the while, he continued to serve dental students especially, leading two mission trips to Central America, one week with UCLA dental students and one week with USC dental students. Rumor has it that he plans to add the Loma Linda dental students next year.
Dave Campbell, DDS, former CMDA Trustee Board member served as the point person in SoCal for many years, sending out an email blast to more than 1,000 healthcare professionals, organizing meetings, speaking when asked, directing the dental side of the LA Mission Clinic while running his own dental HMO.
In order to enhance their influence and to acknowledge the good work they continue to accomplish, we are conferring on them the titles due their investment in the Kingdom of God and CMDA.
- Mike Roberts, DSS – CMDA SoCal Director of Student Ministries
- Dave Campbell, DDS - CMDA SoCal – Director of Graduate Ministries
I hope you will commit to pray for them regularly, to come along side them in any way you are prompted, to respond to their requests for assistance and general participation when you see events in Dave’s email blast once or twice a month.
New Medical School Opens in Lebanon, OR
What used to be only three medical schools in OR, WA & CO are now six. Three DO universities have opened in the past three years, the latest, near Corvallis, OR, will invite their first to commence next month. Always wondering how we will make our way on campus, last month, a Seattle Pacific University couple, Brad & Lauren Geyer, both med students, contacted my office inquiring as to how they might start a CMDA student chapter on campus. We met in Vancouver for coffee (at Starbucks, of course) to plan our strategy. Pray for them as they have not seen how a student chapter runs and will have to create it from scratch. Pray also for community docs or a Christian faculty member who will serve as their advisor. To date, no one in the community has responded to my solicitations for this important position.
Agua Viva Ranch, Ensenada, MX
If you have been reading the Western Progress Notes, you may remember that I have been looking for a mission opportunity available over spring break close enough to take some students here on the west coast that will not require an extra flight to Dallas, Houston or Miami - and then on to the final destination. In May, I flew to San Diego where I was met by Jeff and Ineke Glavor who then drove me 90 miles south to Ensenada, and then 17 miles east up into the hills to Agua Viva Ranch. This site not only will more than meet our needs as a facility, but their staff will schedule medical brigades sponsored by local churches. While I was there, I joined just such a brigade with a medical team of 55 professionals from the San Diego Chinese Baptist Church. In conversation with one doc, we discovered we had med some 8 months earlier. Also, I connected wonderfully with their pastor, Steve Siu.
Agua Viva is so ministry focused that they run a seminary for Mexican nationals who do not have the opportunity to attend a formal seminary. Men come from all over Mexico, some with truly miraculous stories, to attend classes three months a year for three years. They then return home to work and minister to their churches. The seminary is beautiful, built debt free and staffed by pastors and teachers who volunteer to train these uneducated men to pastor in their native villages. It is a remarkable story to hear, and I look forward to them telling it to those of you who join us next March. Stay tuned.
Local Graduate Fellowship
The most frequent comment and request I receive from our graduate members is “Please connect me with the local graduate chapter near me.” In communities where there are quarterly meetings (fall, winter and spring), and they are few and far between, there are leaders interested and committed to making that happen.
Really, this requires just three docs who will commit to one meeting each per year. The venue can be as simple as a potluck dessert. It’s that simple, but it does require that minimal commitment from three docs.
We can provide you an email database you can use sending an email to yourself and the email addresses in the bcc slot.
What you do at each of the meetings is up to the host. CMDA has many short DVD conversation / topic starters that require little or no preparation. Or if you have read an article you’d like to discuss – you can send it out in advance.
Or if you’d like to discuss a topic with your local colleagues via email and see if others would respond, we can assist you with that, too. Then you might want to meet to discuss the results.
Recently, a doc wanted to know what I thought about “concierge medicine,” so I sent an email to 15 docs and asked what they thought. Ten of the 15 responded and I forwarded those onto to the doc who inquired. She was more than pleased with the quick response and breadth of insights and responses.
Of if you have another variation on this same theme, just contact me and let me know. The investment of time and money is small. The potential return is great.
Travel Calendar for 2011/2012
By the time you read this, my travel schedule (please make this a hot link - see Misty) should be on our website. If you see that I am planning to visit your community and you would like to share a meal of grab a cup of coffee, please contact me and I will make it happen.
Thank you for serving in your role in the Kingdom of God - doing what only you can do.
Blessings,
Michael