INTERCEDING TOGETHER

1. Pray that the art therapy course at the Rehabilitation Centre would alleviate the emotions of the children and the families, and that they would build trust in the medical staff at the Centre.

2. We are thankful for the successful completion of the summer activities for the students in the scholarship programme. Pray that the Yiliang college students would have a clearer picture of their future direction.

3. May the Lord continue to bless and guide Rebecca C, Tin Wan and Oi Lan L who have recently left the field for their future ministries.

4. Pray that the Lord would bring long term workers to Honghe to serve in the areas of medicine, English teaching and psychological counselling for the students.

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Love never fails
Hui Kheng A

In MSI healthcare projects, we hope our training will equip local healthcare workers to better serve patients. However, the training must go beyond skill acquisition if our aim is for holistic service.

I was involved in the LA County Community Health Project in 2019. During the village health fair, MSI medical short term teams together with local healthcare workers screened as many as two to three hundred villagers for hypertension and diabetes and treated them for other medical conditions over 3 days. I remember a female villager who had body aches and pains. It would have been easy to have just prescribed some painkillers and send her off. However, our short term team referred her to talk with me about her worries because I have been trained in counselling. As she spoke in the local dialect, I could only surmise she had no one to share her troubles with. I offered her a simple suggestion to “talk to the heavens” as it would have been inappropriate to suggest praying in the local context. Next day, she returned to look for me. Anticipating she might want to address deeper needs, I quickly got hold of our local intern to join us because he could speak the local dialect. Indeed, the deeper pain was the death of her only daughter. We also found out she is of the same faith and our local intern was able to comfort her with words from our Good Book.

We conducted health fairs in 5 villages of LA County in 2019. Dr L was able to join all 5 health fairs to work alongside our short termer doctors and to learn from them. The last village we visited was her own village. Her intellectually disabled brother and physically disabled cousin attended the health fair and received good medical attention from the team. During the debriefing at the end of the health fair, she was asked to give her feedback. Holding back her emotions, she stood up to say, “Did MSI teachers notice how dirty and how foul-smelling our villagers are? Yet you hold them and hug them.” With that, she sat down.

Giving a good medical lecture or teaching a medical skill is not too difficult. But genuine love leaves a deep and lasting impact that no one will ever forget.

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Profound Love
Florence L

What is the real meaning of love? And what does ‘Profound Love’ really look like? How do we, as finite people, express this unlimited love? Throughout these years of serving on the field, these questions would very often pop into my head and prompt me to reflect on what holistic care is, causing me to renew my understanding and to truly live it out.

When I first arrived here at the beginning of this year, I realised the weather, the environment and the way of life were very different from the place where I was serving before. However, one thing in common in both places was my involvement with the MSI scholarship program through which we were able to help and walk alongside students who grew up on the mountains. However, the first big challenge as I took over the scholarship project was that the students and I were either complete strangers or we had met only once before. On top of all this, because of the pandemic, I was unable to visit them at their school. We could only connect through the internet, doing online activities or one-on-one video chats.

But I finally got to meet them in person during our summer camp. Amazingly, despite only having met online, we all felt an unexplainable closeness to one another as if we had known each other for a long time. After a brief warm up, everyone was fully engaged in the activities. This reminded me of the phrase: Nothing is impossible with Him.

Looking back on these last few months, so much of my work seemed trivial, like chasing after them to submit information and asking about their school life. Only while trying to arrange a time to do video calls with them, did I realise just how busy their student lives are. And when we did get to talk on the phone, whether it was about their studies, their emotions or about their families, I was content to spend time listening to them. Indeed, they all became very dear to my heart and their needs were in my thoughts; I could walk alongside them and lend them a helping hand when needed. In the end, I have realised as long as we are genuine and sincere, the students can truly experience profound love.

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Reflection on New Journey Workshop
Fang L (local student)

The teachers must have spent hours and hours in preparing this workshop. Why? Every single detail was well-planned for this 3-day 2-night workshop. We started out with writing out our own expectations in the first session and ended with a whole team book on the last day. The sessions in between helped us understand ourselves, how to achieve self-realisation and strive to actualise the potential within us. We learned to cooperate with others, be sincere in our sharing, challenge ourselves to maximize our potential, be thankful for what we have, and cherish the moment. I was deeply impressed by every activity and game that brought out the essence of each lesson.

• Cooperation: In small group, games and activities we learned to build up team spirit, knowing that cooperation would bring about a win-win situation; we shared the outcomes of the activities and learned to verbalise our feelings.

• Genuine Sharing: There was a teacher in every group to guide our discussion after the activity or game. We learned to use positive language in expressing our feelings and emotions.

• Thankfulness and Self-challenge: I have no control over which family I was born into, nor the community I belong to, nor any other similar circumstance. As the teacher said: ‘This is just me’. I should have a thankful heart and always keep true to my original intention of being kind. The teacher also said, though we cannot control time, we can still decide how we want to write the chapters of our lives. Just like how some teachers shared in their own stories, with persistence and effort, I too can also rotate the turntable of life towards my desired direction.

I am truly thankful for this 3-day 2-night camp; it was so sad to say goodbye to everyone. During these three days, I experienced first-hand that life’s greatest pursuit is goodness, to fulfil the dream in my heart and to strive towards this goal in order to have a meaningful life. Life is a one-way street; you cannot repeat the path. What matters most is deciding to take the first step. As the teachers encouraged us: with every step, do your very best in each phase of your life. Everyone was great! I hope all of us can work hard and eventually become the kind of person we want to be.

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He is with MSI in Honghe
Lydia D (local staff)

Between September 2009 and July 2021, starting with a German anaesthetist and his family of four, continuing with an Australian general doctor, an Indonesian general doctor with his family of three, and finally with an English teacher, an orthopaedic doctor and a medical nurse couple all from Hong Kong – each of these people passed the baton to be ambassadors of love in this small town on the south western border of China. Coming from four different parts of the world and over 12 years, they served with 355 short term workers from a variety of professional backgrounds whom they had never met before. These short termers came from 12 different countries/regions and served in a total of 108 trips.

Despite the differences in nationality, culture and profession, each of these medical professionals sowed seeds of love and lovingly watered this parched and barren land. Although they don’t know yet what fruit will develop in the future, it is certain that He makes all things grow.

In the same way, one thing remained the same – they all brought His love with them… so although there was no “practice” or “rehearsal” beforehand, under His gracious leadership they were still able to partner in love and spiritual unity, and live out the true meaning of love!

To God be the glory!

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