Tag: mission field

Meet Dr. Oh!

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

A Doctor’s Testimony

by Dr. Joyce Oh

For whatever reason, when Billy asked me to write about myself for this newsletter, I thought, “That’s easy! Who doesn’t like to talk about themselves?” But I fumbled for content, and while I know everyone has an origin story, it was hard to get the right perspective on mine. Today, the Lord reminded me that I can speak of Him, because He is the author of this life, His are the blessings I’ve received, His is the Spirit that lives in me, and His are the plans that my life follows.

The God of this universe, He decided that I be born into a Korean immigrant family. Sometimes I think of the questions I’ll have for God when we meet face to face.“Why, God, do you make women [or maybe just this woman] subject to our own emotions?”Another more relevant question I’ll have is “Why, God, was I born into a Korean family?”I cannot wait to know the answers. Like so many other immigrant families, it meant that there was a culture of hard work and high expectations. Though the essence of hard work is certainly a Godly principle, it is the enemy’s job to twist all things good into bad. From all that hard work, I’d come to believe this lie: “to be loved, be perfect.” The Lord offered me the first and most potent bout of freedom from this lie**

Through the rigors of residency and life outside of it, God continued to reveal the power of lies just like this that take rampant charge over my mind when it is not set on Christ: be smart, be right, be wealthy, be quick-witted, be wise, be beautiful, be perfect, and you will be loved. Isn’t the enemy so good at his job? Are these not great Godly gifts if used for His glory? But how quickly we make them servant to our own ends!

I learned a truth at Mercy Med through Jeanne, one of our amazingly God-centered counselors, that banishes these lies: you are known, and therefore loved.

Our God is so gracious, so beautifully merciful, so heartbreakingly tender, so endlessly wise, so INFINITE in His goodness that in knowing us, he loved us first while we were yet sinners. His is the love that first reached me, and I am changed because of it.

This revelatory and transformative truth the Lord has entrusted to us to make known to all peoples. He’s placed in me a desire to share and plant this truth in all peoples. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to have a conversation with a future brother or sister overseas about the Good News they’ve not yet heard!

Psalm 116: I Love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “Please, Lord, save me!” How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours! The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me.Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me.”

From Kosovo to Columbus

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

by Jeff Barkhouse, FNP

Serving in a ministry context in a predominately Muslim culture is not the logical preparation path for doing health care at MercyMed, but that is exactly the career trajectory that God had in store for me and my family as we transitioned back to the United States after living and working with Albanians in the Balkans for the last twenty years. I haven’t met many Albanian speakers here in Columbus, but I have met a number of people with whom I can share the hope I have in Christ. It turns out that there are hurting people everywhere, even back where you came from.

I worked as a Registered Nurse and Family Nurse Practitioner for 10 years in the U.S.A. before moving overseas to join a team of people seeking to plant a church among Albanian Muslims. While I thought I would be doing health care overseas, I found that what was needed was the more traditional ministry tasks of teaching, discipleship, and preaching.  In a society and culture with vastly more health clinics and pharmacies than churches the traditional ministry roles were a much more vital commodity than my health care background. So for twenty years I taught English, taught the Bible, preached, discipled, encouraged the fledgling church where we served, and, eventually was ordained for that work through the PCA.

As our ministry and family matured we felt the Lord’s leading to return to the States for the next phase in our lives. I was open to serving in a traditional ministry capacity, but those opportunities did not open up in Columbus where we wanted to settle, so I happily began looking at opportunities to work again as a nurse practitioner. After having served as a volunteer nurse at MercyMed when we were home on furlough in 2012, I naturally wondered whether there might be an opening for a rather out of practice nurse practitioner with lots of ministry experience. Dr. Scarborough was very gracious and generous to say he would help me in any way to get re-established as a nurse practitioner regardless of where I might end up working in the long run. That was all the indication I needed to know that MercyMed was, in fact, where I wanted to land.

So having been here now for the last two months I am excited about being re-trained as a nurse practitioner in a context where my ministry experience is not simply a historical career oddity but a valued asset in the patient care setting.  It turns out the team culture of ministry is consistent across geographical and cultural borders. So being a missionary in Kosovo is not too different than being a nurse practitioner in Columbus if you have the opportunity and freedom to do it in the name of Christ. I’m privileged to do so here at MercyMed.