A different type of entry this time. Sleeping can wax and wane, then receding into wakefulness for hours. All this may be due to jet lag, or just a sense of searching for questions asked. We're here after months of planning, the date set a year ago, a lot of coordinating, emailing, purchasing, and organizing. Kelly has lead the charge in all of that and has shined through once again.
Now here's the issue. When we arrive in places like Kenya, how do we center ourselves on what is important, or more importantly who is important. Prayer, being ever vigilant of whose we are and why we are here, and obedience to a calling. Medical Mercy is about all of that. Do we do a good job of it? I would think we do. So here's the question. When we go back to the US, we have our families, friends, jobs, activities, hobbies, and everything that we put into our lives to make ourselves happy. There it is: "Make us happy". What would it be like if we went back home with the same mind set that we have here, obedience, giving, charity, kindness, love and grace...all the time, never ending, always present. Being here in Kenya is bringing out the best in us. It feels nice and warm, heart filling and rewarding. We head off to another clinic in a few hours. We'll feel loved and will love back, caring for those less fortunate. I wonder, just wonder, if I am like that all the time in the US. Silly me. I'm not. And that is what keeps me awake. Trying to understand how easy is to be so wonderfully giving to the children and families we see in the countries we travel to, and how hard it is to do the same in the US. I say all this out of open confession. I am not always who I want to be. These trips do however reinforce the fact that I am perhaps a little better because of them. Humility remains paramount in my life. For without Him, I am only who I think I am and not what He has made me. All that said, maybe I can catch a bit of sleep now.
In all things give thanks,
David
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Our mission is to help The Forgotten Children reach their God-given potential by creating opportunities for spiritual, social, mental and emotional development, by ensuring that their physical well being is optimized. David H. Beyda, MD Medical Director, Medical Mercy
- David H. Beyda, M.D.
- Phoenix, Arizona
- I am a pediatric critical care specialist working at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I was the Medical Director and Division Chief of Pediatric Critical Care for 23 years, and stepped down to become Medical Director for Misson of Mercy.I am responsible for the medical care of 40,000 children that Misson of Mercy cares for in 22 countries. I grew up overseas (Africa, Southeast Asia) from the time I was 7 years old until I went to college. My father was a career US diplomat. I started my third world medical involvement when I was 15 years old working with medical groups in Laos, and learned to fly riding with Air America pilots in Laos and have been a pilot for over 30 years. My first formal medical mission as a doctor was in 1979 when I served as director of pediatrics in a refugee camp on the Thailand-Cambodia boarder (Khao I Dang) at the age of 27 years old, still in my pedicatric residency. My heart is in third world countries caring for the Forgotten Children.