Doctors' Meeting

Following the Master Physician's Heart: Excellence and Ethics in Medical Practice Today is a conference that we are helping to organise for the Evangelical Medical Fellowship of India.

Its taking place now! On our nation's 58th Republic Day celebrations. We are blessed to have wonderful speakers in Dr. MC Matthew from CMC Vellore and Dr. Ashok Chacko who helps lead the EMFI as well as our own Dr. Stephen Alfred from the Lok Hospital / Bethany Trust.

There are so many things that we hope this conference will do - but to start with we have two thoughts:

1) Christian Doctors in the greater Mumbai area need to meet with each other and fellowship together. It is so important for doctors to be able to share about their experiences and situations with others - and in turn to be blessed and challenged and encouraged to know that they are not alone - and that others are also working through similar issues.

2) We all need to be challenged to live our lives in the light of the the LIGHT. We are so steeped in the ways of convenince (and worse) that we forget our true inheritance. The challenge of ethics in medicine starts at the most basic level - do we even make the smallest of efforts to be ethical in our work? As followers of Christ we have no choice - our Master took the lonely, difficult path time and time again - and expects no less from us. The twist is that when we do so - though others may mock - His joy is there with us.

Though we hope that the time will be a joyous one - and that all the participants will really have a wonderful time - we know that the issues at hand are deadly serious.

On the phone yesterday Sheba talked to our dear friend Dr. Cherring at Nav Jivan Hospital. Another case of a ruptured uterus was operated on at the hospital - something that in Mumbai is unheard of. It still occurs in so many parts of the rural hinterland!

At the same time today we had the shocking news that a little 12 year old girl died of TB. We had seen her 2 days previously when a local church member brought her and her grandmother and brother since she was quite sick. We sent a staff member today to take her to the govt. TB treatment centre - but she had died - and died of familial neglect. Even that morning - when she was deadly sick and her family put her in a rickshaw to take her to a govt. hospital - her mother said 'no, anyway she will die there, might as well be here at home.'

So as the doctors meet tomorrow (or actually today as we have crossed the 12 AM line) pray that God will speak - and that his children will listen - and obey - and follow the Master Physician's Heart.