Q: How did God first call you to missions?
Bob: As a junior high kid, God grabbed my attention through the story of a non-medical missionary whom God used in a major surgical emergency in a remote African village. The missionary was asked to come help a small boy who fell from a tree and was disemboweled by a branch that cut through his abdominal wall.
Bravely begging God to help him do something he had never seen or done before, the missionary managed to clean and return the bowel back into the abdomen, and then, he used a needle and a hair from a horse’s tail to close the wound. The boy’s miraculous recovery resulted in many coming to faith in Christ, and I thought if God could use someone with no medical training, how much greater could He use someone with training? From that day forward God began to put a passion in my heart to serve Him as a missionary surgeon.
Shirley: I was young when God touched my heart through a book my mom gave me about a little girl who was afraid to come to America because she didn’t think anyone knew about God! Then God continued to speak to my heart through Naaman and his little servant girl and other stories of the Bible.
Q: What experience really impacted you or your ministry?
Bob: Since we opened the hospital in southern Togo, it was clear that if it was going to have an eternal impact on our patients and their families we needed to disciple and train our staff to be passionate about sharing their faith. From doing that, we have seen hundreds and then thousands of people trust Christ each year. The fruit and joy was beyond anything we could have imagined and the need for sound churches where these new believers could grow in their faith spurred us to begin a Bible institute. Today, our graduates are now pastoring at more than 40 churches throughout the region.
We saw the amazing impact a healthcare ministry could have in Togo, and after we discovered the immense medical needs in northern Togo, God opened an unprecedented door for a new hospital in the Muslim-majority city of Mango. Today, the hospital cares for hundreds of people every day, and we have been excited to see the amazing response to the Good News through the passionate evangelism of the compassionate medical team.
Q: What is your favorite memory from the mission field?
Bob: Being the only career physician at the southern Togo hospital from 1998 through 2002, we used an apprenticeship approach to develop and train our hospital medical staff. One day, our midwife urged us to do an emergency c-section and brought the lady into the operating room. I knew it was time to put our apprentices’ training to the test. Our Togolese anesthetist, operating room tech, and midwife worked together to perform a safe and excellent c-section — without our help. It was a very special realization that God had given them the skills necessary to help folks without missionary help. Their confident smiles were a beautiful sight!
Q: What advice would you give to people considering missions?
Shirley: Keep your call to missions fresh in your mind because it may be many years of preparation before you see it come to pass. Be flexible, keep your sense of humor, and stay close to the Lord so He can direct your path. You don’t become a missionary by going across the ocean; be one where He has planted you today.