InterVarsity’s vision is to see students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed and world changers developed. To accomplish that vision, InterVarsity partners with a number of Christian organizations and individuals. At Wayne State University School of Medicine John Bayon, a Graduate and Faculty Ministry staff member, works in partnership with Dr. Jack Ebright, the faculty adviser for the student chapter of the Christian Medical Association. In April Dr. Ebright traveled to Mongolia with his wife Janice and other doctors to voluntarily share their expertise with the medical community there. This is a condensed version of his report on the mission.
There is a sense of eager anticipation among the physicians who are crowded into the operating room of Maternal Children’s Hospital (MCH) and excitedly whisper among themselves; all stand behind their colleague, Dr. Tsedmaa, an obstetrician-gynecologist and well-liked staff member of the hospital. She sits beside her mentor, Dr. Sam Alexander, a reproductive endocrinologist from Colorado and member of the April, 2006 Medical Education International team of the Christian Medical Dental Association. Together, they work to maneuver the newly arrived hysteroscope in their patient and frequently look up to peer into the video screen.
This is the first opportunity the physicians at MCH have had to use such equipment, so the news of the special training sessions has spread rapidly through the medical community in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia. The event even makes the evening news on Mongolian television.
Even while the hysteroscopy is proceeding at the MCH, others of our team are engaged in teaching and patient care across the city. I teamed with Dr. Greg Gray, Director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases and specialist in public health at University of Iowa, to lecture at a two-day conference on emerging and reemerging diseases at the National Center for Communicable Diseases. Another colleague, Dr. John SantaLucia from Wayne State University, gave state-of-the-art lectures focusing on RNA chemistry to scientists at Health Sciences University of Mongolia.
Before the two-week visit was over, our team delivered dozens of lectures on wide-ranging medical and scientific topics, engaged in multiple technical and surgical procedures, interacted with medical students, discussed research projects and possible collaboration, contributed to manuscript preparation, donated state-of-art textbooks, dined out with Mongolian colleagues, and visited some of their homes.
MEI teams have come to Mongolia twice yearly since 1996. Over this nearly ten-year span the purposes have remained the same:
- To encourage, share knowledge and professional expertise, and develop friendships with our colleagues in Mongolia
- To share our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Spirit enables and gives opportunity
- To contribute to the building of Christ’s Church in Mongolia
We believe God is doing a special work in this ancient and faraway country. When Mongolia finally came out from under Soviet dominance and established a democratic government in 1990, no Christian or church was known to exist in the country. We praise God and rejoice to say that such is no longer the case. Currently, there are an estimated 35-40,000 believers and over 300 churches in Mongolia. About 200 of the churches are located in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
Our team’s arrival coincided with Easter weekend, allowing the opportunity to attend BASIC Church (“Brothers and Sisters in Christ”) located in a small rented upper story room a short distance from our hotel. There we joyfully worshipped our risen Lord with young families, teenagers, and Mongolian friends whom we had invited. The language was different, but oh, how our hearts resonated when we sang, prayed, and joined hands together.
It was a deep and humbling privilege for me to bring the message from God’s word that morning. With the young translator’s help, we opened and shared Scripture which the Holy Spirit has been using for countless years, across hundreds of languages and vast distances to build Christ’s Church. We left that morning with hearts filled to overflowing that God had made it possible for us to come to Mongolia.
