On Saturday, March 29th, several members from the Medical Outreach, IMPACT and FOCUS ministries had the opportunity to partner with M-HEAL (Health Engineered for All Lives, a University of Michigan-based service organization focused on improving the health of communities around the world). We had the opportunity to go to the World Medical Relief (WMR) headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. (http://www.worldmedicalrelief.com)
WMR is a non-profit, charitable organization whose mission is to impact the well-being of the medically impoverished on a local, national, and international basis by distributing recycled medical and dental equipment, medical supplies, and medicines to aid thousands of sick and poor people around the globe.
Along with students from all areas of the University, we participated in M-HEAL’s “Inventory Day”. Our objective was to sort through six floors of WMR’s Detroit warehouse (a former Cadillac plant) cataloguing useful donated medical supplies that ranged from syringes and IV kits to crutches and hospital beds. This would allow WMR to better identify and allocate supplies when requested by an outside organization that has a need abroad. Along with most of the volunteers, I spent the majority of the day poking through boxes of medical supplies detailing the contents. It was overwhelming to see the amount of supplies that WMR had obtained through donations.
In learning more about WMR, I came across the story of Mrs. Irene Auberlin, a housewife who founded the organization (along with her husband). She was inspired through a television program documenting orphaned children from the Korean War. This television program followed the story of a child who was orphaned and in need of supplies. Her heard welled with compassion for this child and was determined to find supplies to support this child. With the help of friends and family, Irene was able to provide enough supplies for the entire orphanage of 400 children!
In the past 50 years, World Medical Relief has provided medical supplies in over 75 countries through the idea of “doing God’s work by turning the sins of waste into the miracles of mercy.”
Being in the healthcare profession, I find myself constantly day-dreaming about the grandiose vision of the likes of Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health or with the health initiatives of the United Nations Millennium Project. I invariably wake up feeling selfishly insufficient. But laying witness to God’s power to provide (as in the case of WMR), I am constantly reminded that Christ has simply called us to love Him. Whether it’s a love through the compassion for a hurting orphan abroad or a love in providing health clinics for disadvantaged community residents, we are called to serve faithfully, trusting that His plans for us will always have a purpose in His Kingdom. In envisioning the influence of the Transformapshere movement, I am inspired by how God is able to use a housewife’s burden for an orphaned child to birth a mission for the nations. It leads me to simply love people, whether I am here in Ann Arbor, or abroad.
(Note: Susan Ahn assisted in writing this piece)