I was called to missions before I was called to medicine. I have been interested in evangelism and discipleship since I was in college. Along with my husband, we have been preparing and planning to be career missionaries since we were in college, and that calling became more clear when we were married. It was only later, when God called me to medicine, that I realized this would be played out through providing medical care. While attending our church, we learned a lot about the theology of missions, and we saw the practical ways that missions happen through befriending and sending some of the numerous missionaries from that church. We learned about cross-cultural interaction through the international fellowship that we were a part of, which included believers and seekers from many countries, including China, Malaysia, Philippines, Congo, Ethiopia, Burundi, and more. We learned about church planting when we planted a church out of this international fellowship.

I feel my calling to medical missions is unique because it was founded first as a calling to missions to unreached people groups through discipleship and church planting, which I had the time to explore more deeply for the five years between graduating from college and starting medical school. My calling to medicine came after that, and I see it as a vehicle to accomplish discipleship and church planting, rather than the primary goal. I feel that God has been shaping me throughout my life for this calling – from growing up as the child of immigrants and having to bridge the gap between two cultures all my life – to giving me that unique chance to explore missions independent of medicine, prior to starting medical school. He called me more than 10 years ago, and he continues to mold me for the task.