The Winter 1998 Issue
of
the Aims Journal

EDITORIAL

By Don Roth, Editor

This edition of the AIMS JOURNAL focuses on the role of SIMS on the campus of Loma Linda University. The acronym SIMS stands for “Students for International Mission Service,” and this group has grown into a very active and lively organization.

The Adventist International Medical Society (AIMS) endorses the program of SIMS as it utilizes the services of students who are currently enrolled in the various schools on the LLU campus. In fact, when students go into service in various parts of the world, they often interact with and learn from members of AIMS serving around the globe. In addition, the SIMS program director is a member of the AIMS board of directors.

This issue has been coordinated by J. C. Belliard, who is the director of the SIMS program. It is an integral part of the LLU School of Public Health, under the leadership of the school’s dean, Richard Hart, MD.

When students go on mission projects sponsored by SIMS, they obtain a very vivid impression of what medical work outside the United States is all about. They see the needs and know why the church continues its support of the worldwide medical outreach. Many of them are inspired by their mission experience and return to school with a desire to prepare themselves for interdivision missionary service in the future.

SIMS is open to students enrolled in each of the schools at Loma Linda University, including the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Allied Health, and Public Health. When clinics are held in such locales as El Hongo, Baja California, Mexico, medical, dental, and nursing students receive valuable hands-on experience in their respective professions.

In addition to SIMS activities, this issue also contains information and news regarding AIMS activities in various parts of the world, including Bulgaria and Pakistan. Also, be sure to read up on the annual AIMS Mission Symposium just held at LLU, and learn more about our new AIMS website (http://www.tagnet.org/aims).

We know you’ll enjoy reading this special issue of the JOURNAL.

SIMS: COMPASSION IN ACTION

by Richard Hart, MD, DrPH

Dean, School of Public Health

Students for International Medical Service (SIMS) began about the same time the Social Action Corps Clinic (SACC) was formed. It originally was designed to provide a forum for senior medical students to share clinical experiences received in foreign settings.

In 1985, SIMS was reorganized with a change of name, to provide mission opportunities for students in all schools of the University.

The “new” SIMS (Students for International Mission Service) began organizing medical and dental mission trips during winter and spring breaks to Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Honduras, Mexico, and LaVida Mission, New Mexico.

Long term summer mission trips (three weeks to three months) have taken students and advisors to Africa, Central and South America, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Orient.

A continuing service provided by the organization is the once-a-month weekend clinics held in El Hongo, Mexico. Groups of students with appropriate faculty, provide medical and dental services along with health education puppet shows to villagers and children, usually patients waiting to be seen by the medical and dental staff. Topics include oral hygiene, a visit to the doctor, nutrition and sanitation.

The groups, averaging 25 participants, return to Loma Linda having experienced Christian service in a different environment and are blessed spiritually.

One of the more local activities of SIMS is the Adopt-a-Kid Christmas party for underprivileged children in the area. Students from the various schools sign up to adopt children for an evening of entertainment, crafts, Santa Claus, and gifts.

LEARNING THROUGH SERVICE: REFLECTING ON A SIMS TRIP TO ECUADOR

By J.C. Belliard, MPH

SIMS Program Director

During the summer of 1997, I had the opportunity to take a group of SIMS volunteers to the South American country of Ecuador. Working alongside our volunteers gave me a fresh look at SIMS. I saw how on mission trips such as this we carry the responsibility of representing Loma Linda University, the SDA Church and most of all, Christ.

The purpose of the trip was clear, we were “to serve the needy, to expose our volunteers to valuable spiritual, clinical, and cultural experiences, and to work together with our Ecuadorian counterparts in reaching out to the community in the name of Christ.” These were great objectives, but I soon realized that they were only the beginning of a series of lessons that we were to learn on this trip. The lessons that this trip taught the students cannot be learned in the classroom. I wish that all my students could experience what we experienced this summer.

From the very beginning of the project I realized why God had sent us. Here are some of the more obvious reasons that I found:

1) Every moment of our project we had to depend on God for health, safety, wisdom to make the right decisions, and for strength to continue working with a smile on our faces, ignoring the heat and exhaustion. There were times when it was clear that we couldn’t have planned for the events that occurred the way they did. Stripped from our material crutches, we were forced to rely on God at every moment. God wanted our full attention, and He got it! “I will take you as My people and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. . . .” Exodus 6:7.

2) We were there to serve, but why? I can’t speak for every volunteer on the trip, or even what each person’s main incentive to join was; but no one who came returned the same person. It was truly a life-changing experience to work alongside other Christians, serve together, worship together, and share what each of us was experiencing and learning as individuals and as a group. There is nothing more fulfilling than to know you have been used by the Holy Spirit in spreading God’s love. To go into the poorest communities, and give freely, without expecting anything in return is not a part of human nature. This was the best testimony we could ever have given to our new friends. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12.

3) Working in a mission setting, one tastes the life that Jesus led on this earth. One student commented, “I used to think how terrible the disciples were to tell the children to leave Jesus alone! Now I can understand how the disciples felt after dealing with the constant crowds and their many needs. We did this for only three weeks; the disciples had to deal with the crowds for several years!” Christ was always concerned for the well-being of others, meeting their physical and spiritual needs. What an example we have in Christ’s attitude! “. . . I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” Matthew 15:32.

We were not able to see all the patients who came to see us, nor did we teach enough mothers the basic health knowledge needed to make an impact on the infant mortality of the country. But I believe, with the grace of God, we were able to show those whom we saw a glimpse of God’s love. I also believe our patients left with a little more hope than they had when they arrived.

AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE

By Bonnie Geelhood

Junior, LLU School of Medicine

Humans are a frustrating breed. We all deal with them in some capacity each day. And even starting out the day with the best of intentions to treat everyone as though they were Christ does not guarantee that you won’t be hopping mad and fed up with the entire human race by lunchtime. I didn’t really believe that until I experienced it powerfully for myself.

I spent this summer working with hospitals in Swaziland and Mozambique. We were given three months off between our freshman and sophomore years of medical school, and I wanted to know how people in another part of the world live, as well as to get some hands-on experience in my chosen profession. SIMS provided me with that opportunity by subsidizing part of my plane fare and living expenses.

Africa was incredible! I remember my first sunrise over that huge and wild land. I remember sewing a little boy’s finger back on, and his voice as, through his tears, he thanked me. I remember the toothy grin of an old woman, telling me she was in incredible pain, but the fact that I had taken the time to listen to her story, to hold her hand for a minute and wish her well, was enough to fill her with radiant joy.

But I also remember lying to a patient, smiling as if there was not a care in the world—when in reality she had only about a month left to live. Indeed, many a day ended in fury and frustration, with me wishing that all the patients who had a “cough and runny nose for three days, doctor,” would just go away and leave me alone.

Where did this anger come from? To wake up each morning dreading 8:00 when I would have to go down to the OPD (outpatient clinic) in order to see yet another batch of alcoholics with nasty cases of STDs is not what I had pictured being a doctor was all about.

Last year, I swore to a Physician’s Oath in which I promised to treat all my patients with respect as the very images of God. I thought I loved people. So what should I do? Ethics so often overidealizes the doctor/patient scenario. Ethics assumes the patient is perfect and well-informed, who is treated in a non-rushed setting by a doctor who is well-rested, having somehow avoided being called down to the emergency room at three in the morning the previous night to perform a pregnancy test. But this scenario doesn’t necessarily mirror reality. Should I be frustrated that I am not perfect and cannot always love my patients the way I vowed I would? I feel a knife stabbing my heart when I think of how I treated some of the people who entrusted themselves to my care. I think that feeling this kind of pain is important, because it reminds me that I am human and do have the capacity to love.

However, if I let my guilt destroy me, and give up being a physician altogether (since even when I do try to love, it still doesn’t always end up “good”), I do my patients even more of a disservice than before. I struggled with depression this past week. The fact that I have hurt people (by what I have done and by what I have left undone) and inevitably will again, weighed heavily upon me.

SIMS IN THE AMAZON

By Laurie Wilson

SIMS Student Coordinator

MPH student in the School of Public Health

Early morning sunlight steals around me, sundry sounds erode my slumber. Then I’m awake enough to remember where I am. Twisting in my hammock I look over my shoulder and come face to face with the jungle. Excitement prevails over clinging exhaustion, and I find a place by the rail. Unfamiliar trees, exotic birds and tangled foliage all pass by as the ferry presses steadily upstream. I am in Brazil, on the Rio Madeira, fulfilling a dream. I haven’t been so excited in years.

To this jaded traveler, Brazil is more than just another country, on a sixth continent. This trip is different from the ones that took me to Djibouti, the Seychelles or Papua New Guinea. This adventure has a purpose larger than my distraction, my entertainment. I’m not here just to be here, I’m here to serve.

At Nova Olinda our ferry pulls alongside another boat tied to the dock. Passengers and their goods unload across the other deck to finally reach dry land. We unload our supplies and luggage directly onto the Luzeiro XX, our home for the next week, after it pulls up to the other side of the ferry. It carries us a few yards upstream, then to its designated mooring point. At nearly 7 a.m. we are thinking about breakfast and learning that we will hold clinic here today. The people begin to come.

I’m neither a dentist nor a dental hygienist, physician nor nurse. I’m a public health student who learned Spanish in college and who has been assigned to translate. I’m drafted to work with the dental team. Armed with my lists of pertinent phrases and my English-Spanish and Spanish-Portuguese dictionaries, I brace myself for the task. Finding out which tooth hurts is a good place to start. Qual dente doi?

Fortunately for me, the pastor and one of his assistants speak Spanish. I don’t have to sort through so many unfamiliar sounds to understand. Especially this first day when I am so tired.

The second day we function more smoothly as a dental team, streamlining a system of setting up trays, disinfecting instruments, holding flashlights, loading syringes with anesthetic, wiping sweaty brows and shooing biting flies. Our clinic is the church building. In the morning we treat women and children, some of whom scream. In the afternoon, the men come. There would be more people if they knew we were here. The word is going out, and they’ll come. We’ll be in this area for a couple more days.

I walk down the main street of the village. One or two outhouses, two or three pigs, some ducks, some sheep, lots of little dogs, with light-colored eyes. My informal public health assessment is positive. I’m somewhat surprised to see men carrying out household duties. Must be a cultural thing.

All day I’m sweaty, in the afternoon and evening my legs ache. If I’d known I’d be on my feet all day, I would have brought better shoes. I’m grateful for my sheet that lines my hammock, because I sleep a little less stickily.

A storm blows in, swinging our hammocks into each other and snatching my sock from the drying line. I retrieve it from a nearby tree. We lower the tarps and trust our captain, giggling when we bump into our neighbors. Tomorrow night the stars will be out, awing us with their splendor.

Sabbath comes, and with it a reprieve from clinic. O Esperanza, they sing. I know I’m at home when I recognize “We have this hope.” I sing along in English. The young pastor, who pulls teeth as well as any dentist, has a gift for communicating his message. He shepherds 33 congregations, if he can reach them. Sometimes it is once a year.

I’m waking up long before sunrise. Don’t know why I can’t seem to sleep. I’m working steadily and going to bed exhausted. The humidity saps my strength; I don’t know if I’ve recovered from the 24-hour trip down from Loma Linda. But I am anxious for clinic to start. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing now than what I am doing. Does it have to be over so quickly?

I have friends now, and memories. Pink dolphins and gray, monkeys, birds, glittering caiman eyes. Hundreds of rotten teeth, little children demonstrating tooth-brushing technique on some oversized plastic dentures, cocoa fruit and Brazil nuts straight from their pod.

Our mission adventure ends. I mourn the loss of the family we have become. Back to the ferry, back to Manaus, back to Loma Linda, warm showers and air conditioned offices.

My dream is complete.

SHARING CHRISTMAS WITH COMMUNITY KIDS

By Cedric Caagbay

Senior, School of Nursing

Have you ever volunteered to adopt a kid? That’s pretty noble of you. I tried to adopt, but the hands of fate had other plans, I guess. I signed up with SIMS to spend a day with a child from the community. All I had to do was show up with a gift. I guess someone forgot to tell my adoptee to show up.

To make things worse, when J.C., the director of SIMS, tried to hook me up with an adorable little girl that had been stood up by her noble adopter, she rejected me!

Just picture it—I bought toys for the kid. I showed up, and I not only get stood up, I get rejected by a “parentless” kid! My role soon changed from adoptive parent to photographer for my friends who were getting to know their “children.”

Looking around, I noticed that I wasn’t the only childless person bearing a gift. And looking around I heard the laughs, saw the smiles, and felt the presence of joy. Not the happiness of children playing with familiar friends but the pure happiness of children.

We were strangers to these children. Why weren’t they scared of us? Why were they so willing to hold our hands and play with us? Why were they so trusting in us?

They didn’t know us, but it didn’t seem to matter. The children played with us. They held our hands. They accepted us. After a while I stopped asking, “Why?” and wondered, “Why not?”

PREPARING SIMS VOLUNTEERS

By Lory Giddings

SIMS Student Coordinator

International Health student, School of Public Health

How is it that traveling always tests one’s ability to be versatile, optimistic, and comfortable? It doesn’t seem to matter how far the distance is; even as a 10-year-old traveling to school, I discovered that strange people sometimes ride city buses. This challenged my versatility and my comfort level.

Seeing new sites, people, and ways of living opens one’s eyes to perspectives that television, books, and the Internet only begin to capture. Students for International Mission Service (SIMS), has combined the adventure of travel with the call of service. Each summer, Loma Linda University students embark on adventures to hospitals and clinics all over the world!

To help prepare them for this, SIMS provides an annual retreat. On April 11, 1997, at exactly 1:45 pm, the “El Hongo Airlines” packed with study-weary LLU medical, dental, nursing, speech pathology, physical therapy, and public health students rolled out of the University’s parking lot X. With Sergio, the trusty driver, at the wheel, it was Campamento Adventista (20 miles south of Tecate, Mexico), or BUST!

With only minor holdups along the way (a blown transmission, and a two-hour wait at the border), Sergio and the SIMS flyers gratefully arrived at the camp where tents were hurriedly erected with the motivation of real quesadilla and frijoles aromas wafting by our hungry noses. As volunteers sat down to plates steaming with yummy homemade Mexican food, all was right with the world.

Retreats are a unique experience! Have you ever noticed how people act on retreats? If observing human retreat behavior is not your cup of tea, allow me to share some of my observations with you.

First of all, clothes are different on retreats. Suddenly, ponchos and colorful wool blankets dot the crowd of volunteers. We are obviously not in the United States any more!

The phenomenon of human clumping and subsequent activity never ceases to amaze me. It must begin on the bus, or maybe during the first meal. Anyway, before you know it little amoebas of approximately three to eight persons can be seen doing similar things.

Retreat clumping activities were strange and diverse on the 1997 SIMS retreat. They ranged from discussion of recent study woes, brushing teeth, playing guitar, and visiting with local Spanish-speaking church members, to engaging in Korean calisthenics (“Sa chige, Sa chige, sa cholk bong!”) and exuberant matches of midnight “capture the flag.”

Lest you think recreation was all that took place, I will tell of the worthwhile exercises as well. All volunteers were divided into groups by the location of their summer destination.

These groups, led by seasoned volunteers, addressed issues such as cross-cultural witnessing, culture shock, and what to do when you’re offered food you know you can’t keep down.

Johnny Ramirez, EdD, associate professor of theology, psychology, and culture, Loma Linda University School of Religion, shared the Sabbath sermon, acting as his own translator as he passionately opened our minds to God’s grace and love.

Gail Ormsby, MPH, assistant professor, international health, School of Public Health (SPH), shared valuable travel tips, and Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, dean, SPH and SIMS’ sponsor, discoursed on medical do’s and don’ts of foreign travel.

EL HONGO: A REFLECTION

By Cheri Ward

Senior, School of Nursing

At the beginning of the school year, I was excited to learn that LLU has an organization, SIMS, which runs monthly medical and dental clinics in El Hongo, Mexico.

Although I had never been to Mexico for a mission trip, I had just returned from living in Quito, Ecuador, where I taught English.

So, with my enthusiasm to practice taking blood pressures and a desire to once again be with the Latin American culture I have grown to love, I headed off to Mexico for a weekend with SIMS.

I was not disappointed. For me, it was so enriching to once again sing a cappella from the Spanish Seventh-day Adventist hymnal.

Then, at lunch, we were fed a feast of wonderful food without that “processed” taste. And what a pleasant surprise to learn that in Mexico they have Sociadad de Jovenes, a young people’s meeting that is held every Sabbath afternoon. I know it means a lot to them whenever the Loma Linda students help out.

On Sunday, the clinic went into full swing. And yes, I had plenty of opportunity to practice my basic nursing skills, which included taking vital signs.

What was more rewarding than that, though, was being able to talk with the patients, answer their questions, and provide them with medical advice. Suddenly, those long hours of studying paid off; I was able to share that knowledge with someone.

A LEARNING EXPERIENCE AT PALAWAN ADVENTIST HOSPITAL

By Ewanah Johnson

Junior, School of Medicine

Last summer I took the opportunity to spend seven weeks volunteering at the Palawan Adventist Hospital, on the Philippine island of Palawan.

The island’s beauty became evident before I landed there; the contrast of the blue water lapping against the lush green coastline dotted with tiny thatched houses made a breathtaking picture.

I soon discovered the people of Palawan took pride in the fact that their island bore the title of being the cleanest one in the Philippines. Their homes, though simple, were well made, and their yards were kept spotless. Often, a bright, colorful variety of tropical flowers lined the walkways.

After I arrived at Palawan Adventist Hospital, they decided that I could be of the best help in surgery; little skill is needed to hold retractors, and the risk is minimal.

Though a simple task, I can’t say this disappointed me. It gave me the opportunity to observe and assist in many different types of surgeries—everything from hernia repairs to cleaning compound fractures.

The first surgery I attended took eight hours, and the anesthesiologist hand- bagged the patient throughout the entire surgery because there were no respirators available.

It amazed me to discover how resourceful the surgeons were and how much they could accomplish under primitive, less-than-ideal conditions. My knowledge and appreciation of surgery grew, as did my admiration for these physicians.

CHAPTER REPORTS

• BULGARIA—Seventh-day Adventist health work is alive and well. Dr. Gergana Geshanova, the Health and Temperance Director of the Bulgarian Union, reports that a very active program in health evangelism is conducted in all parts of her country.

Every summer, seminars are held for a total of a week for health-minded people from throughout the country. A “Week of Health” was held in 1997.

A medical-evangelistic team has been formed, and this group goes to different cities of the country with a “School of Health.” A total of five to six lectures are given every night for the people of the town. Topics include nutrition, stress, water, exercise, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc. On Sabbath special invitations go to friends of the church for a spiritual lecture. For many people, it is the first time that they have been touched with the Seventh-day Adventist church.

In 1996 the Union office organized a Five-Day Plan to Stop Smoking. The first one was held in Sofia and then subsequent ones were held in six other cities.

Extensive coverage was given to the Five-Day Plan in the newspapers, radio and television. Bulgarian National Television came right to the church to obtain information about the program and to speak with the new nonsmokers.

The Director of the National Oncology Institute and the Director of the Cancer Foundation was a special guest. Some of the people who attended had smoked for thirty, forty, and more years, a total of one, two or three packs daily. One child was very emphatic in inviting his father every evening for the five days and was very happy when the father decided to quit smoking.

The Health and Temperance Director for the Union works in a private medical center in Sofia. Recently, Dr. Warren Peters and Dr. Hawlitschek were guests. There are 15-18 physicians with different specialties at the health center.

KARACHI ADVENTIST HOSPITAL MARKS FIFTY YEARS

By Gail Schatzschneider

Pubic Relations Officer, Karachi Adventist Hospital

“Seven Day,” the bus conductor yells out to passengers, for that is the nickname of Karachi Adventist Hospital in Pakistan. Nineteen ninety-seven marked the Golden Anniversary of the Seventh-day Adventist medical work in Pakistan. It all began with a small clinic opened by Dr. Robert Dunn in 1947, the year of the partition which created two newly independent countries of India and Pakistan. With the end of British rule, Pakistan became the first Islamic Republic.

After independence, only government hospitals existed and the community of Karachi recognized the need for a private hospital. The local people appealed to the Seventh-day Adventists to expand the clinic into a hospital. To prove their sincerity the local community donated heavily toward a new building. Karachi Adventist Hospital, with 72 beds, was built in the heart of the city on the main thoroughfare in 1951, Pakistan’s first private hospital. KAH was officially dedicated by Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, the wife of the first prime minister of Pakistan.

Ten years later a school of nursing was added which has now graduated 555 nurses in the past 36 years. Dr. Harold Giebel, KAH medical director, and his wife, Dr. Beverly Giebel, raised funds from Germany to build a four-story residence for the student nurses. The school has taught students from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, in addition to Pakistan.

Loma Linda dentist Dr. Larry Day opened the first dental mission clinic in 1961 and it continues today. History was made in 1963 when the first open-heart surgery was accomplished in Pakistan at KAH by the Loma Linda University Heart Surgery Team with Dr. Joan Coggin, Dr. Elsworth Wareham, and nurse LaVon Sutton. Forty-five operations were performed successfully on heart patients. One of those heart patients, a small girl, later became an anesthesiologist and worked at KAH.

Today, KAH still has a reputation for good care and a thriving business; nevertheless, it is struggling to overcome the perceived image of an “old” hospital. Old buildings do not portray up-to-date medical care to the community. However, this is not the primary reason for the current building plans to add a new wing. The need for additional beds is because so often the 142 beds are filled to capacity with a waiting list of patients who need admittance. In 1996 KAH had 56,659 outpatient visits, 8,287 admissions, 2,854 surgeries and 1,890 OB deliveries. These patients come from the middle class background of Muslims in general, and some patients’ loyalties to KAH go back two generations.. But it is the desire of the hospital administration to also reach the upper and lower classes of people. The city of Karachi has 14 million people with wide extremes of wealth and poverty.

By far KAH admits more OB patients than any other. In Pakistan “the maternal mortality rate has assumed alarming proportions,” reports Dr. SherShah Syed, general secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association and KAH staff consultant. He believes that the maternal death rate is 1800 per 100,000 women with the main causes of maternal deaths being: hemorrhage, excessive bleeding, hypertension, eclampsia and infections. Many of these deaths are due to after care in deliveries and the inadequate postoperative care in government hospitals. For this reason OB patients continue to flow into KAH, whose delivery room is reputed to be the cleanest in all of Pakistan.

In January of 1998 KAH will launch a mobile medical clinic to the ten poorest city communities in Karachi. With this effort KAH can extend primary health care to the impoverished at their doorstep and intervene before an illness or high-risk pregnancy reaches a critical stage.

Don Schatz-schneider, Administrator of KAH, reports that their greatest need, beyond a new building, is to update the medical equipment. Through the efforts of Frank Teeuwen, Director of ADRA Netherlands, some donations from Dutch organizations have purchased equipment such as oximeter/blood pressure monitors, prenatal monitors and an exercise tolerance test system. ADRA Sweden has donated two electrocardiograms and defibrillators. However, the much used X-Ray machine is 25 years old and needs a new replacement. Also on the needed list are: ICU cardiac monitors, syringe pumps, a pulmonary function analyzer, infant warmers, incubators, suction pumps, a laboratory microscope, neonatal ventilator, ICU ventilator, pathology and histology lab, hand-held oximeters and a large sterilizer.

The question is often asked, “Have Christian hospitals outlived their usefulness when the competition to keep equipment up-to-date is so costly?” Both religious and secular Pakistani people would answer, “No.” First, in Pakistan both Muslims, Parsi, Hindu, as well as Christians appreciate the spiritual dimension of our Adventist hospital. Although the government of Pakistan makes it clear that Muslims are not to be subject to proselytizing by Christians, patients of all religions apprec-iate the bedside prayer. Secondly the care of the patients in government hospitals runs from indifference to neglect of patients and neglect of the building environment. Both of these areas are strengths in KAH as the employees strive to continue the good reputation of the hospital. For these reasons KAH continues to turn away eight to ten patients daily.

The hospital has made an impact on our Muslim friends in Karachi. Two recent, very positive comments are encouraging. A Pakistani businessman whose firm had contributed steel at cost for the original hospital building 46 years ago reflected his discouragement about the health care in a letter. He wrote, “Our people die for lack of health care . . . the people are fighting a losing battle in health. . . . But for these private agencies the people would have no- where to go.” In writing for the city newspaper Dr. Manzar Ul Haque, Consultant Surgeon for Karachi Adventist Hospital, described KAH as a “missionary institution with a healing spirit.”

AIMS ON THE INTERNET

By Rodney Willard, MD

AIMS Webmaster

Afew years ago as AIMS was growing, we dreamed of various ways of expanding our tools for communication with the membership.We had the postal service, telephones, fax, perhaps even ham radio, but the most satisfactory communications were face to face via travel and regional conferences. Those of us involved with computers looked for ways to use this modality. We had experience with computer bulletin boards and passing documents on the internet. Thus, when the General Conference Communications Department extablished the SDA Forum on CompuServe, the AIMS Board authorized the development of an AIMS section. This became a reality when the expansion to Forum B had space for us. We had a library with significant documents available there and a discussion section. We envisioned this tool as being a means of including the health and temperance secretaries of the various levels of church organizations around the world in AIMS activities.

When Mosaic arrived on the internet scene in the early 90’s, we dreamed of an AIMS internet website. A year ago the Board authorized development of a website and negotiations with several possible hosts eventually resulted in TAGnet (Three Angels Global Networking) offering to host us at no charge. TAGnet is a labor of love of Adventist computer professionals in Silicon Valley which hosts a number of church and supporting ministry websites. They are a non-profit organization and deserve to be on your list of organizations receiving your charitable contributions. Our website was activated in January 1998. Its URL, or website address, is: http://www.tagnet.org/aims. The site includes sections on the history and purpose of AIMS, coming events, mission and chapter news, JOURNAL excerpts from the last two issues, a library of documents (including that of the new Adventist Health International initiative), links to those institutions having e-mail and/or internet connections and opportunities and openings for service. Activity on Forum B over the past few months has dwindled almost to nothing. Thus, the AIMS Board has voted, as of March 1, 1998, to discontinue our participation in Forum B and to concentrate on the Internet.

However, there continues to be a health section in Forum A. Its library contains documents from the GC on health, nutrition, abstracts from the 2000 & Beyond Conference held in 1993, and other pertinent material. Its discussion section has been wide-ranging from personal greetings to requests for medical advice with occasional allopathic responses, but more often alternative medicine and “natural remedy” advice. But even here the activity is dwindling.

The website experiment, however, is going well. Our target group here is all Adventist health workers broadly defined who have internet access. Our first hit was from Germany. A Division medical secretary in Africa asked us to list openings for mission service on the webpage. A minister in Italy asked if it would be possible to list job openings in our institutions for rad techs; another for nurses. A request came from Australia for help in organizing a home nursing department. He wanted to dialogue with those who administer such departments in other parts or the world. And so it goes. We have ranged from no less than 20 to up to 315 hits a day. The average seems to be settling into the 50-75 hits per day range.

We hope that some day the website will contain the following: excerpts from the Health Evangelism Study Guide; chapter and institution news, as you provide it; model chapter bylaws; smaller picture files; discussion center; guest book; links to chapter websites; and delivery of updates to chapters via the internet.

NEWSNOTES AROUND THE GLOBE

• RUSSIA—At the request of the Euro-Asia Division, Harald A. Habenicht, MD, and his wife, Donna, traveled to five cities in Russia, giving family life and children’s ministry workshops. At the same time the division requested him to meet with health and temperance directors of the local conferences and churches. All physicians and medical personnel were also invited.

Nadia Ivanova, the Director of Health and Temperance for the Euro-Asia Division, traveled with them and also served as their very efficient translator. They held one or two-day seminar/workshops in Moscow, Kiev (Ukraine), Minsk (Belarus), St. Petersburg, and Nishny Novgorov.

Some of the topics presented included: Ellen G. White--Prophet of Health; How Modern Medical Science Confirms the Spirit of Prophecy; Prayer for the Sick and the Anointing Service; How Medical Professionals Can Witness to their Patients and Colleagues; What Medical Missionary Work Means for a Church Member; Doctor-Minister Team Evangelism; How God Keeps us Healthy the Natural Way without Drugs; How to be a Vegetarian in Russia (Belarus, Ukraine) and its Advantages; How to Prevent Cancer and Heart Disease.

They also presented the pyramid of healthful eating and distributed (for a small fee) hundreds of Russian posters for church members and church delegates to take home and use as a check list for their eating habits.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

By G. Gordon Hadley, MD

AIMS President

In the 1950s the medical students developed a program where they could spend summers serving at mission hospitals. During this time a number of students took part and this experience provided data for a later retrospective study of how these students’ mission activities influenced their later career choices. The study concluded that students who took mission trips were very likely to serve as missionaries later in life. This laid the groundwork for the SIMS organization.

Probably the single most factor in SIMS’s development arose from curriculum changes implemented by the School of Medicine in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These changes allowed greater flexibility in the clerkship schedule, whereby the students could opt for electives at mission hospitals.

The General Conference in Washington, D.C. also expressed a real interest in the School of Medicine SIMS project and established a fund to help with the transportation of students (and spouses) who elected to participate.

The SIMS program later expanded, in the 1980s, to include all the schools on the Loma Linda University campus, and now, in addition to long term mission electives, also includes the short term forays into neighboring countries such as Mexico, and local community outreach activities.

The ideas behind SIMS echo those expressed in Ellen White’s address given at the dedication ceremony at the groundbreaking for Loma Linda’s College of Medical Evangelists in 1905. Mrs. White described the school as a training ground for “Gospel Medical Missionary Evangelists.” And, indeed, this is what SIMS participants have become.

OPENINGS FOR PHYSICIANS/DENTISTS

From the Secretariat of the General Conference of SDAs

For more information, please call:

Elaine A. Robinson, (301) 680-6666

Anesthesiologist Antillean Adventist Hospital, Curacao

Scheer Memorial Hospital, Nepal

Clinical Pathologist Antillean Adventist Hospital, Curacao

Dentist Arusha SDA Medical/Dental Clinic, Tanzania, Africa Asmara, Eritrea, Africa (under construction)

Adventist Dental Practice, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Africa

Equatorial Guinea, Africa (establishing new clinic)

Kinshasha SDA Dental Clinic, Zaire, Africa

Lilongwe Dental Clinic, Malawi, Africa (Urgent Relief)

Lusaka, Zambia, Africa (establishing new clinic)

Nairobi SDA Dental Clinic, Kenya, Africa

Yaounde SDA Dental Clinic, Rep. of Cameroon, Africa

Adventist Dental Clinic, Dhaka, Bangladesh (Urgent)

ADRA Mobile Dental Clinic, Bahia, Brazil

Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Dental Clinic, Hangzhou, China

Guam SDA Clinic (Urgent)

Jamaica SDA Dental Clinic

Seoul SDA Hospital Dental Clinic, Korea

Antananarivo SDA Dental Clinic, Madagascar

Director, Adventist Health Center, Moscow, Russia

Tobago SDA Dental Clinic (under development)

Community SDA Hospital, Trinidad (Urgent Relief)

Palau SDA Clinic, Dental Department (Urgent Relief)

St. Kitts SDA Dental Clinic, West Indies (Urgent Relief)

St. Vincent Dental Clinic, St. Vincent, West Indies

General Practice Andrews Memorial Hospital, Jamaica

Koza Adventist Hospital, Rep. of Cameroon, Africa

Internal Medicine Community Hospital of SDA, Trinidad (Cardiologist)

SDA Medical Clinic, Ile-ife, Nigeria

Medical Director Mugonero Hospital, Rwanda

OB/GYN Scheer Memorial Hospital, Nepal

Orthopaedic Surgeon Masanga Leprosy Hospital, Sierrra Leone, West Indies

Scheer Memorial Hospital, Nepal

Pediatrician Scheer Memorial Hospital, Nepal

Surgeon Bere Adventist Hospital, Chad