Journal Under the Auspices of the Alumni Association School of Medicine of Loma Linda University 2007 (Volume 28, Number 4)
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UNITY FOR SERVICE TO GOD AND HUMANITY ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL SERVICES journal UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY 2007 (Volume 28, Number 4) A Message from China —See page 3 FEATURING : Adventist Nursing Around the World —See page 8 nursing program of the Seventh-day CONTENTS Adventist Church. Our lead story for this edition is a article on that program. Editorial .......................................... 2 Our first report about our world nursing From the President ......................... 3 program appeared in the Journal in 2000, Medical-Ministerial Cooperation Featuring Dr. Tony Torres .......... 5 so an update is overdue. Reminder: March 3, 2008 ................ 7 The article was written by Patricia Adventist Nursing Education: Jones, PhD, RN, who is not only director A Tradition of Service ..................... 8 of the International Nursing Outreach Directory of SDA of Loma Linda University School of Schools of Nursing ........................ 13 International Impact of AIMS ...... 14 Nursing, but is also an Associate Director AIMS Life Members ...................... 16 for the Department of Health Ministries Reflections of Honduras ............... 18 in the General Conference. As you peruse the life members section beginning on page 16, you will EDITORIAL note that two members have stepped On a trip earlier this year to attend a up to the plate and become Regional Life retiree function of the North American Members. Their names are listed under Division in the great state of Texas, I that category on page 18. came across information about a Texas Lastly, we are publishing a response physician who is also a pastor as well to the recent changes in the AIMS as a departmental director in the Texas organization by a long-time member, Conference. Dr. Tony Torres is the Dr. P. William Dysinger. We invite you Health Coordinator for the conference to read to the end of his article for an and pastor of the Cleburne, Texas, editorial response. Church. As he started work as a pastor, he —Don A. Roth, Editor quickly saw that his town needed a free General Conference Representative, medical clinic. He decided to combine Loma Linda Campus his ministerial work as well as his medical training to begin a clinic for local indigents. You will find his story on page five. It About the cover: Wendy Guptill, a is a classic example of how our ministers graduate nurse, has been providing can work together with physicians on primary healthcare to the people in every level. the remote mountain area of the President Jack Bennett writes once island of Palawan in the Southern again from China where he is the Loma Philippines. She is a volunteer with Linda University consultant at the Sir Adventist Frontier Missions and is Run Run Shaw Hospital. the only health professional in the We proudly dedicate this edition area. of the AIMS Journal to the worldwide 2 • AIMS JOURNAL • 2007 (Vol. 28, No. 4) From the President by Jack Bennett, MD Insiders and Outsiders: A Visit to Tarsus ost of us, most of the Luke, of course, was a physician, time, feel left out— presumably speaking from the special “Mmisfits. We don’t belong. perspective of those whose daily Others seem to be so confident, so sure professional experiences remind them of themselves, ‘insiders’ who know the that, under the skin, we are so alike. Luke ropes, old hands in a club from which not only wrote about women, common we are excluded.” So begins Eugene H. laborers and the poor, but his is also Peterson’s introduction to Luke’s Gospel the Gospel that introduces the Good in The Message, his profoundly influential Samaritan. In the book of Acts, Luke paraphrase of the Bible. “Luke is a most details the summons that came to Saul vigorous champion of the outsider,” (“insider” of “insiders,” see Galatians, continues Peterson. “An outsider chapter one) on his way to Damascus, himself, the only Gentile in an all-Jewish Saul’s tremulous acknowledgement of cast of New Testament writers, he shows Jesus, and his efforts to overcome the how Jesus includes those who typically suspicion and fear that his own actions were treated as outsiders by the religious have raised among those to whom he establishment of the day … As Luke now wishes to belong. When troubles tells the story, all of us who have found arise, Saul retreats to Tarsus. ourselves on the outside looking in on life And there he might have stayed, with no hope of gaining entrance (and faithful but obscure, had it not been for who of us hasn’t felt it?) now find the the proactive generosity of that man doors wide open, found and welcomed known as the Son of Encouragement. by God in Jesus.” Try to imagine the New Testament AIMS JOURNAL • 2007 (Vol. 28, No. 4) • 3 without the writings of Paul the Apostle. “Barnabas went to Tarsus.” Barnabas Visualize the early church without Paul’s understood the precarious nature of missionary journeys. Impossible, isn’t opportunity and the value of personal it? But without Barnabas, he might have insight into another person’s character, ended his days in a sigh, unknown, his needs, and abilities. “Barnabas went to talents wasted. Instead, there is that Tarsus,” clear to Tarsus, because otherwise crescendo of victory as he senses the he might miss the satisfaction of serving goal just ahead, spreads his arms and as a link between a great need and the declares, “I’ve run hard right to the fulfillment of that need. finish, believed all the way. All that’s left Are you overdue for a spiritual visit now is the shouting—God’s applause!” to Tarsus? Do you remember the needs (II Timothy 4: 7 The Message) of those lonely, overworked practitioners But, no. “Barnabas went on to that you left in their poorly-equipped Tarsus to look for Saul. He found him clinics, their overcrowded hospitals? and brought him back to Antioch. They Can you remember the vacant expression were there a whole year. … In Antioch that suffused the faces of their families the disciples were for the first time called when you praised them for their hard, Christians.” (Acts 11: 25, 26 The Message) unceasing work “for the Lord”? What The Encourager went in search of his about your friend who, late in coming former friend and colleague. to Christ, finds that his old colleagues It has come to my attention that we no longer lend him their comradeship? AIMS “insiders” may not have displayed Do you recall the joy you felt when you the spirit of Barnabas in our treatment became—for a season—their true yoke- of those Christian colleagues who, for fellow, their Barnabas? one reason or another, have not followed Tell us about them, if you can! We the education, professional training and want to “go to Tarsus” with AIMS. We experience pathway that is so familiar want to reach out to those who feel like to us. We may have served as their “outsiders” and let them know that the mentors during our years of service in AIMS circle of encouragement and their homelands, we may have interacted support will not be completed until their with them during a short-term mission hands are joined to ours. venture, or maybe we are physically Do you remember, or have you separated from them by no more than forgotten? a few city streets. Our professional and social needs satisfied, our zone of Editor’s Note: comfort established, we consider our Jack and Sharan Bennett write to you from contact with them as a souvenir that adds Hangzhou, China, where they do their best to color to our memories of other days. If encourage. we meet them again, we will experience a flush of satisfaction; knowing them Editor’s E-mail: reminds us that we really have seen the [email protected] world, yes sir, we have “friends” all over! 4 • AIMS JOURNAL • 2007 (Vol. 28, No. 4) Medical-Ministerial Cooperation Featuring Dr. Tony Torres by Don Roth exas physician Tony Torres is eventually became regular members. in the forefront in the North After high school Dr. Torres TAmerican Division on how to attended Atlantic Union College in South combine a ministerial and a medical Lancaster, Massachusetts. He followed program at a local church. Dr. Torres is with a Master of Divinity degree from not only a pastor at the Cleburne Church, Andrews University, in Michigan, and but he is also the Medical Outreach then became a pastor. Coordinator for the Texas Conference. After watching a film on Albert His major medical outreach in the Schweitzer when he was 32, Dr. Cleburne area has been to establish a Torres decided he should be a medical medical clinic for his local church and to missionary. He attended medical school go overseas to help those in medical need in the Dominican Republic, so he had to whenever he finds the opportunity. learn Spanish in order to participate in In the 1950s his parents decided to the class work and to take exams. relocate from Puerto Rico and settle in As part of the clinical training, Brooklyn, New York, where his father Dr. Torres and other students went out and mother hoped for a better life for to the countryside in both Haiti and their two young children. the Dominican Republic. His attitude But their tough Brooklyn towards life changed completely when neighborhood, close to what used to he saw the great need in that part of the be the Brooklyn Naval Yard, was rife world. with poverty and almost as bereft of opportunity as the Puerto Rican region the family left.