In South Sudan hundreds walk from the surrounding area and refugee camps to wait for the doors of the Grieve Memorial Clinic to be opened.

They wait to be seen for ailments like malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition, and respiratory illness and the team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and community health workers serve together to meet these needs.  My husband and I served in South Sudan for two and a half years and, as a nurse, my main role was to oversee the Community Health program. My focus was training the clinic staff in organizing outreaches to the neighbouring villages, providing education on common health issues, and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

 At the end of 2020, we returned to Canada and began work at SIM Canada's headquarters in Toronto. I was unsure how my role would fit into “Healthcare Ministry”. I had just moved from a place where ministry included things like walking to neighbouring villages, working alongside the local staff at the clinic and completing inventory counts in the pharmacy. How would working in the office compare? One doesn’t think of serving in the sending office when applying to the mission. But since joining the office team and being in the role of Health Coordinator for SIM Canada, I have experienced God's leading as I serve our missionaries.

 In my role, I meet applicants at the beginning of their journey and walk with them as they move along the process through to their departure and beyond. It’s so much more than simply going over vaccination records and which anti-malaria medication to take. I’ve helped missionaries on the field connect with counselling when they have felt alone and discouraged. I’ve been privileged to connect them to the Missionary Health Institute here in Toronto when they have been struggling with physical health issues. And I’ve prayed over our missionaries by name as I join in on Member Care meetings. It’s an honour to support our missionaries in a way that, by extension, helps them to thrive in ministry.

What a joy it’s been to experience again how God uses the gifts and abilities He’s given us when we submit our lives to Him; whether that be in the dust of South Sudan or the busyness of Toronto. I’m serving in a place where I did not expect “Healthcare Ministry” and yet here I am, amazed at how He is at work. God is good. 

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

1 Peter 4:10-11.

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