Counterparts: SYD2
Momoson Tontanga reports on the 2019 SYD2 conference
I am currently working in a mission hospital established by American missionaries in 1920 in the small north-eastern Indian state of Manipur. I am the only registered doctor here despite the hospital being 100 years old. Prior to my joining, the hospital had been run by some unregistered doctors and Ayurvedic doctors. Being in a low resource setting, lab facilities and other equipment are minimal. In case of emergencies, the nearest referral hospital is 45 kilometres away which takes one and half hours because of poor road conditions. I was prepared mentally for many clinical and technical challenges. To my surprise, however, there are ethical and moral challenges too, which is shocking and I’m still battling with it. I sometimes wonder how such things happen under the banner of a ‘Christian hospital’. When the challenges are overwhelming and I can’t seem to take a step further, the surety of God’s calling is what gives me enough grace and strength to go on.
It was just a month before I joined this hospital that I attended the 2019 SYD2 and CMF UK Junior Doctors Conferences. I was, by then, sure of God’s calling to the hospital in Manipur, but I was wrestling with several questions at the same time. At that time, I could well relate to the situation of the Israelites at the shore of the Red Sea where in front of them was the vast sea, impossible for them to cross, and behind them Pharaoh’s mighty soldiers. It seemed that the challenges ahead of me were as vast as the Red Sea and my own questions and insecurities as a young doctor, not specialised in any field, my future, and when to go for specialist training, were haunting me from the rear. It was in God’s perfect timing that I attended SYD2. All the sessions and seminars in SYD2 and the Junior Doctors Conference were reassuring and encouraging. Dr David Randall’s story of challenging the Royal College of Physicians; Fi McLachlan’s session on ‘Global Health and Mission’ and ‘Stepping out in following Jesus: wherever he may lead’, are to name just a few. It was also heart warming to meet like-minded junior doctors from different parts of the globe and to listen to their amazing testimonies. Not only the sessions and seminars, but the song that we sang at Hothorpe Hall stills rings in my ears –
‘How deep the Father’s love for usHow vast beyond all measureThat he should give his only SonTo make a wretch his treasure’
I work here not because of who I am or what I am (I’m just a junior doctor) but because of my Father who loves me so much that he gave his only Son to save me and make me his treasure and who called me to this place. And I will continue to serve him for no other reason but that I have experienced his faithfulness and his unfailing love.I will continue to serve him for no other reason but that I have experienced his faithfulness and his unfailing love
It was just a month before I joined this hospital that I attended the 2019 SYD2 and CMF UK Junior Doctors Conferences. I was, by then, sure of God’s calling to the hospital in Manipur, but I was wrestling with several questions at the same time. At that time, I could well relate to the situation of the Israelites at the shore of the Red Sea where in front of them was the vast sea, impossible for them to cross, and behind them Pharaoh’s mighty soldiers. It seemed that the challenges ahead of me were as vast as the Red Sea and my own questions and insecurities as a young doctor, not specialised in any field, my future, and when to go for specialist training, were haunting me from the rear. It was in God’s perfect timing that I attended SYD2. All the sessions and seminars in SYD2 and the Junior Doctors Conference were reassuring and encouraging. Dr David Randall’s story of challenging the Royal College of Physicians; Fi McLachlan’s session on ‘Global Health and Mission’ and ‘Stepping out in following Jesus: wherever he may lead’, are to name just a few. It was also heart warming to meet like-minded junior doctors from different parts of the globe and to listen to their amazing testimonies. Not only the sessions and seminars, but the song that we sang at Hothorpe Hall stills rings in my ears –
‘How deep the Father’s love for usHow vast beyond all measureThat he should give his only SonTo make a wretch his treasure’
I work here not because of who I am or what I am (I’m just a junior doctor) but because of my Father who loves me so much that he gave his only Son to save me and make me his treasure and who called me to this place. And I will continue to serve him for no other reason but that I have experienced his faithfulness and his unfailing love.I will continue to serve him for no other reason but that I have experienced his faithfulness and his unfailing love
