Forming a medical mission team has long been on the hearts of faculty from St. John's College of Nursing and Health Sciences (SJCNHS) at Southwest Baptist University's (SBU) Springfield campus in Missouri, and during the spring of 2009 the dream was finally realized.

"Doing medical mission trips with colleagues from SJCNHS has been a dream of mine and several other faculty members since at least 2004, when I joined the faculty," said Dean Carole Eldridge, DNP, RN, NEA-BC. "I spent a year in Zambia in 1990 running a rural clinic and participated in other mission trips through the years that made me very aware of the need for medical care in the developing world. I have always believed, as do many of my colleagues in healthcare, that Jesus called us to serve both physical and spiritual needs wherever we find them."

The destination of Ecuador was determined after Eldridge became acquainted with SBU's College of Mathematics and Sciences Dean Perry Tompkins, PhD.

REACHING OUT: Terri Schmitt, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, (right) an assistant professor in the BSN program at St. John's College of Nursing and Health Sciences, examines a toddler being held by student nurse Faith Simmons. courtesy Southwest Baptist University

"I consider it a 'God thing,'" Eldridge said. "Dr. Tompkins and I joined SBU as new deans in our respective colleges at the same time, so we naturally bonded as we learned our new roles. I was praying and searching for a way to get a medical mission trip program started, and Dr. Tompkins was an experienced visitor to Ecuador who had contacts on the ground and also spoke Spanish.

"His pediatrician brother, Dr. Rory Tompkins, had recently expressed interest in a medical outreach. Dr. Tompkins wanted to facilitate his brother's desire, help the people of Ecuador and help the SBU nursing students reach their mission goals. Dr. Tompkins and I were discussing these things at a faculty function, when we realized that God was putting a plan together through us."

"Dr. Tompkins really brought the original plan to light, since his brother is a pediatrician and Dr. Tompkins is very familiar with Ecuador and had contacts there," noted Terri Schmitt, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, an assistant professor in the BSN program. "Dr. Eldridge then spearheaded the idea with the nursing group. It was an excellent example of team work by Dr. Tompkins, Dr. Eldridge and Diana Gallamore from the SBU missions office."

Getting Ready
Once a group was formed of seven SBU students (Baylee Anderson, Laura Hampson, Shannon Ingram, Laura Percival, Tiffany Smith, Jamie Gray and Faith Simmons), three faculty members (Tompkins, Phebe Goldsmith, MSN, RN, and Schmitt), two physicians and family members of the faculty, they began to prepare. The students took a course taught by Schmitt designed to develop competence in healthcare cross-culturally and also studied the book, Where There is No Doctor.

"We had no idea what we were doing, so we played it by ear, prayed a great deal and it all seemed to work out well," Schmitt said. "The students read and were well-prepared; they helped pack supplies and were willing to do whatever the team leaders asked. We had such an excellent combination of people, with different talents that each part of the clinic needs was miraculously covered."

St. John's Health System donated supplies and medicine while students and faculty raised money to buy more. There were some challenges that faced the group as they began preparing for the trip.

"One of the biggest challenges was figuring out what supplies and medicines to take and how to get them into the country," Eldridge said. "Everyone had to coordinate their luggage so they could carry as many of these items as possible. There were some concerns about customs and costs, but it turned out to be unnecessary worry."

Reaching Out
While on the trip, the group spent most of their time hosting clinics. Between Monday and Wednesday, the group saw almost 300 children at a church in Maranata. The group also went into the mountains a few days to the villages of Capigasí and Tanlahua. During the clinics, the group dispensed medications, educated parents and taught about healthy living.

"I would have been worthless on this trip if it were not for Terri taking over the leadership in that area," Tompkins said. "I was pleased to be a glorified gopher and translator."

"We built relationships that will last and we provided many people access to healthcare who would not otherwise have it," Schmitt said. "It was amazing to me to see the number of children in Caspigasí without transportation or access to healthcare. There was no health care in Tanlahua either; people had to travel to Quito if they could. The number of children with life-threatening chronic illness was surprising. The things we take for granted became very clear: dental care, access to a healthcare provider, money to buy medicine. These were things the majority of these people did not have."

"The most memorable and impressionable thing for me was the grace and love of the people," noted student Baylee Anderson. "I remember one woman in particular. She came in with a small boy in her arms. We all looked at him and knew right away that he had cerebral palsy. The doctor began to talk to her and tell her different things she could do for the child. She was confused because she honestly had no idea what was wrong. The doctor then had to explain what his condition was and his life prognosis. We were all stunned that the boy was nearly five and had never been diagnosed. She began to weep, which we all thought was due to her finding out the diagnosis of her son, but how wrong we were. She was crying tears of joy.

"For years, she had thought she had done something wrong during birth that caused her son to be the way he was. All the mothers and women looked down on her in the village and thought she was a bad mother. Our doctor had just told her that she had done nothing wrong. I then watched as the doctor pulled money out of his own pocket and gave it to her so she could buy anti-seizure medication for her son. I will never forget that day. I have never been so humbled in my whole entire life. I felt God moving in that room. We all stood and watched and cried."

GLOBAL CONNECTION: The medical mission team from St. John's College of Nursing and Health Sciences enjoys time with their new Ecuadoran friends. courtesy Southwest Baptist University

Mission Accomplished
The faculty believes the trip allowed their students to see the world in a different perspective.

 "Students' eyes were opened to the wide gap between healthcare and general living conditions in the U.S. and in other parts of the world," Eldridge said. "Several students have told me they plan to go again next year. I hope they learned that the world is bigger than their own exposures or backyard."

Schmitt added, "That they are called to 'care for the least of these,' that their lives are living sacrifices, that God is present and loving and unchanged in all cultures and in all people, and that they can make a huge difference anywhere with their gift of nursing."
Though the trip is over, the dream for SJCNHS to continue to participating in medical mission trips is not. The college is in the process of planning another trip to the same area in Ecuador during the summer of 2010.

"Because we have established relationships, know the needs and know the population, a trip to the same area is a win-win for both the patients and for SBU," Schmitt said.

Eldridge can see the change in students just like she saw a change in herself when she came back from Zambia.

"I believe that medical mission trips change those who go more than those to whom they minister," Eldridge said. "I learned new gratitude for the material blessings we have, and I also learned to hold my possessions lightly. I saw that it is possible to be content with much less. I learned that death is a very present daily reality in many developing countries, and that eternity feels much closer in those conditions. I learned that I could never do enough, but that I could do something and that God could use whatever I did."

Nicole Heitmann is an intern in Marketing & Communications at Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, MO.