Called and "On Call": The Doubts & Prayers of a Christian Doctor

by Dr Tam Wai Jia

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I went into medicine because I wanted to be a medical missionary. I was not alone. In medical school, I was one of dozens of students gathering regularly to nurture our call to the mission field.

We invited missionary doctors and nurses from abroad. We exchanged books about remote medicine. We sacrificed our holidays to do internships in jungle hospitals. We prayed. We fasted.

Now, fast forward ten years later, I wonder how many of us fulfilled our calling to serve “in the field?”

“But every hospital in any place is a mission field,” some might answer.

Rightfully so, but the plain truth is, many of us also “settled down.” We allowed the demands of kids and paying bills to obscure the bold call we once had to be sent out among unreached people groups, providing healthcare where there was no doctor, and living incarnationally amidst the inconveniences of the developing world as Jesus did.

Today, that large group of medical students that met month after month to ask God to send them out, who committed to thinking twice about the kind of house or car we bought, has dwindled to no more than a handful willing to be sent to the field.

Obedience and Objections

Among those who are willing, some—like our family—still struggle with the same heart-wrenching reality that heeding to missions is never a comfortable decision. This season, as we struggle with the pains of waiting for a door of opportunity to be opened for us to return to the mission field, I’ve questioned God. Why did I hear the call to missions at the age of 18, and now 18 years later, I am struggling to find a position in the developing world as a public health practitioner? Waiting can be hard, and the delay seems to provide additional ammunition for others to fire their objections and warnings:

But your children will miss out on the education they deserve.

Can anywhere else in the world be safer than Singapore? What if something bad happens to them?

Can you honestly guarantee you’ll have enough to pay for your kids’ college if you make this reckless decision at the peak of your career?

These questions plague us and thousands of other missionary doctors in the field waiting to be sent out every day. Doubt is a constant threat.

Yet I’ve often wondered – how many more doctors would be sent into the field, ripe for harvest, if only we knew the prayers of the saints that buoyed us? What if we held onto the belief that God would meet us at the end of every tunnel and need?

Perhaps the larger question is this: no matter what our vocation, how do we stay focused on what God has called us to when we have lives full of adult obligations?

Called and “On Call”

Every doctor knows what it’s like to be “on-call.” The 31-hour shifts are mentally taxing and physically exhausting. Yet, no matter how we feel, we pump ourselves to endure till the end of our shifts because we know lives depend on us.

I have a few questions for those of us who feel “called” to serve God:

• Are we willing to be “on call” for Him when He calls us into a new venture? It could be to a new department or a whole new country altogether.
• Do we understand that our willingness to be “on call” and to be called anytime by Him affects real lives whose salvation is at stake?
• Do we have courageous, praying people ready to support and challenge us to stay faithful to that call?

Ten years ago, over lunch, a doctor friend told me about his then-recent engagement. We talked casually at first, but, upon discovering our common call to medical missions, finally ventured into talking about how our future plans aligned with our missional calls. As we talked, a somber silence hung over us as he realized he and his fiancée did not have aligned values, and he was in danger of compromising. She felt led to climb the corporate ladder in her surgical specialty. He had committed to partnering with God in medical missions. Prayerfully, and with great gentleness and wisdom, he called off his engagement. Years later, he met a physiotherapist with a call to serve underprivileged children with special needs in developing countries. Today, ten years later, he and his wife and toddler are leaving for the mission field together.

This month, would you pray for healthcare workers and doctors around the world?

Pray that:

1. Healthcare students, doctors and healthcare workers, while “on call” in the workplace, would stay faithfully yielded to heed God when He calls.
2. They would make right decisions in their choice of life partner, housing decisions etc to align with their call to the mission field.
3. Those who are waiting to be sent out will not grow weary with discouragement but continue to seek out opportunities and trust God to open the right doors in His time and way.

DR. TAM WAI JIA

Dr. Tam Wai Jia is a Singaporean humanitarian doctor, author, international speaker and the founder of Kitedreams (www.kitedreams.org) and Kitesong Global (www.kitesong.com). She is married to her best friend, Cliff. Together with their two little ones aged 6 and 4, they are preparing themselves to serve missionally long term in Africa. Follow her on Instagram @tamwaijia and at www.blog.kitedreams.org.