Travel a mountain road to a village for a medical clinic, trek along the Indus to visit a former patient, visit a Princess to do a pre-natal check, or watch as very sick patients are brought in to the hospital by local "ambulance" ,a roped frame bed carried on the shoulders of four men. These stories and many more are related in Doctor Memsaab, as the author draws from diaries, old letters, and memories the story of her life as a medical missionary in the foothills of the Himalayas. She was also a wife and a mother of three active youngsters. The reader gets a glimpse of how she managed these roles as she tells how she and her husband made time for family life with a simple picnic or playing games, and by including the children in the ministry when possible. Whether treating a poor villager or the wealthy elite, the desire was not only to heal physically, but also to treat spiritual needs by demonstrating the compassion and love of Christ, and whenever feasible, presenting the Gospel of salvation through Jesus.

Dr. Memsaab

Stories of a Medical Missionary MomBy Phyllis Irwin

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Phyllis Irwin, M.D.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-2538-4

Contents

Preface....................................................viii1. The Seasons Of My Life..................................12. Voyage To Pakistan - 1956...............................93. Letters Home Our First Year-1956-57.....................134. More Letters Home - 1958................................255. Stories From My Diary...................................306. The Princess Of Amb.....................................347. Compassion..............................................448. Trek To Tribal Area.....................................489. Out Clinics.............................................5810. Trek To Quza Banda.....................................6611. The Low Born...........................................6812. High People-Significant Persons........................7213. The Noons..............................................7914. Kid Missionaries.......................................8515. Orphans................................................8916. Village Trekking.......................................9417. Hippies And Helpers....................................9618. Concerning Chitral.....................................10119. Fruit..................................................11120. F.C. College Lahore....................................12721. The Punjabi Church.....................................13222. Pakistan Revisited.....................................13523. Visiting Pakistan - Again..............................13924. A Woman Travels Alone..................................14425. Afterword..............................................147

Chapter One

The Seasons Of My Life

SPRING began for me when I was born in 1928 in New Albany, Indiana, as the youngest of three. I grew up in the small village of Milltown, near the Ohio River. I had a happy childhood with parents who loved each other and the Lord. I had two older brothers who challenged me to learn to skate, ride a bike, and swim in the river that ran through our town. We were active in our small town church. We were poor, but did not realize it-everyone was poor during those years of depression in the 30's. My father was an auto mechanic and worked 60 hours a week to support his family. The early spring of my life was very happy, of which I have only joyful memories. It was not until many years later that I realized that a solid family was a marvelous gift of God. I was especially aware of this when I saw the damage in those from dysfunctional families. WWII took my two brothers4 off to the Air Force and Navy. My older brother did not return, bringing the first big tragedy in my life. He was the pilot of a B-24 bomber and was shot down over France on his 30th mission. He was 21. This had a profound effect on me and caused me to think of eternal values. The Lord brought me into a personal experience of salvation just before my senior year of high school-the old fashioned way by going to the altar at a revival meeting. That spiritual event changed my life and gave me a focus.

I went to Asbury College where I was awed by the big world that opened up to me. My small town environment hedged in my world. At college I heard missionaries who opened up the whole world of need and opportunities to serve Jesus in other cultures. I was challenged to career missionary service. There was no such thing as short term missions back then. When I committed my life to be a missionary, there was no turning back. I never again considered anything else. This included my willingness to go single. When I surrendered even this to the Lord, He gave me real peace and joy. I changed my major to pre-med and applied to medical schools in my senior year. In those days not many women entered medicine. I was one of four females in my class of 150, even though applications flooded in from post-war vets on the GI Bill.

During my freshman year of medical school on the Bloomington campus, I met Russ Irwin through Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship. I made sure on our first date that he was planning on being a missionary-or there would not have been a second date! He delights in telling how I "popped the question" on our first date! We were married after our sophomore years in medical school and seminary. We graduated from our respective schools in 1954.

My year of internship took us to a hospital in Riverside, CA. While there, Russ worked in the x-ray department and also pastored a small church. During those years, the Lord led step by step to a mission board, TEAM, and to a Muslim field, West Pakistan. By the time we were back in Indianapolis for my Obstetrics and Gynecology residency, we were pretty well set for overseas. Then his draft board informed him that if we intended to go abroad as missionaries, we had better go, as his number was coming up, and they had no more valid exemptions for him.

Some people questioned why we would go half way around the world to some wild place with a baby, when we could have successful careers here in comfortable America. Jesus said in Matthew 16:25, "If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up for life for me, you will find true life." In 1956 we sailed for West Pakistan with our year-old daughter Patty. Somewhere on that voyage my spring changed to summer! Josh l:9 was the verse the Lord gave me as we started on the unknown. "Fear not, neither be thou dismayed, for I the Lord thy God am with thee whithersoever thou goest."

* * *

SUMMER: These were busy years, roughly from age 28 to 45. They were productive years. We helped build a hospital in the Northwest Frontier of West Pakistan, raised a family of three, developed a hospital staff, and treated many thousands of patients annually. Our son Nate was born the day before I had my first year language test (I think the test initiated labor!). I delivered him on a dining room table without anesthesia during a monsoon rainstorm in a mountain town in the Himalayas, attended by a lady missionary physician. Since no vehicular traffic was available, she arrived by horse just in time!

I started work at the hospital as soon as my written Urdu tests were done 2 weeks later. Our younger daughter was born in relatively posh facilities back in USA on our first furlough. Now I was challenged with the task of being a Mom with three kids, wife, missionary, medical superintendent and chief staff physician of a 50-bed hospital. The days were sometimes not long enough to get everything done. I absolutely loved medicine, and although I worked many [12.sup.+] hour days for many years, I was fascinated by the variety of pathology and far advanced conditions that confronted us every clinic day. I was moved with compassion by the desperate needs of these poor Muslim patients. In those days and up in our area a male doctor could not see women patients. As word spread that there was a lady doctor at Bach Christian Hospital, patients came from many miles around, especially from the mountains to the north. Some traveled days to reach the hospital.

We saw hopeless, far advanced TB of lung, TB of the spine, bone and joints, nodes, even kidney and skin. There were also horrid childbirth injuries, neglected fractures requiring amputation, disfiguring burn scars, parasitic infections, malnutrition of the worst degree in children, and the dreaded diarrheal diseases that takes so many lives of babies and children. Complicated labor cases began coming. A lot of this I had never seen before; so we struggled and learned from reading books.

We improvised, and prayed. We saw lots of extensive burns requiring skin grafting. We did hernias, bladder and urethral stones, drained huge TB abscesses containing quarts of caseous pus. There were lots of Caesarian Sections, even more tubal ligations, and lots of osteomyelitis operations to remove dead bone. The Lord's hand was in every healing, and it was amazing that in an almost 100% Muslim area, we were able to tell these people about Jesus. We prayed with every patient before surgery in the name of Jesus. We distributed Bibles and literature freely, although the literacy rate, especially among women, was very low. A few responded - most did not - but all respected us and our Christian message.

Meanwhile, the children were growing up, enjoying playing on the compound with Pakistani and expatriate staff children. I was always amazed at how little it took to entertain them. No TV, no videos or computers, no organized activities at the Y or church because there weren't any! Simple walks to the stream, picnics nearby, trips to the river to swim, and table games in the evenings kept them happy. As pre-schoolers, our ayah, or nanny, cared for them. She was dear Safedie, a Pakistani lady from a nearby village who was with us for many years. She loved the kids, and they loved her.

We took the children with us on treks for clinics in the "boonies" back in the mountains. The kids watched surgery; the girls saw deliveries, and when they were older, actually worked in the hospital as "aides" during vacations from boarding school. We were prepared for boarding school before we came, so there was no decision about that.

Regarding boarding school there was no other option. It was hard to say good-bye, but so joyous to see them come home for breaks! Boarding school was a positive experience for all our kids, which I know is not true for all MK's. This was another gift of God's grace to us. That may be part of why all three kids became missionaries themselves. The following verse often comes to mind: 3 John 4: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

* * *

Let's see, I was also a wife. When was there time for that? The Lord gave me a very wonderful, spiritual, flexible, genial husband who was a great father when I often wasn't there for the kids. In the early years he did about every job in the hospital except doctoring. He was building and maintenance-in-charge, as well as administrator, and chaplain. He set up our x-ray unit and taught the lab tech how to take and develop x-rays. He always had time for people, spending much time in counseling. He was gone a lot on hospital business, committee meetings, preaching, teaching Bible courses. We had to plan carefully to do things as a family when the kids had time at home. I know there were times when Russ felt I was too busy and urged me to slow down. I never figured out how to do it, when up to 200 or more people daily were thronging the gates for medical help. A great love for each other, from the Lord himself, helped us get through that summer season of life with rejoicing. Mark l:33, "... the people brought.... all the sick and demon possessed."

* * *

FALL: Fall already! This is roughly age 45 for the next 22 years. Before we knew it, Patty was ready to go to the USA for college, followed by Nate a year later. Thank goodness we had Cindy for four more years! Those good-byes were harder than boarding ones! Transportation and finances were better by then, and we were able to get to the USA for graduations and weddings. I think the hardest good-bye for me was when Patty was eight months pregnant with our first grandchild as we returned to the field. Communication was not what it is now, and it took a few days to get a telegram telling us that we were grandparents. It took even longer to get a phone call through to talk to her to find out the reason she had to have a "Sea Section," as the telegram stated. Now we can direct dial, and exchange emails daily!

Before many years, the children were coming back, this time as adults and career missionaries themselves! Patty and Carl went to the Philippines, and we would visit them on the way to and from the USA. Nate, and then Cindy, came to Pakistan with our same mission. None went into the medical field, but followed in their dad's footsteps. What a joy to work with them as fellow missionaries! Nate was Principal of our Bible Institute, training Christian Pakistanis for ministry, until they had to return to the USA for Nate's inner ear problem. Cindy has had an exciting ministry with Afghan women refugees, teaching ESL. Many have become believers in Christ from their very strong Muslim background. This was not at the school, but through social contacts and visits outside of school hours. Whole families come for Bible Study and discipling with hardly time to schedule them all! Patty and family after seven years were asked to return to the US for Carl to become one of the mission directors at the headquarters of C&MA in Colorado Springs.

With more adequate hospital staff, Russ was now relieved of a lot of his hospital jobs, and was able to do more Bible teaching. He was director of the Bible Correspondence Course for some years, helped found the Bible Institute of which our son was principal, and helped initiate the Theological Education by Extension program in Pakistan. He wrote programmed courses for this, and taught teachers to teach it.

At the hospital, we were developing training programs in several areas. Two doctors initiated a Community Health program, training village health workers. About 50,000 outpatients were being seen annually, 1500 babies delivered, and over 2000 surgical procedures done. We trained young Christian Pakistani men and women to be nurses' aides, and some of the girls went on to learn midwifery. We trained lab techs, x-ray techs, and physiotherapy aides. We had medical students from the western world for 2-3 months at a time on rotation, and medical and surgical residents from the Aga Khan medical school in Karachi rotate through for 3 months at a time. I was privileged to train nurses to be "clinic screeners" (nurse practitioners) both for the hospital and outlying clinics.

A young Christian Pakistani doctor came to us right out of medical school, so he had the equivalent of internship with me. He learned to see clinic patients efficiently, do minor surgery and even Cesarean Sections. For several years we were the only 2 doctors. Later he started developing his own mission clinic farther to the north, with a vision to get Pakistani Christians involved in reaching out to Muslims. Even a couple of Bible women have been trained to fill the ranks of the older ones retiring. They talk to the women, and make follow up visits in homes. Our staff is now almost completely Pakistani from Administrator and Nursing Superintendent to doctors and nurses to gardeners. The spiritual emphasis has been maintained, so that patients and their relatives are exposed to the Gospel daily. It is with great praise that we have seen the hospital services and training programs continue after we left. The spiritual emphasis has been maintained, so that patients and their relatives are exposed to the Gospel daily.

Again I say, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

* * *

WINTER: So now it is winter! We retired from Pakistan in 1995 at age 67, leaving a daughter Cindy, son Nate and wife Marty, and 3 of our grandchildren in Pakistan. We returned to the old farmhouse where Russ's grandparents had lived when he was a child.

So how does one spend the winter years? No, I am NOT doing any medical practice! So many people have asked that! It is unrealistic for a post retirement age physician who has practiced 39 years overseas to enter the jungle of highly specialized, technical, managed care medicine we have today. I am used to having my own hospital where we write the rules, set the fees, and patient care is entirely in the hands of the doctor! I happily relinquish 40 years of night call and 12 hour days! We have more time together as a couple than we ever had before. I am a Teetotaler, but they tell me wine is better when it is aged, and so it is with our marriage! It gets better and better!

What keeps us busy? We have had a lot of remodeling and fixing up to do with the old farmhouse. That is mostly Russ's department. I enjoy a big garden, and we have an orchard of apples and pears, and one cherry tree. Summers are busy canning, freezing and giving away produce. I am trying to organize and summarize my journals of 60 years into something readable. We are active in two of our churches. We keep busy in doing prison and sick visitation and in various speaking engagements. We have time to attend conferences and seem to be on the road a great deal. Email correspondence takes a daily hunk of time. We have been able to renew contact with many old friends and relatives, attend reunions and enjoy things we have not been able to do for many years. I highly recommend the retirement, or winter years! Of course, we also have to deal with the inconveniences of aging. But we are really quite healthy for this decade of the 70's, and thank God daily for that.

What lies ahead? We don't know how much it is going to snow this winter, as we are just starting this season of our lives. As for any season of life, God holds the plan, so we know it is good. If it includes sickness, loss, death and disappointment, we trust God to prepare us for that and bring blessing through it. Our children and grandchildren bring us much joy, our friends and relatives are a source of strength and happiness, and we are blessed. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Psalm 92:12-15

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