Find out how we ended up serving at The Hospital for Women and Children in Koutiala, Mali

1. The Road To Mali
It all starts with Steven “matching” [the process of obtaining post-doctoral training] in an
emergency medicine residency in Toledo, Ohio. God knew what he was doing as this
was revealed, at least in part, to us 7 years later. While in Toledo we made friends with
the pediatric emergency medicine director, Dr. Joe Dobson and his wife Elliot. Toledoʼs
pediatric program wasnʼt what Heather was looking for in terms of pediatric training, so
we made several gallant attempts to match Heather into another pediatric program, and
for Steve to transfer as a second year emergency medicine resident. We found that
programs were eager to take Heather, but either had a spot for Steve and no money, or
money for training but no allowable position. We had even discussed Heather training in
another city, but we know that this was not Gods ideal plan for marriage.
A few days before Heather had to submit her final match list on the computer (as
Heather was a year behind in training) she came to the realization that if God brought
us to Toledo, He was going to have to use the program as-is to train her adequately.
The next day we received a call from the ER program director at Akron General Medical
Center in Akron ohio. His news was tragic. Dr. Bill Meyer, one of the first year residents
at AGMC was killed that morning in a car crash. Akron Childrenʼs Hospital was eager to
have Heather as part of their residency, so when they heard of the tragedy wanted to
see if we were still interested in moving to Akron. Heather laid her Isaac (her pride) on
the alter, and it seems that God honored her decision to place her marriage first.
In Akron God blessed us by placing us in fellowship with the body at Vesper Lake Bible
Fellowship. We were taught richly and wonderfully, and the fellowship was and remains
sweet. During Heatherʼs last year of general pediatrics we spent a month in Honduras
with World Medical Missions, Samaritanʼs Purse. WMM taught us the focus of success
in missions, prayer. They contacted us regularly to let us know they were praying that
we would be used mightily by God for His glory. We can not recommend them highly
enough for short term medical missions. That month confirmed to us that we are
evangelists at heart, and that the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-19) is a command
not a suggestion. We spent countless hours with Dr. Fernando, a non believer during
our visit, discussing things of God and the Truths contained in His Word. Dr. Fernando
then received a new life in Christ a few months after we left!
As Heather finished general pediatrics she felt led to continue with a three year
fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine (thanks to Dr Joe Dobson). Joe had been
Heatherʼs mentor and our good friend back in Toledo as mentioned above. He and
Elliott had since relocated to Charleston, South Carolina. Joe knew that we werenʼt
keen on the snow and cold, and had planned all the while to have us move to
Charleston to join him in the practice there, and we were equally eager of this prospect
as well.
In November of 2006 we attended the Global Health Missions Conference in Kentucky.
The final plenary session was given by Dr David Thompson. He wept as he described
how his parents were martyred as missionaries in South East Asia, yet he continued

2. with his training and leading to serve Christ full-time as a surgeon in Africa. Dr.
Thompsonʼs message was titled “Give it Away”. It compelled us to do exactly that. Since
Christ has given us eternal life by His death on the cross while on this earth, we owe
Him no less than our lives while here on earth ourselves.
We formed an accountability group with two physicians, who for security reasons cannot
be named, who are now full-time missionaries serving in China. This alliance was and
still is an invaluable source of prayer and encouragement.
Six months later, Spring 2007, we spent a week in Ouanaminthe, Haiti as adult leaders
and physicians with a high school class from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in
Ohio. There was a new clinic built by the local Christian school, but no permanent
medical staff for ~ 300,000 Haitians. It became fairly evident that all the building needed
was two doctors to get it up and running. We were two doctors, we had a desire to
pursue our call to serve Him in missions, it seemed a good fit. We started planning for
the move to Haiti, and had a meeting scheduled with the board of directors at the
GHMC conference in Kentucky 2007. We walked out of the meeting deeply saddened
as our focus for evangelism was not shared with the same intensity. Five months of
planning seemed wasted at the time, but in hindsight it helped to solidify our priorities in
missions. God used this to His glory as it allowed us to spend time with missionaries
from ABWE, SIM, AIM, HCJB, and TEAM that were already assembled at the
conference. Each organization played key unique roles in shaping our future as
international missionaries.
We immediately began to pursue what else God might have for us as missionaries.
Over the course of the next year we investigated HCJB in Ecuador, Association of
Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) in Togo, Serving in Missions, and the Christian
and Missionary Alliance. God used all but a neon sign, as spelled out above and below,
to bring us to the C&MA.
At about this time Dr. Joe called Heather from South Carolina (remember him?). It was
time for us to get down there for interviews, as Joe now needed Heather more than
ever. One of Joeʼs pediatric ER doctors was leaving in the next few months to be a
missionary in Mali, west-Africa! Joe tried to appease the staff by ensuring them that they
would be getting two doctors just as fun as Brett, the one that was leaving. In fact,
Steve was just like Brett. They both wear flip flops and Birkenstocks, both have goatees,
and both wear Hawaiian shirts just to name a few similarities.
Heather had to then inform Joe that Brett and Steve were more alike than he had ever
imagined, as we too were following Godʼs call into international missions! We could
imagine the look on Joeʼs face. He wished us well, and thought that since we were so
alike already, he should forward us Brett and Sheri Maclainʼs newsletter. We didnʼt know
much about the Maclains so we started email correspondence and it turned out that
they were missionaries with the C&MA, and indeed kindred spirits.

3. A year passed, then while were in North Carolina visiting SIM headquarters, we had the
opportunity to meet the Maclainsʼ while on furlough to deliver their son Silas. The
friendship we had started with Brett and Sheri over email became something very
tangible, and they shared with us what God was doing in Mali. We were hooked.
So here we were. We had responded to the call to international missions to “make
disciples of all the nations”. God had used our move to Toledo to meet Joe, who then 5
years later introduced us to the Maclains with whom we will be serving in Mali Africa!
The missions agencies mentioned earlier are all very solid, and we are certain that God
could have used us in those organizations as well, but this 7 year history of
“cooincidences” is a clear path that only God could have put together. We applied to the
C&MA in April of 2009, and were accepted as missionary associates in May of that
same year.
Our eyes are set on Koutiala, Mali. A population of ~ 400,000, 90% or whom are Muslim
in their faith. If you are unfortunate enough to be a woman or a child in Mali, you are
highly likely to either die in childbirth or by the time you are 5 years old. Local medical
care is either non-existent or insufficient to meet the needs of the severely ill or laboring
mother and the severely ill or premature infants. Through this compassionate ministry at
the Hospital for Women and Children God is allowing the message of Christ to
penetrate the darkness and bring Christ to His children.