By: Tim Kratzer, M.D.
I find myself thinking a lot about Nundu where a Free Methodist rural hospital is located. Nundu is where we raised our family and lived out our missionary call to provide healthcare in the name of Jesus. How did we end up in South Kivu, a province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, far away from family and friends?
God works in amazing ways, calling us to serve him and transforming us to be the people we were created to be. As a 6th grade student, I very clearly heard God calling me to be a missionary doctor. I even wrote a grade school term paper on the Belgian Congo, as it was known in that day. It’s a long journey from being a 12-year-old to being a 75-year-old retired missionary doctor. Connie was also being called to be the wife of a missionary doctor, even before she met me at Greenville College. As I entered medical school, it was not just me but it was us. How did we complete the course?
Family, friends, and faith in God have guided us along the way. Christian faith was modeled for us in my family. The fellowship of believers nurtured us. God has been with us each step of the way. The Free Methodist Medical Fellowship, as it was known when I was a medical student, came along to encourage us in only the way a group of healthcare professionals could. I met with folks who understood where I was in my journey of faith and professional development. In that fellowship, I met folks who encouraged me to follow the call into medical missions and supported me with their prayers as my wife and I were appointed as Free Methodist missionaries.
The journey is not yet complete. We continue to be a part of what is now known as the Free Methodist Healthcare Fellowship. I fellowship with others who continue to see healthcare as more than a career. For each of us, it is a calling. Our time at Nundu was interrupted when we left Central Africa during a time of civil unrest. By God’s grace, the Deaconess Nundu Hospital continued to minister, and now we have the blessing of encouraging the work of the church as it continues to provide healthcare in South Kivu.
The mission of the Fellowship is to encourage healthcare professionals to pursue their careers as a calling, a calling to minister in the name of Jesus. I am encouraged in that calling. We as a Fellowship continue to reach out to young people as they respond to God’s call on their lives. What a blessing to live life with a purpose.