Abridged text of the Maxwell Memorial Lecture given at Partnership House 31-5-95
I have chosen the title of this year's lecture in memory of Dr Robert Maxwell because of the way he challenged many young medicals in his day. My own life has been one long challenge to reach those standards and ideals seen in the lives of the great missionary pioneers who gave their lives in the service of Jesus Christ.
Is the day of Christian medical service over? Have Christian doctors still a role to play in the healing ministry of the Church? Has the Church a role to play in the Ministry of Healing. With 50% of people living in countries unlikely to grant a missionary visa is the call of God on the lives of young medics, to serve in a needy world over? The deeper my own life is challenged by the claims of the living Christ and the nearer I get to the time when I will meet him face to face, the question of my role as a Christian doctor becomes more and more important.
As president of the MMA I am proud of the traditions of the past - of those hundreds of medics who have gone forth with the message of God's love and with their healing skills. Many were used to establish modern medical services and to research the answers to problems and diseases that have taxed mankind for centuries. But we cannot live on past successes. What is God challenging us to do today?
Although one man's journey in faith is his own personal challenge before his Lord, at the end of nearly 50 years involved in Christian medical mission I want to share with you this evening something of the 'Challenge To Conquer' in my own life and that of my wife.
The first challenge I experienced was a call to train as a medical missionary when I had made my plans for life at the Royal Institute of British Architects, never realising that a few years would see me building a hospital in the centre of Africa. The Lord delights to use every scrap of our training and experience. "But Lord" I said "medical training is impossible". There were no automatic grants in those days. "I've only got £5 in my Post Office account and I will need £1000 in university fees alone". The first lesson I had to learn is that when God calls and challenges he equips.
Following graduation and a wonderful post-graduate training at the Mildmay Mission Hospital, 1948 found my wife and I in the heart of the great equatorial forest of the then Belgian Congo, with the challenge to build a hospital in memory of missionaries who had lost their lives in a plane crash. We had to learn to cope with the isolation of introducing a medical and surgical practice, single handed in a very primitive area. One evening a fisherman was brought in having been horrendously mauled by a hippopotamus Hours later when internal injuries had been sorted out and 186 skin sutures inserted I breathed a prayer of thanksgiving for my training at Mildmay.
I had to open a branchial cyst abscess on myself under local anaesthetic. My wife did not wish to be known as the missionary who cut her husband's throat!
A villager was brought in one night after a fight. His skull had been opened in many places with a machete. One hand was almost severed at the wrist. Most of the night was spent repairing the skull wounds tendons, nerves and blood vessels. Miraculously he survived and nine months later came back with a stream of complaints over a little bony irregularity of his skull. He had a perfectly functioning hand. Feeling rather tired and wicked I suggested to my nurse that he fetch a machete so that we could return his skull to the way it was before! As I turned to explain that I didn't really mean it I saw him in full flight down the hospital path !
One day, after only eight years, tragedy struck. Peggy, my wife, at the age of 35 had a severe coronary thrombosis and had to be invalided home. Was this the end of a missionary career? Through the pain and disappointment we had to learn that disappointments are God's appointments. After a brief retraining period in the UK in General Practice I was appointed as Medical Director of the Baptist Missionary Society, following the great missionary and former president of the MMA, Sir Clement Chesterman. I was given the task of raising a very large sum of money to re-equip our ageing hospitals throughout the world. The challenge took me to nearly every Baptist church in the UK and two years later at a triumphant General Assembly of the Baptist Union, the victorious completion of the task was announced.
A new challenge hit us. All Christian mission hospitals were facing the similar problems with shortages of equipment, instruments, drugs and supplies. Could a 'United Medical Missionary ministry of Supply be set up? I took the idea to the Conference of British Missionary Societies. They said they would support it if I would set it up.
We had to learn that with God all things are possible. It meant resigning from my job and launching, in a converted stable of the Salvation Army in Bermondsey, a work we subsequently entitled ECHO (Equipment for Charity Hospital Overseas). In the 23 years I was privileged to lead, it grew into an international charity supplying over 3000 hospitals, dispensaries and medical relief programmes in 120 countries. I would like to thrill your hearts with just two of the many miracles that took place.
I received a phone call from a firm of solicitors, telling of a well known medical equipment firm for which there was to be a bankruptcy sale. The warehouse had been sold and the stock had been written down to £100,000 with part offers of £40,000 invited. Our bank balance at ECHO was £600!! I wrote to say could I be considered for £600 for some of the surgical instruments. I was disappointed to hear that a commercial scrap firm had put in the only other offer of £1500 to clear the warehouse. and that their bid had been accepted. We prayed about it. Two weeks later the phone rang to say the scrap firm could not raise £1500 and did our offer still stand? If so we needed to clear the warehouse. ECHO was launched with a warehouse of new medical equipment worth over £100,000!
In answer to believing prayer we received another phone call, this time from the Ministry of Defence. The Ministry had decided to sell its vast stocks of equipment that had been held against a possible atomic emergency. Would I like to visit their establishment to see what was on offer? A few days later saw me descending into a vast underground store five miles square. I am sure the ministry officials thought I was the buyer for a giant international organisation. They gave me a block board to write down anything in which I was interested. I wrote down was 500,000 new surgical instruments. My mind flashed back to the six pairs of Spencer Wells forceps I had in Africa that had to be resterilised after every operation. I continued to write long lists of equipment I was shown, hospital beds, sterilizers, ward and laboratory equipment. I became excited to think of how this could be used in struggling mission hospitals. Then I shook hands with the Ministry officials promising to submit any offer to the Ministry of Defence and returned through security up into daylight. As I sat in my car I came to and said to myself "you're a fool; where on earth are you going to get the money to offer for millions of pounds worth of medical equipment?" But I knew the need and went back to our llittle Bermondsey warehouse and wrote the craziest letter I have ever written. I said I would be please to offer £1000 for all the items listed and promised that any articles eleased would be sent to Third World developing countries. I never expected to hear anything except a curt rebuff of a foolish offer. But we had prayed for the impossible and a few days later a reply came that 'in view of the charitable nature of ECHO' my offer was accepted for all the items listed. Was I glad that in faith I had been cheeky enough to include the whole list! So fleets of lorries began to arrive at Bermondsey bearing supplies for mission hospitals throughout the world. Yes I do believe in miracles and from that day ECHO began to grow like 'Topsy'. Under the blessing of God, after several moves to larger premises, we were able to purchase outright a giant £1 million modern warehouse, which after one year had to be extended to accommodate the growing work and our tiny first year budget of £7000 had grown to nearly £7 million.
In 1989, at age 67, I passed the work on to Dr John Townsend, a distinguished medical missionary from Thailand and now one of MMA's Vice Presidents. I was elected President. Seeing the strain on medical colleagues overseas, who found it difficult to even take furloughs I decided to challenge Christian medics in the UK to serve for short periods on retirement, to relieve mission colleagues, by doing so myself. So 1990 saw Peggy and myself going to relieve doctors at the SIM hospital at ELWA in Liberia. It meant going back to train in surgery after nearly 30 years but it was so well worthwhile to be back at the coal face of medical mission. Then war broke out and we had to get out on one of the last civilian planes before the airport was totally destroyed. A week or two later that lovely hospital was also destroyed.
Were there other challenges to conquer? We were led, on our retirement, to face up to a whole new challenge. Pleas were coming, in the post Chernobyl era, from ill equipped children's hospitals and orphanages particularly from the Ukraine. God brought the Kings Highway Trust into being, sending medical equipment, supplies, bibles and Christian literature into Eastern Europe.
There was one final challenge - at least I hope final! God challenged us to look into the healing ministry of the church. In overseas churches in lands where medical care was often not available God was using Spirit filled churches to heal broken lives and the sick. I was challenged to accept the role of medical adviser to a worldwide Christian Healing Ministry organisation.
My first task was to raise £2.15 million to purchase a centre in the UK where pastors and church leaders from overseas would come for training in evangelism and healing. A beautiful 35 acre estate was to be purchased and equipped. It meant selling our little retirement bungalow. It was the story of ECHO all over again. With the closing down of a large Government establishment of some 400 rooms, registered charities were offered the entire contents for purchase for a ridiculously small sum. New laundry equipment, stainless steel kitchens, bathroom equipment, beds, bedding, curtains, carpets, electrical fittings, and even double glazed windows and doors with a 10 camera video security system. A commercial company donated 7000 metres of beautiful carpeting. There was enough for the whole estate.
My only purpose in sharing a life in which I have been challenged to conquer often beyond all my human resources, is to proclaim that God still wants to use us medics in his service in this country or in countries desperately struggling to cope with disease on a scale we never see in the NHS. As we face our Lord's promise to return to a world in chaos, for which he died, we have a role beyond our scientific training, of sharing the gospel and healing the sick in the power of the living Christ.
I do not believe that Christian healing went out with the Apostles - otherwise I would not be president of MMA - nor would I have dedicated my life to the healing ministry. May we all be challenged to conquer.
The book Challenged to Conquer written by Peggy Burton and published by Love Russia, price £3.95, is available from MMA.
I have chosen the title of this year's lecture in memory of Dr Robert Maxwell because of the way he challenged many young medicals in his day. My own life has been one long challenge to reach those standards and ideals seen in the lives of the great missionary pioneers who gave their lives in the service of Jesus Christ.
Is the day of Christian medical service over? Have Christian doctors still a role to play in the healing ministry of the Church? Has the Church a role to play in the Ministry of Healing. With 50% of people living in countries unlikely to grant a missionary visa is the call of God on the lives of young medics, to serve in a needy world over? The deeper my own life is challenged by the claims of the living Christ and the nearer I get to the time when I will meet him face to face, the question of my role as a Christian doctor becomes more and more important.
As president of the MMA I am proud of the traditions of the past - of those hundreds of medics who have gone forth with the message of God's love and with their healing skills. Many were used to establish modern medical services and to research the answers to problems and diseases that have taxed mankind for centuries. But we cannot live on past successes. What is God challenging us to do today?
Although one man's journey in faith is his own personal challenge before his Lord, at the end of nearly 50 years involved in Christian medical mission I want to share with you this evening something of the 'Challenge To Conquer' in my own life and that of my wife.
The first challenge I experienced was a call to train as a medical missionary when I had made my plans for life at the Royal Institute of British Architects, never realising that a few years would see me building a hospital in the centre of Africa. The Lord delights to use every scrap of our training and experience. "But Lord" I said "medical training is impossible". There were no automatic grants in those days. "I've only got £5 in my Post Office account and I will need £1000 in university fees alone". The first lesson I had to learn is that when God calls and challenges he equips.
Following graduation and a wonderful post-graduate training at the Mildmay Mission Hospital, 1948 found my wife and I in the heart of the great equatorial forest of the then Belgian Congo, with the challenge to build a hospital in memory of missionaries who had lost their lives in a plane crash. We had to learn to cope with the isolation of introducing a medical and surgical practice, single handed in a very primitive area. One evening a fisherman was brought in having been horrendously mauled by a hippopotamus Hours later when internal injuries had been sorted out and 186 skin sutures inserted I breathed a prayer of thanksgiving for my training at Mildmay.
I had to open a branchial cyst abscess on myself under local anaesthetic. My wife did not wish to be known as the missionary who cut her husband's throat!
A villager was brought in one night after a fight. His skull had been opened in many places with a machete. One hand was almost severed at the wrist. Most of the night was spent repairing the skull wounds tendons, nerves and blood vessels. Miraculously he survived and nine months later came back with a stream of complaints over a little bony irregularity of his skull. He had a perfectly functioning hand. Feeling rather tired and wicked I suggested to my nurse that he fetch a machete so that we could return his skull to the way it was before! As I turned to explain that I didn't really mean it I saw him in full flight down the hospital path !
One day, after only eight years, tragedy struck. Peggy, my wife, at the age of 35 had a severe coronary thrombosis and had to be invalided home. Was this the end of a missionary career? Through the pain and disappointment we had to learn that disappointments are God's appointments. After a brief retraining period in the UK in General Practice I was appointed as Medical Director of the Baptist Missionary Society, following the great missionary and former president of the MMA, Sir Clement Chesterman. I was given the task of raising a very large sum of money to re-equip our ageing hospitals throughout the world. The challenge took me to nearly every Baptist church in the UK and two years later at a triumphant General Assembly of the Baptist Union, the victorious completion of the task was announced.
A new challenge hit us. All Christian mission hospitals were facing the similar problems with shortages of equipment, instruments, drugs and supplies. Could a 'United Medical Missionary ministry of Supply be set up? I took the idea to the Conference of British Missionary Societies. They said they would support it if I would set it up.
We had to learn that with God all things are possible. It meant resigning from my job and launching, in a converted stable of the Salvation Army in Bermondsey, a work we subsequently entitled ECHO (Equipment for Charity Hospital Overseas). In the 23 years I was privileged to lead, it grew into an international charity supplying over 3000 hospitals, dispensaries and medical relief programmes in 120 countries. I would like to thrill your hearts with just two of the many miracles that took place.
I received a phone call from a firm of solicitors, telling of a well known medical equipment firm for which there was to be a bankruptcy sale. The warehouse had been sold and the stock had been written down to £100,000 with part offers of £40,000 invited. Our bank balance at ECHO was £600!! I wrote to say could I be considered for £600 for some of the surgical instruments. I was disappointed to hear that a commercial scrap firm had put in the only other offer of £1500 to clear the warehouse. and that their bid had been accepted. We prayed about it. Two weeks later the phone rang to say the scrap firm could not raise £1500 and did our offer still stand? If so we needed to clear the warehouse. ECHO was launched with a warehouse of new medical equipment worth over £100,000!
In answer to believing prayer we received another phone call, this time from the Ministry of Defence. The Ministry had decided to sell its vast stocks of equipment that had been held against a possible atomic emergency. Would I like to visit their establishment to see what was on offer? A few days later saw me descending into a vast underground store five miles square. I am sure the ministry officials thought I was the buyer for a giant international organisation. They gave me a block board to write down anything in which I was interested. I wrote down was 500,000 new surgical instruments. My mind flashed back to the six pairs of Spencer Wells forceps I had in Africa that had to be resterilised after every operation. I continued to write long lists of equipment I was shown, hospital beds, sterilizers, ward and laboratory equipment. I became excited to think of how this could be used in struggling mission hospitals. Then I shook hands with the Ministry officials promising to submit any offer to the Ministry of Defence and returned through security up into daylight. As I sat in my car I came to and said to myself "you're a fool; where on earth are you going to get the money to offer for millions of pounds worth of medical equipment?" But I knew the need and went back to our llittle Bermondsey warehouse and wrote the craziest letter I have ever written. I said I would be please to offer £1000 for all the items listed and promised that any articles eleased would be sent to Third World developing countries. I never expected to hear anything except a curt rebuff of a foolish offer. But we had prayed for the impossible and a few days later a reply came that 'in view of the charitable nature of ECHO' my offer was accepted for all the items listed. Was I glad that in faith I had been cheeky enough to include the whole list! So fleets of lorries began to arrive at Bermondsey bearing supplies for mission hospitals throughout the world. Yes I do believe in miracles and from that day ECHO began to grow like 'Topsy'. Under the blessing of God, after several moves to larger premises, we were able to purchase outright a giant £1 million modern warehouse, which after one year had to be extended to accommodate the growing work and our tiny first year budget of £7000 had grown to nearly £7 million.
In 1989, at age 67, I passed the work on to Dr John Townsend, a distinguished medical missionary from Thailand and now one of MMA's Vice Presidents. I was elected President. Seeing the strain on medical colleagues overseas, who found it difficult to even take furloughs I decided to challenge Christian medics in the UK to serve for short periods on retirement, to relieve mission colleagues, by doing so myself. So 1990 saw Peggy and myself going to relieve doctors at the SIM hospital at ELWA in Liberia. It meant going back to train in surgery after nearly 30 years but it was so well worthwhile to be back at the coal face of medical mission. Then war broke out and we had to get out on one of the last civilian planes before the airport was totally destroyed. A week or two later that lovely hospital was also destroyed.
Were there other challenges to conquer? We were led, on our retirement, to face up to a whole new challenge. Pleas were coming, in the post Chernobyl era, from ill equipped children's hospitals and orphanages particularly from the Ukraine. God brought the Kings Highway Trust into being, sending medical equipment, supplies, bibles and Christian literature into Eastern Europe.
There was one final challenge - at least I hope final! God challenged us to look into the healing ministry of the church. In overseas churches in lands where medical care was often not available God was using Spirit filled churches to heal broken lives and the sick. I was challenged to accept the role of medical adviser to a worldwide Christian Healing Ministry organisation.
My first task was to raise £2.15 million to purchase a centre in the UK where pastors and church leaders from overseas would come for training in evangelism and healing. A beautiful 35 acre estate was to be purchased and equipped. It meant selling our little retirement bungalow. It was the story of ECHO all over again. With the closing down of a large Government establishment of some 400 rooms, registered charities were offered the entire contents for purchase for a ridiculously small sum. New laundry equipment, stainless steel kitchens, bathroom equipment, beds, bedding, curtains, carpets, electrical fittings, and even double glazed windows and doors with a 10 camera video security system. A commercial company donated 7000 metres of beautiful carpeting. There was enough for the whole estate.
My only purpose in sharing a life in which I have been challenged to conquer often beyond all my human resources, is to proclaim that God still wants to use us medics in his service in this country or in countries desperately struggling to cope with disease on a scale we never see in the NHS. As we face our Lord's promise to return to a world in chaos, for which he died, we have a role beyond our scientific training, of sharing the gospel and healing the sick in the power of the living Christ.
I do not believe that Christian healing went out with the Apostles - otherwise I would not be president of MMA - nor would I have dedicated my life to the healing ministry. May we all be challenged to conquer.
The book Challenged to Conquer written by Peggy Burton and published by Love Russia, price £3.95, is available from MMA.
