A tale of two worlds

 "What would prompt a young woman such as yourself to leave the US and a lucrative career as a physician to work in Africa for little to no money, with people you have never met, for people who you do not know?"   

    Each week there have been new students in my french class. This last week, a 22 yr old from New York state joined my class. Originally here to start a masters at the University, she learned upon arrival that her courses would be in both french and english, thus she has joined us for a few months. She joined us for lunch last week, and on thursday, joined Kathryn (another American) and I on a trip to Morat, a nearby city. On our return, I walked with her back to her hotel room in order to pick up my backpack I had left there. The time allowed us to have a very interesting conversation. 

      As we walked, she asked me the above question. See, to her, the idea was quite foreign. She comes from a first generation American-Russian Jewish family. Her father's world view, in her words, is to "bend over backwards for family, do anything, spare nothing, but for those not related to you, they are on their own." She acknowledged her father's way is not necessarily the best, and found my plans intriguing. 

      I explained to her my reasons: being called by God at a young age to be a doctor and a missionary, Jesus command to help the poor and needy, my love for others because Christ first loved me. I'm not the most eloquent or evangelistic person in the world, but it was wonderful to be able to share this with her. I hope there may be more conversations down the road, all with the same philosophy-duty and obligation gain us little, but love-to quote a popular song-THAT's what it's ALL about.

1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.