Message Magazine Online - Vol. 55, No. 03, Fall 2007

In This Issue

• Editorial
  Angela Shuff
• Candidate Class 2007
• Paying For Missions
  Spencer Jackson
• A Journey Into Medical Missions
  Eric and Melissa Miller
• A Young Family Compelled to Go
  Lucas and Teresa Bair
• Heeding God's Twofold Call
  Brad Winkler
• Two MKs Surrender for Service
  Adam and Faith Drake
• Words from a Sending Pastor
  Jim Carrel
• In Memory of Dr. Harold T. Commons
  
• Who Owns the Missionary?
  Michael G. Loftis

A Journey into Medical Missions

Testimony of Eric and Melissa Miller

I (Eric) was born into a loving home and raised in the Roman Catholic Church. Until high school, I thought I was fine as long as I attended mass and confessed my sins to the priest. However, deep down I knew I was a hypocrite, following the outward observances, but otherwise chasing my own desires. This realization caused me to turn my back on God and religion. I set my mind on earthly things as described in Philippians 3:18–19. I was an enemy of the cross of Christ.

After graduating with a political science degree, I went into insurance sales, where my boss, a friend of the family, invited me to a Bible-teaching church. After several months of listening to the gospel message and after reading More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell, I knew I had to make a decision—not about religion, but about the claims of Jesus Christ. One of my major issues with Christ was His lack of physical presence. But this was answered when He said to Thomas, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). At that moment I believed, and the next day my boss led me in prayer to repent of my sins and receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. As I grew in maturity in Christ through God’s grace I was eventually able to remove the earthly things that had become so deeply ingrained in my life. God also allowed me to pursue my dream of becoming a physician and ultimately a general surgeon. During my internship, I heard God’s call to become a career missionary. Over the subsequent years, God would prepare me to go as He commanded. Also during this period, I met my future wife, Melissa, and we were married in 2003.

Melissa was born and raised in a wonderful Christian family. At the age of six, her mother explained the gospel truths to her, and she chose to repent of her sins and accept Christ into her life. In junior high school, God began to work in her heart, impressing on her His call to make disciples of all nations. During a missions conference she surrendered her life to God’s will, and during her first missions trip to Mexico, God confirmed His call on her life to one day be a career missionary.

In 2004, we moved to Cheboygan, Michigan, where I joined a private practice and we joined Faith Baptist Church. Through my colleagues we learned about ABWE and the hospital in Togo, Africa. We also met prefield missionaries John Briggs and Todd DeKryger and their families. They shared with us the need for a general surgeon in Togo. After a short-term trip, we sensed God’s leading to that field as we caught the vision of evangelism through medical ministry, especially to the unreached Muslim population in northern Togo. Now we begin our prefield ministry with joyful anticipation of what God will do in the hearts of His people here and in those not yet reached with the gospel.