Summer Medical Institute

The first few days were spent orienting the team to their new surroundings, schedules, and community. Along with training are several fun social events, fostering our community. Here Sharon Stoudt (our newest staff member) spends time with some of the medical students.

Settling In

For these few weeks we live in a campus dorm, sharing a room with those in our Discipleship groups. Here we live and work hard together. Learn together. Seek God together. Eat together. You get the picture. It's surprising how a group of strangers can become a community so quickly.

In His Image Represents

Aside from the many many students from New Jersey medical schools, this year we are also privileged to have a several residents on the team. Here are two residents from In His Image Family Practice, serving us as Discipleship group leaders this year.

Picnics with VBFPR Staff

We have experienced warm southern hospitality by attending lunches and dinners in various homes. Here we gathered to experience the Fourth of July Texas style, in the home of Dr. Bruce Leibert (head of the Valley Baptist Family Practice Residency program). It involved patriotic music, great food, fireworks, and games.

Summer Medical "Institute"

We set aside times for Institute, where we give various talks for the spiritual training of these future healthcare professionals. The American Medical Association guidelines state that doctors should be able to take a spiritually history and address the patient's spirituality. We agree 100%.

Medical & Spiritual Training

In addition to learning in the classroom how to share the Gospel and test blood sugars and blood pressure, we also have a Mock Run-Thru. The students do a full-dress practice of our door-to-door outreach in Texas. They become accustomed to working as a team, using the forms, and taking a spiritual history.

Preparing Our Hearts For Mexico

Before leaving for each outreach, we circle up and find out the details for the day. Here our new Director Bryan Stoudt prays for the team before they set off to run two mobile clinic in Matamoros, Mexico. The students reported that the clinics went well.

Medicine in Matamoros, Mexico

This first week we have been fortunate to have up to five or six doctors per Mexico clinic. This has helped greatly, and it allowed us to see all our patients without being rushed. Also important were all the volunteers from Harlingen churches who served as translators. Most are those who came have served us before, and we are very glad to continue our relationships with them.

Creative Arts

Many of our medical students this year are multi-talented. We have a praise team for our Monday night meetings, and a few artists. Here they show off their puppet making skills with the kids who are waiting to see a doctor or waiting for their free medicines and vitamins.

Don't Mess With Texas

The "Don't mess with Texas" slogan began as a creative anti-littering campaign, but it has taken on a whole new life of it's own. Here we try to illustrate why you shouldn't mess with Texas. Well, we tried.

Still More Work To Be Done

After returning from a long outreach, there is still work to be done. The team is split into four different gruops: Van Preparation, Housing/Socials, Forms/Meetings, and Site Directing. Here members from the Housing group lend a hand to our hard working Van Prep team.

A Sweet Farewell

Because this may be the last SMI that our current director attends (2006 was his 15th SMI!), the students gave him a touching farewell. Heartfelt testimonies were followed by a personal slideshow and ice cream cake. We will miss you and your family greatly! May God use you greatly wherever He leads you.