Dr. Chris
Dr. Chris is from a lazy country town about 60 miles east of Melbourne, Australia. As an average kid he had searched for the spark in his life that would make him feel alive and valued. At 15 years old , Chris’s parents wanted to widen his worldview and took him to the Hohidiai medical base in Northeast Indonesia on the island of Halmahera. Chris got an eye full of the challenges faced by those living in poverty. He saw the medical team at the clinic put in long hours with limited resources to help the suffering. It was a watershed experience for him.
Chris returned to Australia with a new direction for his life; he would become a doctor.
Now Chris is just finishing medical school. He is nearly a licensed doctor who credits his vocational decision on his first visit to Indonesia. He recently arrived for a second, more extended visit to the Hohidiai medical base. He is back to the place where a seed was planted and his life was changed. He is wide-eyed and well trained. He is now serving in the clinic where, as a 15-year-old he watched others serve. I was in the office when Dr. Chris called asking about what to do with a man who came in with a cancerous growth on his face. He is not only well trained, but he is a man driven by compassion. I heard the concern in his voice as he advocated for the man. I believe the compassion was there in his teenager heart, and he just needed to be partnered with a legitimate way to help people.
Chris is an example of why compassion needs to partner with skills. He has worked hard to help people. I admire his hard work and incredible heart of compassion. We must be careful to seek compassion and not settle on pity. Pity does not help people, but true compassion seeks to help people even if it means years in education. I am sure there were hard days in medical school and at times Chris faced challenges, but the memories of the suffering of the poor that kept him going forward. He did not wait for someone else to step forward; he has become a world changer– changing the world of many.
I felt blessed to have met Dr. Chris. As I spoke with him and looked into his eyes as he spoke of each patient, I thought we need more like him. The dominant message to our youth is ‘Enjoy life, make money and have fun!’; then a whisper, ‘Oh yeah, if you have any extra, give some to help the unfortunate’. Chris is a testimony to those seeking their future. He is a real man, and who knows how many lives he will change.