Jim was exhausted. He'd wanted...
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Jim was exhausted. He'd wanted to be a doctor all his life. He had survived medical school, internship, residency. And then, as his sister liked to put it, he'd gone off the deep end. He could have set up private practice and started paying off the student loans he had depended on to get him to graduation. But, no! Not Jim! He had to save humanity -- according to his sister. During his residency, he had come to know Father Ryan well. He was a priest who had spent most of his life serving in foreign missions. He'd been sent back to the states for medical care; he was terminally ill with cancer. Father Ryan and Jim had had many talks about the Father's life's work -- and each time they had talked, Jim had been aghast at the squalor and need his patient described. Jim was convinced God had sent Father Ryan to him for that very reason: to get his attention, to awaken his compassion, to help him discern the work God had for him to do as a medical missionary. Upon his arrival in this impossible-to-get-to place, Jim was horrified at the conditions he found, far worse than anything Father Ryan had described. Jim was so weary. The hopeless, the sick, the malnourished just kept coming, and coming and coming. It wasn't possible for there to be so many. But whenever Jim was ready to quit, he had only to mention Father Ryan's name and see a native's face light up with joy, to understand the gift Father Ryan had brought to these people: hope in the midst of incredible despair. It would take Jim most of the rest of his life to pay off his student loans on his missionary's salary, but he felt rich beyond measure. -- Fannin
