Denver Christian Docs

BILL & JAN BEVINS ON THEIR WAY TO AFRICA! Vol. I # 2 April 14, 2006 Moving to Africa is coming closer! Our target date is now September 23. Much has happened since our first newsletter, and we wish to let you know some of what is developing for us.

In January Bill returned to Africa with the CMDA’s short term mission group Medical Education International. First the team went to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Mulago is a 1,500 bed facility with >200% occupancy! There we taught a five day trauma care course similar to what is taught in the U.S. The methodological approach of the ABCs has greatly improved emergency care here in the states over the last 30 years. We instructed 18 of the consulting surgical staff with the intent to train them to be able to teach this material themselves.

In the afternoon of the last day of the class one of the Ugandan surgeons cared for a woman who had been run over by a truck. Although Dr. Jackie was unable to save the woman’s life, she realized that the approach that had been taught organized the pattern of care into a priority scheme that would increase the chance of a positive outcome in future trauma victims.

The next week the MEI team journeyed to Nairobi, Kenya, where our team was joined by other U.S. physicians and nurses. For four days, we taught our 3^rd annual trauma and cardiac care courses. Our sponsoring organization there is the Kenya Christian Medical Fellowship. At the conclusion one the most common requests on the part of the Africans was that we train them as trainers so that this knowledge can be further disseminated in their country.

The joy of teaching for the CMF of Kenya in the context of trying to show the love of Christ has been so exciting! It also leads into Bill’s further vision of working in medical missions with medical education as well as patient care. We will work with this vision as long term missionaries with Africa Inland Mission, International. Our initial commitment is four years, although some of the projects opening up will involve anywhere from ten-fifteen years of work. Ultimately, our goal will be to help spread the gospel by working through education.

Missionaries provide about 60% of the medical care in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Christian Health Alliance of Kenya helps to coordinate the medical care of all the mission agencies. We expect to be based in the Nairobi area and work with CHAK and the CMF.

Jan also finds great joy in teaching! As 50% of Africa’s population is 15 years old or younger, we know that wherever we are, there will be children needing an elementary education teacher.

We are in the process of raising support. We especially covet your prayers! We need daily and weekly prayer support for this work. There also is considerable financial support raising. Pray, and if you are led to help in any way, contact us for information on how to support us in prayer and/or financially.

The plan now is to have a newsletter at least quarterly. If you or someone you know wants to be on this list, let us know! We will send this electronically as much as possible and by regular mail as needed.

Praise and Prayers:

**Our children are grown up! Will is married to a delightful lady named Wendi and they are living and studying at CU. Joe is studying in Japan for a year as an exchange student from Fort Lewis College in Durango. He returns to the US to finish college in August, before our departure date. Our children have always been in God’s hands, and we pray even more now for His guidance in their lives!

**Bill will be attending Tropical Medicine school in W. Va. June 13- Aug. 4.

**We will sell our home here and downsize to something smaller for Joe to live in when he is not in school and for us a place to return to when on home assignment.

**Please pray for the prayer and financial support this endeavor will require. We have always been in His hands, and realize it now more than ever!

Joyfully in His hands,

Bill & Jan Bevins

e-mail:

Just got a note from Infection Control. We just saw our first Colorado case of mumps associated with a midwest outbreak. Be alert. If you suspect a case, draw a red top tube and do a buccal swab with a DACRON (not cotton) swab in viral transport medium, preferably M4 medium and send to Colorado State Health, 303-692-2700.

Even Christians can have cluttered houses. Came across this on a business time management discussion group: Fly Lady! Enjoy...

Schia, was four years old when her baby brother was born. Little Schia began to ask her parents to leaver her alone with the new baby. They worried that, like most four-year-olds, she might want to hit or shake him, so they said no. Over time, though, since Schia wasn't showing signs of jealousy, they changed their minds and decided to let Schia have her private conference with the baby. Elated, Schia went into the baby's room and shut the door; but it opened a crack- enough for her curious parents to peek in and listen. They saw little Schia walk quietly up to her baby brother, put her face close to his, and say, "Baby, tell me what God feels like. I'm starting to forget."

Chicken Soup for the Soul

My youngest, DenverDocDaughter3, was born with a placental anomaly called hemorrhagic endovasculitis and had a crash section. She then spent a week at the children's hospital NICU. She told us some years later a couple of interesting stories. First, she says she remembers being born! She wrote a story about it for a class. The other story was when she was younger, maybe five or six, and we asked her about her youth and being born. She said, "Oh, you mean the time I saw the angel?" Hair up on back of neck time. Oh, and despite her hearing loss and auditory processing learning disability, she is graduating from high school this year and is going to college in the fall. Praise the Lord.

Alternatives Pregnancy Center is having a Walk on June 3rd. It would be terrific to get some of our local practitioners to walk with them. Go to their website to get more information.

Christian docs, please vote for Denver's Top Docs in 5280 Magazine! Go to their website, you will need your physician license number to get in and vote. This is a fairly political issue usually and perhaps we can bring some of our principles to bear.

From the Southern California chapter...

Greetings from CMDA So Cal,

Two Democratic members of the California Assembly, Lloyd Levine of Van Nuys and Patty Berg of Eureka, have resuscitated their physician-assisted suicide measure, which failed to get out of committee in the Assembly last year. Their bill is patterned after Oregon's law, which allows doctors to terminate patients lives who are believed to have no more than six months to live. A patient must voluntarily sign a statement requesting a doctor's assistance, but there is no allowance made for the depression that often accompanies terminal illness and clouds a person's judgment. Rather than enabling doctors to help patients commit suicide, the Legislature should consider ways to expand access to hospices and to improve palliative care, which is the relief of chronic pain. Medical experts assert that, with proper palliative care, no patient has to suffer terrible pain in the last days of life. That is why doctor-assisted suicide is as unnecessary as it is ripe for abuse.Carol Hogan

CMDA encourages doctors to take a role in promoting ethical medical practices. If you'd like to keep informed on the fight against PAS visit our CMDA toolkits and the Californians Against Assited Suicide.

It could happen here, it could happen here. People have come to believe that alleviating suffering, at all costs, is more important than ethical medical practice. I'm reading a good book on this subject, more later.

As preceptors, your responsibilities will include overseeing first and second year medical students, care of patients seen in the clinic during the evening and teaching students about pediatric patient care. The students should be responsible for hands on patient care under your supervision. This is one of the first opportunities for medical students to work with pediatric patients and your experience will be essential to the learning environment.

To participate, all physicians must be a pediatric with faculty or clinical faculty status at the University of Colorado. Malpractice will be covered through the University of Colorado. IF you would like to participate but do not have faculty status, we can assist you in obtaining clinical faculty status.

We appreciate your interest and assistance in this program. The clinic is open Wednesday evenings between 6:30 and 9:30 pm.

Send an email to the Hotmail address above and I'll put you in touch with them.

This is amazing. 5700 articles, full text, on a variety of issues from Palestine/Israel, Liberal, Evangelical, Catholic, Protestant, Abortion, you name it. (Hat tip to DenverDocWife who sent this to me.)

If you know a site we should reference here, send it to me at the above address and I'll link it.

"People get very upset by the idea that their children might have to suffer. Well, why are you having children? You want them to be Christians, don't you? If they are going to be Christians, they are going to suffer. That is what life is about."

Stanley Hauerwas

From This Day's Thought.

I hate it when my children suffer. DenverDocDaughter1 gets Seasonal Affective and it kills me. DenverDocDaughter2 gets displaced by Hurricane Katrina. (Refugee is such an ugly word.) DenverDocDaughter3 has a learning disability. But as I look at them, each has become stronger from the sufferings. And so have I.

Perhaps that is why we have such a dangerous world. Have you ever thought about the unintended consequence of making everything safe for your kids? Sooner or later, in this crazy fallen world, you inevitably will run into something dangerous. What chance does your child have of surviving a big danger, if they have been protected from all the little ones? I am completely opposed to intentionally inflicting suffering to cleanse my soul, but looking back many of the things that hurt me made me grow.

National Day of Prayer has a website. Take a look!

This past week we had 57 visitors to the site. Thank you all for coming and I will keep trying to keep you interested.

DenverDoc must not have enough to do. I decided to reformat the site so it would be more efficient. It's less parchment-like but wider so more information fits, and there is now an Upcoming Events section that links to the entries that describe things further. Hope it is more useful to you. You can click on the Comments at the bottom of entries if you like and perhaps someday I'll read them...

John Patrick MD will be coming to Denver May 9th. He is a gifted speaker, knowledgeable Christian, experienced missionary, and a tenacious apologist. We will get together at 7 PM at a member's house so be sure and keep the evening free. CMDA members will get a postcard with details and those on the Email list will get Emails as well. If you want in on the Emails, be sure and send me your contact information on the Hotmail address listed in the Header of the Blog.

I admit to having read Da Vinci code. It's not a bad detective-type novel and the puzzles were fun. I tried to look up some of the historical information which didn't smell quite right and sure enough it wasn't. There is a website with a lot of historical info available since the movie will be out soon with Tom Hanks. It's amazing to me that a work of fiction has caused such a storm, but I do remember that the book was strongly anti-Christian and virulently anti-Catholic. Also, the postmodern mind may have some trouble discriminating between story and truth.

There is a bill (HR2679; Indiana Congressman John Hostettler) being proposed to prohibit groups such as the ACLU (anti-christian lawyers union?) from collecting tax money for attorney's fees on "Establishment" lawsuits such as removing crosses from public land. The American Legion is backing this effort. Doesn't seem too unreasonable, why should the taxpayers give $800,000 to the ACLU?

Here is a message from the office of Dr. David Stevens, Executive Director of CMDA:

You are invited to CMDA’s birthday party! In June, in beautiful Irvine, California, we will be celebrating Christian Medical & Dental Associations' 75 fruitful years of changing hearts in healthcare. We’re heading “Back to the Future,” looking back at where we’ve been and looking forward to an exciting future. I hope you’ll plan to celebrate with us!

Save $25! Register before May 17th.

Plenary Speakers:
We've invited some extraordinary plenary speakers to share their knowledge, insights, and inspirations:
<> Former Chaplain of the United States Senate and current president of Leadership Unlimited, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie (our banquet speaker), will be speaking on "The Red Ember in the White Ash"
<> Teresa Collett, J.D. will help us understand the bioethical battles raging in our society and how we can make a difference.
<> Robin Morgenthaler will share with us how to strengthen our home front through CMDA’s spousal ministry, “Side by Side.”
<> Ray Comfort, author, evangelist, preacher, and co-host with Kirk Cameron of “The Way of the Master,” will be sharing devotions each day.
<> Other speakers include CMDA’s Dallas Area Director, Dr. Stan Cobb, and Rev. Bert Jones, who will inspire and challenge you at our Sunday morning worship service.

In addition to the plenary speakers, we have numerous workshop speakers who will be covering topics in the areas of bioethics, missions, spiritual life, family life, dentistry, practice, leadership, and stewardship.

Let me encourage you to take time out of your busy schedule and take advantage of this unique opportunity. If your schedule does not permit attendance at all sessions, partial registrations are available.

Melinda Mitchell, CMDA’s Meeting Manager, is coordinating this event and can give you more information when you contact her at 423-844-1000. The CMDA Web site also contains additional information about this exciting meeting.

Be sure to register before May 17th and save $25.00 per person.

We look forward to seeing you June 14 - 18 at CMDA’s National Convention!

If you have not been to a Maundy Thursday service, consider going. Traditionally a service of darkness, it commemorates the trial and crucifixion. It is a perfect bookend to the joy of Easter which gives us all hope. In the past I've attended the service at Colorado Community Church, Englewood. This year, probably I'll go to Hope Fellowship. There is an entire website devoted to "maundy!"

If you haven't seen this article, from JAMA in 1986 detailing some medical opinions and historical research on Roman flogging and crucifixion, it is definitely worth reading. And what better time than Holy Week?

While looking into the talk on Avian Flu, which by the way went well, I was researching a quote from Mark Twain, something about "my life has been full of disasters, most of which never happened." Came across, via Google, a speech by Michael Crichton, the doctor (yes, harvard med I believe) who produces ER and wrote Jurassic Park. He goes through several media panics (global cooling, yes, you younger folks, in the 1970's we thought the earth was about to enter a new ice age!), The Population Bomb that never exploded, Y2K, etc. Quick, guess how many people died at Chernobyl? Would you believe 10,000? It was actually 56. He has a marvelous novel, State of Fear, which covers some similar ground. Typical Crichton: sort of flat characters, unlikely but fast-paced plot, but excellent research and even a bunch of footnotes. Well worth the read.

Executive summary: The press, governments, and trial lawyers all benefit from keeping us in a state of fear. We buy books, obey orders, and sue people if we are fearful. Filter the news with that in mind.

Another added note: he thinks that medical research, where we don't let the drug companies do their own verification studies, has a lot to teach to environmental science. Maybe we docs actually do something right. For a bunch of his speeches, look here.

DenverDoc will be on the radio for CMDA nationally for an hour starting at 1, talking about Avian Flu. (it is on Crosstalk VCY America, the only Colorado outlet is in Grand Junction.) I'll try to add to this Blog if any interesting points come out. I found some interesting websites that give information about the new flu, actions that individuals can take, the WHO's website, etc. If the H5N1 strain of Avian flu does learn to jump from human to human, it could cause big problems. There is no way to predict if it will happen, or even what the odds are that it will happen.

In the pathology department, we'll be keeping our eyes on the testing methods. You guys out there on the front lines will need to keep your eyes open for new vaccines, changes in patients that come in to your office, etc. I suspect that, similar to the Anthrax scare and cipro, you will see at least some patients coming in demanding some Tamiflu.

We lost 40 million people in 1918 (500K in the US alone) in 1918. Subsequent pandemics (1957 and 1968) were not as bad, with 2M and 1M deaths respectively worldwide. It's a dangerous world out there.

The checklist of things individuals can do is useful although incomplete. A lot of the things are exactly the same as those that might have helped in Katrina or any other natural disaster. Some examples:
--keep several days worth of emergency food and water available, preferably things that don't need cooking in case utilities go down.
--think about some kind of emergency heat that is safe; flu tends to be a winter disease.
--make sure you keep ahead on prescription and nonprescription medications
--wash hands frequently (yeah, us docs need to do this too.)

There could be widespread social disruption. Restaurants, banks, postoffices, etc. could be closed. Work may be difficult. Schools might be closed; kids are a big source for flu epidemics.

Take a look at this site. METS is an evangelism training seminar for health care workers like us, similar to Saline Solution but with some differences in focus and training. DenverDoc and DenverDocWife had dinner with Dr. Yang Chen tonight and we were quite impressed. They've been all over the country and even had some sessions in Cuba. Maybe we can put something together in Denver in the near future.

DenverDoc is listening to Dennis Prager on 710 AM today, and he had some wonderful insights. He has a terrific book, by the way, called Happiness is a Serious Problem which I highly recommend.

"We are punished in this life for mistakes, and we are punished in the next life for evil."

"If you want people to join your faith, act happy!"

"Unhappy religious people are more effective arguments for atheism than all the intellectual arguments put forth by atheists."

"My happiness is my gift to those around me. It is not selfish to be happy, it is selfish to be unhappy."

"It is a moral obligation to be happy."

"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it--and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again--and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore."

Inner City Health Center is having Salsa and Soul, a fundraiser and concert with Hazel Miller (Denver's best blues band) and Conjunto Colores (Salsa music.) It is Thursday, April 27th, at 6 PM at Mile High Station. To get more information, call Chandra at 303-291-3729 or go to Inner City.