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Inspiration

A young man in Haiti watches as a pregnant woman suffering from malaria begins to have serious respiratory problems where she lies. The doctor tells her sister that the woman needs a blood transfusion, and that she will need money to get it in Port-au-Price. The young man, desperate to help, runs around the hospital and eventually gathers fifteen dollars to send with the sister.

It wasn't enough. The sister returned to say that she didn't have enough money for both the blood and for transportation. Despondent, the young man thereafter committed to raising money to buy blood-storage equipment, later to find that the hospital would charge for its use. "I'm going to build my own f_ing hospital," the young man remembers thinking. This he did, building a large complex in the midst of one of the poorest towns in all Haiti, Cange.*

Life work like this takes sacrifice, very personal sacrifice. Influenced by men like Rudolf Virchow and Latin American "liberation theology," this young man believed that medicine could solve social problems, that his purpose was to apply his knowledge of medicine and anthropology to the poorest of the poor. He was, it seems, a Harvard-educated Mother Theresa.

It makes you think about our own purposes here. Why are you here? Answer that, and you'll be able to determine your occupation in life. I'm of the belief that motives should come from a pure heart; but I also know that you can't always tell whether your motives are pure. Sometimes you act without fully knowing why and without fully knowing the consequences, but that's part of the excitement of life. Keep yourself mindful of your Creator, and let him teach you as you go.

*Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.New York: Random House, 2003.

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