Missions with Henry

Hello!

I arrived back in Houston on Fourth of July at 10 PM. I know it’s almost been a week since my arrival and I apologize for the lack of communication. It is hard to write down all of my thoughts because there are so many things I’ve learned and blessings and praises. But mainly, by writing a final thought, it really means that the missions trip is over, and that saddens me, because it was such an amazing experience and I miss China and the people and my team very much.

Before I go on, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed. I really couldn’t have done this without you. To know that I had people praying for me and the team really comforted me while I was on the trip. Also, if you contributed financially, your money was put to good use. A good portion of the money the team members raised was used to purchase medications that we gave away in our free clinics to patients who wouldn’t have healthcare and medication otherwise. I really wish I could stand before you and thank you personally, but I have to be in Austin for my MCAT classes. I hope you understand…

What I’m going to share with you in this update will not be that much because there is simply so much I have learned from this awesome experience. What I’m about to share is what I shared with the rest of the team during our debriefing period. I am currently in the process of putting down everything I’ve learned and it’s already becoming rather lengthy, so I’ll spare you the novel, for now. But I will send out another update informing you when my full final thoughts are completed (we’ll just call this one the abbreviated version.)

First, this experience in a way humbled the role of the MD in my eyes. Allow me to explain. During clinics, I realized that without everyone else on the team, it would be very hard for the doctors to hold clinic and see all the patients in an appropriate amount of time. Everyone, from the runners to the RNs, from the Lab team to the Patient Education, is so important that not one part can be absent. Can you imagine doctors having to do reception and vitals and assessment and diagnosis and prescribing and dispensing and patient education AND lab work? That’s practically impossible. In other words, doctors with their stethoscopes can’t do all that much without a strong supporting cast. And this concept applies not only on the missions field but in hospitals as well, and this really taught me to be more than just a single person, but rather be part of a team.

Second, 3 verses from the Bible became, in a sense, real to me. The first verse is from 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, and it’s about how if we, and I’ll use the medical context here, are the best doctors and nurses, but have not love, we are nothing. And we as a team took much comfort in this verse because we faced much setbacks in our outreach efforts. There was government officials around us all the time, and we were actually not allowed to give out our Gospel bracelets by the government officials. Without a doubt, we were quiet saddened, annoyed, and frustrated with this, but as our leaders reminded us, our actions speak just as loudly, if not more, and we must continue to love the locals with our actions and serve them whole heartedly. And also, God’s way is often different than our ways. God’s will is not going to be stopped by any schemes of man. This was especially evident when the doctors shared with the rest of the team that the local hospital staffs who were helping us noted our attitude and some began to change their own attitudes right then and there. Indeed, if we have not love, we are just noisy gongs. The second verse that became real to me comes from John 9, where Jesus answered “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” What happened was on the second to last day of our clinics, we had already closed shop, but a mother came and she was carrying her daughter on her back. Her daughter has hydrocephalus, which is a condition where there is an abnormal accumulation of fluids in the brain. This increases the pressure on the brain and besides the physical enlargement of the head, it can lead to brain damage if untreated. To treat this condition, a shunt is implanted to allow the fluid to leave the brain and into the abdominal area. She was thirteen years old and she had just started walking 3 years ago. To say it broke my heart would be an understatement. Two of our doctors immediately began to inquire how and when a surgery could be done at the earliest possible time. And we learned that the family can’t afford the operation, even with a government subsidy. Without any hesitation, the doctors wanted to do a fundraiser for her. And at that moment, that verse popped into my head. I’m not saying the sole reason for her having hydrocephalus is for some American team to help her 13 years after she was born, but I know if she gets her operation, this will change her life, and that people around her, her family, community, village, town, and county, would see and understand why an American team would help a girl like her and come to know Jesus. Truly, it will be the glory of God displayed in her. We took a picture of her and a fundraiser should be organized real soon. The third verse that became real to me is Matthew 9:37 where Jesus says “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” This hit me after we packed up and was ready to leave the clinic site on the last day of clinics. Everyone began to take pictures in anticipation of our departure and lots of people I talked to (the younger folks especially), and myself included, didn’t want to leave. We wanted to stay and keep doing clinics because there were just so many more people that needed physical and spiritual healing. And for the first time ever, I understood what Jesus meant when he said that. For the first time ever, I truly understood all three of these verses, and how important it is for Christians, myself especially, to actually do what Jesus said instead of just going from Sunday to Sunday. Most definitely, God has molded me more through this trip.

And lastly, I realized how important it is for me to keep going on missions trips. I think it will be so easy for me to lose track of why I am going into this field if I don’t discipline myself for the missions field, and not just overseas missions. It truly is a discipline in that I have to continuously step out of my comfort zone or else I’m just going to be complacent with my own secure shell. And if I want to do some sort of medical missions in the future, which I do, I have to discipline myself. So it is now my prayer and hope to keep being “missional” (I apologize for the cliche) and I hope to go on more trips like this. If possible, I would love to go with AMDS to China again, but we’ll see when I get there.

Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting me through all this. I really do appreciate everything. Like I said before, I’m in the process of writing out the more detailed final thoughts, which is going to include our day to day activities and some more stuff on setbacks and victories and whatnot. I will post it on my missions blog at http://missions.henryzhan.com and I will probably send you an email like this to inform you.

Thank you again and God bless!

Henry

Yunnan, China

Sorry for not being able to update you all for a few days…Things got a bit busy with the whole moving to a new site and all the logistic stuff… 

This is the official AMDS update. (Note not written by me).

Anyway, here it is. On Saturday 6/26, we had a late start in the morning. We got up and ate around 9am and had devotions together around 9:30am. Originally, we were going to have a mock practice for free clinic in the afternoon and the next day in the afternoon after church. However, due to some mis-communications, local people were expecting us to do a full day clinic on 6/26, not two afternoons in a row. Therefore, we rushed over around 11am to start the clinic, and we saw around 140 patients on that day and finished around 5pm. It was quite hectic at first because everyone is still trying to get used to the new tasks and the overall function of the clinic. However, people learned fast, and the team worked well together. On the next day on Sunday 6/27, we visited the local church and had a free afternoon for people to explore Dali, safely in groups of three or more of course. Around 5pm we gathered for dinner and 6:30pm we left Dali for Xiang-Yun. 

Xiang-Yun County is somewhat between Kunming and Dali (much closer to Dali). We rode the bus for around 1+ hour. We settled into another hotel and rested and prepared for the full day clinic. Our clinic sites have been determined for us. We will work at three village sites with 2 days to each of the first two villages and 1 day at the 3rd site. On 6/28, we started to see patients in a regional health center in a local village about 20 min away from the hotel. We saw around 170 patients. Subsequently, Dr. Doughten gave 2 lectures to the local doctors. One on osteoporosis and the another on metabolic syndrome. On the second day 6/29, we worked in the same place. saw around 200 patients. This night, Dr. Ma and Dr. Lee gave lectures on hepatitis B and cardiac rhythm problems. On 6/30, today, we went to a much farther village in the mountains. The ride is 60+km and took us around 1.5 hours to get there. To my pleasant surprise, we got a brand new clinic building to use, which made clinic much more comfortable with ample resources. We saw around 200 patients as well. 

This is a brief overview of what we did for the past few days (written when I am half asleep). Therefore, feel free to email back if you have any questions. A few people did get some travelers diarrhea and some colds, but thank God that the members who are ill got well fairly soon. Everything else went smoothly. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. 

Today started off with fellowship time where we spent some time worshipping. It was great to do that as an entire team (some people arrived at a later time). We were then informed immediately that we were going to setup clinic at the seminary in town. It was very encouraging to know and visit a seminary in China. So we set up shop. I’m on the lab team. This was suppose to be a test run for everyone. It was a hard day. We had difficulty setting up equipments and stuff was not really going the way we wanted to. Nonetheless, God still came through as we learned a lot on how to hold a better clinic and do our jobs better. After all this is a missions trip. Things are suppose to be hard, and not go the way we want to. If we had wanted easy, we could have just stayed at home. But it’s when we are weak, He is strong (2 Cor 12:9-10).

During the clinic times, one lady began to sing Chinese hymns and many of our team members joined it. To see people here with such faith is just awesome in every aspect of the word.

After clinics, even though we were thoroughly tired, a couple of the guys found a basketball court with the local firefighters and we actually played a couple of the games with the firefighters. Definitely an unique experience.

After dinner, we had fellowship time and our fellowship groups shared and prayed for each other. We were also informed of some news for the upcoming days. We are going to a different city, a smaller one. And unfortunately, the government is not as receptive as they were in the past years. So we have to very careful about sharing the Gospel and to avoid trouble with the government. So please ask for lots of wisdom and guidance.

Regardless of whether we get to speak the good news or not, we must go with a message of love (1 Cor 3:1-3) and remember why we love (1 John 4:19). Love is the ultimate message and no matter how great of a clinic we hold, how great the doctors and nurses are, without love, we are just useless noise. And honestly, nobody can complain about us if we are loving and caring.

Personally, I am so joyful around my team. Everyone is loving and I’m so blessed to have fellow brothers and sisters to serve Him together.

For me, please pray for patience and grace. I found myself being frustrated with our equipment and even with some of the patients and team members. I realized that today on how much I need to show grace to everyone just as He has shown patience and grace to me. Please pray for the team and for the Holy Spirit to pave the way and protection.

I’m sitting in our hotel. It’s a very nice hotel. There is wifi here at the hotel and thank goodness for my iPhone. The weather is actually quite nice, quite similar to to California weather. It’s been raining, which is quite good due to the drought the area has been having. We’ve been actually praying for rain so praise God!

To say I’m tired would be quite the understatement. I have traveled a total of 28 hours nonstop. Houston to Los Angeles 3 hours. Los Angeles to Shanghai 15 hours. Shanghai to Kunming 3 hours. Kunming to Dali 7 hours bus ride (had to take a side road due to construction on the highway). Knowing that all this to serve His people and Him priceless. It’s really been great traveling with people who are here for the same reason with me. We all come from different places and backgrounds but we are truly all united under Christ. While on the trip, I spoke with one of the founders of AMDS and he shared with me why they established AMDS. This is one way for professionals to serve and also to train the younger generations to serve. (A side note: it is very encouraging to see professionals take time out of their busy schedules to serve God. Truly they prioritize God above their own agendas.) He continued saying that one of the main things in healthcare is follow up. Of course we can’t do follow up but we have an indirectly improved the local healthcare because the local health officials come and observe our clinics, and as they do that, they’re learning how to better take care of their own people. This is the 4th AMDS team to serve in this area and we have established a good relationship with the local officials. This is great in that they invite AMDS back every summer. And the rest is up to Him.

Anyway, I’m going to go shower now, for the first time in nearly 30 hours.  We are currently taking a rest day to prepare for clinics. Please continue to pray for us as clinics are about to start. Also praise Him for a great start so far and especially very smooth arrival.

Thank you!

Henry Zhan

I can’t believe I’m less than 12 hours away from leaving for China. I’m very excited but I’m also nervous about the trip. I think I’m just unsure about what’s going to happen but last night, I was reminded by my favorite hymn “It Is Well with My Soul” to rely on Him and be satisfied with God regardless of what happens. His grace is more than sufficient. After all, He did provide the necessary funds to send me to China and provided me with so many prayer warriors.

Please continue to pray for me and the team. As for me personally, please pray that I will look to Him for strength and wisdom and not rely on myself. Also, please pray that I will be at peace regardless what happens. As for the team, please pray for energy, safety, strength, and team unity. We will definitely be tried as we will have daily clinics. Please also pray for spiritual conversations and that people would be receptive to the Gospel, especially in possibly spiritual stifling environments. Like I’ve shared before, we will be using the Gospel bracelets to share the Good News. I wrote a post about it on my missions blog http://missions.henryzhan.com/post/612073702/more-about-the-trip-and-the-team.

I will attempt to update as much as I can but I can’t make any promises because I’m not sure I will have Internet access. But I will attempt to send out email updates as well as update my missions blog at http://missions.henryzhan.com/.

Thank you for your support and prayers. I’m so thankful to have you in my life and I thank God for your generosity and your prayers.

Thanks again and God bless.

Henry

When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know, It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.

AACM Missionaries

This is a blog that has updates about my fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ in my fellowship (InterVarsity Asian American Campus Ministry) at UT-Austin who will be going on missions. Check back often for updates and prayer requests.

I hope that you will be encouraged by what you read and please pray for these missionaries. Thank you!

The following is the email update I sent out on June 1st:

I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. Can you believe June is here and I’m a mere 3 weeks away till I leave for China? Time sure flies by fast. 

I just wanted to update you on my life and preparations for my trip. 

Read More

So for those who are not familiar, our AMDS (American Medical and Dental Services) team will be going to China. I just want to share more about what this trip will entail and the team for those who do not know yet.

We will be hosting daily clinics to serve the locals and our primary methods of spreading the Gospel will be using Gospel bracelets as well as conversational evangelism. 

Our gospel bracelets will have 7 beads. (I was taught with 5 beads but I guess there are different variations).

• The first bead is gold, which represents the Creation and how God saw that it was “good”.

  God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. - Genesis 1:31

• The second bead is black, which represents the the sin in us and our separation from God
  

  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. - Romans 3:23

• The third bead is red, which represents the ultimate sacrifice of blood shed by Jesus Christ on the Cross to save us from our sins and to restore the relationship between man and God.
  

  But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

• The fourth bead is white, which represents our cleanliness of our soul after we have accepted Christ as our Savior and Lord as we are made righteous by His blood.

  You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. - 1 John 3:5

  Though your sins are like scarlet,
  they shall be as white as snow;
  though they are red like crimson,
  they shall become like wool. - Isaiah 1:18

• The fifth bead is blue, which represents the act of baptism, publicly declaring our faith. 
• The sixth bead is green, which represents growth as a Christian.

  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:12-14

• The seventh bead is gold, which represents Heaven, where we will be with God for all of eternity.

So that’s the bracelet. Our other main method of evangelism is patient education.

Patient education is a vital part of not just from a healthcare perspective but also from an evangelism perspective. We will be educating the locals on how to be healthy (i.e. eating healthily, taking appropriate medicines, preventive care, etc), as the best healthcare sometimes is prevention. At the same time, we hope to have spiritual conversations during this time (as this is China, and one cannot openly share the Gospel in many areas). 

Our team is comprised of about 40 people, many are students like myself. We have MD’s and RN’s and PhD’s on the team. It’s honestly very humbling to see adults with all out busy careers taking time out to serve God and His people.

These are the awesome people that I will be serving with. This photo was taken at the retreat/training back in March. This isn’t everyone as there were some that wasn’t able to make it to California. I can’t wait to see everyone again on the trip.

I’m the only one from Texas so I gotta represent them Longhorns! Hook’em! I will definitely be wearing burnt orange when I’m not wearing my scrubs during clinics.

This team is pretty big so that means more prayers are needed! So far, I have a lot of people (I believe around 10-20 committed to prayer support), but we can never have enough prayer! Also, I have about 5 weeks left to fundraise and I haven’t reached my goal of $3000 yet. So if you would like to support me through prayer and/or financially, please go here. Many people have already responded with such generosity and love and I’m just so humbled (even to tears, just a little bit though) and encouraged. I’m so thankful for everyone’s support.

Thanks for reading and keep on praying for us! Thank you!

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
          - Isaiah 55:9

God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.