Missionary Profile: Dr. Erin Meier

By Engage on Sep 20, 2011

Erin Meier has served as a physician since September 2007 at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital in Papua New Guinea (PNG), in the Asia-Pacific Region. She has been a Nazarene missionary for one year. She share Christ's love with the patients who come to the hospital by meeting both their physical and spiritual needs. 

Meier shares a patient story from her blog:

Too embarrassed to tell anyone about the growth in his groin, Nason lived for months as the tumor grew inside of him. When his shirt grew too small because his abdomen was two times its normal size, he told his mom he needed help. To the others waiting to see the doctor, Nason, with his infectious smile and oversized clothing, looked like a strong, healthy, 16-year-old young man. What they couldn’t see was that every part of his body had been transformed by this cancer that was threatening to take his life. His mom, Rose, a devout Christian, was very concerned about her son for many reasons. Despite her pleadings, Nason would not accompany her to church and did not know Jesus, and now, as she heard me explain his illness, she started crying, knowing he could die. 

As I looked at them, I saw a mom who was afraid of losing her son for eternity, and who looked at me, pleading with me to help her son, to give them hope and to heal him. I also saw a young man whose thoughts of invincibility and immortality had just died, and didn’t know what to say. My training ... does not qualify me to treat cancer of any kind, much less a cancer as widespread as Nason’s. But none of us were willing to give up on him. I told them I would do all I could to help and they agreed to try chemotherapy, which just might give Nason the hope and healing we wanted.
 
In the weeks and months that followed, Nason’s life returned. The cancer was receding with the chemotherapy, and the young man who once thought he would live forever now will -- with Christ. Rose’s prayers were answered one day as I shared the gospel with him, and the chaplains prayed with him as he came to know His Savior. For a time, he was healed both physically and spiritually. His physical healing is most likely temporary, as inevitably the cancer will win the fight against our medicines. But we pray that the spiritual healing will be for eternity. 

Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work? 

Meier: There are many challenges that arise in working at a mission hospital: 

• daily running out of: medicines, IV fluid, IV tubing, blood in blood bank, sutures and staple guns, reagents for the lab equipment -- and not being told about it until you are out;

• power outages;

• equipment that breaks down because it has been jerry-rigged together;

• not enough resources to fix or obtain the things that are needed to keep the hospital running (i.e. hydroelectric plant, sewage plant, etc.);

• not having access to labs, radiographical studies, or other tests that would make caring for a patient or making a diagnosis better, easier, and less uncertain;

• not being able to trust what others do or report, or what patients tell you.

All these things you just take in stride, knowing that you can't really fix most of these things, so you learn to live with, make do, and adjust one way or another.

Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.

Meier: Imagine if your whole life you were never able to talk, yet you could hear and understand what others were saying to you.  Imagine that despite not talking, you were loved and cared for by many.  Imagine one day, all of a sudden, being able to talk. What would you say?

Brenda is 12 years old and, until recently, was unable to talk. She is loved by many, especially her mother, who has looked after her and cared for her as only mothers can do. Her mother’s love brought Brenda to Kudjip Nazarene Hospital because she was concerned about a lump on her back.  Her mom had already accepted that Brenda was shorter than other kids and was unable to talk, but wanted to know if we could do something about her back. 

When she walked to my room the smile she had was infectious and overflowed to me as I watched this little girl hold her mother's hand and together take small steps as they walked into my room. Her mom shared her concerns about her back, and then I asked questions about her development trying to figure out why she was so small and couldn’t talk. The whole time Brenda is smiling and holding onto my legs and hugging me. As I consulted with other doctors and got some blood work, we discovered that her thyroid gland hasn’t been working properly and possibly this has been going on her whole life. 

Six weeks ago, I started her on some medicine to help her thyroid. Mom couldn’t contain her smile when they came back and she told me that Brenda can now say “mama.”  I couldn’t contain mine either, as we praised God that He had made Brenda able to speak. Mom says she babbles all the time and says a lot of things that they can’t understand.

Only God knows how much Brenda will be able to say after 12 years of silence. I pray that the medicine will continue to help her to talk and to grow, but that it doesn’t change the love that she gives so freely. 

Isaiah 35:5-6 says, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy.”

Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God in the midst of the demands of missionary service?  

Meier: My relationship with God is maintained through daily time with him, through Bible study with other missionaries, and through preaching of the Word, whether through church here or through sermons from back home. I keep in touch with my family through email and Skype, which is such a blessing.
 
Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?

Meier: Seeing lives changed, both physically and spiritually, through the ministry of this hospital.

Engage: What do you like to do for fun?

Meier: I enjoy playing tennis, hiking, gardening and reading.

Engage: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

Meier: When I first came to PNG, I didn't like most vegetables and was a very picky eater. After living here for four years, being exposed [to] and served many vegetables, and living next to a missionary couple who had a huge garden, I have learned to eat almost anything.

Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?

Meier: If God is calling you to missions, you can't avoid His call. Go out and experience missions, see what it is that He is calling you to do. There will be challenges along the way, but God will grow you through it and will be with you through it.