Students for International Mission Service (SIMS)

My trip to Malawi through the SIMS program was an incredible learning experience culturally, spiritually, and academically. Being the minority among the Africans was a huge change from living in the United States where Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for Black’s rights continues even today. I have learned that each Black person I see in the United States has a history beyond slavery. They have a motherland, an identity so often overlooked and ignored.

“It is my belief that we are obligated to share our resources, experiences, and opportunities with those who are less fortunate. “In doing so, we fulfill the commission given by Christ…to go into all the world, teaching and sharing, lifting one another up. Besides, if we don’t take the initiative to go overseas and serve others—then, who will?” Audley Williams biomedical sciences Graduate School

Going to the third poorest country in the world—a country that recently won its independence in 1984—with pictures of the president infiltrating every corner of the vast country, even within the Malamulu Hospital, helped me to realize how much identity these people have and uphold. I have learned to respect Africans, not pity them. I have learned to inquire about their ethnic background beyond the whole continent of Africa. After all, as a Korean, I do not appreciate being called a Japanese or Chinese. I’m sure a Malawian would be offended if one were to mistake him/her as a Kenyan.

Spiritually speaking, it was amazing talking, interacting, and working alongside missionaries in the health-care field. God explicitly called each one of them to the mission field. I learned that motives arising from self-piety or self-righteousness will not do for a life of service in a foreign, dilapidated country. Only God’s hands could protect one from bandits, snakes, thieves, murderers, discouragement, fatigue, bitterness, despair, and hopelessness.

Being a missionary is not an easy thing. With so many people relying on you to make their lives much better, yet with only so much the missionary can do and offer, one can become discouraged and bitter very quickly. I must admit, I became bitter after only three weeks in the mission field.

Everywhere I turned, a kid covered with soot and maybe wearing one shoe, if he were lucky, would be crying for “one kwacha,” which is about one penny. I, of course, could give up my clothes and money for my one-week vacation after the trip to feed more than a thousand Malawians. But where do I draw the line? If I give away one kwacha or even 10, 30 more kids come running to me for more. I came away with a bitterness that arose from disappointment in myself, yet a struggle to justify my refusal to give away all I had or even half of what I had. The bitterness arose from people regarding me only as a source of money rather than a person who might be able to help in other ways. I would offer one of the toddlers a banana from high up in a tree nearby, but he did not want the banana. He wanted a kwacha.

Have I resolved the issue within myself? Slowly, but I still have questions. I still cannot help but see myself as a spoiled, selfish American. And yet, as I learned in Malawi, it takes a calling from God to leave everything material and serve His people as a missionary. I certainly have not heard that calling as yet. And I know God uses people in different ways to serve Him and His people.

Academically, I did not learn as much as I had hoped, just because Malamulu Hospital was organized and had a lot of students capable of assisting the three doctors for 270+ beds. However, the physicians and students were very helpful, and I would love to revisit Malamulu after I learn some more clinical knowledge in my third and fourth year.

Overall, the missions trip to Malawi was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that pried open my cultural awareness even further and taught me more in the realms of communication, open-mindedness, and spirituality. I thank SIMS for having made the opportunity possible.

[Outlook 2002]

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