As If FAMILY

As If FAMILY
Dr Edward Sitt

If I am asked about my role in MSI, I am a long-term committed short-termer. Twenty years ago, I started with medical work in Sichuan Province in Mingshan County and then continued in Erbian County. At an early stage, I was impressed by the work of the three young ladies who served in Xichang County in Daliangshan area. They were Sharon, Tomoko and Tami who has since passed away. I am also a short-term worker who had explored some new sites for service such as Jianshui and Honghe counties with Eckehard and Yunnan chief representative Amir. I had also been with Peter to Dulongjiang County in Nujiang Prefecture in Yunnan Province to explore the opportunity of arranging corrective surgeries for disabled youngsters. This was later developed as a sustainable project for poverty alleviation and corrective surgeries and rehabilitation for disabled by Garry, his wife Maggie and others. I am now a MSI mobiliser.

What is my motivation for long-term commitment in MSI? A vision? A mission? Or a love action? All of the above factors are correct. However, the most important reason is the testimony of all the named persons I have mentioned above, together with other partners whom I have not named. Such a great cloud of witnesses from all nations was interwoven in my life. They were not just ministry partners who walked together with me, not just friends; instead they had transformed MSI to gradually become my family. An Indian writer, Jay Shetty said, “There are friends there is family and then there are friends that become family.”

“For this reason, as we are circled by so great a cloud of witnesses, putting off every weight, and the sin into which we come so readily, let us keep on running in the way which is marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1) – BBE

“… But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)