There are great people with whom we cross paths during our lives and rarely do we give them credit for how they have influenced us – until they are gone. I want to take a little time and honor one such person in my life. Dr. Bob Whittaker, missionary doctor at Nigerian Christian Hospital, was recently kidnapped from his home and within a week returned. What a harrowing situation to have to go through but what it did for those of us who know Dr. Bob was to drive us to our knees in prayer and reminded us how he has affected our lives.
Dr. Bob treated my family for different ailments while we lived in Nigeria for five years. He took care of my wife when she broke her toe. I think he was a bit amazed by her ability to have a needle stuck into her toe without flinching. She explained it was because she was using her breathing exercises she had learned in her Lamaze classes to prepare for having our first baby. He also treated Robin for Typhoid Fever. It was Dengue Fever that got me over to his office on one occasion. He also helped educate us on how to treat Malaria as every member of our family had it multiple times.
I would visit the hospital to get some advice about something or other and sometimes when I arrived he would be in the operating theatre (pronounced with a British accent). He would tell me to put on a mask and come on in. I saw operations going on that fifth year med students weren't able to see in the USA, at least not at the range I was able to see them. And Dr. Bob always felt it necessary to give me a lesson while I was standing there. Once he was removing a cyst the size of a grapefruit from someone's stomach and explained to me why he was so meticulously cutting away the fibers holding it. Another time he was removing a baby that had died in the womb. I still tear up thinking of how lovingly he and his assistant handled that baby even though life had already left it. Its one of those memories etched in my mind forever.
Dr. Bob doesn't start a surgery without saying a prayer first. I recall him saying that healing came from God. He really sees himself only as an instrument of God for God is the one who truly brings healing. Dr. Bob is one of the most spiritual-minded men I know – in any country.
Not only is he a great doctor, he's a great man of God. Even though I only heard him preach a couple of times in chapel at Nigerian Christian Bible College, I know that he has a heart for the spread of the gospel. He has reached out to many congregations in Nigeria and shared the truth. He makes sure that patients who come to the hospital to be treated receive treatment not only for the physical but for the spiritual as well.
He stands as one of the greats – to be compared to the likes of the best Christians and humanitarians with which God has blessed this world. He is a wonderful example of someone who decides to forego the financial riches of this world and chooses the noble path of giving of himself to those in need. May God give him many more years of service in his kingdom.
Excellent note - Praise God for his rescue and now, being in the forefront of our prayers as he heals and returns to his people ...
thanks for sharing.
Robin (he did a great job on my toe ...)
Posted by: Robin | 08/09/2009 at 03:08 PM