Shawn Returns Again and Again

We made someone cry the other day at our VetRed lunch-meeting, it will probably live on as one of my favorite moments of our ministry.  I should explain.  

Dr. Shawn Kari is a veterinarian with an ambulatory ultrasound practice in Southern California.  He's been visiting us for the past couple weeks, updating the vet school on the imaging material he taught them the last time he came down three years ago, and the time before that.  

Shawn recognizes the importance of relationships even more than the value of his expensive equipment or topnotch skills, so he keeps coming back and keeps pouring into the people here who adore him.  Across the really steep language barrier he knows their stories, the names of their spouses and kids, even their favorite sports team.

Shawn training on the fancy new machine he brought down to share.

He affects the people he works with here so much because he cares about them personally and has something to offer that can drastically change their lives professionally as well.  As Dr. Moira told us, through tear-filled eyes, at our Bible study gathering, she knew absolutely nothing about ultrasound when Shawn came down the first time. Now she scans between 10 and 15 small animals every day in the teaching hospital at the university, she’s the vet that the city of two million people send their pets to for ultrasonic diagnositcs.  In May she'll speak at the veterinary conference here in Santa Cruz as the canine ultrasound expert! 

"See one, do one, teach one!"  Moira now teaches sonography to hundreds of students a year at the veterinary university.

Our VetRed office makes a comfy place for some training on cardiac physiology.  

I don’t think Shawn, or VetRed, could be any happier with how his teaching is multiplying.  He came down and taught, and now his students are teaching so many others. Sharing the talents God has given us to demonstrate Christ’s love and spread the free gift of grace is exactly what we’re here for.  

Just so you don't think his visit was all work and no play, here's a pic from after the students shoved his birthday cake in his face at his going away party yesterday. We couldn't let him leave Bolivia a third time without experiencing this classic local birthday tradition.

I love my job!