Can I Help?

Everything changed the moment Larry's OB/Gyn wife said, "Glen needs a doctor to lead the medical team for a two-week construction and medical mission trip to a hospital in rural Zambia. I want to go ... but only if you go with me." As a survey research scientist, Larry's skills were clearly neither in medicine nor construction; he doubted he could be useful. But, since his wife wouldn't go without him, he reluctantly agreed to go with her.

The snags in the carefully crafted plan for the trip showed up on day one-multiple challenges for both the medical and construction teams. Would ANY of them be useful? Had God not heard their prayers for the trip? The answers were both unexpected and transformative. The experience changed Larry's understanding of Christian missions and taught him vital lessons about himself and about God. He discovered that, if he trusted God and followed His lead, he could be helpful after all in ways he hadn't anticipated.

Across five related trips to the same destination from 2005 to 2011, this memoir and its numerous photographs provide an intimate view of a short-term mission experience-the challenges, the successes, and the altered perspectives.

With a substantial focus on construction projects, this book should appeal to seekers, established Christians, pastors and seminary students, those who've thought about participating on mission trips or were afraid to volunteer because they didn't feel "called" or didn't think they had useful skills to offer.