Many health professionals discover METS training after years of practice. Some will describe the frustration they felt at "going it alone" in sharing their faith in the practice or medical position. But the growing number of students involved in METS Bible studies during their medical training find help for bringing their faith into the workplace before they graduate. METS students are bright, energetic, and committed to the patient's whole person—physical, emotional, and spiritual. In this issue are included three physicians who participated in METS Student Bible studies.

Matt Wilber,MD

Dr. Matt Wilber graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine this spring. He will start a pediatric residency in Utah at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Matt is married to Sara.

I came to medical school because I wanted to be a physician who did more than pay attention to people 's ailments. I wanted to talk to patients about larger and more important issues and share my faith about Christ and what He's done in my life.

As a freshman, I didn't know anything about METS. I just knew I was looking for a Bible study group.

The Bible study met at Dr. Harvey Elder 's home once a week. The group started out by learning the basic principles of Christianity. The second year we studied practical Christian ministry. And the third year,we worked through par of Experiencing God by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V.King. This year,I 'm helping co-lead the freshman Bible study,so my training has also taught me how lead a Bible study with medical students. METS conferences have connected me with other health care professionals who want to share their faith with their patients.

The purpose of the Bible studies is to give students a foundation from which to share their faith. Our preparation as students involved on-the-job training. At times,we would spend one Friday a month at the hospital visiting patients. We asked the head nurse which patients we could talk to. Then we would walk into the room and ask the patient for permission to visit with him.

First,we would chat and ask how his stay in the hospital was. With the patient's permission,we would take a spiritual history. We asked questions like: How has this illness changed the way you see yourself? What's your source of strength? Where do you feel God has been during you illness?

If we received a positive response,we would ask, "Would you like to know more about God?" If the patient said yes,one of us would share our testimony or a clear presentation of the gospel. And if the patient was ready, we'd lead him in a prayer of salvation.

One day I was working on a pediatric floor in a nearby hospital when a mother came in with a twelve-month-old baby. She had a history of drug problems and had been imprisoned a few times. The baby was wheezing and in respiratory distress. Although the baby was not acutely ill,his mother was extremely concerned about the well-being of her infant. Her concern seemed out of proportion to how sick her child was.

I tried to find out why she was so upset. I turned out that her previous child had died at the same age as her twelve-month-old child. That baby had been wheezing too. The mother felt terribly guilty because she had been using drugs at the time and she did not want the same thing to happen to this baby.

I realized that her reaction was appropriate. I talked to her about God's love and shared with her about where her dead baby was. I explained how she could know God 's forgiveness.

Dealing with a patients spiritual issues is extremely satisfying because a physician can do a lot with medications and drugs, but he almost never changes a patient's life. But helping them find the Savior makes their lives better. Treating spiritual needs has eternal value where medicine has temporal. And we can do both!

Derek Helton, M.D.

Dr. Derek Helton begins his residency in internal medicine at the University of California San Diego. As a freshman medical student, Derek began attending METS Bible studies. He recently won the National Student Poster Competition of the American College of Physicians.

During my growing-up years, I had a difficult battle with juvenile arthritis, and though I was raised in a churchgoing family, I harbored a great deal of anger toward God because of my illness.

Through friends and mentors who were Spirit-filled Christians, I developed a personal relationship with Christ during my teenage years. I was at this time that I began thinking that God could possibly use my particular experiences if I became a doctor. Several years later,here I am,ready to graduate from medical school.

Although I was open to God's leading, I attribute my development into the kind of physician I am today to the way God used METS personnel and training in my life. God has shown me how comfortable, practical,and fulfilling it is to serve my patients' spiritual needs.

A couple years ago, I wrote a column for the California Medical Association (CMA). The article was a description of a patient encounter where I was able to draw on the patient's faith in God during a clinic visit. The column was a call for doctors to consider the fact that their patients bring their entire person with them when they visit their doctor. The CMA was shocked when reprint requests for the column poured in from around the country. If fact, up to that time, no such request had ever been made about an article authored by a medical student. What a testimony to the fact that there are many physicians who are interested in learning how to care for the spiritual needs of their patients!

When I was interviewing for residency positions at universities from coast to coast,various faculty interviewers would ask about my article. When I explained the spiritual questions that I use when seeing my patients, I had two tenured professors of medicine at different institutions ask me, "How did a medical student learn how to do this? I've been wondering for years how to ask my patients about these kinds of things!"

I replied, "Well, there's this thing called METS ..."

Stanford Shu,MD

Dr. Stan Shu is an instructor of pediatrics and neurology at Loma Linda University Medical Center. A husband and father of two, he currently serves on the METS Conference faculty team and gives leadership to the Network student ministry.

During my freshman year in medical school, I was involved with both book and topical studies that were interesting and fun. During these group meetings,we did not have a short-or long-range goal for our studies.

Consequently,at the end of the year,we had covered quite a bit of material,but had seen little significant impact in other people's lives as a result of the studies. In my sophomore year, I joined the Medical Strategic Network Bible studies. They provided the fellowship and camaraderie that I had enjoyed in the earlier groups,but there was a significant difference. The MSN Bible studies have long-range goals for developing a mature spiritual walk. In addition to this,experienced mentors, who are Christians first and health professionals second, are available for one-to-one discipleship. Consequently, during the last ten years of small-group studies, I have grown from being a young disciple of Christ who could feed himself spiritual food to a worker for Christ who can feed spiritual food to others.

The curriculum of our current Bible studies is very intentional. We start the students with the basic fundamentals of the Christian walk and follow up with instruction in one-to-one discipleship. Our current group of freshman students include two who are already discipling other young Christians.