Joel & Cindy Anthis

 

 

 

 

19722 Cardiff Park Lane

Houston, TX  77094

281.579.0770

Anthis@mindspring.com

 

 

 

 

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6.

 

 

Dear family and friends,

 

            Greetings from Katy, Texas.  We are writing to our family and friends to let you know what the Lord is currently doing in our lives.  As most of you know, Cindy and I have felt called to medical missions both individually and as a couple for the last 10 to 15 years.  As the scripture above says, we are continuing to hold on to God’s promise – that He will carry His good work to completion in our lives.

 

We have finished our medical training and are both Board Certified (by the American Board of Otolaryngology for Joel and by the American Board of Family Medicine for Cindy).  We have lived in Katy (west Houston) for the last three years.  Joel is in private practice as an ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeon.  Cindy sees patients one day per week at a local family practice office and enjoys being a mother for Austin (7 yrs.), Allison (5yrs.), and Abigail (1year).   During this busy time, we have continued to seek God’s will for our family regarding full-time medical mission work. We have continued taking short-term mission trips, going to mission conferences, getting to know missionaries and joyfully giving to missions. Finally, we have, by God’s provision, cleared the last significant hurdle to serving full-time: we retired all our educational debt.  It is now an exciting and a scary time for us because there are no remaining barriers to fulfilling our call into full-time service.

 

            During the past year, we have sought God’s will for where He would send us and how He would use our medical skills for His glory.  In seeking God’s will, Joel traveled in February of 2002 to Kenya for a large Christian medical conference.   At the conference, Joel met several doctors from Evangel Mission hospital in Jos, Nigeria.  After further discussion with these doctors from Jos, it became clear that there was potential for an ENT surgeon at Evangel hospital. 

 

The national church in Jos had already identified a large deaf population and was attempting to minister to their needs.  A team from America including an ENT and an audiologist, had visited Evangel hospital and determined that many in this deaf community could regain their hearing with surgery and/or special solar-powered hearing aids.  Evangel Hospital also has a family practice residency-training program where Christian national doctors further their training.  This arrangement allows for teaching and discipleship opportunities.  In the city of Jos there is also a government medical school with an ENT training program.  This medical school already has one ex-patriot faculty member (a missionary with Campus Crusade) and may be open to Joel joining their faculty on a part-time basis allowing for evangelism opportunities.

 

            Additionally, Jos is a strategic location.  While there is a strong national church in Jos, the city is nearly equally divided between Muslim and Christian.  To the north of Jos, the population of Nigeria is almost entirely Muslim.  Evangel hospital ministers to many Muslims from the north that travel to Jos for their medical care.  We believe Jos is an excellent place from which to share the love of our Lord Jesus through medical missions.

 

            So, what comes next?  Evangel Hospital is operated by a non-denominational mission agency called SIM.  We have submitted our applications with SIM and everything looks promising.  We still must travel to Charlotte, North Carolina in September for an extensive interview before we can be approved.  We are already approved as missionary candidates with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) Mission Board.  We intend to finish the process with the EPC and to go co-appointed by both groups since we are currently members of Cornerstone, an EPC church in Katy.  

 

We have also scheduled a “vision trip” to Jos, Nigeria in August.  We leave August 23rd for a weeklong visit.  We hope and pray that God will use our time in Jos to solidify His vision for us as full-time medical missionaries. We will be visiting both Evangel Hospital and the government hospital.  We will be meeting with key members of the mission and the national church.  We will also be visiting several ministries (including one to street kids) that may be able to use Cindy’s skills part-time.  Joel will be giving a lecture on common ear problems to the residents, seeing some difficult ENT cases, performing some surgical procedures, and fitting some solar powered hearing aids. 

 

            How can you help?  Please join us in prayer as we seek God’s will.  The following is a list of specific prayer requests:

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Thank you for standing with us as we continue to seek God’s will for our family.

 

 

In His Service,

 

           

 

 

Joel and Cindy Anthis

Austin, Allison and Abigail