M3 Honors Billy Graham’s Legacy
Today, we remember the life of Billy Graham. As we prepare for our conference this weekend and look out among the Samaritan’s Purse workers setting up the Emergency Field Hospital tent we are reminded of the legacy he has left and the impact he has made on so many lives. We are so honored to have a portion of his legacy here with us this weekend through the work of Samaritan’s Purse. There is no doubt that his mission will continue to touch lives for many more years to come. We invite you to join us in visiting Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital at the M3 Conference on February 23 & 24 and celebrate the life and legacy of Billy Graham.
Previous M3 Attendee Shares Testimony
Below is another inspiring testimony of the M3 Conference given by Amy Herman, RN. Her testimony was shared with us through Steve James, President and Founder of Kenya Relief. Amy tells of her experience beautifully and really captures the meaning of the conference.
“Going to the M3 conference gave me hope in not only the work that Kenya Relief does, but the work that ALL of us do collectively when it comes to helping people who are really in need. I am a firm believer that we are gifted with skills and talents that can be used to serve one another and being at the conference allowed me to meet people who do that every single day and they do it with great joy and great hope.
Sometimes mission work can feel overwhelming and family and friends don’t quite get your passion for wanting to reach out to those most in need, but virtually everyone at this conference understands. I met a nurse doing work in California in the Tenderloin neighborhood of which I had never heard of before. Her daily work, and the work of a ton of other people in her organization, is changing the lives of people that the general population doesn’t even want to look at, much less offer a helping hand to. She inspired me with her passion for people.
I met a nurse who served at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya who helped organize the training and education of local young women who wanted to become OR nurses. Her calm and confident outlook on the future of nurses at Tenwek filled me with hope and her work inspired me.
I heard Dr. Kent Brantley’s story first hand and then found him after his talk standing quietly in the background of booths, leaning against a counter all by himself. His humble nature, the incredible amount of hope he has and the way that he spoke of the people he served, with such tenderness and love, inspired me too.
I seemed to be surrounded by nurses, doctors and people who could not wait to serve!! They were fueled by passion and that passion was almost tangible everywhere I went during the conference and with each person I spoke to. It was exhilarating and inspiring!
If you’ve ever wondered…”Can it really be done?” If you’re ever thought…”But there’s so much need and so much to do!” Hear what the people who come to the M3 conference have to say about that. Share YOUR stories of hope and love and passion for the work you do with the people you will meet there. It’s an atmosphere of hope in the future and new ideas are exchanged with virtually every single person you encounter. You’ll be both grounded and forever changed.
Can. Not. Wait.
Amy”
M3 Welcomes Kelly Sites and Elliott Tenpenny to the 2018 M3 Conference
Who else can’t wait until this weekend?! We now only have four speakers left to introduce for the 2018 M3 Conference. Today we want to highlight Kelly Sites, RN and Elliott Tenpenny, MD. They both serve with Samaritan’s Purse and have extensive experience in disaster response. They will be facilitating our Pre-Conference Workshop #4 titled “Serving the Great Physician in Disaster Zones”.
Kelly Sites has been a nurse for 20 years. She has served with Samaritan’s Purse since 2010 as an International Disaster Response Nurse (DART RN). She has served in Liberia for two deployments working with Ebola, served in the Philippines, Vanuatu, Tanzania, Rwanda, three deployments to Haiti, once during the Cholera outbreak, Ecuador, two deployments to Iraq, and recently in Dominica on the Hurricane Maria disaster response, and in Bangladesh for a diphtheria outbreak in a refugee camp of over 800,000 Rohingya. She has been married for 24 years to her husband, Chuck and they have twins who are in their second year of college. Kelly and her family currently live in Lansing, Michigan.
Dr. K. Elliott Tenpenny serves as the Emergency Medical Response Manager of the International Disaster Response Unit at Samaritan’s Purse. Dr. Tenpenny is a native of Tennessee and received his postgraduate medical doctorate at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. He subsequently completed residency and served as chief resident in Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Following training, Dr. Tenpenny was part of the post-residency program with World Medical Mission, serving overseas for over two years. During this program, he trained in surgery at CME Nyankunde Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo and then served as chief of surgery at Pioneer Christian Hospital in the Republic of Congo. In his current role, Dr. Tenpenny develops and maintains medical readiness of the International Disaster Response Unit, provides leadership in the setup and management of the emergency field hospital during deployments, and provides ongoing development and direction to the medical sector.
M3 Welcomes Russ White to the 2018 M3 Conference
In just 4 days the 2018 M3 Conference will be underway! Will you be there? We now have only a few speakers left to introduce and today’s speaker is Dr. Russ White.
Russ White, MD, MPH, FACS, FCS (ECSA) was born in the Belgian Congo to medical missionary parents. He attended Roberts Wesleyan College, the University of Michigan School of Medicine, and the Harvard University School of Public Health. He completed a general surgical residency at Brown University and a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, England. He has served as the chief of surgery at Tenwek Mission Hospital in Kenya since 1997, where he spends the majority of his time. He is a clinical professor of surgery at Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He has also been the program director of the Tenwek Hospital General Surgery Residency program since 2008. In this capacity, he works with other consultant Christian surgeons at Tenwek Hospital to train ten surgical residents in a fully approved 5-year general surgical residency. In 2018, he will be initiating the first fellowship level training in cardiothoracic surgery in the region. He is also the Chairman of the Education and Scientific Research Committee for the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa, responsible for education and research for surgical residents in training in 13 different countries in the region. His passion is for teaching and mentoring young surgeons in a distinctly Christian setting. He has special interests in cancer of the esophagus and rheumatic heart disease. Dr. White is the winner of the 2017 L’Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Mission Service, awarded through the African Mission Health Foundation. He is currently proposing a Tenwek Cardiothoracic Institute to help in the treatment and training of heart and chest diseases in East Africa.
Dr. White will be speaking in a breakout session titled, “Are Short Term Medical Mission Trips of Any Value Whatsoever?” We believe you will truly be blessed by Dr. White and his expertise in medical mission work. We hope to see you there this Friday and Saturday! Click here to register now. Use promo code SPREADTHEWORDM318 to receive $5 off.