Previous M3 Attendee Shares Testimony
Steve James, President and Founder of Kenya Relief, shared the testimony below with us that was written by Jo-Ann Caron. It is an incredible testament of the way God works. We pray the 2018 M3 Conference brings many more stories like this!
“Dear Steve,
The hustle and bustle of the holidays have ended and as I took some time this morning to plan out my coming week, I realized that I will soon be leaving on a medical mission to Kenya…and that’s when the panic set in. So I am typing this note to you to quell my inner anxiety and to tell you how you are partially responsible for my to trip to Migori.
This past February, I attended the M3 Mission Conference at Lakewood Church. To say that the hand of God led me there would be an understatement, because up until one month before, I was unaware that Lakewood Church or Joel and Paul Osteen even existed!! But that is a story for another time.
I didn’t go to the conference with an agenda, I just knew that God had sent me to Houston. I signed up for a breakout session titled, ‘No Boundaries to Love: The Perfect Place to Start Your Medical/Surgical Mission’, because it sounded interesting. When you began your presentation, I was immediately drawn in by your personality and the incredible story of how and why Kenya Relief began. That still small voice said pay attention. But as often happens, that other voice told me I was not what you were looking for. Yes, I’ve been a nurse for over 35 years but my expertise has been in OB. Plus I ‘retired’ from my hospital based position and have been conducting wellness and vaccine clinics. I have not been in an OR in 3 years. I left the session and thought, ‘I guess this is not for me’.
Over the course of the 2 and 1/2 days, I kept walking by the Kenya Relief Exhibition Booth but was too afraid to approach for fear ‘I wouldn’t be good enough’. At the close of the conference, Caleb, who was the emcee, addressed the conference attendees. He felt led to say that there were a few members of the audience who had been walking by a particular booth for several days but fear was keeping them from moving forward…fear of not being good enough, fear of the unknown, fear of stepping outside your comfort zone. His challenge was to get up and approach that booth and Just Say Yes!! At that moment in time, the message to me couldn’t have been more clear.
I left my seat and headed to the Kenya Relief booth. As I approached, you looked up and said the most incredible thing….’we’ve been waiting for you’. Wow!! I left Houston with a lot of information and went home and prayed.
On Jan. 19th I will arrive in Nairobi and meet the members of Team 2. All those fears I had in Houston have begun to dance in my brain and gut once again!!! But I go confident in the ‘One’ who has sent me there. See you soon…Jo-Ann Caron”
Leader of Samaritan’s Purse and past M3 Speaker, Ken Isaacs, Nominated for Director General of the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration
M3 would like to congratulate one of our past speakers, Ken Isaacs, on his nomination for the next director general of the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM). Mr. Isaacs serves as the Vice President of Programs and Government Relations for Samaritan’s Purse and plays a key role in their international relief efforts. With 35 years of experience organizing relief plans helping control the flow of migration, Isaacs seems the perfect fit for the IOM position, whose agenda involves handling one of the largest forced migrations due to a global refugee crisis.
Most recently, Ken Isaacs has served in relief efforts in Iraq, including setting up the first field hospital in Iraq in 2016, like the one that will be on display for tours at this year’s M3 Conference. Mr. Isaacs is currently involved in providing aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
We applaud the work Ken Isaacs and Samaritan’s Purse are doing around the world to help bring relief and aid to those who need it most. We are proud to call them partners of M3.
Click here to read more about Ken Isaacs’ nomination.
M3 Welcomes Sarah Jennings and Kathy Marquardt to the 2018 M3 Conference
We have two talented women to highlight today who will be facilitating our Pre-Conference Workshop #2 together – Sarah Jennings and Kathy Marquardt. Their topic is “Ultrasound for Medical Missions”.
Sarah Jennings, BS, RDMS, RVT has been a sonographer for 15+ years and is registered in Abdominal, Breast, Neurosonography and Vascular. She has been a member of her college Alumni Board of Directors for the last 12 years and will step down as immediate past president next year. The majority of her diagnostic scanning career was spent as a travel sonographer working in multiple facilities throughout the United States. In 2011, she worked through a non-profit organization in Bamenda, Cameroon, Africa to teach ultrasound to selected local nurses. In 2014, she began working as a Clinical Applications Specialist with FujiFilm SonoSite where she enjoys combining her love of teaching, travel and helping others succeed with ultrasound.
Born in the northeast, Kathy Marquardt, RDMS, RVT attended a radiologic technology program in Lancaster, PA. Soon after graduation she moved to a small town south of Houston, and Texas has become her permanent home. While Kathy was working as a Radiologic Technologist, she was offered an opportunity to train as a sonographer, which opened doors to scan in various environments—hospitals, clinics, offices, as a contract sonographer. After a period of teaching ultrasound continuing education and skills classes, she went to work in the commercial field with SonoSite where she learned Point of Care Ultrasound and has been awarded Clinical Applications Specialist of the Year 3 times.
We only have a few spots left for pre-conference! Click here to sign up now.
M3 Welcomes David Jackett to the 2018 M3 Conference
We hope you have had a great week so far and are looking forward to the fact that the M3 Conference is only a week away! We are so grateful to have David Jackett with us this year and would love to tell you a little bit about him tonight.
After spending 10 years as a professional firefighter/paramedic in Fort Worth, TX, David left the fire service for full-time vocational ministry with Frontier Ventures (formerly known as the US Center for World Mission). He currently serves as the Texas Regional Director of the Perspectives Study Program. David has led more than a dozen trips to Central America doing evangelism, medical and orphan care, firefighter training and church planting. He has helped his church and others develop missionary training and equipping programs and he has spoken to thousands of students and adults across the US and Central America about God’s global mission with a great passion to mobilize the body of Christ to strategic engagement in God’s global purpose.
David and his wife, Jennifer live in the Dallas area. Jen serves with East-West Ministries as a part of their South Asia team and together they run Missio Dei Collaborative Workspace, which unites different ministries and churches to work together to complete the Great Commission.
David Jackett will be facilitating our Pre-Conference Workshop #1 titled “Made for More: Finding Your Place is God’s Global Purpose” where he will be speaking on the Perspectives Study Program.