Stewardship Season: Week 2

Our Stewardship theme this year is Growing as Saints: God’s Power Working in Us. During the month of Stewardship, various parishioners have reflected on the theme. We are excited to share their thoughts with you. This week we have a piece by Terry Morrison:

It is an honour to be asked to share my story with you. In the early months of COVID, I found a new calling that led me to volunteer and work with a non-profit organization called the Canadian Network for International Surgery (CNIS). It is led by a dedicated individual who I’m sure would say he’s not a Saint. But in the eyes of the professionals he has trained and the patients they’ve saved, they would indeed call him a Saint. For more than 40 years, Dr. Ronald Lett, a surgeon in Vancouver, has dedicated his time working to improve the quality of surgical services in developing countries. To date, the CNIS organization that he co-founded has trained over 100,000 healthcare professionals, midwives and clinical officers in ten African countries. This essential training provides the necessary education for childbirth, trauma and essential surgical skills training, all contributing to reducing the already high mortality rate. For the past three years, I have been giving back by volunteering my time and knowledge to help the CNIS digitize their essential surgical, minor surgery and trauma courses. With COVID limiting travel to teach in person, this became an essential tool for continuing the training. This short story is about the dedication shown by Dr. Lett which continues to inspire me to give back even more of my time to offer support to the CNIS in its continuing efforts in helping to save lives in Africa.