Can a Doctor & Mother be a Minister?
The strong bonds by college graduating class — peers — last for decades. It’s caught on down to our kids, so that from about the age of 3, our kids know who their peers are. No matter what location, or what ministry team you’re on, your peers will be the same.
I don’t have as many peers as the younger ones, being one of the old timers at our church. I have 3 class of 1994 peers, and we adopted one from the class of 1995 since she’s the only one. The only one who’s still covocational is my peer Sophia.
Sophia and I got to celebrate our 50th birthdays together this month. A group of women made a delicious potluck and had a time of sharing memories. Some of those memories were pretty embarrassing, like a time when Sophia ate her sick roommate’s chicken soup or I ate a large amount of watermelon, not leaving some for others. Some were about going through tough times together; the passing of family members, or health challenges. As I looked around the room, I couldn’t help but think, I’m the richest woman in the world. After these 25+ years, I have a wealth of women who can be so free with each other, in whose presence I feel so secure, and who have become pillars of our church. I could write a story about each one, I suppose.
But this is about my peer Sophia. I often find myself adding “my peer” in front of her name because we’ve never been in the same ministry together after college, so people in my ministry group usually don’t realize she’s my peer. She probably seems older because of her accomplishments. Sophia joined our church as a senior in college, a churched girl whose parents are super accomplished (lawyer and doctor), and who was on the path to success herself. Pretty sheltered, she had a hard time telling us how to get to her house if coming from different directions as a college senior. She’d had her nose to the books and her eyes on the prize of medicine all her life.
When we graduated, my other peers stayed in Berkeley, and Sophia went off to New York to med school. Not only was she going to become a doctor, but a surgeon. Through this experience, especially seeing how she was treated and the kind of harsh ambition fueling many people in her field, she recognized that her ambition was the wedge between herself and God, and committed her life to Jesus. Eventually, she got married and came back to the Bay Area, and has been serving here since.
And at the age of 50, what is her legacy? Sure, she’s an ophthalmologist with her own practice in Chinatown. She’s my most successful peer in a worldly sense, which I’m proud to say. In her practice, she’s employed more than 20 people from our church over the years, who testify to her cheerful spirit, good humor and consistent character at work. But I’m even more proud to say that she’s a zealous minister of the gospel who really challenges and inspires me.
With her booming private practice, she could’ve lived the most comfortable and even opulent life, with a lavish home, luxury cars, hanging out at country clubs or spas in her free time. Instead, she lives in a modest 3 bedroom house, and of course drives a minivan. She’s been reaching out to visiting scholars for many years now, finding ways to meet them, inviting them to her home, taking them on countless tours of the Bay Area and trips to national parks in California in her minivan. Many of them have taken our Christian foundations course, Course 101, with her and learned the basics of Christianity, and some became Christian. Year after year she faces sad goodbyes as they need to go back to their home countries. So she doesn’t get to see their faith grow in person, or help them become ministers as she is. But she carries on in trying to reach them.
A few years ago, she and her husband decided to try reaching the neighborhood. So they went door to door asking if anyone would be interested in doing an Alpha course together, where you have dinner together, watch a video and discuss it. They got a handful of takers, and faithfully met together for 2 years for Alpha and a seeker small group.
During covid, she found ways to connect over zoom, with 6 women who went back to their homes. One of the women had become Christian after course 101 with Sophia. They would watch an online sermon together and discuss it. 1 of the women isn’t Christian, and 2 are people who were invited by others, who Sophia has never met in person. But she knows them well through these weekly discussions.
All of this is on top of her job, where she performs surgeries and sees patients all day. She’s always willing to take a look at my eye, or my husband’s, or anyone who asks, and gives suggestions and advice, or gives us some samples from work. At work, her co-workers from our church talk about her zeal to share with others in the building or her patients. There would always be a rice pot cooking in the break room on Fridays for her Bible study time. Sometimes, she’d say, “I need to leave early today because Mary forgot to pack plates for our dinner tonight, so I need to get some.” Or she’d ask for ideas about how to lead life group, or run her ideas by the other ladies.
This summer, I moved to her neighborhood, and found my extra refrigerator in the garage filled with medical stuff. She needed the storage space for her medical mission trip to Honduras. Eventually, she cleared out the stuff and went with her family to perform eye surgeries and share the gospel. She had some adventures there, and again, I am proud that I have a friend who can serve the community, and who uses her vacation time not for luxurious tours to exotic places, but to those who are needy for medical attention and for the love of God.
She’s also an avid runner and swimmer, but that’s on the side. As is her ophthalmology practice. Her main vocation is as a minister. And that’s what inspires me about my peer, Dr. Sophia.
