Volunteer Celebrates Siloam Opportunity

By Dr. Mike Magee

Mike Magee

I first heard about Siloam from my friends Dr. Mary Jane Brown and Dr. John Thompson. When I did a pastoral internship with Nancy McCurley at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, she introduced me to Karen Stevens who invited me to provide care at one of Siloam’s evening clinics. So I began that ministry in June of 2005, and continued weekly on Monday nights until February of this year. When I added to my 25 year career as a medical oncologist an additional career as a part time pastor at Brentwood First Presbyterian Church last November, I decided in January to take a sabbatical. But Siloam will always have a special place in my heart, and when things settle down I plan to come again at least monthly if not weekly as before.

For health care professionals reading this article, I wish to give you five reasons why you should consider volunteering for a few hours on a weekly or monthly basis.

An opportunity to serve. To see the smiles on the faces of the folks you take care of at Siloam makes it worthwhile. As an oncologist, my skills in diabetes and hypertension were rusty. Dr. David Gregory, who helped found Siloam, volunteers on Monday nights, and brought me up to speed quickly. I felt I truly saw Jesus in the face of the poor, the sick and the stranger at Siloam.

An opportunity to learn and practice the secondary language of our country, and the primary language of the western hemisphere. Half of the folk we see speak Spanish but little English. I studied Spanish in school, and have been on two short-term mission trips to Guatemala, where Spanish is the lingua franca. But apart from the social pleasantries, the only medical vocabulary I knew were words like dolor, aqui, calor, rubor, verde and maybe a few others. In other words, not enough. It is surprising what you can communicate with your hands and facial expression, and in addition there is always at least one interpreter on site. So language is not a barrier.

An opportunity to discover the tolerance of people from other countries. When I first started volunteering, I began all conversations with people with Hispanic names with the question, “Hable Ingles?” At first, the folk I was speaking to looked startled, as if they were shocked that I would at least try to speak their language. After their first moment of being startled, if they said “No,” or “Un pocito,” I would call for an interpreter. After six months, one of the interpreters overheard me and said my question was actually rather rude. Instead of asking, “Do you speak English?” which was my intent, I was making an imperative statement and demanding of the patient, “You speak English.” How embarrassing. But none of my patients for six months had complained. Everyone showed amazing tolerance, and none ever mentioned my rudeness. They recognized I was trying to help and showed me a lot of forbearance. How embarrassing that some from our own country have been intolerant of the difficulties Hispanics sometimes have with English.

An opportunity to discover the forgiveness of people in other faith traditions. When I asked one patient what country she came from, she told me she was from Kurdistan. I asked, “You mean, Iraq?” I asked this before I thought that might be a touchy subject. She was patient with me. She said, “Yes, but we think of ourselves as an occupied country, part of which is in Iraq, and part of which is in Turkey.” I asked her how she felt about Hussein (this was during his trial). She said there is no peace without forgiveness. This was not the stereotype I had of someone within the Muslim tradition. I learned from her that stereotyping members of religions other than mine is inappropriate. I feel her view was more “Christian” than that of many Christians.

An opportunity to share my faith with others. Prayer before clinic and with individual patients is encouraged here, and I made friendships that will last a lifetime.

As a result of my experience at Siloam, I am going to encourage the church where I pastor to begin an English as a Second Language class soon. Siloam has been a blessing in my life, and if you choose to volunteer here as I did, it will also be a blessing in yours.

Mike Magee, MD, MDiv, trained in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering and in Hematology at Vanderbilt, and has been in medical practice at Baptist Hospital since 1983. He graduated from Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2005. He was ordained a minister of the Word and Sacrament, and placed as a part-time pastor at Brentwood First Presbyterian Church, 1301 Franklin Rd, ½ mile south of Concord, www.brentwoodfirstpresbyterian.org. Mike can be contacted at: Mageemichaelj@aol.com