Credentials: Counting it All Loss
Len: Welcome to A Willing Heart. This is Len Lacroix and I'm back again tonight with Dr. Andrew Stenhouse for our final segment, as we've been discussing his life story, especially his divinely ordained career as a medical doctor. In this podcast, we'll be discussing Dr. Andrew Stenhouse's credentials that he has attained by the grace of God.
He holds multiple academic degrees that he has earned, including a Bachelor of Medical Science (BSc), a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S.: an international medical degree equivalent to an M.D. in the U.S. system, also abbreviated as M.B.) from New Zealand, and a Postgraduate Doctorate of Medicine (MD) from New Zealand.
He was also awarded the Wellcome Research Fellowship, along with several prestigious postgraduate awards, including Member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Member of Royal College of Physicians in London, Fellow of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
He is board certified in Oceania as a Member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (MRACP), board certified in England as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in London (MRCP London), and he retired after fifty-five years in the field of Family Practice and Internal Medicine, having served on multiple continents and islands, including Oceania, Asia, Europe, North America, and Hawaii.
Several articles that he either co-authored or solely authored were published in seven different medical journals, including two of his own articles, published by The British Medical Journa l . Some of these articles have received many citations by other authors.
He has studied several foreign languages including French (this is the one with which he was most proficient), German (he was able to speak it), Latin (which he understood), Rarotongan, Arabic (of which he knew a little), Hebrew (that he began learning), and Fijian.
He also served from 2007-2015 as President & Chairman of the Board of the ministry I founded, called Doulos Missions International, and is currently one of our board Members. I've known him for around twenty-eight years, and it's both my joy and privilege to call him my friend. Andrew, welcome back to the program!
Dr. Stenhouse: Oh, thank you, Len, for that introduction. It's such a wonderful pleasure to be back with you again.
Len: Well, Andrew, all of those credentials of yours are evidence of the excellence with which you served as a medical doctor for fifty-five years. But much like the apostle Paul said that he counted all his great credentials a loss, you also count all your credentials a loss for the sake of knowing Christ.
Dr. Stenhouse: That's correct, Len. Knowing Christ is the most important thing in my life to me.
Len: Amen. You know, the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:7 -11:
"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead." (Php 3:7 -11)
Dr. Stenhouse: That is exactly how I feel, Len. My biggest concern in sharing my life story is that I really don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than what they see in me or hear from me. I'm certainly not perfect. My personal life did not measure up to my professional life. Being on-call and working sometimes twenty-four-hour shifts adversely impacted my personal life. All I did was to be obedient. If a person’s obedient to do what the Lord told him to do, Len, then even if the Lord sends him to a war zone, he would be taken care of. Anything good you see in me is Jesus, and all the mistakes are mine.
Len: Amen. Isn't that true for all of us!
Now you've been walking with the Lord for eighty years since childhood, so you have a little more experience with it than most of us do.
Dr. Stenhouse: Well I've not always been faithful to Him, but you know, He's always been faithful to me, Len.
Len: That's something that I think all of us can say, too.
Now when you say you count it all loss, that's not just a concept or a theory for you, it actually happened. A few years ago in 2014, you stopped practicing medicine, not because you wanted to retire, but for health reasons. You had a stroke that wiped out all your medical knowledge from your memory bank, so it was literally all lost. Can you tell us about that and what it was like to have that kind of experience?
Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, I can, Len. I was no longer able to remember any of my medical knowledge after my stroke, you know, and for a short while I didn't even remember who I was, but that came back, of course. But if I were to see a patient in my office now, I would not be able to treat him medically. The Lord told me after my stroke that I was not to practice medicine any more, but I could still help people spiritually.
Len: Wow! That's amazing to lose all that knowledge, and I'm sure it was very humbling, too. But the Scripture says that knowledge will pass away, and in this case it certainly did. However, the Lord not only gave you the natural talents and abilities to fulfill your calling as a doctor, but He also gave you an anointing for it that included supernatural gifts of the Spirit such as healing, wisdom, prophecy, and knowledge; and He gave you the heart of compassion that a doctor should have, as well as other vital fruit of the Spirit.
And while you lost all of your medical knowledge, you didn't lose those things that are of the heart and of the Spirit. Those have remained in you to this day.
Dr. Stenhouse: Oh, yes, Len, isn't that wonderful, how the Lord does that? Everything is from Him, through Him, and to Him. And the Lord gives and He takes away, so we should never be prideful of what we know, but realize that all things come from Him and are to be used for His glory. And the things that remain forever are faith, hope, and love.
Len: That's right! Those are the most important things in life that last forever.
All those letters after your name are quite impressive in the natural, but the fact is that they won't last throughout eternity. I tried writing them all out and it's like an alphabet after your name that takes a couple lines—MD, M.B.B.S., BSc, MRACP, FRACP, MRCP(UK), LSHTM, FACP. But, you know, the most important letters that you've received are your BWJ from the Lord, like it says in the Bible in Acts 4:13, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
Dr. Stenhouse: You know, Len, that's right. "Being with Jesus" or BWJ—that's what really matters for all of us, Len. And that's my desire for everyone who’s listening or reading my story, that they would repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they would come to know Him personally as their Lord and Savior. For even if one person comes to know Him through my story, then that would be wonderful.
Len: Amen. That's certainly our hope and prayer.
Would you do the honor of giving the Gospel invitation to our listeners tonight?
Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, I would love to do that, Len. You know, everybody has been created individually by the Heavenly Father. No two people are the same. Every person has his hair numbered—not just counted, but numbered—on his head. And He sent his Son to the cross to die on the cross in our stead and in our place. And what we need to do is just to realize that His love for us to so great that He would give His only begotten Son on our behalf. So I would just like to invite everybody that is listening just to lay down your life from yourself and give yourself to Jesus and the Father in heaven.
When somebody comes to the Lord, they have to come to the cross, and they have to lay down everything that is theirs, and take up everything that is His, which is glorious and wonderful, and gives him the right to be in eternity with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Len: Absolutely! Amen. Repent and believe the gospel, for the kingdom of God is near. That's our message to everyone, and if anyone would like to pray with us or give his or her life to Jesus, I'd like to extend an invitation to contact us through our website, and we will be delighted to do so. The web address is awillingheart.org.<