I have been thinking recently about encouragement. It’s easy these days to feel dark, gloomy, and depressed with all the bad things going on in the world, the global pandemic, and the ugly effects it has had on humanity.

Recently, in the USA, we Emergency Nurses were celebrated on our annual Emergency Nurses Week. The wonderful med-surg and ICU nurses who are honest with themselves will have to admit that they hold a sort of grudging respect and awe (although with a tad of annoyance) for those ER nurses who bring them “train wrecks” of patients and who are always persistently calling to give a report as soon as their ER patients have a room assignment on the floor, just so they can put another bleeding and broken patient in that ER bed and do it all over again…. day after day after day.

So, this week I want to celebrate “Karen Medics Week,” I want to celebrate those brave Karen medics, PA students, nurses and doctors, those live-savers, those “answer any and every call for help,” those baby-deliverers-motorbike-jockeying-harrowing-mountain-road-driving brave young men and women. The PA students of EMA who answer the call to give and administer care and assistance to people in some of the most remote and desolate locations left on planet Earth. To those who are hurting, desperate and dying, those who simply have no…other…options. These medics and students do it not for the money, there is virtually none, they do it not for the accolades and recognition, there is virtually none. They do it out of a deep sense of service, duty, and love for their Karen people. To serve people as Jesus served people, even when the personal cost and toll are almost more than one can bear. 

So today, say a prayer, give a hand, raise a toast and honor and celebrate with me all the brave Karen medics and healthcare heroes serving on the front lines in the middle of a country-wide pandemic under some of the most challenging conditions and resource-limited areas of Burma. Here’s to all the Karen Medics and Healthcare Workers! Much love and respect!

Tyler is an ER/trauma nurse from USA (Georgia) who is currently working as the PA Training Coordinator for Year 2 in Ler Doh. He also is a clinical trainer and helps with Student Life in Ler Doh.