|
|
|
Jason Moore Makes a Career Change - Read The Details From The Detroit News.
Doctor dedicates his life to building Panama hospitalChristine MacDonald / The Detroit NewsIn a matter of months, Jason Moore has gone from a prestigious job as an emergency room doctor with a nearly $400,000-a-year salary, to owning little more than the clothes on his back. And it's all been by choice. This summer, the 31-year-old quit his job at the Detroit Medical Center, gave away his car and possessions, moved out of his Southfield apartment and dedicated his life to Third World medical missions. "It was something I needed to do and I didn't have any doubts about it," Moore said. "I wanted to serve God more effectively." Moore, a Cincinnati-native, has been active in medical missions since coming to Metro Detroit to start his residency in 2002 at Sinai-Grace and Harper University hospitals. He connected with the nondenominational Royal Oak Church of Christ and visited Panama and Guatemala several times with fellow church members. After the first few trips, he and others started talking about building a medical facility in the small town of Higueronal, in eastern Panama, something that would remain long after their weeklong missions ended. They have worked out of a similar center in Guatemala. "We really wanted to build something that would be enduring," Moore said. As a part of the effort, he and others connected to the Royal Oak church formed a nonprofit -- Mission Clinics International -- in 2005 to help get the facility started. The plan is to build a $5 million campus with five buildings. It would include a main clinic with three operating rooms, 30 beds for patients and a dormitory for mission workers that could house up to 80. A church would be built, as well as a storage building and two duplex houses for doctors and staff. For the past two years the group has been ironing out its legal status in both Panama and in the United States and hired two employees to run the facility. And they have already poured a foundation for the church and hired an architect. The group has spent the first $200,000 they've raised and now estimate they'll have to come up with $5 million more to complete the center by 2010. That is what pushed Moore toward his dramatic decision to focus only on his mission work as president of Mission Clinics International. He no longer wanted the work relegated to a side job and decided to quit his emergency room position and downsize the rest of his life. He gave away his 2006 Toyota Camry, cell phone and all other belongings. And he moved in with a couple at the Royal Oak church who live in New Haven. Now he carpools to work to a job with no salary. The only paying job he has now is the $100 per sermon he gets as an evangelist for the Linwood Church of Christ in Detroit, he said. "I am not lacking," Moore said. "It was obviously a major transition, but it has really taken off from here." Clifford Tucker, an associate minister at the Royal Oak church, said he had an emotional response when Moore told him of his decision. "I cried," Tucker said. "I said 'Boy, I am in the presence of a saint.' " "I am in awe of him." Moore is confident they will soon be able to raise enough money to build the center. He heads back to Panama later this month to help with logistics. "We will be able to accomplish this in short order," he said.
|
|
All the content on
www.BarronsPlace.com is the property of the Barron Family. You do
NOT have
permission
to use the |
