[00:00:00] Welcome to the Ask About My Faith Podcast, where our hope is to inspire everyday faith conversations. I'm Jess. And I'm Abby. Today we're sharing a conversation we had with Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle. She is a born certified internal medicine physician who in 2019 began traveling to Rwanda for medical missions and work with African New Life Ministries.
[00:00:30] She is a growth of the Dream Medical Center, which is a state-of-the-art hospital and the second largest private hospital in Rwanda. She currently serves on their Board of Directors. We're going to hear a bunch more about that.
[00:00:43] Regularly Pamela speaks and writes on the topics of evangelism, women's discipleship, health care and end-of-life care. She is a wife, a mother to five, a grandmother to eight, and considers herself a reckless dreamer. Today you're going to hear how her world-wid marriage flipped when her husband Scott came to Christ through a dramatic accident.
[00:01:05] Pamela eventually came to know the Lord too, Ask About Love, her so well. And you're going to hear several stories from when she was a new believer to conversations with patients about God as well as stories from her incredible time in Rwanda. I know you're going to love her. Let's jump in.
[00:01:35] Let's get started first with your testimony. Pamela, when I first met you, it was actually the first time that we went and we got lunch or dinner with a group of maybe eight of us.
[00:01:49] And I had barely talked to you. And the first thing he said was, let's go around and share our testimonies. I know that's a huge part of how you love people and get to know people. So let's hear your testimony.
[00:02:03] Oh well, thank you. I do love sharing my testimony and I think it's a powerful way to share a faith because there's nothing like a transformed life in that moment of transformation.
[00:02:17] But for me, I wasn't involved with church or religion growing up. It wasn't in our household. I really didn't know who Jesus was. I've never been in the church.
[00:02:32] And so my first experience with him, I didn't like him. And the reason I didn't like him is because I felt he had stolen my husband.
[00:02:46] And the story behind that is that two years prior to his relationship with the Lord, we had this whirlwind romance and he was a bad boy. I'd never been around.
[00:03:04] And I was a single mom and medical school finishing up. And we still love really fast. And when we got married, I was a believer.
[00:03:19] And he had grown up in the church that had a bad experience of what he considered hypocrisy, mainly from his parents of what he was living and experiencing versus what the church was saying.
[00:03:39] And so we get married. He had church experience that he was also not a believer, but two years into our marriage, he had this moment where or season, I want to say, where Jesus began to chase him.
[00:03:59] And during the experience that is really hard to tell and a brief amount of time, but a near death experience. He realized that he needed Jesus.
[00:04:19] So in that moment, while he was unconscious, he was bleeding at the point and needed surgery. He cried out to Jesus. And so that transformation was immediate and inconse.
[00:04:40] And all of a sudden my fun loving going and dancing has been was wanting to go to church and reading this big book that didn't make any sense.
[00:04:56] And I, you know, all of my bad characteristics and kind of the household I grew up in, of raging.
[00:05:06] You know, I just raged against it. I raged against him. I raised against whoever this person being.
[00:05:17] I didn't even know. He stole my husband. And for two years, I has been prayed for me and he at one point we were in the middle of me raging at hand. We were sitting at a breakfast table and he looked at me and he said, I don't care what you say to me.
[00:05:38] I don't care what you do to me. I will always love you and I will never leave you. And for me, men leave and I hurt at that point in my life.
[00:05:50] And it was the first time that I started opening my mind to this man that was transformed by this other person, Jesus.
[00:06:06] And so I just started boxing him more and he was so consistent in this loving kindness.
[00:06:18] And about a month later, when you were in ringkamen, I was on the beach and he had just left for a diving expedition. And I was looking for a book.
[00:06:30] I couldn't find mine so I looked in his bag and had this book called God of my father. I'm like, oh, there's just a little book. You know, I guess I'll just read this.
[00:06:41] Well, I read it and you know, time stands still. I don't know how long I can see myself almost in clarity at that moment. But I don't know how long it took to read the book.
[00:06:56] But it was a story of a man whose father's faith was so profound that it stood the test of loss of a child, loss of a wife, struggles and difficulties.
[00:07:14] All the things that people go through and are usually so destroyed by, and yet this man's father had faith in peace.
[00:07:27] And I have never really experienced peace.
[00:07:31] So when I finished it, I just got on my knees and the sad thing. And I start crying. And it's like yesterday because I just said, Jesus, I'm so sorry for hating you.
[00:07:52] And all the things I've said about you. And will you forgive me? And will you give me your peace?
[00:08:03] And so it was like a freeing shower of peace. And even to this day, I get chilled because it was so real and profound and immediate.
[00:08:19] I knew something had happened. And so when he came back from his dive, I'm like meeting at Matt the store, bawling. He thinks something has happened.
[00:08:32] And I'm like, Jesus saved me. He saved me for me.
[00:08:42] We just sat there on the beach holding each other. And it was the beginning of my love affair with, with the man behind me, the body behind me.
[00:08:57] And life changed forever.
[00:09:02] That's amazing for those who are listening, but can't see Pamela right now. She's got a big beautiful picture of Jesus, right on right in your office.
[00:09:11] Yes, I do.
[00:09:12] You see my everyday in the wall.
[00:09:14] And that is amazing.
[00:09:15] Yeah. And for everyone too, we got to hear your husband's side of this story, Scott's story. God show us probably about a year ago now.
[00:09:24] So you can, if you're listening, you can scroll back and listen to Scott's Scott's side. But I think the thing that stands out to me the most in that story is well, a couple things but how, how scotchess loved you.
[00:09:40] And that is exactly what the Bible says when there is like an unbeliever in a marriage. It's like husband loves love your wife until Jesus like captures her heart. And that is exactly what happened. He didn't lead you through salvation call.
[00:09:55] It was his love that like opened up and softened your heart towards the Lord. So anyone who is listening in a marriage where your spouse, like isn't there. I just think there's so much encouragement and hope hearing hearing your testimonies.
[00:10:10] Thank you so much for sharing.
[00:10:12] And the prayers, you know, I met a lot of women who would pray for their husbands to be saved.
[00:10:21] And that constant prayer, God is such a loving faithful God.
[00:10:29] Here's our prayers, especially in that kind of circumstance and with our children as well, you know, just pray, pray, pray because prayer works.
[00:10:44] So good. And so you and Scott have been doing ministry, sharing your faith pretty consistently since then, right?
[00:10:54] Yes. In different ways. Scott's always had a heart for men's ministry.
[00:11:02] And for me, I was in a position. So I'm in the lives of patients. I have the privilege of being with them, you know, in hospital, which is where it worked.
[00:11:16] And I all of a sudden realized I had the most valuable gift to give anyone.
[00:11:26] And so I put together my little notebook and talk to my pastor, okay, so how do I share my faith as I go?
[00:11:40] And do you want to hear the wrong road to go that I took or the right how I learned in the process?
[00:11:53] Yeah, maybe a little bit of both.
[00:11:57] So yeah, go ahead.
[00:12:00] I was just going to say that because I was so excited and passionate and all the things with that believer sense.
[00:12:12] I wanted to share my faith that I learned the Romans road, which is a very good approach to sharing your faith. But I kind of forgot the Holy Spirit in the process.
[00:12:26] And so I was sharing the Romans road with everyone. I would keep a list of who I shared it with what they were, what their paramedies were if they had them and what their response was.
[00:12:40] And the reality was, and I looked back at it and I call it like a stop-o gospel is I was trying to, you know, my heart was good in the process.
[00:12:53] But I was not listening to the Spirit who should lead us when we're sharing the Word of God with anyone, including sharing the gospel.
[00:13:05] So I was extremely disappointed with my outcomes.
[00:13:12] And I just kept crying and God took me through a season of being broken and really broken.
[00:13:28] And he took me there because I think it was the only way that he could get my attention. And sometimes that's how he works.
[00:13:40] And especially for Taipei, hard-headed people, you know, we're going to do it with the Bible, share the gospel.
[00:13:49] But I'm not listening to you, Lord. And so in that season, I really learned to pray.
[00:13:59] And then when it got so bad that I didn't even know how to pray, I would get up in the middle of the night and lay my head in my Bible.
[00:14:10] And God and Jesus met me there each and every time.
[00:14:17] And the learning that I receive from that time is that I had a lifetime of identity in my abilities to overcome, to become a doctor, to have an impact on people.
[00:14:38] And it really Jesus needed my identity to be fully in him.
[00:14:45] That's an reliant on him.
[00:14:48] Yeah.
[00:14:49] And that journey took me to Rwanda.
[00:14:55] And in Rwanda, he was the clearest he spoke to me up to that point, besides my salvation experience.
[00:15:07] And it was, this is your place and this is your purpose.
[00:15:11] Whoa. And I can't say enough about finding your anointed purpose, because as soon as you do all the things that he's given you his gifts, my ability to learn, my ability to teach, my ability to listen as a doctor,
[00:15:38] he then wanted me to work in Rwanda and bring the good Lord and good medicine to the place that I had gone on a short term trip, but now go back to a very regular basis.
[00:15:59] Yes, we're so excited to get more into your time in Rwanda.
[00:16:08] Yeah, I know you have a lot of stories from just with patience and things, but we first want to hear about Rwanda and the ministry.
[00:16:16] And what you're up to with that.
[00:16:19] Can you share some more?
[00:16:20] Yes, I love to because it's one of the most amazing ministries out there.
[00:16:27] And it's called Africa New Life and WWW Africa new life dot org.
[00:16:34] So getting that out of the way but on that short term trip, we did a medical mission in a church that was at that time it was
[00:16:48] early in the ministry's life and we saw so many people come walk hours to see us.
[00:16:57] And they were dying from things that they shouldn't die from and they felt hopeless and we're struggling.
[00:17:09] And so I just felt the Lord saying that I was to build a clinic.
[00:17:18] So I didn't know anything about missions or international missions or anything.
[00:17:27] I went and talked to the founder of the ministry, Dr. Charles Mithisha, executive director Alan Hachkis.
[00:17:36] I said, have you all thought about a clinic as a part of this ministry and the ministry is primarily education for children and church planning.
[00:17:50] But they had that was part of the vision.
[00:17:55] And they're like, yes, but we don't have anyone to help lead that.
[00:18:02] And so I come home and I tell my wonderful husband we're going to build a clinic.
[00:18:09] And we're a lot of okay.
[00:18:12] And he's like, okay, because he's so supportive you know.
[00:18:20] And so did a fundraiser raise money for the land and brought an act over there and had just a beautiful celebration of okay, here's the land next to our main campus.
[00:18:38] And I thought, it's going to be easy. God said do it.
[00:18:43] And I'm willing to work.
[00:18:47] But the beauty of God's plan and often you know, I think about know it when I was thinking about God's plan and this.
[00:18:59] It's not often an archive, but there's always a reason for that.
[00:19:06] And so while it was easy to raise the money for the land, it became extremely difficult to raise money for the clinic.
[00:19:16] And so in the meantime, I started bringing medical missions teams and we would just go out into the villages and whole clinics.
[00:19:26] And I started the US health care council with the ministry and ultimately joined the board in 2011.
[00:19:35] And had many people praying, many would trickle and.
[00:19:43] But during that time, God evolved the vision to what his vision was, which was hospital.
[00:19:53] And the reason he, you know, we didn't see it at the time.
[00:20:00] But the value of what his vision and what ultimately happened is it's sustainable.
[00:20:09] And so in 2018, we opened the second largest hospital in the country that within two years it paid for itself.
[00:20:21] And yes, and is a profitable resource for the ministry that the profits then go into the care of the children.
[00:20:34] So we have about 12,000 children that we sponsor and put through school.
[00:20:40] Wow, we had eight campuses with churches and school nurses and.
[00:20:48] And so the hospital is a part of that sustainability and we would never have thought that it would happen in the way that it did.
[00:21:02] But that's God's vision.
[00:21:04] Oh my goodness.
[00:21:06] I think about how our medical system works here in America, usually.
[00:21:13] And it is not at all like that.
[00:21:16] It's just so cool how God said, hey, here's my vision of how I want you to open your small clinic.
[00:21:24] I know it's actually going to be a hospital the second biggest one in the country and it's going to fund what he said 12,000 children.
[00:21:32] Wow. Well, the care, the care of 12,000.
[00:21:36] So it's already open.
[00:21:38] We see between 55 and 60,000 patients a year.
[00:21:44] Okay.
[00:21:45] And up until last month we had not it's it's a lot centered around maternal fetal care.
[00:21:54] And up until last month we had not had one death since 2018.
[00:21:59] But we did lose one mother and childbirth last year. So we're praying about that, but it's also a place.
[00:22:08] We call it health evangelism where you know so much of Jesus ministry is about sharing the word of God.
[00:22:18] Yes.
[00:22:19] And so we have a seminary right next door and our pastoral students come over and minister to the people that are visiting the hospital.
[00:22:31] And so we get to hear stories of life in terms of physical life, but more important eternal life have me in incredible ways.
[00:22:43] So it's yes.
[00:22:44] It's so fun.
[00:22:45] It's so good.
[00:22:46] Well, we talk about a lot meeting a physical need in order to like open the door to having spiritual conversations.
[00:22:53] And I mean that is just such a big like example of that.
[00:22:58] Yes.
[00:22:59] So so cool.
[00:23:03] Well, lots I'm sure some of your stories are going to relate to kind of that patient and doctor dynamic.
[00:23:12] Yeah.
[00:23:13] But you also have one story from a Wanda that we want to end this first part of our conversation with.
[00:23:22] Would you be able to share that story with our listeners?
[00:23:26] So we were in a new area in the country that we were getting ready to open a school and a church.
[00:23:35] And so we arrived, you know, I had a team with me and as we were getting off the bus.
[00:23:45] It was kind of in a little valley where you could see all the what I learned to be prisoners and orange jumpsuits.
[00:23:54] And they were tearing down an old building to prepare for what was going to be the new building.
[00:24:02] And as I'm walking down into the valley, I I tell one of our pastoral leaders.
[00:24:12] I said, I think I heard God say that I supposed to preach to the prisoners.
[00:24:18] And he's like, all right.
[00:24:21] All right.
[00:24:22] And so what did he think of that?
[00:24:25] He's like he's all about it.
[00:24:28] You know, he wasn't he wasn't like too concerned about it being a safety issue or anything like that.
[00:24:34] No, no.
[00:24:35] Good.
[00:24:36] I mean, they live by faith there anyway.
[00:24:40] So, but when we get to where the prisoners are, there were guards around with machine guns, you know, guarding the prisoners.
[00:24:51] And this pastor Eugene is having this conversation real and really quick.
[00:25:00] He can't run to the native language.
[00:25:04] And the guard shaking his head and pastor Eugene still talking and he finally turns to me and he says, OK, you have two minutes to say what God's telling you to say.
[00:25:20] So I stand up on this group of, oh, and they took the guards took all the phones away.
[00:25:29] All of our phone from you guys.
[00:25:31] Yes.
[00:25:32] And cameras.
[00:25:35] And so I slept on this rubble of bricks and they allowed the prisoners to stop.
[00:25:43] And then I said, I want you to know that I was once a prisoner like you.
[00:25:51] And I said, but my prison was my sin.
[00:25:56] And so I started talking about how Jesus came to set the captive spree.
[00:26:04] And that even in their prison, they can still have the spiritual freedom that will get them through whatever they're going through.
[00:26:16] However long they'll be there because their true freedom is going to be in Christ and through eternity.
[00:26:26] And I said, we're going to be the death because we're both going to be set free.
[00:26:32] And men were crying.
[00:26:36] And so at that point it's I can't do anything in a small amount of time.
[00:26:44] I'm in it.
[00:26:45] Yeah.
[00:26:46] It was past the time the guards, you know, waving the gun.
[00:26:51] And so I got down and I just walked around.
[00:26:56] And I touched each sort of them.
[00:26:59] And can Iran is that I'm praying for you?
[00:27:03] You know, two things stand out again, you know, the things we do included is as important as things to say.
[00:27:14] And so I was the power of touch.
[00:27:17] And they as prisoners might not have been touched, you know, in a kind way for a long time.
[00:27:25] And past our Eugene was going behind and praying with them for those, you know,
[00:27:34] and they were like Bible, Bible, Bible.
[00:27:37] Many came to know the Lord and we delivered Bibles for the prison.
[00:27:43] And I know I will get to meet many of those men, you know, in heaven.
[00:27:51] And we're going to celebrate that day because that's one of the beauties I think we'll see in heaven is the relationships that we get to be a part of,
[00:28:03] especially when we get to see someone pen to Christ.
[00:28:08] Wow, your boldness is so admirable.
[00:28:11] What a great way to end part one.
[00:28:13] I can't wait to hear more stories.
[00:28:16] Thank you so much, Pamela.
[00:28:18] Thank you.
[00:28:19] I thank you for reminding me of that story because it was a fun one.
[00:28:27] Thank you for listening to the Ask But My Faith podcast.
[00:28:30] We love your support and continuing to bring you encouraging and inspiring stories.
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[00:28:38] And you can learn more about us and donate at AskButMyFaith.com.
[00:28:42] God bless you this week as you go out and share your faith.