CALLED:
TED WATTS, SURGEON, GOOD NEWS HOSPITAL, MANDRITSARA, MADAGASCAR
10
The call to mission runs deep in surgeon Ted Watts. He can’t pinpoint the exact moment when that began. It may have been planted even before he called himself a Christian. His journey to faith, and to mission, began when his brother, Tom, invited him to a Friday night youth club in the London suburb of Wimbledon where they grew up. Ted, now the lead surgeon at Mandritsara Hospital in northern Madagascar, recalls: “Tom, who is older than me, and one of my friends, Rupert, had been going to the youth club and invited me to go along one day. “I knew it was connected to the Ted with Rachel and their two boys, Ethan and Jamie church, but the main attractions for me were that it was something during his fourth year of university, up in; his brother, who is now a to do on a Friday night, free food, spending six or seven weeks at the pastor; and successive summer table football and, because I was at hospital and having his eyes opened camps for first bringing him to an all boys’ school, the chance to to the reality of living in a very faith and then discipling him to a meet some girls!” remote and hugely under-resourced greater maturity. From those beginnings has community. As Ted’s faith was growing, so grown a faith and a passion to He says: “Until then, I think was his interest in medicine. He serve some of the poorest people I’d been given quite a narrow view has Crohn’s Disease and spent in the world. of mission - that you had to be significant parts of his childhood The hospital teaching the Bible, or pastoring in and around Ted now works ‘We both realised from a church. But those few weeks hospitals. in serves a broadened my view. It is vital that Ted grew in very early on that we predominantly you proclaim the good news but his faith through rural community felt a call to mission. We university and there is a also a value in caring of around for people, who are made in God’s medical school. He discussed what we needed 350,000 people image and who are suffering, or met his future wife, spread across the to do and how it might oppressed by poverty.” Rachel, who is now northern third Ted and Rachel married in 2006 a paediatrician, impact decisions about of Madagascar, a and then spent more than a decade through the our future together.’ vast island which university Christian doing further medical, theological covers a bigger and language study. They have Union. On some of land area than France. been serving in Madagascar since their earliest dates, they discussed His patients are mostly 2017, with their sons, Ethan, 7 and what part mission might play in subsistence rice farmers, scraping Jamie, 5. their lives together. a hand-to-mouth living from tiny Ted is now one of six surgeons Ted says: “We both realised patches of land. He often sees at Mandritsara, some of them fully from very early on that we felt a them when their illnesses are strong call to mission. We discussed qualified and others in training. very advanced, because they are That is a huge improvement on what we needed to do and how very reluctant to stop working for the situation two years ago, when that calling might impact decisions hospital visits. Ted was the only surgeon and about our future together.” Ted credits the church he grew effectively on call 24 hours a day, Ted first visited Mandritsara WWW.SIM.ORG
seven days a week. The hospital has 58 beds and the 225 staff treat a huge range of conditions, from women affected by fistula, to cancer; from broken bones, to complex neurosurgery. More than 1,800 operations are carried out each year. Ted says: “To anyone who says the mission hospital is dead, I would say ask them to come and visit us. We provide a vital service in a place where there is virtually no state provision for health care. “And we have the opportunity to share the gospel as we treat people, which I would never be allowed to do in the UK. “Most of the people here are animists, which brings a lot of fear into their lives, but in hospital they hear the gospel. “We have a small service in each ward every day, with a Bible talk; there are three full-time evangelists and we always pray with the whole team before every operation. “When they come back for A bird's eye view of Mandritsara
follow-up treatment, we always ask them what they’ve made of what they’ve heard. “Since the hospital started, at least 65 churches have been started in surrounding communities, so God is clearly at work here.” Ted knows one of his main challenges is to equip the hospital for the day he and Rachel decide to leave. That may not be for a few years but that day will certainly come. He says: “We trust God. If he wants the hospital to remain open, he will raise up the people to make that happen.” That trust shows how Ted’s call to medicine is interwoven with his call to mission.
Ted (middle) leads his team during an operation at Mandritsara
PLEASE PRAY • For the schooling needs of Ethan and Jamie. The one teacher at Mandritsara is leaving later this year, so pray for a new teacher to join the team and for wisdom about home-schooling. • For Ted’s leadership challenges, especially as the people he leads are also his neighbours, his church friends and the parents of his children’s friends. That he would trust God’s wisdom in his relationships. • For the hospital to keep the gospel front and centre of all they do and that it would the priority in their everyday activities.
CALLED: TED WATTS
CALLED: TED WATTS
BY TIM ALLAN
11 MAY 2022 • VOL 4 ISSUE 2
