治疗身体 & 灵魂

以免减弱 walks in a legacy of godliness and care for others that was embodied in her father’s life. 为他, it meant becoming a theology professor in their home country of Ethiopia, 然后在康考迪亚欧文. For Miseker, the path is in the field of medicine. She recently earned her medical degree from UC Irvine and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. She heads now to Cornell University for her surgical residency.

我们的目标, 她说, is to use everything she has received to help those lacking medical access, 特别是在非洲.

“I feel like I’ve always been on a discovery path,米塞克说. “The question I had for God was, ‘What is my purpose?“我知道我是有福的, privileged and had opportunities that so many people wish they had, and I needed to find a way to maximally give back the opportunities I received.”

The family’s journey to 欧文康考迪亚大学 began with her father’s spiritual awakening when he was in high school, 这让他的许多亲戚感到震惊. Eshetu Abate was a brilliant student and scored so high on academic tests that Ethiopia’s emperor, 海尔·塞拉西一世, visited his school (in a rural region seven hours south of Addis Ababa, 并赏给他一块金表. But rather than train for leadership in the communist Derg regime which later governed the country, Miseker’s father pursued theological study and was taken under the wing of Norwegian missionaries who gave him a scholarship to attend Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis. He finished his PhD in 1988 at Concordia Seminary in St. 路易.

“很多人劝他留在美国.S. 因为金正日政权的剧变, but he went back and worked at the seminary in Addis as a professor, 然后作为院长,米塞克说.

这就是我开始考虑传教工作的原因. I couldn’t continue as though things were normal here. I knew I needed to do things with the opportunities I received.

Miseker was born in Addis, two weeks after the overthrow of the Derg regime in 1991.

At age seven, the family moved to Norway for two years as her father taught in churches
整个斯堪的纳维亚半岛和她的母亲, Amarech, continued to teach and advocate for women’s empowerment within the church and society. 当他们搬回埃塞俄比亚时, the sharp differences between first-world and third-world conditions caught young Miseker’s attention.

“挪威与亚的斯亚贝巴非常不同, so it was kind of a shock and a question that lingered in my mind,她说。. “I wanted to understand why the disparities existed, but I was too young to delve into that and didn’t wrestle with it too much. 这些问题搁置了一段时间. 我以为我会继续在埃塞俄比亚生活.”

A few years later the family made a permanent move to Irvine, where Dr. Abate became a professor of theology 在欧文的康考迪亚大学. For Miseker, the transition was extremely difficult.

“It felt like a loss to come here and start a new life,” she recalls. “留下你所知道的一切, you start missing your family and then it hits you that this is forever. 我一直在问，‘为什么这是我的生活?’”

She experienced something akin to survivor’s guilt for having so many opportunities while many in Ethiopia did not.

“这就是我开始考虑传教工作的原因,她说。. “我想成为像我父亲一样的神学家. I couldn’t continue as though things were normal here. I knew I needed to do things with the opportunities I received. People were welcoming in Irvine, and I had friends, but it was never like this was my life. When you grow up in a different place, you can’t ignore it.”

她的父亲建立了两个教堂, 在长滩和洛杉矶, while also teaching 在欧文的康考迪亚大学. 她的母亲, who earned a master of philosophy in religious studies and a bachelor of arts in theology, had been a professor of women’s studies at the seminary in Addis. She remained deeply involved in local ministry and worked to create leadership opportunities for young women in the church and society in Ethiopia, while advocating against harmful cultural traditions like early marriage and labor inequality.

康考迪亚教授. 迈克尔·杨博士. Ken Ebel和Dr. 约翰·肯尼 were instrumental in everything I did.

During Miseker’s undergraduate years at Concordia, cancer began stealing her father’s life away and she was was faced with the choice of dropping classes to be with him, or pressing on with school and missing some of his last moments.

她向 Dr. 约翰·肯尼她的分析化学教授.

“我们一起聊天，一起祈祷, and I said there will be many semesters when you can retake this class, but only this time will be set aside for you to be at the bedside of your father,” Dr. 肯尼记得. “I reminded her that the order in which we do things is God first, 然后是我们的家庭, 然后我们的职业生涯, 在她上学的那个阶段. 我说，‘这是一个神圣的不完整. 你这么做是有充分理由的. 这是比班级更高的召唤. 去你父亲的床边. 然后，回来完成课程.’”

米塞克就是这么做的, taking a semester off to walk through the last stages of her father’s life with him.

“康科迪亚就像一个家，”米塞克说. “That was so important and I’m indebted to the Concordia family. 那是一个非常好的社区. 安德森牧师博士. Mary Scott and all of them were very supportive.”

Dr. 肯尼博士说. 阿巴特是“一个不可思议的人.”

“He was a holy man, is the best I can put it,” Kenney says. “He radiated the love of God to everyone around him and had a way of saying your name in a way that honored you. Miseker has exactly that same supernatural radiance. 以任何标准衡量，她都是绝对优秀的, but her definitive characteristic is her supernatural, 从她身上散发出神圣的光辉.”

One residency interviewer asked what I was most proud of, and I answered that it was Concordia Irvine because it made me who I am, 的老手.

Miseker had already decided to take her father’s recommendation to pursue medicine instead of theology, which he believed would allow her to have a practical impact while ministering the word of God. 康考迪亚教授. 迈克尔·杨博士. Ken Ebel和Dr. 约翰·肯尼 were “instrumental in everything I did,她说。. “I’m so thankful for all my professors at Concordia.

I got a lot of research opportunities and people to mentor me and believe in me when I mentioned my big dreams. 它让我不断奋斗，永不止步.”

After graduating from Concordia with a degree in 生物学 辅修了 化学, Miseker returned to her father’s hometown in Ethiopia for six months to volunteer at the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons.

“I had decided on medicine and was figuring out how I would go back and help, 以什么身份,米塞克说. “我非常喜欢这样做. 我住在我姑姑的一所老房子里, and walking back to that village you see so many street children. Every time I would go by, they would know I was not a local, and follow me. At times I took them to a restaurant and fed them. 很多人的四肢都断了, people that really needed access to health care and weren’t getting it.”

我们一起聊天，一起祈祷, and I said there will be many semesters when you can retake this class, but only this time will be set aside for you to be at the bedside of your father.

Dr. Kenney wrote a letter of recommendation for her medical school application and she received a full-tuition scholarship to UC Irvine medical school. 在第一年, she planned a trip for ten UCI medical students to perform ultrasounds in Ethiopia. 他们筹集了30美元,000, 买了两台超声波机, held a feeding event for 300 children with a local restaurant and volunteered at a hospital to train 200 medical students in ultrasound use over six weeks.

在医学院的时候, Miseker rotated through training in trauma surgery, 心脏手术, 使用机器人进行微创手术, 还有更多. After three years she took one year off to earn a master’s degree in public health from Harvard on a presidential scholarship. She turned down invitations from similar programs at Johns Hopkins and Yale.

“That was the best year ever, the pinnacle of meeting every person I wanted to work with,她说。. “我所有的同事都有很大的梦想. Sometimes you talk about things you want to change in this world and people look at you like, “你不能这么做.’ This time, every time I mentioned an idea, everybody rushed to fulfill it.”

Harvard confirmed her desire to go into global surgery, and she enjoyed the opportunity to work with the ministries of health in Ethiopia and Rwanda on curriculum development for new medical schools. She returned to UCI to complete her medical degree and invited Dr. Kenney to speak at the big graduation celebration at her church.

When interviewing for surgical residency programs, Miseker always carried something special: her Concordia folder.

“One residency interviewer asked what I was most proud of, and I answered that it was Concordia Irvine because it made me who I am, 的老手,米塞克说. “Everything  hat has led to my success has been because of Concordia.”

She still carries her Concordia folder to every important meeting “because it reminds me of the start,她说。. “它把所有东西都放在一起.”

She chose to do her residency at Cornell University because of its focus on global surgery, where surgeons work to increase access to safe and affordable surgical care for people in developing nations.

I think you’re going to see Miseker make a major impact in both medicine and Christian spirituality.

“It’s about creating a systematized plan for how to expand surgical services in these countries,米塞克说. “I want to utilize my master’s of public health in the global surgery realm and continue to practice in the operating room, 专攻器官
移植手术.”

Developing countries lack access to care not because there aren’t capable people, 而是因为缺乏机会, 除其他原因外.

“I have this unique position as an Ethiopian-American,米塞克说. “I feel that with the right amount of effort and prayer, I can help bridge the gap between the numerous talented and creative people overseas and those who want to give them opportunities.

In developing countries there are not a lot of opportunities even for the smartest or those who work incredibly hard. 我想找到改善的方法.”

在她闲暇的时候, Miseker has completed two full marathons and taught kick-boxing classes at a local fitness center during med school. 她的母亲 works at Concordia Irvine in administrative services and has continued to travel the world to lead workshops and conferences on theology, 赋予非洲妇女权力, 以及路德教会如何能做得更好
让人们融入非洲文化. 在家里, she has served as director of the Board of Elders and Deaconess at the Ethiopian Lutheran Church Mekane Yesus.

“I would not be anywhere without my mother,米塞克说. “她是我认识的最强壮的人类. 她一直是我们的基石.”

One of Miseker’s younger brothers went to Stanford and works for 脸谱网 as a programmer. 另一个是进入高中.

在康奈尔大学, Miseker hopes to spend time at the World Health Organization in Geneva to learn more about expanding surgical access in African countries. Her father’s example continues to inspire her to overcome challenges.

“I think you’re going to see Miseker make a major impact in both medicine and Christian spirituality,肯尼说。. “I don’t think she fully appreciates just how special she is. She is the kind of person who can turn an entire nation around, or revolutionize health care and spiritual care in Africa.”