When doubts cloud our purpose, it is often the act of stepping into the unknown that reveals our true calling.
Dr. Tim Greco, an accomplished emergency medicine specialist, had initial reservations about the efficacy of overseas missions and his role in the Great Commission.
He joins host , Helen Todd, on Limitless Spirit to share his powerful transformation experience during a trip to the Republic of Georgia. In this episode, you follow along Tim's journey from skepticism to profound spiritual and personal growth. Hear how Tim navigates the challenges of delivering medical care in a resource-scarce environment and how these experiences deepened his understanding of the Great Commission.
Dr. Greco highlights the harmony of faith and science, as he recounts moments where his scientific background became a bridge to sharing the gospel.
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
When doubts cloud our purpose, it is often the act of stepping into the unknown that reveals our true calling.
Dr. Tim Greco, an accomplished emergency medicine specialist, had initial reservations about the efficacy of overseas missions and his role in the Great Commission.
He joins host , Helen Todd, on Limitless Spirit to share his powerful transformation experience during a trip to the Republic of Georgia. In this episode, you follow along Tim's journey from skepticism to profound spiritual and personal growth. Hear how Tim navigates the challenges of delivering medical care in a resource-scarce environment and how these experiences deepened his understanding of the Great Commission.
Dr. Greco highlights the harmony of faith and science, as he recounts moments where his scientific background became a bridge to sharing the gospel.
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Welcome to Limitless Spirit, a weekly podcast with host Helen Todd, where she interviews guests about pursuing spiritual growth, discovering life's purpose through serving others and developing a deeper faith in Christ.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Limitless Spirit. If you have listened to my previous episodes, you know that the theme behind this podcast is Change Lives. Change lives. If your life has been touched by Christ, you are equipped to help others experience the same transformation. The problem is we often overthink the Great Commission. We question if it applies to us, we question whether we're qualified, we question why we need to travel if the mission field is in our own hometown. The best way to find answers to these questions is just to go and experience it for yourself, which is what my guest today, dr Tim Greco, did when his wife, vivian, asked him to join her on a medical mission trip to the Republic of Georgia. Vivian asked him to join her on a medical mission trip to the Republic of Georgia.
Speaker 2:This candid conversation touches on Tim's doubts and discoveries and the aftermath of his journey. Also, you will find some fascinating facts about the Republic of Georgia. How are you today? Very good, thank you. Well, I am looking forward to this conversation because I've always, you know, we met on this mission trip to the Republic of Georgia. That was your first mission trip, not just with World Missions Alliance, but in general, but we really have not had a chance to talk about it afterwards. So we spent a lot of time talking during the trip, but I haven't heard your thoughts afterwards, and I always feel like it takes a few days, and maybe even a few weeks after you return from an assignment from God to even process what happened to you and how it impacted you. This episode we're highlighting Republic of Georgia as a mission field, and I chose you for this interview because it was your first mission trip, your first trip to the Republic of Georgia. So we're going to talk about that and my first question is what even prompted you to go on this trip?
Speaker 3:I think it's just purely biblical that we're instructed to go to the ends of the earth, and that never was intuitive to me. It never made a lot of sense because there was so much wrong with the neighborhood that I lived in. I had a lot of contact with homeless people, taking care of getting to know them actually and spending time with them, talking to them, eating lunch with them, and it was something that was ongoing. It never was something. You went there, did it and left and it was all better and it was all better, and so the idea of traveling to a far distant land to me just wasn't real intuitive. But a lot of the Bible is not intuitive and I'm blessed to be married to a woman who is just absolutely in love with missions.
Speaker 3:I was absolutely in love with missions. I did actually go on one mission trip with her a long time ago, years and and that, I think, was the first time that I learned that it is not what I can do for them, it's honestly what they do for me and what God does to me through that. So it's kind of God using me, educating me, but also dealing with all of his children, children. It was powerful, but I wasn't really ready to turn over, uh, turn over all that. You know all of my medical knowledge and background history. Why are you there? Well, you're there because you're on a medical mission. Okay, there here I am, let's go. You know, what I got was people who loved family, people who loved, who loved the Lord, who were so down that way they're willing to have the conversation.
Speaker 2:So when Vivian propositioned you with this idea of going to the Republic of Georgia, did you have any prior knowledge of where this place was? Some people don't even know that there is a country like this. They confuse it with the state of Georgia in the United States. So what did you know?
Speaker 3:In total agreement. You know, when we tell people that we went on a trip to Georgia, we say to the country Georgia, because we're, you know, in proximity to Georgia, georgia, united States, georgia, which isn't quite the same. No, you know, my first thought was to get a psychiatric assessment of my wife, because this is a country that neither one of us know anything about. We're not, there's nothing in our backgrounds and our heritage that comes from Georgia. Although that may not be exactly true, it turns out. It's kind of interesting. You find those things. It was, I guess, I mean I don't know was. I guess, I mean I don't know it was. She decided she was, she wanted to go and I decided that, you know, god wasn't saying no.
Speaker 2:So I'm taking that as a yes, I guess. So mostly you just tagged along. In layman's terms, yeah. So, aside from the fact that you didn't really know anything about the country or didn't feel any connection to the country, you knew you were signing up for a medical mission and from my understanding, you had some reservations about that as well. Having just retired from a very successful medical career, were you comfortable with the idea of doing medical missions there?
Speaker 3:No, and I'm still not. I didn't in the two. You know we've been to two since then, two medical missions, and I go through the same anxiety sleepless nights, slight nausea, stomach upset, packing stacks of who knows what you know to bring along. And but part of that is is that I, in getting to see and interact with the other docs who come, they do the same thing, you know. Uh, aaron Mitchell, we've now done a couple with and he just brings well, was to take care of acute strokes and acute MIs. And so you know, good luck out there. I mean out there, that would warrant immediate ER. Most of the time there's not accessibility to ER, no money to go to ER, and you simply sit down and start talking to the individual about end-of-life issues and they usually have much better insight. So, no, I haven't resolved it, haven't gotten past it. I agree that it's medical, okay, it's medical, but I've stopped packing up bags of stuff to bring. I mean, we bring vitamins and Motrin, you know, and those are big hits, those are always big.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting because I think your anxiety as a medical professional, on a medical mission really translates and is relatable to an anxiety of just an individual going on a mission trip, responding to the call to the Great Commission, because we naturally start thinking in terms of what do I bring to the table, what are my capabilities, what are my talents? And more often than not, we feel like we fall short of the assignment that is ahead of us because it is a responsibility. If you analyze the Great Commission, we're called to go into all the world and make disciples, but my goodness, what do I bring to the table? What do I have to cause someone to become a disciple? I think it's the same form of anxiety that we go through and, of course, it is interesting to observe how we bring these anxieties with us onto the mission field and what transpires in spite of those anxieties. So you know, to someone who has never been to Republic of Georgia, if you were talking, to a person who would ask you what it's like, what would you say?
Speaker 3:Well, I agree completely that the first thing a person does is to go ahead and assess their adequacy in performing this for God. And if God has asked you to step forward, he's not asking you because you are uniquely capable of performing a job you know he doesn't need you.
Speaker 2:Let's face it, he has used donkeys in the past to deliver a message right.
Speaker 3:We started on that.
Speaker 3:Yes yes, yes, Animals make way more sense sometimes in their logic than people do, but I think you're right. Make way more sense sometimes in their logic than people do, but I think you're right. That to me, has come to signal to me that I need more work. The fact that my first response is wait, wait, wait. You know what? Do a Moses thing? I'm just not able to do this. I can't do this. You know he's past that, he's beyond that. He has decided you're perfect and you're going, and so your first response should be you know, thank you, Father, for bringing me along in this process of sanctification. There is so much to undo in our brain to release us, to really receive what he is giving us and to give it to people that we're going to be meeting with. It's a touch of heaven. It's not the way it is here on earth. It's not way it is here on earth. It's not not at all. And most people think you're nuts. But, that said, I think that you simply take a deep breath and move forward. Here we go.
Speaker 2:That is very true. What you said, that it is a touch of heaven because it transports us from the reality of this earthly world into this supernatural, divine partnership with God, which essentially, that's what the Great Commission is is the invitation to this partnership. God doesn't need us to make disciples. He did a very fine job of doing it himself, and he has the ability to appear to people in dreams and visions and reveal himself the servant, but also as a partner, as a partner in something very creative, and so that is a touch of heaven. That's exactly what it is. So what are your impressions of the Republic of Georgia as a country? We'll go into the ministry side later.
Speaker 3:Later. Okay, Well, the first thing I did was to go through the photo album to kind of look things over there and jog my memory. This has been almost two years ago. I didn't realize that. I thought it was at least two months ago. Well, closer to two years ago, the things that just were amazing to me. I mean, it's a country that most people have not been to, but it's a country that is rich in history and it's connected to Russia in a lot of ways and to the eastern countries in the Mediterranean area and near to Old Testament history and geography. But the people, the fruit, the food just amazing, Just absolutely amazing. You have to back away from hot dogs and hamburgers for a week, but you know it's well worth it To the cheese bread and the dumplings.
Speaker 3:Exactly, oh man, man, oh man. And the cities that are lit up at night, I mean as you're walking around. I think it's a public thing that they pay a lot of money to put really big lights on their structures.
Speaker 3:And it's just breathtaking, just absolutely. When you walk around the buildings, you're seeing something that's 100 years old. But wait a minute, the ruins under it are 2,000 years old, 3,000 years old, are 2,000 years old, 3,000 years old. It's a timeline that we have nothing like that here in the United States. The shopkeepers on the street were just a highlight. That's the difference.
Speaker 3:When you go to a place and visit, then the bus drives you around and tells you where to go and where not to go and what you're supposed to look at. You miss the whole thing. You miss all of the people and their families and their stories go through history and a lot of the history gets corrected because they actually lived through it, and so it's like you know things. I mean, we see some of it where history changes. Oh my gosh, I remember I'm old enough to remember that it wasn't like that, that what happened was something different. But I think all countries change their history depending on who's in control, and that's what's happened, I think, in Georgia also. And listening to their story, and they all want you in their house. As humble as that place is, that is their castle and they are so proud. And, yes, you do have to eat all the candies that they bring. They're doing stacks and stacks and stacks of baked goods and candies, man they call it the aggressive Georgian hospitality.
Speaker 2:You can't escape it, you just have to accept it, accept it.
Speaker 3:Enjoy it, love it. It will be gone, sooner or not, you know.
Speaker 2:So, going back to your mission, I believe that during this trip you had kind of a turning point in your perspective of why you were there and what you attribute to this mission. So can you share about that?
Speaker 3:Well, you are going to have to point that out to me and then I will comment on it, because there were a lot of questions.
Speaker 2:Well, I will share with you what I observed and then let's compare what you went through. So I did have a conversation with you before the trip, I believe on the phone, where you shared with me some concerns, or maybe questions better, about the clinic and how you can be effective during the clinic. And of course I'm not a medical professional, so perhaps I couldn't address all your concerns from the technical perspective. But just from the past experience I just know that even though our medical clinics are sort of limited in what they can do for the patients, it always turns out to be a blessing to the patients one way or the other. And so I had that inner confidence, but I don't think I could communicate it to you well enough, because you wanted to hear from me and what are we going to do in this situation? And what are we going to do in that situation? And I didn't have those answers for you. And yet you went in that situation. And I didn't have those answers for you, and yet you went, and that is a step of faith, tremendously.
Speaker 2:But I think I feel like it was when I asked you, in addition to the wonderful medical service that you were providing there for people, answering their questions, helping them even to understand their conditions better.
Speaker 2:I asked you to share at one of the seminars which was not in the capacity of a doctor which is where your expertise is but was more in a capacity of a missionary and a Christian, presenting the gospel message the best, in a way that you could relate it, and I think you were very hesitant at first about that and you had to think about it and pray about it. But it was. Even for me, it was so overwhelming to see how well your presentation was received, and again you didn't step away from who you were, was received, and again you didn't step away from who you were. You used your medical background, your background of a scientist, to share something with them, how, as a scientist, you observe instances of divine in life around us, and I think it carried a lot of weight for the people to hear it from you and I consider that the turning point. But correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3:No, no, totally. That was a striking insight for me that I didn't feel. I don't feel that a lot of people, a lot of people got it. I mean I just my wife is always the first one to say just do me a favor, don't talk about DNA. If you talk about DNA, everyone's going to leave. So just don't talk about DNA.
Speaker 3:I mean I get it, but I also you know, biblically it talks about you get to know God through his word, but it also says you get to know God through his creation, says you get to know God through his creation. And given that people, that the intelligence and insight and education of people on earth is rubbish to God, in a lot of ways, I think that science, which is what I am, I mean how I think and live my life has been science from the beginning. The scientific basis of creation is phenomenal and the fact that the more you know about it, the more you are just slapped in the face. How could you deny my existence, how could you deny me as the creator when you have the insight, the intelligence, the information enough to see how impossible this is? I mean the first thing, right, you have to decide when you go on. One of these things is do you really believe in God? I think we pass over that because, oh yeah, everyone believes it. No, if you believed in God, you would be out screaming and pounding on doors and you would be grabbing your children who were acting non-compliant or laissez-faire or just not so interested in the whole thing, but trying not to go too far afield.
Speaker 3:In this group was a group of kids who were college students, was my understanding, maybe high school students, I'm not sure, but they had some science background. So I said okay, then let's talk about. Let's talk about some basic cell biochemistry, cell physiology, some dna, uh, nucleotide at biochemistry. Let's talk about how this is. You know, dna is a is a sequence of information which requires that somebody wrote it down. There's a bill gates somewhere who wrote down all the dna, except this is a sequence of information which requires that somebody wrote it down.
Speaker 3:There's a Bill Gates somewhere who wrote down all the DNA, except this is a way more sophisticated mechanism than what Bill Gates created in his computers. And, henny, as we talked about this, there were other things we talked about a bit, but the thing that was amazing to me was that adults who were 45 and 50 years old, came up to me afterwards and said you know, we got to talk because this makes sense, and some of the kids also talked, so there's a communication, I think that I mean a lot of people get what computers are and if they accept that there is a Bill Gates on the basis of the computer programming stuff, then they have to look at the programming that goes into a tree, which is the same coding that goes into a human being, and it's completely individual. I can tell you from me, looking at the DNA, there's difference in the codons and so, anyway, it was striking. It was very, very striking, reassuring.
Speaker 2:To me, this was also a great example how, when we don't overanalyze or overthink the situation and, just you know, respond to whatever God is prompting us to do, with this childlike faith that I'm going to do my part and you, god, do yours, things happen, miracles happen. Miracles happen. And you know, have you known, for example, that the group that you were talking to, which we were working specifically with the Kurdish church and Kurdish people in Georgia, are a minority and they live in very oppressed conditions compared to the other people? Normally they're considered of a lower status or a lower education. You know, and so maybe if you had the full information about whom you're talking to your audience, for example, you would have somehow altered what you're saying. You know, to feed the needs of the crowd. That's what a speaker does. A speaker needs to know whom they're speaking to so that they could deliver the message that speaks to the needs. But you spoke and that's partly because you didn't know you spoke what God put on your heart, but it just happened so that it met the needs of the people that were there.
Speaker 2:And to me that was amazing because I kind of knew the situation and I just watched God in action and just absolute amazement of how beautiful it is and I think it's like the microscopic view of the Great Commission in general is sometimes we just overcomplicate by bringing in our insecurities or our own assessment of what we're capable of or what is needed. What does God need from us? We just overcomplicate when basically what is required is our availability and allowing God to do with that whatever he chooses and pleases to do. And I thought that was just absolutely beautiful and I was so grateful that you had the faith to do that. You had the courage to do that and I feel like it produced phenomenal results in that mission. In particular, it blessed the people and they were asking more. Well, you will be pleased to know that one of these young people that you talked to is currently finishing his first year of medical school. How about that?
Speaker 3:You can be a scientist and have your faith. It's consistent. It's completely consistent.
Speaker 2:Amen to that, amen to that. Well, we're close to the end of our interview, so I have to ask you what were your favorite moments of the mission now, not so much of the country of Georgia, but of the mission in particular.
Speaker 3:I have a tremendous problem personally of praying out loud and I just it's just one of those things that I just never have done.
Speaker 3:It it's never been something that I do. And part of what we were talking about that sermon, the discussion, the talk that we had was you write down all your stuff and then you realize that it's way too convoluted, it's too crazy. So you circle three or four points and you back away and you pray. You know, father, your spirit is here, you're with me. This is your turn, your turn to find the words and put them in my mouth. You are praying and I'm shutting up and listening and there were a lot of moments like that where the Holy Spirit was present and definitely you know part of what's going on and, uh, and directing it way more than I was willing to. I still need so much more, but the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in that setting was amazing. It was amazing. I mean. I think after that mission I went back and got all the books that I should have read, you know, 10 years ago, about the Holy Spirit and came to spend some time. The mission helps me to direct my reading.
Speaker 2:That's a great observation. I think that you know just hearing you share this. I think that and this is a very common thread among the people who share their experience, and that's what I think compels people to go on these missions over and over again is because so Jesus said unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Think, when we go into this unfamiliar country and we can't rely on our talents, our professional experiences, even the knowledge of the language, we're stripped of all of this. We do become like little children, we do become completely dependent on the Father and the Holy Spirit and we experience what we should be every day, don't you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and that's the end point, that's the direction we need to be going, and so we're always falling short until we're there, and when we're there we've passed away, we're now in his presence. So it's the painful progression of maybe getting better, maybe not getting better, but at least leaning in the direction of dependency. I think the more dependent you are upon him and the Spirit you know, the better the experience will be, the better lantern you'll be for God's word.
Speaker 2:This is so true. Well, thank you so much, tim, for this interview, but even more so for your willingness to set aside your fears and hesitations and just to say here I am, use me. I look forward to, hopefully, many more missions together.
Speaker 3:There will be many more together, I'm sure. Great seeing you too, say adios.
Speaker 2:I hope Tim's adventure inspires you to step out of your comfort zone and experience the joy and the fulfillment of sharing Christ, be it in your neighborhood or somewhere half across the world. By the way, our next journey to the Republic of Georgia is in September of this year, and we still have a few spots available on this team, so to find out more and how you can join, visit our website rfwmaorg. Remember change lives, change lives. Until next time, I'm Helen Todd.
Speaker 1:Limitless Spirit Podcast is produced by World Missions Alliance. We believe that changed lives change lives. If your life was transformed by Christ, you are equipped to help others experience this transformation. Christ called his followers to make disciples across the world. World Missions Alliance gives you an opportunity to do this through short-term missions in over 32 countries across the globe. If you want to help those who are hurting and hopeless and discover your greater purpose in serving, check out our website, rfwmaorg, and find out how to get involved.