Alyssa Pfister
Alyssa developed a passion for other languages and cultures through hearing missionary stories in Sunday school as a child and then through living on the Mexican border with her family in middle school. She pursued her interest in missions through a summer missions experience in Bolivia in college which further confirmed her calling. After graduating from Wheaton College in 2001, she attended medical school at East Tennessee State University where she continued to be involved in short term medical missions in Ecuador and Kenya.
During residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alyssa considered further through short term medical missions in Trinidad, Dominican Republic, & Togo whether long term missions was the plan God had for her. Alyssa completed residency in 2009 and then began to work at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya for 2 years with Samaritan’s Purse’s Post Residency program. Through this experience, she discovered where “the world’s great need and [her] great joy” met (Buechner). She joined a team of other young physicians embarking on a journey of long-term medical missions together.
This journey led the team of 6 doctors, 3 teachers, and 7 children to World Harvest Mission and to the country of Burundi. Alyssa will be living in community with the Burundi Team and will be serving the “least of these” in one of the poorest countries in the world. She will be teaching medical students and caring for patients at Hope Africa University and Kibuye Hope Hospital. Burundians speak French and Kirundi, so language learning is a prerequisite for Alyssa. She is currently in France studying French along with the team with hopes to depart for Burundi in the summer of 2013. Alyssa is so thankful for the Kingdom work God has given her to do, for the glimpses of eternity she sees in those she serves, for community in the body of Christ, and for God making all things new!
Check out Alyssa's blog for more information.
DESIGNATION NUMBER: 51375
