The seed of that adventure sprouted years ago, far away from the place that this NCC alumna now calls home. Wendy was barely able to cross the street by herself, and yet, with a toy stethoscope in hand and a doll in tow, she was already preparing for her life’s mission.

It was one of those moments that fills parents with wonder at what the future might hold for their child. Some years ago, Martha and Ivan Willmore along with their children Wendy and Dave, attended a missions conference at their church in Chatham, Ontario. 

When the guest speaker asked who would be willing to say yes to Jesus should He ever want them to serve in the mission field, Martha was taken by surprise when six-year-old Wendy stood up to make her way to the front of the church in answer to that call. 

Martha tugged at Wendy’s sleeve, coaxing her, back. She naturally assumed that her daughter’s eager response was an innocent gesture which lacked the understanding and wisdom that maturity would dispense in due time. Wendy's insistence prevailed. 

Another such moment came from watching a film which centred around the medical missionary work of Hudson Taylor. Wendy remembers responding to God’s calling to do something similar. At just eight years old, she knew she was to become a doctor. The stage was set. 

Finding the right Christian school for their children was imperative to the Willmores - so much so that they pulled up roots in their hometown of Chatham. Their search through a number of Ontario’s private schools eventually landed them at Niagara Christian Collegiate. The school community embraced the family, offering them temporary accommodations on campus while they looked for a home in Fort Erie. Ivan started a construction business and Martha found work in the administration department at Erie Christian Academy (ECA), located on NCC’s campus. (A few years later, ECA was annexed to become NCC’s middle school). In 1988, Wendy began her studies in Carmela Morabito’s grade 7 class. Her brother Dave followed in 1991.

Wendy shared some memories of her days as a student at Niagara Christian Collegiate:

"Socially, one of the best parts of being in a school of NCC’s size is the number of opportunities available. You don’t have to be a musical, dramatic, or athletic genius to participate in all those extra-curricular activities (which I did). Those things...teach teamwork and commitment which bring their own reward. Also, NCC’s multicultural student community was my first, very important practice ground for making cross-cultural relationships.

"Certainly NCC was a place where spiritual growth was greatly encouraged. You could avoid it if you wanted to, but there were so many ways in which those who wanted to follow Christ were encouraged in their walk of faith. Certainly regular chapel services and mission trips were helpful, as well as student-run prayer groups (I saw several of my first small miracles because of these). Also, being a member of the River Brethren was one of best practices for service to God’s church that I can think of: teaching commitment, team building, and gaining the confidence to stand up and be counted as a servant of God. But possibly the best spiritual encouragement was from the faculty, who genuinely loved their students and most of whom really wished to be able to say 'follow me as I follow Christ'."

Wendy was a natural scholar. She gave the valedictorian address at her grade eight commencement. In 1993, she graduated from secondary school at NCC, again the valedictorian. Wendy received that year’s Duodecimos award. She was also granted the Governor General’s Medal, and received awards in science and English. She completed her OAC studies at NCC the following year.

"Academically, there is no doubt that the education I received from NCC was a solid building block in the foundation of life. I distinctly remember being bored in my first year of university, as the vast majority of what we were covering was not new to me. Best of all, all of the faculty loved their subjects and loved teaching, and that is a great gift to any learner."

After seven years, Wendy said goodbye to NCC. In 1998 she completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Redeemer University which included an Honours major in Biology, with minors in Chemistry and Mission Studies. She earned her medical degree at Queen’s University in 2002. 

Wendy completed her residency in General Surgery at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. 

"At that time, the surgical residency program at Memorial was the only one in Canada that retained the old rotating internship program during the first year, making it a six year program. I guessed that there would be times on the field when I would have suboptimal backup from other specialists, and needed to know how to be a really good general doctor first. I also knew that I would need a really broad surgical training for work in Africa, and the lack of many sub-specialist training programs at Memorial made that more likely. I was right on both counts."

Following her residency training in 2008, Dr. Wendy Willmore set up a practice in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, as a General Surgeon.

Wendy eventually knew that the time had come for her missions work to begin. She closed her practice in December, 2012, said goodbye to her much-loved community in Newfoundland, and few to Africa the following month. 

After her “Missionary Surgery Trek” through several hospitals throughout Africa, Wendy accepted a position to serve as a full-time missionary surgeon at Arusha Lutherin Medical Center (ALMC), in Arusha, Tanzania. Wendy is also the Director of ALMC's Intensive Care Unit. An additional position she holds, however, is central to Wendy's mission.

"Being a surgical educator to young Tanzanian physicians was one of the primary reasons for me to go and to remain at Arusha."

ALMC had been in the process of collaborating with the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) to set up a surgical residency program. Directed by board ceritifed surgeons, its mission reflects a gospel-centred passion: “PAACS exists to train and disciple African surgeons to glorify God and to provide excellent, compassionate care to those most in need.” (Paacs.net, 2019)

"Starting a surgical residency program in a mission hospital usually takes about seven years from frst vision to frst admission of new residents. My arrival at ALMC by divine accident in 2013 was a late (but crucial) addition to this process," Dr. Willmore shared.

Wendy serves as Co-Director, faculty member, and surgical educator of the Arusha PAACS Residency Program. In 2018, Wendy had 10 students under her wing, all in various stages of their surgical training. Three more residence students will be added to the roster in 2019. Their residency spans fve years of surgical training which includes a Christ-centred discipleship curriculum. 

“Residents and their teachers work together, eat together, study together, pray together, and play together. Together they laugh and cry, work through conflict, celebrate victories, learn from failures, and respond to challenges. This is an ideal context for Christian discipleship! It is exactly how Jesus trained the Twelve. As the disciples lived with the Master, they were constantly learning…” (Paacs.net, 2019)

January 13, 2019, was an historic day for the Arusha PAACS faculty and their residence students. Dr. Wendy Willmore and Arusha PAACS Co-Director Dr. Frank Madinda proudly bestowed the academic hood upon their very first graduate, Dr. Emmanuel Lema. It certainly was a great accomplishment for the entire team. Dr. Lema will continue to work at ALMC as a general surgeon.

Dr. Wendy Willmore and her colleagues strive to deliver compassionate care to those most in need. They have many amazing stories: testimonials of healing, the gospel message impacting the lives of their patients, and stories of the students' experiences, to name just a few. There are simply not enough pages in the Collegian to tell them all.

After discovering all that the Wendy lady does on the medical mission field, you can’t help but laugh when reading Dr. Wendy’s “Prayer Points 2019” in her December 2018 newsletter. Number 5 on her list: "Figuring out what to say no to.”

(Oh, yes…she also leads worship at her church, preaches occasionally, and is learning to speak Swahili).

Wendy will be on furlough from April through to August this year - her longest in the six years since she's been in Tanzania. She'll be resting, enjoying time with family and friends, visiting donors, and doing speaking engagements during her time in Canada and the U.S. 

Dr. Wendy sincerely appreciates your prayerful consideration and support in partnering with her in the work that God is doing through her in Tanzania. To find out how you can donate, volunteer, or to pray, visit Dr. Wendy’s website: https://www.drwillmoremissionary.com

Founded in 1996, PAACS goal was to train and disciple 100 African surgeons by 2020. This dream is steadily becoming a reality. To learn more about the amazing vision behind the PAACS surgical residency program, visit their website: https://www.paacs.net


INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

I first met Wendy when I was around 12 or 13 years old, right when she was getting ready to leave for Tanzania the first time. 

I didn’t know much about her except that she was somehow using her career as a surgeon for missions work, fulfilling a dream and calling that God had placed on her heart as a child — I thought that was the coolest thing ever. 

At that point in my life I had wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as I could remember, and when I heard about Wendy it was just after God had started prodding my heart towards missionary work, which I had never really thought about before. It was when I met Wendy that it clicked — I could do both; serve God on the mission field and be a veterinarian, fulfilling both calls I’d felt Him place on my heart. 

As I got to know Wendy and learn more about her work I was only further inspired! 

Right now I am at the University of Guelph, studying Animal Biology in the hopes of applying to Ontario Veterinary College. After that the plan is to see where He leads me, with the possibility that it might be to the mission field — to be Christ to the owners of animals in third world countries through veterinary work. 

I don’t think it was one of Wendy’s main goals to inspire others with the work God is doing through her, but she defnitely does. She’s inspired me to follow God’s plan for my life, even if it might be leading me in a direction that seems uncommon in veterinary medicine. 

Dr. Wendy, thank you for being an inspiration in how you live your life and let God work through you.

- Rebekah Mason, Class of 2018