OUR STORY
on accepted Christ around age four. He had childhood aspirations to be a doctor, and as he grew up, that desire never changed. Though Stacy and Ron were both raised in Arkadephia, Arkansas, they didn’t meet until Ron’s junior high school year. They dated for three years, then were married in 1977. They will celebrate 42 years of marriage December 23, 2019.
In 1986, Ron completed residency and they moved to El Dorado, Arkansas. Ron’s training in Tulsa was very heavy in Neonatal Intensive Care and he continued that in his private practice.
The biggest challenge in their lives was not medicine. In 1987, our daughter, Laura Michelle, was born with Fetal Isotretinoin Embryopathy. Laura was developmentally and physically disabled. Until her death in 2014, at age 24, she had never developed milestones beyond that of a three- month old baby.
Her story is Ron & Stacy’s story for sure, and worthy of reading it here:
During those years in El Dorado, Stacy attended a local vocational educational school and obtained her LPN credentials. In those early years of practice, they were introduced to missions through their local church and a fellow physician. They made trips to Mexico, Guatemala, Paraquay, Kyrgystan, and India.
Over the years, Ron’s medical practice bloomed tremendously. Currently, Ron is working only one day a week seeing patients, however, he still manages all their computers, the office network, and the EMR database, mostly remotely. In 2018, Ron and Stacy went on a self-funded, three-month sabbatical to Onaville, Haiti. Three days a week Stacy taught sewing classes to Haitian ladies, while Ron maintained and fixed the sewing machines. Two days a week they ran a hemoglobin study clinic to try and determine if the years of short term medical clinics that have been held in Onaville were successful.
During that time, they worked with Joseph Similien (aka Simi), a Haitian pastor, and his wife Martine. Simi was pastoring a small church under another local ‘Bishop’ in Onaville. A school was his vision, and he believed that he could help his fellow Haitians in Onaville through it. The school seemed to be the direction for Ron and Stacy too. In the course of the medical clinic and the sewing, there were two important things they discovered:
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The Haitians there need education to keep from getting sick, education on how to make a living, and education on how to manage their money.
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The other thing is that 19% of children five years old and under that they examined were suffering from severe chronic malnutrition.
Simi’s school is positioned right across from Ron and Stacy’s property so that they can help educate parents and families medically. They want to set up a small hemoglobin testing clinic called the "Storybook Pediatrics Malnutrition Study Center." Education and medical data gathering are certainly worthwhile activities for which the Gospel is the overseer. They cannot simply provide humanitarian assistance alone. They never want to do that. Sharing Christ with everyone is truly their burning passion.