FI MessiahLifeways UnscriptedMagazine Spring2025 - Flipbook - Page 34
A L I F E D E D I C AT E D T O S E R V I C E ,
A COMMUNITY FOREVER
CHANGED
H
aving grown up Zambia, Africa, the son
During these two years of voluntary service, Phil spent
of a missionary physician, Phil Thuma
countless hours caring for locals and digging into data
never imagined following in his father’s footsteps.
at Macha Mission Hospital, a 208-bed acute care
But the Lord had other plans for his life—plans
hospital that his father helped build in the '50s. The
that led him back to where he grew up and
data highlighted a devastating truth: Children were the
eradicated deadly disease.
hardest hit by disease and death. Half wouldn’t live
For 15 years of his childhood, Zambia was home.
He spent just one full year in the U.S. before
to see their 12th birthday, most often succumbing
to infectious diseases, malnutrition, or malaria.
graduating high school at 16 and heading to
When the two years ended, the Thumas knew they’d
Messiah College (now University) to study chemistry.
return, and they did, when Phil completed the Johns
After earning his undergraduate degree in 1970,
Hopkins Medicine Pediatric Residency Program.
Phil was accepted into the biochemistry PhD
“By the late ’80s, malaria became the number one
program at Purdue University. But at the last minute—
cause of admission to the hospital and death in
guided by a gut instinct he can only describe as a
Zambia,” Phil said. “I realized that if I feel a calling
whisper from the Holy Spirit—he applied to medical
to try to help the children of rural Africa—where we
school at Temple University and was accepted.
lived and worked—and malaria was now the number
“I didn’t know what impact this sudden change
of heart would have,” Phil said. “But I trusted that
one cause of morbidity and mortality, I need to do
something about it.”
there was a reason.”
T H E PAT H T O E R A D I C AT I N G M A L A R I A
While pursuing his M.D., life moved swiftly. Phil
In 1990, the Thumas came to the States again for their
married Elaine—a longtime friend of his cousins—
three kids to attend high school, a requirement for
and they welcomed their first child, Jennifer, during
BIC missionary families at the time, but Phil's work
his internship year. Then came an unexpected offer
in Zambia didn’t stop. By day, he worked at Hershey
from the Brethren in Christ (BIC) Mission: A chance
Medical Center; by night, he was in his Dillsburg
to return to Zambia.
basement, writing grants to secure funding.
They talked it over, but the answer had been in
Phil secured grants to lead a study at Macha Hospital
their hearts all along. And so, they went.
on a newly developed malaria drug, as well as
“God changed both of our hearts in those two
years,” Phil said of himself and Elaine, neither
of whom had planned to stay for 20 years like
his parents. “I often say God put the children
of Africa on my heart.”
additional funding from the World Health Organization
(WHO) to further investigate the findings. Seeing
breakthroughs on the horizon, he soon left his
daytime position to fully dedicate himself to founding,
funding, and running his own nonprofit, Macha Malaria
Research Institute (now Macha Research Trust).
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