Today my brother put me on antibiotics.  You are supposed to take one pill four times a day.  Pneumonia.  But Bill knows me, so he said, "You'll forget at least one of those times every day, so take two pills three times a day.  You will probably get that done."  He's right.

It's great to have a doctor in the family.  Bill stays sharp practicing on family and friends in Pryor.  At first people don't believe he will advise them for free, but he did that for 37 years in China.  He likes to stay current.  He just loves practicing medicine.

Problem is, sometimes he practises by diagnosing himself.  So his son, Matt, who is a physician as well, has to chew Bill out every now and then because, "A doctor is his own worst patient." 

I have a magazine with a picture of Bill going up some stairs in Macao, China.  The headline is "Bill Swan, Macao Maverick." He certainly was and isn't conventional.  When he arrived in Macao he caused ripples in the Baptist Convention establishment by insisting that Baptists quit building hospitals over there and concentrate on basic health in villages.  

"People aren't, and won't, come to your hospitals.  They can't afford hospitals. The problems here are TB, and basic diseases Americans have eradicated or can treat. Just send me doctors that can remove cataracts--doctors that want to donate a couple of weeks of their life, and we can reach people for the Lord."  Healing the blind.  It made an impact.

When and where was the last Baptist Hospital built?  Money now goes for black bags and stethoscopes where the return is realistic, and lives are changed.  In out of the way villages.

I'm glad God didn't call me to go to some third world country.  I would have been terrible at it.  I think God knows what he is doing.  He gives us gifts.  It's up to us to use them.  Bill and his wife Janet gave their lives to the Chinese.  And changed the face of medical missions overseas.  No more big hospitals that most of the people will never enter.  Better the black bag that visits the jails and back alleys searching for sick people and leading them to Christ.