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Sister-Doctor Marie Asha Tobin Sister Marie Asha Tobin is one of 650 Medical Mission Sisters in 19 nations trying to be present to others in the spirit of Jesus the Healer.
The daughter of parents who worked in government service, Sister Asha grew up aware of the variety of religions and cultures within North India. When she joined our Community, “there was a sense of purpose and also of fun,” she recalls. “This was a breakthrough in my understanding of religious life, which was rather somber and strict. We lived and breathed intercultural life, because we were from Kerala, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.” She attended Lady Harding Medical College in Delhi, then came to the U.S. for post-graduate studies in surgery in the 1960s. “I was, for the first time, in a very different environment and exposed to a free and open society,” she recalls. “I began to grasp socio-political and economic realities and their implications for the whole world…and I began to see our mission in terms of transformation of society through our healing ministry.” Shortly after Sister Asha returned to North India, she was elected our District Coordinator in North India. Her time in leadership broadened her awareness of the socio-political realities in India. She then lived among village people for 8 years, working with them to get the health services they needed. In 1989, she was elected to leadership in Sector India, and later was chosen as Assistant Society Coordinator for our global Community. Sister Asha returned to India in 1998. “There is a whole temperament in India which is quite different from, yet complimentary to, that in the West, which I had lost touch with,” she shares. “After several months of looking, learning, and seeking to understand, I chose to begin where I had left off in 1991, entering into rural mission close to the people.” In 1999, Sister Asha began mission in Hathsarganj, a semi-rural area, under the auspices of Yuva Bharat, an organization devoted to the development of villagers. Here she worked with the dalits, the outcasts of Hindu society. With her assistance, over 100 women joined self-help groups and began the journey to empowerment. “Life in mission moves, and adjustment is a part of life,” she says. “If we seek together to be the healing presence of Christ in the world…we can celebrate all cultures, and all peoples, journeying as one into the mystery of God and God’s reign in the making.”
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