From the time Glori Short was a little girl she knew she wanted to be a doctor. “I had a cousin, Tara, who was born with cystic fibrosis. Tara lived out her motto, ‘One life can make a difference’ and I believe that,” said  Short, her vivid blue eyes expressing the strength of her convictions. “I believe that we can make a difference in the lives of others, one person at a time.”  

As the daughter of a Methodist minister and a school teacher, she learned from an early age about honoring God through service to others. “God has blessed me so much,” she said. “He has allowed me to reach my goal of becoming a doctor, and my field, which is OB/GYN, allows me to combine family practice and surgery to help women.”

Short has a motto of her own, “If I can help the lady of the house, then I can help the entire family,” she said. “I feel that God calls each of us to go forth and help others in whatever way we can, because I know that ‘to whom much is given, much is required’.”

Growing up, Short participated in construction mission teams with the youth groups in her church. Her first medical team experience was in college with ‘T.I.M.E. for Christ’ when she was part of a medical mission team to Aqua Calientes, Mexico.  

She met her future husband, Jon Short, in Sunday school, at his home church in Haleyville, Alabama, where her dad was pastor. They married just before she began her residence. By the time that residency was finished, she would bestow upon him an honorary doctorate for his patience with her long hours and absences from home.

 The following 15 years were filled with the excitement of learning what she had always longed for: How to be a doctor. She first attended UAB, then did her residency in Ashville, N.C.   

The young couple shared a love for helping others whose plight in life had been so dissimilar to their own Christian upbringing. These values and morals set them on a course which has taken them to many remote areas in foreign countries on missions to help whomever and wherever they were able. After moving to Cullman, he became a pilot and a stay-at-home dad.

The first two of their three lovely daughters, Patton and Hayden, were born during her residency in N.C. The youngest, Reagan, was born here in Cullman.

Patton, now 16, is an excellent equestrian and pilot. Hayden is 14, she loves all sports, especially softball, basketball and hunting, and she also flies.

Reagan, 12, is also an avid equestrian. The family lives on a farm, where they enjoy the outdoors and traveling.

 Short met Steve James, founder of Kenya Relief. “I actually met him in the operating room,” she recalled. “That was about 14 years ago, and it has been very rewarding to see how God used the tragic loss of his child to create a legacy of hope in Kenya Relief.”

“I am honored to be part of an organization which believes that one person can make a difference,” she said. “Kenya Relief has made such a difference in the lives of so many people by providing spiritual, physical and educational needs in that country. Not only does Kenya Relief have an orphanage (Brittany’s Home of Grace) but they also reach out to the community with a widows program, pastoral support and health care.” The Short family sponsors one of those orphans, a three-year-old girl, by the prophetic name of Faith.

“I have had the privilege to participate in two medical teams in Kenya. My first experience there was in September 2009, and more recently in February 2011, when I evaluated women and children, and performed numerous operations on women that may never have had the opportunity to receive care otherwise,” she said.

“Medical missions are very dear to my heart,” said Short. “In reality, we are on a mission field every day. I am blessed by my patients, and I pray they can see in me a servant’s hand, and a servant’s heart” she said. “I have been blessed in my practice to have the best patients in the world. I have had the honor to deliver more than 3,400 babies in Cullman.”

Short performed the first cases in the state of Alabama and in the country, of several surgical procedures. Last year, she co-authored a paper retrospective review of Early Experience Solyx Single Incision System, to treat stress urinary incontinence in women, which was presented in several national and international meetings. Her surgical experience has allowed her to teach surgical procedures for pelvic floor reconstruction and urinary incontinence to gynecologists and urologists across the U.S.

Short feels that by witnessing in word and deed, and by showing the compassion of Jesus Christ, someone may see Jesus in us. “As a physician, I have a unique opportunity to be used as an instrument in the hands of the Great Physician. Because of the doctor/patient relationship, I am able to speak freely with patients and hopefully, this allows the Lord to speak through me,” she said, humbly.

She describes the vast differences in practicing medicine here in her comfortable office, filled with photos of smiling babies and smelling of clean soap. “There are so many differences in their world and ours,” she said, contemplatively. “Performing surgery in a developing country is a challenge. For one thing, everyone must learn to multi-task. We are often out of our comfort zone and our area of expertise. The surgical instruments are not what I am accustomed to, and at times the disease process is very far advanced beyond what I normally treat. For example, a simple hysterectomy is not quite so simple when the uterus in question is the size of your Thanksgiving turkey,” she said.

She compares cancer of the cervix in the two countries; in the U.S. most spots are detected before they are the size of a dime.” In Kenya, it may have spread throughout a woman’s entire pelvis before it is diagnosed.”

Short recalled the time when she met with a 30-year-old woman from whose diseased body came the overpowering odor of disease and death. “It was coming from her necrotic cervical cancer, which was so advanced that I couldn’t do anything for her medically, but I knew that I was not only responsible for assisting her from a medical standpoint – but I was also responsible for helping her spiritually.”

“I told her about the healing of the Great Physician,” said Short. “It reminded me of the verse where Jesus said, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So, my question to myself and to others is ‘Why not go, when Jesus in counting on us?’”

“I know from my own experience with foreign missions that God frequently puts us in a place where we may feel like things are over our heads, but He continually shows Himself ever-ready to meet our needs, and confirm that He is all-powerful. The Lord has blessed me and helped me care for some of the most unusual, interesting and baffling conditions that I have ever seen,” she said in amazement.

“Missions always begin at home,” she said. But, she freely admits that she could not have participated in medical missions at the level that she has, without the support of her family. “I look forward to our daughters joining Jon and me on our next trip to Kenya,” she smiled. “The girls are excited about an upcoming trip to Africa to visit Faith.”

Sometimes all it takes to give someone a glimpse of Christ’s love is a caring hand on a fevered brow, the delivery of mercy with a dose of medicine, or simply a look of true compassion that needs no words to convey His love. With a sense of duty to go out into the world, sharing the gifts and abilities that God has bestowed on them, the Shorts have done exactly what they felt called to do — leaving the comfort and security of home to make a difference in the lives of others, one person at a time.