Family Camp 2024

One month after graduation from veterinary school (WSU ’83), Fred Van Gorkom went to Ethiopia with Christian Veterinary Mission (CVM). After completing the Red Cross/UNHCR Somali Returning Refugee Project, he did veterinary and famine relief work in the north central highlands of Ethiopia and met Vicki, also a veterinarian (OSU ’82), who had come to teach in the Ethiopian veterinary school. Married in 1986, they immediately returned to a remote part of southwestern Ethiopia to do church planting and community development (veterinary, water, education, forestry, peace-making and more), raising their four children in the “bush.” Then in 2002 Fred became country-wide Team Leader of most of the SIM (originally Soudan/Sudan Interior Missions) mission stations in Ethiopia until 2008 when they felt called to the CVM Home office in the Pacific NW. Fred now uses his experience to challenge, empower and facilitate other veterinarians in international settings, serving as CVM Deputy Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; he provides leadership as part of a team to recruit, train, place and mentor veterinary cross-cultural workers in the Great Commission. He also oversees CVM security issues worldwide, and delights in encouraging veterinary professionals in other countries to catch the vision for veterinary missions.