Austin is losing a popular physician, his wife and their family.

The world is gaining a popular physician, his wife and their family.

Wherever John and Joann Toso have gone in life, service to others has been a common thread.

Wherever they leave, they take away lasting impressions.

"We chose Austin to raise our children and it was a perfect place," said the doctor. "It has been a great place to work and it has been great for our family, too."

"We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Austin Public Schools system," said Mrs. Toso. "They did such a great job for our son, Isaac. They were supportive every step along the way.'

Of the Austin Medical Center-Mayo Health System, the doctor said he witnessed a transition from a "cozy, family-like" health care provider

to a far-ranging health care system that has the potential to impact on health care in the area through its affiliation with Mayo Health System.

Now, the Tosos will seek in their own way to make an impact elsewhere. In the doctor's case, it's the world through a unique, volunteer-dominated health care provider, which they helped create.

They were present when the Global Health Ministries was created in Kenya in 1985. According to the physician, medical missionaries "felt orphaned" at their remote outposts and decided their was strength in numbers.

Toso was the keynote speaker when GHM was launched in 1987.

Today, he is planning to lead the organization into new challenges as its chief executive.

GHM provides a "gift of life," physical and spiritual, through Lutheran health care work around the world.

It provides project financial support, locating and shipping of urgently needed medical supplies, recruiting health care personnel and funding the training of national health care givers.

Toso was elected president of GHM's board of directors at the April board meeting.

According to Toso, GHM believes healthy living is not a privilege of the few, but a necessity of all.

It pursues a multi-dimensional attack on indifferent and inadequate health care. Collecting medical supplies and equipment, project support in the hosts nations, recruiting medical professionals, technicians, nurses and doctors and fund-raising are GHM goals.

The Toso family's home in Austin has been sold to Dr. and Mrs. Larry Keenan, a cardiologist and his wife and their children. Keenan will be joining the AMC-Mayo Health System staff later this year.

The Tosos have acquired a home in Falcon Heights only 10 minutes from the GHM offices in Fridley.

He plans to divide his new GHM duties at the Fridley headquarters and on-the-road consultation responsibilities. He is also accepting a stint as an emergency room physician at a Mayo Health System hospital at Fairmont, where his brother, Dr. Timothy Toso is also an ER physician and assembling a team of physicians there.

Mrs. Toso's mother, Renie Lellelid, will join them in the return to the Twin Cities area.

Just what is this Global Health Ministries force that is causing the Toso family to uproot itself from Austin?

Answer: An organization that tries to be all things to all people.

Projects related to

the AIDS epidemic get primary attention after approval from the GHM board of directors.

The list of GHM projects includes Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chile, Columbia, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar,

Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

But extending healing hands to different cultures is nothing new to the physician. The Toso family moved to Austin, when the doctor joined the former Austin Medical Clinic, which later joined the former St. Olaf Hospital in a merger to become Austin Medical Center, an affiliate of Mayo Health System..

A native of Minneapolis, Toso grew up in Madagascar, where his parents were serving as missionaries.

Both husband and wife are not shy about how they make decisions. Prayer is a large part of the process.

When the time came to decide on the Global Health Ministries' offer to join them, leaving a city that had been so good to them, embarking on new paths in the Twin Cities and at Fairmont, Mrs. Toso said they got help.

"Whenever we needed a sign, whenever we were undecided, something happened to convince us we were making the right decision. There was clarification. Things just seem to get clarified and now we're waiting to see what God has in store for us once again in life," she said.