David and Lara Narita

Medical missionaries to Cambodia

David was born in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where he accepted Christ as a child through vacation Bible school. In his first year in college at Brown University, he felt God’s call to live his life according to eternal values, not his own. After attending the Urbana 87 missions conference, David spent the following summer with Youth With A Mission in the Caribbean. It was through this experience that he felt God confirming his call to career missions.

After obtaining his MD and specializing in family medicine, David later completed a fellowship in medical education. Most recently he was on faculty with UC Davis and worked in a Mexican migrant worker clinic.
Lara was born in Kailua, Hawaii, on the windward side of the island of Oahu. She was raised in a Christian home and accepted Christ as her Savior at a very early age. While attending Hawaii Baptist Academy, she felt God’s direction toward a career in medical missions.

After receiving her bachelors degree at Creighton University, Lara spent two years in Hakodate, Japan teaching English and serving in a church with Hope Chapel. She then returned to the University of Iowa for medical school. Her desire to pursue medical missions was confirmed and strengthened from these experiences.

David and Lara met while doing their family practice residency training in Modesto. They were married in 1997. Together, they continued to develop their vision for ministry being active in their home church, Calvary Chapel Modesto. They have two children, Benjamin ('00) and Jonathan ('02) and are expecting their third in early 2008.

Where There Is No Doctor, a village health guide. Lara was working at orphanages and in a floating clinic with a local children’s hospital.