Dental: Recent Episodes
MedicalMissions.com
Medical missionaries from Western industrialized nations frequently encounter ethically disturbing situations when providing care in the developing world. This may be due to generally-recognized ethical principles being largely influenced by Western realities, beliefs and values. Individuals in resource-limited settings may have very different views on the risks and benefits of medical care, widely disparate access to reliable treatment, and decision-making that emphasizes honoring the opinions of the group over those of the individual. After briefly reviewing some basic tenets of medical ethics, this session will work through a number of actual cases with the goal of finding potential ways forward in each.
Prayer support is just as vital as financial support. This session will explore how to thrive for a lifetime. You will need churches to send you, and a full and engaged prayer and financial support team.
Every day healthcare workers face a lot of stressful and emotionally challenging situations at work. Moreover the long drawn pandemic has had its impact on healthcare workers. Numerous deaths, making difficult choices due to resource constraints and overstretched days are some of the challenges that have affected health workers mentally and emotionally. With daily work demands being constant many of them are left with these issues unresolved. How then can we care for our caregivers who support the health and quality of life of their patients and their relatives? This is a taster of a program that uses large group learnings, small group sharing, peer-to-peer interactions and role-plays. This session will also provide an overview of the program that provides healthcare teams a platform to address their unaddressed pain, and emotional as well as psychological hurts Using a structured and sustained approach the program provides the supportive environment, caring community and appropriate skills for the healing of healthcare workers and equips them to go on to become better careers in the workplace. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_mathewmulavelil_caringforthecaregiver
Evidence based medicine is emphasized worldwide. An important skill in the practice of evidence based health care is the ability to critically appraise the validity of published literature. This lecture will explore principles of evidence based medicine and critical appraisal of randomized controlled trial.
Mentors are instrumental in the professional and personal growth of healthcare professionals. However, mentoring relationships often fail to realize their full potential. Attendees will be encouraged and equipped to initiate mentoring relationships that provide both mentor and mentee with a rewarding experience.
A panel of those who entered full time missions after age 50 will discuss how God overcame and is overcoming objections, difficulties and fears to place them in service. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_bond_burgess_makingamidcareermove
In this session, It will seek to help guide you on how to respond to God’s Command and Commission, The quest for discovering and following God’s will and purpose for one’s life is often an illusion to many children of the Living God, Many believers resorts to imitating others and or live a hypocritical phantom life as they are tied down to daily engagements and undertakings of everyday life, It is hoped that discovering the reason for living your life with purpose is made easier. You will discover the purpose for which God design you and gain the confidence to fruitfully be where you belong, through the power of the Holy Spirit. You will be guided through a biblical process and principles to seeing exactly God’s intent for your unique being and person, as Gods design, where you will discover that It all began with God before the foundations of the earth. Ever since, before the fall of humanity, God has you in mind, and he designed you for a purpose and through a process, but as a result of the departure of humans from God, through disbelief, you became blind and were kept ignorant of His plans for you. However, you will discover that His Deep love and Great Mercy, God called you to salvation, you became a new creature and adopted as His Child, hence He qualified you, by being a new creature in His image, He desires for you to return and rediscover His plan and purpose for your life As He God Intended. Responding to Gods Command and Commission, is a call to be ready, Dressed for service fully equipped and Lacking in nothing as you Respond through Obedience, based on a biblical Principles, These herculean task by helping you identify your uniqueness within the body of Christ, and to enable you walk confidently and victoriously where you belong in the program of God through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Finally, through the Scriptures and the Power of the Holy Spirit, You will be exposed and guided to God’s Command and Commission, That you begin to instantly manifest the reality of your purpose for living, Emblemed and empowered with full of Zeal, Passion and Fruitfulness, Genuinely ready for all the good works God has designed you to accomplish – Loving God with all your heart, soul and strength and loving others through your service of obedience to his Commission, Praying, Evangelizing, Discipling, Equipping and living a lasting fruit to the Glory of God. Our focus will be what it does take to be dressed, ready for service from your call to salvation to your call to service, Exploring your Meditational life, Family Life and a life of Obedience to His Command and Commission. AS YOU RESPONDING TO GOD’S COMMAND AND COMMISSION
Are you comfortable asking people for money? Do you understand the critical areas you must address if you are going to ask people to invest in you? This session will give you an understanding of the basics in fundraising that is fundamental to anyone in ministry. You will learn 5 critical things you must do in order to raise your own support. There is a solution to the obstacle of educational loans which often prevent many from going due to the amount of money that must be raised – MedSend. Additionally, you will understand how to qualify for a MedSend grant and what the Board is looking for in those who apply. Finally, you will gain and understanding of what you need to be doing right now if you are hoping to go to the field soon, next steps.
This session will consider case studies of biomedical research in mission contexts, derive best practices in biomedical research that enhance the work of mission institutions, and describe how to get involved in biomedical research in faith-based settings. Presentation Slides: https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_marktopazian_biomedicalresearchandfaith
Clinicians encounter many ethical issues in practice of medicine. This lecture first explores ethics from the perspective of seminal studies on normal human nature including incentives, social reciprocity and token effect. The lecture will then focus on the impact of this human nature on every day medical practice, medical education, medical research and medical missions.
There is a shift happening in missions, what is God up to and what is my role? https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_charlievittitow\_whatismyplace
In both domestic and international situations, dental needs often go unmet (for multiple reasons). Many people in poverty develop a "survivalist" mindset and only seek care when in pain. Untreated dental conditions, if neglected long enough, can turn into dental emergencies. When many patients do finally seek dental care, it is often in an emergency medical setting where dentistry is not usually available. In some parts of the world, dental care may be non-existent altogether. These emergency dental patients are often mis-diagnosed and/or go untreated in a medical setting. This lecture will serve to enlighten/empower non-dentists with some basic diagnostic and treatment skills to better manage dental emergencies in a non-dental setting. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jonathanspenn\_emergencydentaldiagnosis
We will learn how moral injury is inevitable in cross-cultural healthcare, and we will learn how to prevent and manage moral injury through proven, God-honoring methods. Presentation slides: https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jimritchie\_protectyourselffrom
As we see an increasing number of culturally diverse patients in our US-based practices or on the mission field, our understanding of cultural influences in healthcare and our own biases is essential. How can we develop an eye to see where a patient’s values and worldview may differ from our own? We will review an approach to cultural humility highlighted by medical missions case studies. Presentation Slides: https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_davidnarita\_culturalhumility
Like the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament, many times we as followers of Jesus who seek to make His name known, find ourselves crying out to God “I have had enough Lord”. Learning how to find God in our trials and to trust His loving faithfulness to refine us is a necessary part of our journey. Though sometimes difficult to share openly, the failures, disappointments, and hard times are important in the life of a global worker. Most often, just as in Elijah’s life in I Kings 19, the beauty and majesty and power of God meet us in these times. Sharing from her personal journey in medical missions as a general surgeon in the Middle East and in Kenya, Dr. Carol Spears will explore ways from scripture to find hope and beauty in the desert experiences of missionary service. The scripture is I Kings 19
Providing healthcare in pioneer mission settings complements and demonstrates the Gospel in action, following the footsteps of Jesus. This results in both improving the healthcare of the local community—and beyond—and the planting and growth of the church. We will describe and illustrate this from experiences in Thailand, Cambodia and the Big Country in Asia. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_narita\_thompson\_integratinghealthcare\_ https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_narita\_thompson\_integratinghealthcare\_handout\_
This session will help prepare participants for teaching internationally and/or cross-culturally. It will discuss differences in education methods that exist between different countries and cultural reasons for them; how these differences may impact how you teach and introduce new methods; and provide examples of ways to overcome or adapt to these differences. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_sharifalkenheimer\_crossculturalissues
This session is for those interested in leaving a lasting impact in one's overseas involvement. Often, the impact lasts only as long as the team is on the ground. If you would like to discover one way to have a lasting impact without creating dependency, this session is for you. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jaimesaint\_fiveprinciples
We live in the most amazing days since Jesus walked the earth. The global church is sprinting toward the finish line of the 2000-year Great Commission race, and by God’s grace, our generation may be the one to finish it. In this session, Douglas Cobb of The Finishing Fund will explain the global effort to get the gospel for the first time to the world’s last few unengaged people groups and will present the amazing promise of Matthew 24:14 that the completion of the Great Commission will open the door to the return of Christ.
Spirituality is an important component of health, and assessing a patient's spirituality is a cultural competence of healthcare professionals. This session will review the scientific evidence for links between spirituality, religious practice and health outcomes, consider what medical and nursing association guidelines say about incorporating spiritual assessments into medical practice, and describe a practical, context-appropriate framework for assessing patient spirituality in medical and nursing practice.
Breaking the Chains of Dependency: Impacting underserved communities through servant leadership Underserved communities, such as those in Africa, have been the long-time recipients of outside aid, yet there is little sustainable change. Dependency on outside resources and hierarchal, foreign leadership remains. Could following the example of Jesus’ use of servant leadership be a way to break dependency and bring sustainable change to these communities? A small, community-based health clinic in Mauritania, Africa, was a traditional, non-governmental run clinic for 15 years, relying heavily on foreign staff for leadership and decision-making. Desiring to empower local leadership and encourage ownership, a new leadership style was introduced. Using a servant leader, holistic approach along with cultural contextualization, education, guiding a shared vision, and instilling dignity and hope, in less than a year a shift happened. Personal ownership, critical thinking, shared-decision making, and local leadership are replacing previous dependency.
The missional landscape has changed. The recent global events, the shifting distribution of Christians, and the realities of what God is allowing; are presenting a whole new missional landscape. What then are the new structures, approaches, and strategies that are proving effective for missions in our days? This will be shared with a special emphasis on the emerging role of medical missions and the strategy for partnerships. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_florencemuindi\_ourcurrentmission
For those in training and recently finished, we will learn how to maximize this season. We’ll spend the first half tackling topics like original motivation, long-haul stamina, pearls and pitfalls of living in community, debt, vision for one’s next step to the nations, and helping the needy now tensioned with investing in education to help others later. We pray this will infuse you with the hope of Christ and give you eyes to see this refining, exciting time as He does. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_redican\_heidenreich\_thomas\_thetrainingyears For the second hour, we’ll divide into small discussion groups with those from your same stage of the journey (i.e., recent grads, residents, M1, M2, M3, M4, pre-med, PA, NP, RN, pharmacy, dental, PT/OT/ST, spouses). With facilitators who have gone through it before, we’ll dive into the individualized questions you have and brainstorm how God might sustain you now and lead you in the upcoming season.
We are all called to live missionally. It is the Lord's plan for all peoples to know of His glory. As nurses, we may have access to those who have never heard the Gospel. We can get behind closed doors working within communities, establish trust, pray with patients, and provide wholistic care. Nurses care for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of people. We can use the discipline of nursing to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We can show honor, respect, caring, and compassion to everyone the Lord brings into our path, no matter where we are serving Him. As believers, we can make disciples. Healthy, authentic disciples make healthy churches. The church is not a place, or an event, it is the people. We as nurses have extra tools in our toolbox to pray, teach, encourage, advance the Gospel, and give glory to the Lord. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_rebeccameyer\_roleofnursesinmissions
Many mission healthcare programs have been started by expatriates with little or no input from national partners. These programs are often supported by external funds which is one of the reasons that control is still in the hands of expatriates. Transitioning from expatriate to national leadership is increasingly important as nationalism affects national policies. This may take the form of denying visas to healthcare personnel, leaving programs dependent on national leadership and staffing. For programs to continue, it is imperative that nationals be prepared to take responsibility for administrating and continuing clinical and educational programs. This workshop will present examples from missionaries who have made this transition, are presently experiencing the transition, or are making plans to transition to national leadership. We will discuss how transitions have been successful, some of the pitfalls of making the transition without adequate preparation and potential steps to move forward in making this transition. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jamessmith\_transitioningfromexpatriate\_
The missional landscape has changed. The recent global events, the shifting distribution of Christians, and the realities of what God is allowing; are presenting a whole new missional landscape. What then are the new structures, approaches, and strategies that are proving effective for missions in our days? This will be shared with a special emphasis on the emerging role of medical missions and the strategy for partnerships.
Our efforts to provide excellent, compassionate treatment for our patients can open huge doors to address their spiritual needs. This session will provide an introduction to the CMDA "Faith Prescriptions" video series, a collection of 25 episodes created to equip and inspire us to communicate the love of Christ to our patients with sensitivity and respect.
In this session, you'll learn the most important questions to ask when considering a potential mission sending organization. Find your best fit by attending this seminar!
A medical practitioner panel from the CMDA Commission on Human Trafficking will discuss indicators of human trafficking in adults and children, root causes of exploitation, the effects of the pandemic, and tools healthcare providers can use to identify and treat victims.
This session focuses on women on mission and will highlight the role of women on mission, the challenges faced and some ways to overcome these challenges. Examples of women on mission in the past as well as present day experiences will be used to bring to life the opportunities and the difficulties as well as the great joys of a woman on mission.
In today's uncertain world, patients are dealing with more and more stress and anxiety that ultimately impacts their health. Patients sometimes have "hidden unhealed triggers" that can lead to physical impairments. III John 2 states "Above all brethren, I desire you to prosper and be in Health, even as your soul prospers." In this session, the participant will learn how to "tend to their souls" and learn to identify areas of brokenness that patients are dealing with such that they are equipped to help patients tend to their souls, in an effort to propagate physical, emotional and spiritual health.
As a health care professional on the mission field, the task of language learning is both essential and complicated. We say that language learning is a high value and priority for ourselves as missionaries, and yet it often is the first thing to take a back seat in life and ministry. Why is that? How can we do better? With over 15 years of experience in educating, training, and coaching missionaries in language and culture learning, Dr. Mullen will cast a vision for what it takes to truly become “fluent” in your target host language. She will offer biblical, theoretical, and practical advice for missionaries and missions leaders alike on how to prepare, execute, and continually improve communicative competence in a second language and cross-cultural setting.
Medical education has a potentially powerful role in global health. This breakout will explore some ways that medical education can not only support patient care but also resource and research capacity building to better care for critically ill patients in low-middle-income countries. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_burtonlee\_supportingglobalcriticalcare
This breakout session is will be a taster of the Formational Course of the Academy of Missional Healthcare and Initiative of COGI and CAPRO. Designed primarily for pre-internship students in healthcare, it is also open to young professionals. This session will provide a taster to the eight-core module mentorship course in Missional Healthcare. The session will also highlight the uniqueness of the program. The Formational course provides participants with “A missional context of learning” in an environment of Transformational learning, problem-based training, experiential sharing alongside practical role-plays and interactive group exercises. Continual learning and reflective engagement through “journaling” is a key component of the program. The full program gives broad insights into the health and development needs in a country as well the various expressions of medical missions. It also provides a deeper understanding of God’s mission pertinent to healthcare and the healthcare person.
Aspiring cross-cultural missionaries must develop the capacity to personally hear from and obey God. This ability is supernaturally achieved through the Holy Spirit by cultivating life-giving habits. Among them are bible reading, prayer, service, and participation in the Body of Christ.
Are you a nurse? Are you a pharmacist? A doctor? A physical therapist? A medical professional? Then you ARE a Market Place Professional! Bring your job, spread the Gospel, live in air-conditioning, and pay your own way!
Dentists have a unique opportunity to minister to the dentally needy, both domestically and internationally. These opportunities enable us to honor Christ, who has called us to care for "the least of these" (Matthew 25:40), and our compassionate treatment can also open doors to tangibly communicating the love of Christ to our patients.
Despite the recognition that successful mentoring experiences are usually the result of intentional and committed relationships between mentor and mentee, there are still challenges in achieving consistent, positive outcomes for mission driven Christ followers in healthcare. Healthcare missionaries, whether domestic or foreign, face unexpected challenges, failures, and disappointments, both on and off the field of service, across a broad spectrum of life, work, and ministry. This talk will focus on the essential commitments of both mentor and mentee during the early career of cross-cultural workers who serve in diverse living and working environments.
Balancing too many roles, wearing too many hats. It's tough to be a missionary doctor mom...is it even really possible? Some helpful discussion to guide us into the life God wants for each of his daughters.
The average medical student graduates with over $241,000 in educational debt! This can seem insurmountable when trying to get to the mission field. But it's not! Come and hear about your options, and why student loan debt should not stand in your way of stepping out and following God's lead into missions. We will discuss how to limit debt, grant availability from MedSend, and federal programs that can dramatically reduce your monthly payment and even eliminate your student loans.
How To Proclaim and Deliver the Content of The Gospel Message, Which is, The True Saving Knowledge of God in Christ, to The hearts and minds of the Muslims Everywhere, so they could be Saved, and in a way they could understand through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some mission experts estimate that up to 90% of young people who consider missions cease to pursue it because of various fears and obstacles, including the fear of fundraising. Some workers view fundraising as a rite of passage or as an obstacle to overcome. Others understand God’s purposes to include each follower of Jesus in His worldwide kingdom work through going, serving, sending, praying, encouraging, and giving.
As we see an increasing number of culturally diverse patients in our practices, there is no doubt of the importance of cultural competency in medicine. Specific circumstances and miscommunications have been well documented. But how can we develop an eye to see where a patient’s values and worldview may differ from our own? We will review an approach to cultural competency highlighted by medical missions case studies.
Oftentimes short term mission trips sideline the indigenous church. The local church is the key to transformation and must be empowered to participate in the Great Commission. The members of the local, indigenous church are the best people to reach their community with the Gospel. They speak the same language, look the same, and understand the culture. By giving the local church the responsibility, allowing them to be in the driver's seat, we will be able to empower them with skills that will meet the biggest needs in their own community. Missions is designed to be a relay race. We will discuss seven principles to assist us in our short term mission trips to have sustained, long term impact without creating dependency.
The ability to critically appraise the validity of published literature is an essential skill for all physicians. This lecture will explore the principles of evidence based medicine with a focus on critical appraisal of randomized controlled trials.
This session will present how combining cultural competence and critical thinking when teaching healthcare in a global setting, will be more effective if the participant’s previous learning experiences are included in teaching methods.
For those in training and recently finished, we will learn how to maximize this season. We’ll spend the first half tackling topics like original motivation, long-haul stamina, pearls and pitfalls of living in community, debt, vision for one’s next step to the nations, and helping the needy now tensioned with investing in education to help others later. We pray this will infuse you with the hope of Christ and give you eyes to see this refining, exciting time as He does. For the second hour, we’ll divide into small discussion groups with those from your same stage of the journey (i.e., recent grads, residents, MS1-2, MS3-4, PA/NP, pre-med, RN, PT/OT/ST, dental; optional spouse group). With facilitators who have gone through it before, we’ll dive into the individualized questions you have and brainstorm how God might sustain you now and lead you in the upcoming season.
Our residency and training programs prepare us for professional service. Might it make sense to give heightened attention to preparation for full time kingdom service following professional training? Join Rick, Lance, Kelsey, and Chad as together we explore the need and potential for a new equipping model for long term kingdom service. For senders and those seeking to be sent: all medical, dental, and administrators, join the conversation as we explore foundational spiritual formation, life on life discipleship as we seek to be the missionaries here and now that we want to be then and there.
We've seen the church thrive around the world through missionary efforts. How do we leverage the impact of the global church to the nations where there is no church sharing all the things God has uniquely given us?
This lecture first explores ethics from the perspective of normal human nature. Then the impact of this human nature on every day medical practice, medical education, medical research and medical missions is discussed.
My family and I are Kenyan cross-cultural workers based in Kenya. We served for three and half years in Ghana. During that time, we established Hope Alive Initiatives that equips churches in poor and vulnerable communities in wholistic ministry. I have seen the impact left by short term mission teams that come to train local believers to continue ministry after the team leave. Hope Alive Initiatives is now involved in training churches in five countries: Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia.
Any device capable of being connected to cyberspace can be subject to surveillance, hacked, and used monitor behavior in the physical world. The lowest level of threat is probably the thief who wants to steal your smart phone. The highest level of threat is the nation state monitoring you using that same smart phone, supposing you will compromise the local believers. Between these extremes are the criminals who call your contact list, tell them you have been kidnapped and demand ransom, and the criminals who seize your data with ransomware. Mission teams may need to turn to cybersecurity professionals to develop plans for working in closed countries and nations that are fundamentally hostile to the faith or are just corrupt. Knowing when this help is needed is critical to staying safe. This session will provide participants with tools and strategies to enhance their cybersecurity.
The pathway to healthcare missions is not a linear pathway and there is not one right way. In this plenary session, we are going to hear from experts across the spectrum of healthcare missions, from the initial exploring stage, the preparing process, and beyond. We're going to look at the many varied expressions of healthcare missions, such as the traditional long term medical missionary, but also the non-traditional marketplace worker. We'll explore short term service opportunities, medical education fields, domestic service, and disaster relief. We'll learn about what healthy preparation looks like and end with stories and lessons about thriving in healthcare missions.
In view of a changing world context, what is the future of medical missions? Does the traditional mission hospital have a place in today's world? Where does medical missions fit into globalization and urbanization and increasing populations where there is high restriction on religion? What are healthcare strategies that will work in the 21st century? This session will review the history of medical missions, where we are today, and what are the new additional approaches that will meet needs and open doors for the Gospel.
Parenting is challenging in any situation, but raising children while living overseas and serving cross-culturally adds new complexities. Gleaming lessons learned from 15 years of field missionary experience, and siting practical examples, the session will explore tips and tools for providing missionary kids with academic, social and spiritual success.
We are all "Servants in Training", "Missionaries in Training" or both. What's the difference and how might God be preparing us? Dr. Dowell will be discussing the importance of each of those seasons in our development as yielded vessels "living sacrifices". We will learn the answers to those questions, find encouragement in times of difficulty, and be inspired to answer the call along the way as we glean wisdom, and learn a few guiding principles from the lives of biblical and historical servants who have been called and used of God in times past.
Dr. and Mrs. McDonald have served in international ministry with over 30 years of experience. Offered an international career with the UN and World Bank, they took the path less traveled, and it has made all the difference…for eternity! With work experience in over 50 countries, together they have helped set up or empower scores of development projects that continue today. These include hospitals, clinics, medical training, orphanages, community centers, schools from preschool to graduate level, businesses, farms, plantations, factories, safe houses, all providing products and services for the local community and export. Trial and error have revealed ten important principles foundational to success in social enterprise. One of them of particular interest in ministry is the issue of multiple “bottom lines.” Profit, the usual bottom line, cannot stand alone. Their core value is that any effort must produce spiritual results, at least in opening doors. Results are God ordained, not man driven. For what profits a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul? Other principles flow from this core foundational premise. How do you determine the most strategic set of needs when there are so many? And how do you prioritize? How do you find a competitive advantage? How do you diversify to minimize risk? How do you write a business plan to know viability? How do you find the “Champion” if you are not on the ground yourself? How do you avoid colonialism while creating accountability? How do you measure results? How do you avoid corruption? Be encouraged that there is nothing greater than empowering a people group sold out to Christ to become independent to leverage the gospel in their own community! The story of McDonald’s journey is there’s no greater joy than seeing men, women and children come to know the True and Living God while standing free and reaching their own through economic, social and spiritual empowerment! Phil holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State in international development and is the CEO of L.E.A.D. Inc. Rebecca is the Founder and CEO of Women At Risk, Int’l, addressing multiple risk issues in 56 countries and licensed in all 50 states to train medical professionals in anti-trafficking. As a family, they raised four children in the developing world and know the unique challenges of marriage, family, career, ministry, business, and social entrepreneurship in a cross-cultural environment. They never expected to be serial entrepreneurs. Last year Phil authored an Amazon bestselling book entitled, “unreal: Adventures of a Family’s Global Life.” Written in memoir form, the book recounts 90 stories that highlight 60 principles learned from more than 30 years of experience.
Some mission experts estimate that up to 90% of young people who consider missions cease to pursue it because of various fears and obstacles, including the fear of fundraising. This session will help participants: 1. Identify various obstacles and fears relating to fundraising 2. Consider ways that God can help us overcome these barriers 3. Become aware of best resources and training materials used to help missionaries build and maintain a full and engaged prayer and financial support team 4. Know what questions to ask about support raising with possible mission agencies when evaluating where and how God will have you serve
This session focuses on women in mission and will highlight the role of women in missions, challenges faced, and some practical ways to overcome those challenges.
When I arrived in Nigeria I thought my main role would be taking care of my 6-month-old daughter. When people asked before we left, “What are you going to do?” I almost apologetically said I would be a “homemaker.” Shortly after arriving I struggled to know my role as “an accompanying spouse.” I was not prepared for this undefined role and sometimes felt like a “second class missionary” because I was not in a specific ministry. It did not take long before the Lord opened up for me amazing opportunities for ministry, some in our home and others in our community. During this workshop I will share my journey, the many wonderful doors of significant opportunity God opened for me to serve using my past experiences, education and gifts to eventually serve many unreached women and children in our community and in Nigeria. We will also explore ways in which male “accompanying spouses” also got involved and had an impact in their own unique ways and the significance of culture on these decisions.
Fear, in its various manifestations, is one of the Enemy's most effective means of limiting our obedience. The Bible offers practical strategies for overcoming fear with faith--many of which are demonstrated in an Old Testament story of sex trafficking, racial hatred, and genocide.
As a health care professional on the mission field, the task of language learning is both essential and complicated. We say that language learning is a high value and priority for ourselves as missionaries, and yet it often is the first thing to take a back seat in life and ministry. Why is that? How can we do better? With over 15 years of experience in educating, training, and coaching missionaries in language and culture learning, Dr. Mullen will cast a vision for what it takes to truly become “fluent” in your target host language. She will offer biblical, theoretical, and practical advice for missionaries and missions leaders alike on how to prepare, execute, and continually improve communicative competence in a second language and cross-cultural setting.
When we think of God's global mission, we cannot overlook the U.S. as a mission field. It is a nation in spiritual decline, and widening gaps between the church and groups that are becoming increasingly unreached. What works in international missions, works here. This session will focus on the medical missions movement here in the United States, how it relates to overseas medical work, and how the two go hand in hand. We will look at several case studies, and address challenges and bottlenecks in this growing movement.
The idea that missions is about going and doing for people in other countries is being replaced by seeing missions as a relay race. We need to train indigenous Christ followers with skills their people need so they can meet real needs in their communities as a door opener to share the Gospel. This training must be focused, in-depth, and self sustaining so that we do not create dependency.
This session will present the need for healthcare workers to understand that their response to women who are being abused can make a crucial difference in whether the patient feels safe or shamed. Behavior that can incite fear will be identified: Physical gestures, facial expressions, distance, tone of voice, etc. This session will also discuss how showing skepticism, insensitive questioning, and telling the patient what to do can shut down the opportunity to help her . Helpful ways to communicate concern, respect, and autonomy to make her own decisions, will be identified.
This session will explore the value of healthcare education as a form of mission experience, both in the short and long term, as well as to inspire and equip participants to explore healthcare education opportunities as an answer to God’s call to missions.
This is not our grandparents' world, with clear First, Second, and Third World nations. Accelerating worldwide social, cultural, and political changes call for reflection and alteration of our missionary strategies.
We have all witnessed how quickly the world has shifted and put our lives on pause. Short-term and long term sending has been halted in almost every major region of the world. In that, we have people God is calling to take the gospel to those places who are forced to wait. In this waiting, how do we walk alongside and guide our participants, donors, and teams through this unexpected season? Today we are going to walk through how to keep people engaged when we are not sending and some practical tips to help you care for and guide your team, participants, and donors in to missional living in the absence of sending. Resources Links: https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org https://calendly.com/drewmiller/consult https://www.servicereef.com https://www.missionsmadesimple.com
In a world characterized by pandemic, poverty, war, and terrorism how do we assess risk and serve with confidence? Expand on the theology of God’s gracious and guiding divine intervention for those called to faithful service in a fallen world.
Are you a woman health professional, for whom God has opened doors for education and training leading to a career in healthcare? Is God calling you to be involved in missions? Do you also dream about having a family? Do you wonder how on earth you would ever be able to combine those roles? Relating from my personal story and experience, we will explore lessons learned from 16 years as a medical missionary in Kenya and discuss how to incorporate a family, missions ministry and a medical career.
Dental disease is the most prevalent disease world wide. When the call to make disciples is combined with the dental vocation, opportunities to care for people in new ways emerge. Join this strategic session to learn how organizations, teams and individuals can have kingdom impact through dental care.
For those in training and just finished (i.e., recent grads, residents, med students, pre-med, PA/NP, RN, PT/OT/ST, dental), we will learn how to maximize your current season. We’ll tackle topics like falling in love with Jesus, original motivation, how to suffer well, pearls and pitfalls of living in community, debt, vision for one’s next step to the nations, and helping the vulnerable now tensioned with investing in education to help others later. With leaders live from the different fields and stages, we’ll answer the individualized questions you have, brainstorming how God might sustain you now and lead you in the upcoming season.
The average medical school debt at graduation is $232,000. The average salary of a medical missionary is $48,000. You need help! Come and learn how to bridge this gap through reducing your initial loan burden, apply for grants from organizations like MedSend, and qualify for Income Based Repayment and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Act.
In this session we will discuss how telehealth and technology can be used to improve patient healthcare in medical missions, streamline the continuity of care through digital health records and improve patient health outcome with technologies that enables physicians to continue to monitor their patients' progress long after the short-term mission trip.
Jesus commanded us to heal the sick and to make disciples. In this session I will teach you how I use a story-telling format to share the gospel, and share stories of healing and human needs ministries that were paired with disciple-making. These stories are taken from twenty-five years of medical missions experience among unreached peoples.
Have you longed to integrate your Christian faith into your patient care – on the mission field abroad, in your work at home, and during your training? Not sure how to do this in a caring, ethical, sensitive, and relevant manner? This “working” session will explore the ethical basis for spiritual care plus provide you with profession, timely, and practical methods to care for the whole person in the clinical setting.
Jericho Road is a Christian federally qualified community health center in Buffalo , NY that provides care to marginalized and vulnerable populations , including many refugees from over 80 nations. Since 2009 Jericho Road has followed some of their refugee friends back home to their countries of origin and have helped them start and operate health centers that also serve the most vulnerable. Today Jericho Road operates health centers in Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal. Each of these health centers is led and operated by local folks from those countries. By empowering local leaders Jericho Road in Buffalo has been richly blessed and our ability to demonstrate the love of Jesus has been enhanced. This workshop will focus on the lessons we have learned along the way.
This session will review the most common medical considerations you should be aware of before traveling on a short-term medical mission trip. I will review common malaria prophylaxis medications, immunizations, treatment of traveler’s diarrhea as well as other tips and tricks to know. This session is ideal for those with minimal international travel experience.
Can short-term health care teams play a key role in indigenous Gospel movements? Come hear the incredible story of God’s indigenous-led movement in a corner of Asia and the important role that short-term teams played in its advancement. Join in a discussion of the dynamics of an effective short-term partnership that bolsters indigenous work. Understand the key aspects of an “opening doors” access strategy using mobile health and dental clinics. Identify advantages and pitfalls of short-term indigenous partnerships, key contributions of short-term health care workers, and the central role of prayer and encouragement in God’s kingdom work. Christ-centered health care teams can play a strategic role in promoting sustainable indigenous ministry and Gospel advancement.
Faith Based Mental Health Care in Post Crisis Populations. Even when this abstract is being prepared during the active early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, signs of significant mental health problems are emerging not only in patients who have suffered with the disease, but in their families, colleagues, work associates, friends, and the health care workers that are active in prevention, sub acute care, acute care, rehabilitation care, and post pandemic phase of life changes. Strategies are already being developed for population surveillance and early intervention after the worst of the crisis has resolved. This session will address the strategies being developed during the pandemic for post pandemic care and what has been learned over the months following the peak of the pandemic
God's timeline is different for each of us. This session will look at the particular challenges and blessings of entering medical missions in "Round Two."
This break-out session will describe how global learning experiences affect the practice of healthcare students and professionals after they return home, beyond cultural competence.
Explore a strategy used to transform lives physically and spiritually. Participants in this session will engage in participatory learning activities that investigate the Community Health Evangelism model and its application to wholistic individual and communal health.
Our generation faces the reality of a world where 3 Billion will spend a lifetime never hearing the good news of Jesus. We are simply not in the neighborhoods and marketplaces where the majority of these unreached live. We dream of a different reality - a follower of Jesus imbedded in every community. A follower of Jesus in every place of work - embracing their God-given design to reflect the glory of God to those around them. Join us for this session as we dive into the open opportunities around the world and how real professionals are being intentional in strategic cities.
Sharing personal experiences from 16 years of field medical missionary service, the session will highlight lessons learned on the journey to balance medical practice, mission ministry and motherhood.
This session will look at the reality of suffering in this world and how to reorient our hearts and minds to face it well.
Explore the role of women in missions, challenges women face, and ways to overcome challenges
Clear communication is essential in any effective healthcare environment. Working in another language adds a whole new layer of complexity to the communication process. Learning another language can seem like a daunting task, especially if you had a negative past experience with a foreign language, or it can be viewed as an exciting adventure. This session will focus on practical tips that engage your internal motivations leading to appropriate language proficiency for kingdom impact.
Living "incarnationally" (among a culture different from your own), especially among marginalized people (the poor, immigrants, etc.) is a proven way to face your own cultural biases, muster courage, learn greater dependence on the Holy Spirit, and develop meaningful relationships with people very different from yourself. Besides being good for your soul, it's ideal preparation for international healthcare missions.
About 25 years ago, while sharing an early morning cup of coffee with my dear friend and practice partner, family physician John Hartman, MD, he asked, “Walt, how come we don’t bring our faith to work with us more often?” It was a question the Lord used to convict me of the fact that although my personal relationship with God was the primary and most important relationship in my life, more often than not I tended to leave Him at the door when entering the hospital or medical office. The question was the catalyst for this talk: Spiritual Interventions in Patient Care.
Research findings, a desire to provide high-quality care, and simple common sense, all underscore the need to integrate spirituality into patient care. It is highly ethical for healthcare professionals and healthcare systems to assess their patients’ spiritual health and needs and to provide indicated and desired spiritual interventions. Clinicians and health care systems should not deprive their patients of the spiritual support and comfort on which their hope, health, wellbeing, and longevity may hinge.
Before you get started, I must share this caution from Stephen Post, PhD: “Professional problems can occur when well-meaning healthcare professionals ‘faith-push’ a patient opposed to discussing religion.” However, on the other side of the coin, “rather than ignoring faith completely with all patients, most of whom want to discuss it, we can explore which of our patients are interested and who are not.” Simply put, a spiritual assessment can help us do this with each patient we see. We can potentially gain the following from a spiritual assessment:
- The patient’s religious background,
- The role that religious or spiritual beliefs or practices play in coping with illness (or causing distress),
- Beliefs that may influence or conflict with decisions about medical care,
- The patient’s level of participation in a spiritual community and whether the community is supportive, and ‹
- Any spiritual needs that might be present.
Several fairly-easy-to-use mnemonics have been designed to help health professionals, such as the “GOD” spiritual assessment I developed for CMDA’s Saline Solution:
G = God: − May I ask your faith background? Do you have a spiritual or faith preference? Is God, spirituality, religion or spiritual faith important to you now, or has it been in the past?
O = Others: − Do you now meet with others in religious or spiritual community, or have you in the past? If so, how often? How do you integrate with your faith community?
D = Do: − What can I do to assist you in incorporating your spiritual or religious faith into your medical care? Or, is there anything I can do to encourage your faith? May I pray with or for you?
However, this and other spiritual assessment tools fail to inquire about a critical item involving spiritual health: any religious struggles the patient may be having. A robust literature shows religious struggles can predict mortality, as there is an inverse association between faith and morbidity and mortality of various types.
Sir William Osler, one of the founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital and frequently described as the “Father of Modern Medicine,” wrote, “Nothing in life is more wonderful than faith…the one great moving force which we can neither weigh in the balance nor test in the crucibIe - mysterious, indefinable, known only by its effects, faith pours out an unfailing stream of energy while abating neither jot nor tittle of its potence.” You can experience that driving force of faith when you apply these principles of spiritual assessment in your practice of healthcare, thereby allowing you to minister to your patients in ways you never imagined possible, while also increasing personal and professional satisfaction. One doctor recently shared with me, “Ministering in my practice has allowed God to bear fruit in and through me in new and wonderful ways. I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do in and through me each day. My practice and I have been transformed.”
Brain drain of healthcare workers is a huge challenge in low income countries, particularly in rural areas, and yet these locations represent arguably the greatest healthcare needs in the world. This session will discuss rural medical education as a potential solution to brain drain in raising up compassionate, competent healthcare workers in the local setting.
This session will address five common misconceptions about missions that are based on assumptions and conspire to prevent people from exploring their own fit in mission.
Do you participate in short-term medical relief trips? In this session, relief organizations and volunteers (both medical and non-medical) will be challenged to think deeply about the practices they employ in the field and the impact they make on foreign patients/communities. We have high standards for health care in the United States, but there currently exists no standardized way of assessing the methods implemented and services offered by short-term medical missions in the field. This session hopes to build off of participants' brainstorming and also introduce participants to a novel self-assessment framework to assess the efficacy, sustainability, and long-term impact of your organization(s).
Through sharing personal experience and case studies, current demographics, trends, treatment and challenges of HIV care will be discussed
As we consider the commission that Jesus gave his followers, while realizing that over 3,000,000,000 have never heard the name of Jesus, there is too much work to be done for us to not work together. While there are many ways we are different, we have One God, One Savior, One Spirit, One Body and One Mission. If we are going to fulfill the Great Commission, we must not only work together, but we also must empower indigenous, national Christ followers to further the Great Commission. Only by handing the baton off to them will we be able to fulfill this commission. We must do God’s will, God’s way.
When we understand the Mission we have been given, we will understand the only way to accomplish the Great Commission is by doing it together -- across language, culture, national and other boarders with those who love and follow Christ.
The session we are featuring today explores unique ways to partner and empower people around the world.
We fool ourselves if we think we can enter the Enemy's territory on behalf of God without thorough spiritual preparation. Potential healthcare missionaries must be grounded in robust spiritual habits of seeking and hearing from God.
Objective of the session is to inform other Medical Missionaries, other doctors and other Missionaries about Evangelism through caring for people living with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.
Many times in the missions world, we follow culture by implementing solutions borrowed from others in our same field. But what if we created in such a way that changed our industry? With more than 3.5 billion people living without access to the good news of Jesus, we need to start changing the way we look at solving our challenges. At this session, you will learn a process and tools to bring your God-given creativity to the way that you approach the challenges you face at home, work, or on the missions field.
Do you want to "live on mission" with your patients regardless of whether you are stateside or abroad? This session will present proven and practical methods that will help you assess and address the spiritual needs of your patients in a professional, ethical, and compassionate manner. These tools have been utilized in secular and faith-based healthcare settings worldwide. Bob serves as executive director of Medical Strategic Network, which for 33 years, has been equipping healthcare students and professionals to care for the whole person.
Over the last 7 years, in partnership with short term teams, Hope Alive Initiatives has been able to set 6 community clinics in Northern Ghana. These clinics are run in a sustainable way by their respective churches. In this session we will share the lessons we have learnt to help you in ministry.
Short term missions usually involve a team of people contributing their skills to an indigenous people group. When that team leaves the work often ends. This session will present an innovative alternative to that model, where sharing knowledge and skills with local believers empowers them to serve their people group long after the teaching team leaves!
Values and assumptions vary widely from culture to culture. This gives rise to potential conflicts and barriers in the communication process. This session looks at Not the American values and assumptions which can create misunderstandings, damage relationships, and even pose significant danger in the delivery medical treatment in a cross cultural context.
It is a privilege to be called by the Lord to serve him in Medical Missions. Keeping our spiritual health is vital to walking in the journey of caring for others, particularly in difficult circumstances for the patients or for the ministry. This session will be a time of considering the many ways difficulties in ministry might have us lose our focus or joy as we serve. We will look at ways to keep our spiritual and emotional health in difficult circumstances as well as how Scripture leads us to lean on the Lord during these times and other helps that we might have during these times.
This session will discuss removing educational debt as an obstacle to missionary service
This session will have many practical tips on how you can bring your spiritual faith into your everyday clinical care. These Bible-based principles have been taught around the world in the author's "Saline Solution," "International Saline Solution," "Grace Prescriptions," "Workplace Grace," and "Going Public with Your Faith" books, conferences, and small-group courses. After this session, you'll be able to share Christ and His Grace with each patient you serve and each colleague you meet.
This is a Student Focused session for medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and all other health related future practitioners. This session is open to all beyond students, please feel welcomed and come. As you contemplate life after “medical training” short term missions might be in your plan. Many students choose their area of medicine with that life goal. Intentions can be good but often obstacles get in the way and many years could pass before that first trip is realized. Don’t wait for that one day to start. Serving the Lord through short term medical missions has many blessings. The rewards the Lord bestows for those that are obedient to this calling are life changing. Come and hear from a seasoned short term medical missionary things he has seen and learned.
One of the most-cited (or unspoken) barriers to missions service, especially for young couples, is concerns of raising children on the mission field. Hear from a doctor and nurse on how they are raising a thriving family among unreached Muslims in the impoverished Sahel in Africa.
Missionaries and others who travel to provide humanitarian aid or disaster relief must ensure their personal health and well-being before, during, and after travel. Preparation for safe and healthy travel is critical, particularly when individuals may be traveling to a resource-limited environment. Outbreaks of infectious disease have been documented among missionaries, including both short- and long-term missionaries. Recent examples include dengue infections in multiple groups of missionaries to the Caribbean. Missionaries may face challenges such as working long hours under adverse or extreme conditions, and medical missionaries may be exposed to infectious diseases as part of their work. Missionaries with medical backgrounds may also find themselves in the position of monitoring the health of other missionaries in their group. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers recommendations and resources for safe and healthy travel.
How do you keep up with the demands of ministry while balancing the needs of family, not to mention your own needs? How do you keep doing more with less? How do you protect yourself from burnout while advocating for the least of these? How do you establish boundaries without neglecting the needs of your community? These are some of the questions Dr. Thomas and his wife, Jessie hopes to explore as they shares lessons from the field. Dr. Thomas serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Dayspring Family Health Center answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. Jessie serves as the National Director of Student Programming at Christian Community Health Fellowship (CCHF.) They have three teenage children. Serving their family and discipling their children are some of their top priorities. They are also active leaders in their local church. Despite the busyness and numerous challenges of ministry and family life, they have learned the importance of balance, boundaries, and rest. If you are experiencing burnout or having a difficult time keeping “afloat”, this session may give you some insights on how to maneuver through the ups and downs of missional living.
Whether or not they should, tens of thousands of Muslims from diverse corners of the Muslim world are transferring allegiance from Mohammed and the Qur’an to Messiah Jesus and His Kingdom ... while still identifying themselves as Muslims. You'll meet many of them. Taking your medical skills to the Muslim World? What's your objective? Healthy Orthodoxic Christian Converts who ascribe to our Creeds? Healthy Orthodoxic and Orthopraxic Believers (some still remain in the fold of Islam) who transfer their allegiance to the Son of God and live/obey all He commands? It's easy to focus on the former and pay too little attention to the latter. You'll learn of Insider Movements of "Muslim Believers" who focus on both.
There is no shortage of need all around us on a daily basis, in addition to people who have health care needs in rural or remote areas. Is it possible to meet every person’s health care needs while partnering in medical missions? How could we multiply our efforts to meet people’s needs? How can the local church participate in meeting people’s health care needs? Is it possible to train the local church to be the front line in caring for their communities health care needs while partnering with health care professionals for the more serious cases? This session will address how health care professionals can partner with local Christ followers to maximize our efforts for the sake of the Gospel.
Public Health as Mission: Historically, the focus of medical missions has often been individual, curative health care services. However, many field practitioners have realized after years of hard (and occasionally frustrating) work that an intentional approach to population health leads to improved health for larger numbers of people and a decline in acute, treatable but preventable diseases. When population health is combined with a clear message of the Good News of Christ, the result is often wholistic transformation of bodies and souls for both individuals and communities. This subtopic examines the principles of population or public health and how these principles facilitate community transformation. Integrating CHE into Primary Care Practice: The WHO and our most respected medical journals, such as The Lancet, have long reported that the integration of community health into primary care practice is the key to the very future of healthcare. (For example, see WHO's "Building from Common Foundations" and "Primary Care, Now More Than Ever" and The Lancet Volume 372, Page 872) Best Practices in Community Health: Sustainable community health development requires participatory approaches that put the community at the center of its health and development. Explore principles, practices, and example activities in community health that effectively engage communities and facilitate transformation. CHE/Transformation Development Case Study: Transforming lives and Communities through the seamless integration of evangelism, discipleship, disease prevention, and community owned development. This subtopic will explain and explore the core values that make CHE work across the globe: Multiplication, Wholistic & Integration, Community Ownership, Development verses Relief by looking at a case study of a community which has been transformed in measurable ways. Transitioning from Short-term Medical Teams to Sustainable Community Development: This session will focus on how to transition from typical short-term medical teams to models that result in sustainable community development
Knowing and Engaging God's Will: Approaching God's will as guidance and leading, rather than a roadmap God's Peace in a World of Chaos: We have far more to do than can possibly be done and we feel pulled in every direction. On top of that, the world around us seems increasingly chaotic What must we do to live and experience God's peace in our lives? Living Missionally in Your Life and Career Path: Missions is just for full-time missionaries. Everyone is called to live missionally wherever we are and whatever we do. How can we learn to live missionally with our various gifts, jobs, and career-paths? Crosscultural Living: Living crossculturally is something we sometimes have to do, like when we move to another country or even a different part of this one, or we have to pursue in our own cities and towns. How do we approach crosscultural living and how do we engage others from different cultural backgrounds, whether around the world or right here at home. Engaging My Muslim Neighbor: It's one thing to study and try to understand Islam, it's another to meet and engage Muslims. In this session we will consider some basic issues and explore practical ways to meet and minister to our Muslim neighbors.
International Healthcare Professional Education - What You Need to Know: This session will discuss (1) the advantages of teaching overseas, (2 ) its limitations, ), and (3) lessons learned from experience teaching overseas. Long Term Medical Teaching Overseas: This session will discuss opportunities for and the benefits of long term healthcare professional training overseas, using the example of residency training of Africans in Africa. Opportunities for paid professional medical teaching positions overseas, some in English, will be briefly discussed. Short Term Medical Teaching Overseas: This session will discuss different types of short term healthcare professional teaching opportunities overseas and give examples of their impacts. Whole Person Medicine and Whole Person Teaching: This session will outline the nature, benefits, and wide acceptance of whole person medicine education and the wholistic teaching methods used to teach it. Whole Person Medicine Education – The Kenyan Story: This session will tell the story of how whole person medicine education was brought to Kenya and how it has become an indigenous ministry with wide impact.
Awareness and Education on human trafficking: This session will describe the importance of raising awareness among healthcare professionals regarding the issue of human trafficking, and educating them to recognize potential victims of human trafficking within the healthcare setting. The session will provide educational resources on human trafficking as well as resources that will enable the participant to raise awareness of human trafficking among his/her colleagues. Engaging local survivors: This session will discuss the importance of utilizing local survivors of human trafficking in efforts to raise awareness about human trafficking as well as educating healthcare professionals regarding the types of human trafficking that occurs within their location. The session will also emphasize the importance of incorporating survivor input as hospitals and clinics begin to develop response protocols for human trafficking. Developing an institutional response: This session will emphasize the importance of developing a full and multidisciplinary response to victims of human trafficking encountered by a healthcare institution such as a hospital. The session will provide various resources for developing an institutional response including a toolkit for developing a response as well as sample protocols that have been developed. Responding as a community: This session will focus on the various aspects of how a local community should respond to both international and domestic victims of human trafficking in terms of prevention, identification, and aftercare. Special attention will be given to the development of a dedicated clinic that specializes in the healthcare of victims of human trafficking. Responding globally to human trafficking: This session will describe current short term overseas medical mission opportunities available through CMDA that specialize in the care of human trafficking victims. The session will also explore the unique issues surrounding the development of an adequate response to victims of human trafficking within a mission healthcare setting.
The Biblical Foundation for Meeting Physical Needs as Ministry: When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that His ministry had components of preaching (to the crowds), healing (individuals), and discipling (primarily the 12). As followers of Jesus, we want to do as He did. “Preach and heal” are not mutually exclusive things. While the spiritual realm is eternal and the physical realm is temporal, people still have real physical needs. Jesus did not ignore these needs. At the same time, many get so concerned about physical needs that they forget about the spiritual origin of these physical needs. As Christians, we know that the origin of death, pain, and disease ultimately goes back to man’s rebellion against God in the Garden. This discussion will attempt to establish a Biblical framework for healthcare ministry. How God introduced me to His way of missions, that brought Him the glory due Him alone: After experiencing the exhilaration of seeing God use my dental skills to serve His Kingdom, I became overwhelmed by the futility of going and doing. It was time for a new model, one that was consistent with the way God works. 12 years ago a group of us started training local believers to meet the dental needs of their community and witnessed, amazing God-sized results. Allow me to share what God did. Short-Term Medical Missions Effect on Long-Term World Healthcare and the Kingdom of Heaven: Short-Term Medical Missions are becoming a major factor in global healthcare that accounts for millions of dollars spent on travel, accommodations, personal time and effort, but are we truly impacting the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no standardize governing body to evaluate the quality, sustainability or accountability of Short Term Medical Mission’s. Since most organization reports are somewhat biased by their own reporting and when we stop and evaluate cost, efficiency and sustainability are we influencing world health without creating dependency and effectively sharing the good news? When we look at specific metrics, education is usually not a primary goal and in fact, the belief that any care is acceptable regardless of the quality, is widespread. It is the goal of many like-minded mission organizations that “education” of indigenous believers is the answer to the problem of dependency, sustainability, long-term world health and expanding the Kingdom of Heaven. How to Develop Sustainable Healthcare on a Short Term Trip: It is a general perception that the short-term missions is one sided. Often creating dependency- teams from USA go to the underdeveloped country to help and bring short term relief and address felt needs in the comminutes of the countries they visit. While that may be true, short term teams could actually do lots more by way of ‘passing on of skills’ and change the trend to make optimum use of the time and resources. Short term team could provide long term and sustainable projects and help move from ‘relief’ to ‘development’ and in establishing self sustaining projects that could be carried out by the local partners on an ongoing basis.Passing on the skills would thus make an impact on the ground. The Long Term Impact of a Sustainable Healthcare Model: A sustainable healthcare model is based on several factors: Preparing the local church through training, selecting the right students; practical and relevant training for the students; and follow up till the clinic volunteers become competent. The result they are able to minister wholistically to many patients over time and have a good business model that generates income to keep the medical ministry running.
Divine Design - Who You Are Matters To Missions: Knowing your particular strengths, skills, personality, spiritual gifts and passions, we will seek to help you understand how their unique fit can guide you to an awareness of where your life can make the greatest impact. Great Expectations - The Sending Church and the MPW: Exploring how the Market Place Worker sending model differs from the traditional missionary sending model, and what each party in the process should expect—church leaders, the Market Place Worker, the congregation. Opportunity Knocks — Landing a Job in a Global Market: Identifying global employment opportunities in the healthcare sector and ways to increase your chances of getting hired. Painting a realistic picture of employment overseas and the process to get you there. Incredible Journey — Real Life Stories from Real Live MPWs: Hear from real people intentionally living out their lives in a workplace and a neighborhood where Jesus is not yet known. Understand what questions they get asked, what friendships are like and how they “do ministry”. Get a glimpse into their inspiration, their journey and the opportunities they see for Market Place Workers. Your Move — Stepping Into God’s Design: Point out tools available to participants that can help them continue learning and progressing toward a decision to take a job overseas and serve as a MPW. Provide a time for finalizing earlier personal reflections and group discussions on the topics presented. Submit questions for the panel to address in the closing Q&A session.
Becoming a missionary -- In John 15 Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing. Without a sure and solid foundation in Jesus we have nothing to give. Scripture and prayer are essential in preparing for and in doing ministry, not just later on in a cross-cultural ministry setting, but it must start right now. Managing Expectations: If misplaced expectations are the number one reason missionaries leave the field, how can one set accurate expectations? This session will help address major issues to consider in preparing for missions. Becoming a lifelong learner, determining what success looks like and expecting to be flexible are just a few. Developing Cross-Cultural Relationships: Developing cross-cultural relationships is vital to a missionary's ability to thrive and minister effectively in a new host culture. A biblical understanding of cross-cultural living will help inform and guide our personal journeys as we serve in cross-cultural settings. Dealing with the Tough Stuff: This intensive session will explore the biblical perspective of personal suffering and the suffering of those we serve. It will look at the challenge of trusting in a loving and sovereign God amidst suffering. Stories will shed light on the “Why?” question, how to prepare for the tough stuff, how to help others, and how to survive through tough times. Friendships & Support: Missionaries need friends in order to thrive. This session will focus on understanding the value of friendships and support in building resilience. A variety of relationships are essential for a healthy missionary and require intentionality.
This is a Student Focused session for medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and all other health related future practitioners. This session is open to all beyond students, please feel welcomed and come. Most of us go through our medical training with the future thoughts of practicing in our health-related fields as our life profession somewhere. It is here that our lives will develop and our stories will unfold. Many of us have preconceived thoughts of living in a community, raising a family and serving our Lord at our local church. And it is here also that we will one day finish our careers and then retire. Sometimes our lives change course. And sometimes it just takes a simple “Yes” for that change to occur. Come and hear testimonies of hope and encouragement from a panel of medical providers that God had changed the course of their lives. Come and dream of the wonders that God has planned for you as you hear stories of His providential calling. Panel Members will include: David Stevens MD: CEO of Christian Medical and Dental Associations Charlie Vittitow DMD: Missions Director at Southeast Christian Church Tricia Burgess MD: Upcoming Director of Global Health Outreach David Maddy DMD: Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of International Outreach and Service Learning, University of Louisville School of Dentistry
“FIELD” in medicine usually refers to the areas of proficiency for which you have been medically trained. For those of us who see medicine as a calling to serve Christ, “FIELD” has a different meaning. It has to do with where we are serving Christ. You are in a field right now, even if you think you may be headed to another field in the future. Jesus calls us to an uncompromising view of ministry that applies in every “field” throughout our lives. As a student, a resident, in a domestic setting, or in an overseas placement, are you living out the gospel, engaging the lost, living intentionally, and being a prophetic and evangelistic voice where you are? We will examine Mark 4 to see how Christ calls us to a total life-vision for missional living.
As healthcare professionals learn to utilize spiritual interventions in patient care, they quickly learn they do not have enough time or resources to meet all of their patient's religious or spiritual needs. This session will have many practical tips on how you can be a change agent to establish a spiritual care team wherever you are called to serve as a healthcare professional. This Bible-based care system has been taught around the world in the author's "Saline Solution," "International Saline Solution," and "Grace Prescriptions," books, conferences, and small-group courses. After this session, you'll be prepared to build a team of Jesus followers to share Christ and His Grace with each patient you serve and each colleague you meet.
With the exploding number of new medical and nursing schools (Christian and secular), especially in Africa, finding teachers for the basic science years is a priority and opportunity. In the past, teaching basic science subjects to health care professionals has not usually been viewed as a missionary career path. This workshop will be a panel that will feature short presentations by health care educators, who have worked on the mission field. The needs and opportunities for basic science teachers will be presented followed by a time of discussion and questions from the audience. There will be an open discussion as to how we might find and recruit basic science teachers from schools in the High and Middle Income Countries (HMIC’s) to teach in health professional schools in Low Income Countries (LIC’s).
Asian American Christians health care workers have shown a high level of interest in medical missions as evidenced by a disproportionately large percentage of Asian Americans who attend missions conferences such as Urbana or Louisville GMHC. Yet relatively small percentage end up as long term medical missionaries at this time. A panel of long-term Asian American health care workers will discuss potential barriers as well as potential solutions for Asian Americans serving as long term medical missionaries.
"Rural America" conjures up warm, innocent images from Norman Rockwell paintings. Today, however, small town America could not be further from this picture. Broken homes, epidemic drug abuse, staggering unemployment, and paralyzing depression have ravaged these once nostalgic streets. We’re not in Mayberry anymore! God has called all of us to serve, yet medical missions in rural America have been neglected due to the needs of other parts of the world. When we survey the desperate needs in less populated areas and the lack of access to quality healthcare, it is obvious there is a deficiency. Rural hospitals are closing. Funding is low. Providers are led to other more “obvious” mission fields. In reality, 46.2 million people live in nonmetropolitan counties — that’s nearly 15 percent of U.S. residents spread across 72 percent of the Nation's land area. Who will care for the rural poor? Dr. Thomas will share about his journey from India to Appalachia. He serves as the Medical Director at Dayspring Family Health Center and co-pastors a local church, answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. Despite the many challenges of such a ministry, he is learning to experience the rich rewards of caring for the least of these in rural Tennessee. Listen as he shares his stories of serving God in a way he never asked or imagined. Participants will be able to describe the medical, social, spiritual disparities of rural communities.
Why do Christians suffer? There are almost as many answers and opinions about suffering as there are Christians. To some suffering is just part of living in a fallen world. It is to be avoided if at all possible and, if necessary, to be endured with Jesus’ help until we escape this life and get to heaven. Others may think it is all from the Devil. Others believe the primary source is personal sin or the sin of others. Some believe it is from a lack of faith and if we just had more faith suffering would not come. There is some truth in each of these perspectives of course but they are not the whole story. Anyone following Jesus will experience suffering at some point in their lives including those who abandon themselves to follow him in mission anywhere in the world. This seminar will look at what the Bible teaches about suffering and discover what it teaches about the role of suffering in our lives, how God uses it to fulfill his purposes for us and how it prepares us to be more effective missionaries and servants in his name.
Your identity profile is the unique combination of personality, strengths, skills, spiritual gifts, and passions. This breakout session will explain how identity self-awareness fits into the context of life planning with three practical outcomes: 1) gain clarity and confidence about the best contribution you make to a team, 2) prioritize where you need to growth the most right now, and 3) how you are vulnerable to sabotaging relationships or derailing your own leadership.
This session will discuss removing educational debt as an obstacle to missionary service
When a couple young doctors approached me after a plenary session and requested I mentor them, I had no idea what that meant or even how I could do it. When this request was repeated after another conference more, it caught my attention and I laid out a plan. I then enlisted 17 young medical doctors and medical students as mentees in an innovative but structured 3 year mentorship program. The impact in advancing cross cultural medical missions has been significant. I wish I had started this earlier and set time as a priority to pass on what I have learnt to others. What really is mentoring and what lessons can we learn, together, from this model and the cohort’s, experience. This session will be testimonial, hearing from mentees and the mentor.
Community Health Evangelism (CHE) is a breakthrough mission strategy that seamlessly integrates evangelism and discipleship with disease prevention and community-based development. Through these ministries people become followers of Jesus, churches are planted, and entire communities are lifted out of cycles of poverty and disease.
The previous generations of mission leaders have produced amazing fruit. The work left to be done requires a modification of our approach in taking the gospel to some of the hardest places on earth. We'll discuss how God is uniting His church to finish the task.
Have you ever been asked, “Why are you still single?”. If so, then this session is for you! We will address common misconceptions about single ministry by looking to God’s Word and sharing our own experiences as single women working in urban Memphis.
Amber continues her plenary session on Discipleship in the Real World with this breakout session.
Listen in as Amber speaks to the entire conference about discipleship in the real world.
This session will cover the topic of sourcing medicines for missions. We will discuss the following: counterfeit medication, substandard medication, risks and benefits of obtaining medication in the united states and transporting it overseas versus obtaining the medication in developing nations, how to source medications that will be used in developing nations.
God's Kingdom is one of paradox. He is famous for His heart for the poor and for His heart for the nations. However, most don't realize how intimately these two passions of His are intertwined. This has massive and unexpected implications for any disciple of Jesus. Paradoxically, global poverty will never end until every nation is reached with the Gospel.
How do I pick a mission agency? How do I know I'm "called?" What about raising children overseas? How can I avoid burnout? These and other questions are answered in this popular talk illustrated with real and sometimes humorous real life stories.
It is a privilege to be called by the Lord to serve him in Medical Missions. Keeping our spiritual health is vital to walking in the journey of caring for others, particularly in difficult circumstances for the patients or for the ministry. This session will be a time of considering the many ways difficulties in ministry might have us lose our focus or joy as we serve. We will look at ways to keep our spiritual and emotional health in difficult circumstances as well as how Scripture leads us to lean on the Lord during these times and other helps that we might have during these times.
Short term missions usually involve a team of people contributing their skills to an indigenous people group. When that team leaves the work often ends. This session will present an innovative alternative to that model, where sharing knowledge and skills with local believers empowers them to serve their people group long after the teaching team leaves!
Being a medical missionary is not easy. Now try leading a team of them! These folks tend to be intelligent, passionate individuals with big dreams (just like you). These are often important qualities for the work at hand, but they can easily lead to dysfunctional teams, explosive conflicts and national partners who feel steamrolled. In this session we want to discuss how leaders can keep team vision focused, community life vibrant and partnerships flourishing in the midst of the crucible that is the mission hospital. This session is for everyone regardless if they are the "team leader" because every medical missionary is a leader whether they want to be or not. Here’s a bit of catnip to help you along your way.
This session will review the most common medical considerations you should be aware of before traveling on a short-term medical mission trip. I will review common malaria prophylaxis medications, immunizations, treatment of traveler’s diarrhea as well as other tips and tricks to know. This session is ideal for those with minimal international travel experience.
Opening and operating an emergency field hospital in a disaster setting has many interesting challenges. Operational areas such as base operations, procurement, communications, staffing and others must function differently when in disaster response mode. This session will talk through some of those challenges and lessons learned from several of our past responses.
Short Term Missions in the "Spiritually Darkest" areas of the world are becoming a challenge as access is being denied to western missionaries. The Lord has provided a model to equip indigenous believers with medical skills that will provide opportunities to share the Gospel. These believers know their language and culture that allow access to evangelize and transform communities in the name of Christ. Dr. Tom McKechnie founder of Teach To Transform and Kingspride Hammond founder of Alabaster Project in Ghana will discuss the impact of this model as an evangelical tool.
This session will address systems solutions to short-term mission (STM) drug-related quality of care problems. The quality of care various STM systems are capable of providing varies tremendously: Well designed STM systems enable physicians, pharmacists and other providers to deliver high quality care and have the greatest possible impact for patient health and for the Kingdom; Inadequately designed STM systems provide poor quality care and often cause more harm than benefit regardless of the training and expertise of team leaders and providers. We will assess mistakes made and lessons learned on over 45 global STMs, as well as 15 years long-term missions clinic practice in an area frequented by STMs. STM systems based on the work of missionary mentors, Jesus’ teaching and evidence based guidelines will also be reviewed.
Values and assumptions vary widely from culture to culture. This gives rise to potential conflicts and barriers in the communication process. This session looks at Not the American values and assumptions which can create misunderstandings, damage relationships, and even pose significant danger in the delivery medical treatment in a cross cultural context.
During this session some of the unique challenges and opportunities for women in missions will be presented. Participants will gain understanding regarding overcoming obstacles and barriers and how best to prepare for mission service. The presenter will illustrate the ideas through her own story.
Over the last 7 years, in partnership with short term teams, Hope Alive Initiatives has been able to set 6 community clinics in Northern Ghana. These clinics are run in a sustainable way by their respective churches. In this session we will share the lessons we have learnt to help you in ministry.
This session will describe the unique roles that women have in medical missions and the challenges faced by women in the international missions context.
How can urban health care missions be done in urban settings, especially in government owned facilities? This breakout session seeks to address this questions. Ministry can be done in and through government hospitals and institutions by connecting with healthcare personnel, sharing the gospel and discipling them and bringing them into healthy churches. This breakout session will give some insights and specifics into how to do this.
What are the answers to the 10 most common questions to ask before becoming a missionary? From, "How to know God's will?" to "How to pick a missionary organization? and from "What about raising my kids overseas? to "How do I avoid burnout?" this talk will deal give you the answers.
About David Stevens: Dr. David Stevens is the Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), the nation’s largest faith-based organization of doctors. As spokesman for more than 16,000 doctors, Dr. Stevens has conducted hundreds of media interviews. Prior to his service with CMDA, he served as medical director of Samaritan’s Purse. From 1981 to 1992, Dr. Stevens served as executive officer and medical superintendent of Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. He helped to transform Tenwek Hospital into one of the premier mission healthcare facilities in that country. Learn more at David Stevens page.
My wife, Lara, and I thought we knew a lot about missions before we went to Cambodia. We had both been journeying in missions for many years - I majored in anthropology, worked in a cross-cultural clinic, had been on several short-term trips, attended conferences and trainings, and advocated whenever we could for missions; we lived intentionally and missionally. Both of us knew that Cambodia would stretch our lives and our faith. What we did not realize was how much of that challenge originated from our own ideas and expectations of what it would be like.
there are more unreached today than there were last year when we met at GMHC. 21 million more to be precise. We are going backwards in our task to complete the great commission and that is not OK. Meanwhile our traditional missions model has sidelined over 99% of Jesus followers who look at the model and do not see a fit. Yet God has made everyone for His purposes and uniquely talented them to fulfill the purposes. Those who are talented in the medical profession, who are passionate about it and believe they were created to do it have been told they have to leave that and do something different, (oh and raise support to do it) or simply do it on a short term mission trip or even as someone told me last year at GMHC, 'forget your specialty and come do general health care'.
We will continue to go backwards unless we engage the whole body of Christ and engage them wholly. In other words send them out to be who God has created them to be. As GP's, Surgeons, Radiologists, Dentists, Pediatricians, Nurses..... what ever God has uniquely made them to do. The world is changing, the missions model has to change. Come hear how we are changing the face of mission and how you, as a medical professional can be at the cutting edge of that - but be warned our call to you is to be who God has made you to be, where He is not worshipped. This is session is for those who are truly interested in using all of their life to reflect God's glory and goodness.
The similarities are many. Perhaps the best preparation one can get for long-term overseas missions is learning to be fruitful as they serve cross-culturally and incarnationally in domestic communities where the needs are great and the resources are slim. Christian clinics that serve the domestic poor have a major role to play in preparing Christian health professionals for serving God's global mission.
Why do Christians suffer? What made the Apostle's such effective missionaries? There are almost as many answers and opinions about suffering as there are Christians. To some suffering is just part of living in a fallen world. It is to be avoided if at all possible and, if necessary, to be endured with Jesus’ help until we escape this life and get to heaven. Others may think it is all from the Devil. Others believe the primary source is personal sin or the sin of others. Some believe it is from a lack of faith and if we just had more faith suffering would not come. There is some truth in each of these perspectives of course but they are not the whole story.
Anyone following Jesus will experience suffering at some point in their lives including those who abandon themselves to follow him in mission anywhere in the world. This seminar will look at what the Bible teaches about suffering and discover what it teaches about the role of suffering in our lives, how God uses it to fulfill his purposes for us and how it prepares us to be more effective missionaries and servants in his name.
Be missional!
How do you keep up with the demands of ministry while balancing the needs of family, not to mention your own needs?
How do you keep doing more with less?
How do you protect yourself from burnout while advocating for the least of these?
How do you establish boundaries without neglecting the needs of your community?
These are some of the questions Dr. Thomas hopes to explore as he shares lessons from the field. He serves as the Medical Director at Dayspring Family Health Center and co-pastors a local church, answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. He is married and has three teenage children. Serving his family and discipling his children are some of his top priorities. Despite the busyness and numerous challenges of ministry and family life, he continues to learn the importance of balance, boundaries, and rest.
If you are experiencing burnout or having a difficult time keeping “afloat”, this session may give you some insights on how to maneuver through the ups and downs of missional living.
Health professionals in all settings should take a history from their patient(s). National guidelines in the U.S. recommend a spiritual assessment be included with most or all patients. Yet, surveys show that over 95% of patients say that no health professional has ever inquired of their spiritual or religious beliefs. Furthermore, most health professionals indicate that they never been taught how or why to incorporate a spiritual or religious assessment into their patient history.
In this session you'll learn why a spiritual assessment is now considered a part of quality, evidence-based patient care. In addition, you'll be exposed to a number of spiritual history instruments to consider using in your patient care and you'll be exposed to options of how to utilize the information obtained from a spiritual assessment.
Finally, you'll be introduced to a small group training tool that you can use at home to facilitate the introduction of these principles to other health professionals.
This is the second part of a two part workshop. In Part II of this workshop case studies will be reviewed and discussed. Together we will discuss these important questions and define pathways for healthcare mission teams to have a positive long-term impact on the communities they serve. Handouts of the case studies will be used to facilitate small group discussion and strategy development. Case studies will be assessed in the context of four primary areas: 1) Patient Safety, 2) Healthcare System Integration and Collaboration, 3) Facilitation of Health Development and 4) Community Empowerment.
The ability to prevent and respond to human disasters and the acute needs of displaced persons has now become an essential competency for healthcare personnel. This session addresses the common conflicts surrounding care for complex human emergencies and the principals of both acute relief and of longer-term resettlement. This presentation makes use of interactive role-play and small group exercises will enhance the learning experience.
The need for medical, dental, and other care in remote areas around the world correspond to areas where the Gospel is typically not prevalent or readily available. The need is so great that no one individual or organization can meet the need alone. By working together to empower local Christ followers in remote areas to reach the medical, dental, and other needs of people in their own communities as a door opener for the Gospel, we will be able to fulfill the Great Commission. This task requires multiplication of participants through discipleship. We must work together to equip and empower local Christ followers, handing them the baton to continue the race after the training team leaves.
Long-term impact in health-related missions from a short-term team must consider both long-term and short-term goals and objectives. Perhaps surprisingly, some or many of the long-term impact might not be directly related to healthcare! Understanding the potential long-term goals and objectives requires the short-term team to explore coordinated interaction between communities, local leaders, government, and technical experts. This workshop will identify several models for interacting where short-term healthcare workers can explore how to have a lasting long-term impact, as well as highlighting pitfalls to be avoided.
The US is a much overlooked mission field. 96M people in America still live in areas designated as "medically underserved". All of those areas are communities where poverty is rampant and resources are low. Not only are those areas of great need, they are areas of tremendous opportunity where the harvest is ripe for the gospel. The director of CCHF will share an overview of the issues impacting this cross-cultural domestic mission field and will discuss how Christian health professionals are intentionally living out the Gospel through healthcare among the poor in the United States.
Your planning to serve but fun raising scares you to death or you have done this before and you hated it because it didn't go well or fast. This session will teach you how to raise your support and enjoy it. It will also teach you how to communicate effectively to cast your vision and inspire others to participate in the Great Commission.
For decades short term missions has involved taking our resources and skills to other countries to help others. But, now we have the ability to share our knowledge and skill with indigenous believers that will empower them to continue using healthcare skills to share the gospel in areas where we are unable to go.
This lecture will help potential missionaries understand how God utilizes the church to accomplish his mission to the nations, differentiate between biblical and cultural understandings of calling, and discern their role in God's mission.
The command "fear not" or "be not afraid" occurs more than a hundred times in the Bible, including many times from the mouth of Jesus. The fear of the LORD is healthy, but our Enemy uses fear as a principal weapons to hinder Christian obedience and fruitfulness. Courage is not the absence of fear, but boldness to proceed in obedience despite fear--because of faith in the Person and promises of God.
American health care missionaries outside the US need to keep their US health care licenses current in order to practice in some countries, as well as they desire to keep abreast of the latest developments in their field. This need and desire requires a significant amount of continuing education, often 40 hours every two years, which is difficult to achieve when home in the US on a furlough. The Christian Medical Dental Association has over 30 years of annual meeting experiences providing continuing education to dentists, physicians and other health care workers through their Continuing Medical Dental Education (CMDE) Commission.
Dentistry has a great opportunity to reach the least, the last and the lost for the needs are overwhelming and universal. I will use various countries to evaluate and discuss how to take advantage of different opportunities and situations that may be available. It is important for us to discuss and understand the government and the culture and what it entails to move forward on a venture into a closed or creative access country. How to work with national partners. Concerns with communication. How about a site visit. How to select a team and prepare them for such a great opportunity. Time for discussion and asking questions. Lets have some fun.
The most common cause for expatriate healthcare professionals to abandon their service in a mission hospital is unresolved conflict with those that they work or live with in community. This session will share proven principles and techniques to resolve conflict that inevitably comes to everyone during their lives.
The topic of leadership and conflict management is not typically taught in professional schools but it is present in both group and work environments, including the mission field. In many situations, the medical professional because of their learned status becomes the leader but they do not have the skills to take on this role. This session will provide the participants with some of the skills and understanding needed to be successful leaders in their environments of practice.
Abstract: Faith-based medical ministries have substantial opportunities to improve healthcare through biomedical research. Success typically requires collaboration between national, organizational, and expert stakeholders. In this session practical aspects of developing a collaborative research program will be discussed.
Why do we serve? Where should we go? How do we make disciples? Why should we make disciples? What is the purpose of missions? What does it mean to be missional? How can I go from theoretical to practical? All of these questions, and more, will be discussed in this workshop, using THE source material – the Bible!
Dr. Ralph Winter, founder of the US Center for World Mission and Perspectives… said that for every 100 people who made a mission commitment at some point in their lives, only one made it to the mission field. Why? For lack of mobilizers! The same can be said for lack of mentors. What is a mentor? What do mentors offer prospective long-term medical missionaries? Come to this session if you desire a mentor or if you desire to become a mentor. Before the session you may want to familiarize yourself with GMHC’s mentoring service at https://www.medicalmissions.com/community/mentoring . John McVay and I will walk you though this process. This session strives to translate your dreams of serving as a long-term medical missionary into reality.
Christianity and culture have had a complex and adversarial relationship since the beginning. Early Christians were counter-cultural—and had an immense impact on the peoples around them. Likewise, medical missionaries have deeply influenced the lives of the peoples where they served over the past two centuries. How? At the same time, they were sensitive to the culture around them, learning language and culture and adapting to religious, social and economic constraints. How have they done this? What does this look like in reality? To answer these questions, I will share survey results and moving stories of medical missionaries serving diverse cultures and religions in culturally intelligent ways in over ten countries on two continents.
Where you choose to serve in healthcare missions will depend on your preparedness, your call, and your goals. This workshop will help you determine how to identify service opportunities that are most likely to match up with your call and your goals. You will be given a variety of tools to use to prepare for service, and to improve your preparedness as you serve.
In response to the increasing need for emergency medical and surgical care immediately after major global disasters, Samaritans Purse has developed an Emergency Field Hospital with the ability to deploy rapidly worldwide. The field hospital is both modular, and utilizes a single solution that, despite the type of disaster, will be logistically deployed rapidly to meet the immediate and unique medical needs of the disaster victims. This breakout session will describe the emergency medical response system that Samaritans Purse has developed to deploy this new field hospital in austere situations globally, with particular focus on levels of response, medical staff deployed, tent structures, equipment and supplies. Attendees will also be invited to join with us as part of the medical staff on future disaster deployments.
Knowledge of good health practices often does not change health behaviors. This session will share proven ways to motivate people to change their health behaviors using non-financial incentives as demonstrated in a community health program that has changed the health of 1.2 million people. These techniques are applicable in both the USA or abroad.
This session will have an emphasis on medical mission organizational mission true behavior, and will look at why Christian organizations or institutions, including those committed to using medical missions as a tool for gospel outreach, drift away from or sometimes shift their purpose away from their original intention.
It is the general idea that the short-term missions is one sided. Often creating dependency- teams from USA go to the underdeveloped country to help and bring short term relief and address felt needs in the comminutes of the countries they visit. While that may be true, ‘passing on of skills’ showcases how the trend can be reversed and these very missions can impact providing long term and sustainable projects and help move from ‘relief’ to ‘development’ and self sustaining mode. Caleb Rayapati, will show case how the “Pass on the skills” is making an impact on the ground, a firsthand account of the partnering mission using the Dental Outreach skills in self sustaining method, involved in community development in India impacting through practice of Biblical wholisim- a first hand account of how Indian Church has impacted using health care skills.
Christians are called to love yet often times, our communities are rife with conflict and unresolved hurt. Interpersonal conflict is cited as one of the major reasons why missionaries leave the mission field.
Using concepts from Ken Sande’s Peacemakers and his personal experience working as a the Medical Director in an FQHC in Appalachia, Dr. Thomas will review …
- The cost of conflict for the individuals, the organization, and for our witness
- The difference between Peacemaking vs PeaceFaking
- Strategies to develop a culture of peace in your organization
- Healthy ways of addressing conflict and working towards reconciliation
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons(IDP’s) face significant challenges to their health and well-being that are unique, due to lack of necessary resources including food, water, sanitation, shelter, security and healthcare. Caring for people in these situations requires an understanding of their unique needs as well as having realistic goals regarding what can and cannot be done for them.
Recent experiences in providing healthcare missions in disasters in Nepal, Kurdistan and Turkey – both natural and manmade – highlight the need to be well prepared when serving in these difficult situations. Focus areas for the presentation and discussion will include team selection and preparation; travel and logistics issues; identifying and addressing the needs of the people being served, including physical, psychological and spiritual needs; partnering with other relief organizations and local authorities; and returning home successfully.
We are called to serve the “least of these”, and the victims of disasters and crises certainly qualify. Often these events, though causing much hardship and suffering, create the possibility for doors and hearts to be open to the message of Jesus that otherwise would be closed. We must be both willing and well prepared if we are to serve well when we are called to respond to those in need.
Like all human institutions, healthcare is subject to the Fall and operates under principles at odds with the Kingdom of God. Disciples of Jesus who understand the character of their King and His Kingdom must advocate, through their words and actions, for just and equitable healthcare. Beginning with a foundation of biblical justice and reviewing Church history, this breakout session will challenge disciples to make Jesus look great by loving and serving the poor and marginalized.
This session will enable participants to understand the necessity for demonstration and proclamation of the Gospel in their daily lives and in missions.
This session will discuss understanding the value of medical outreach and allied professionals for outreach to closed countries and unreached people groups. We will learn about different steps for engagement in closed countries. We will also look at how to have clarity in one's role in global missions.
Every person has a worldview, a deep sense of what is real and how the world works. What we believe and value and what we do and say are shaped by our worldviews.
All cross-cultural ministry brings us into different worldviews in missions.
Our approaches to healthcare ministries whether in our home country or another are liberated and limited by (1) our own worldviews (2) our awareness of our worldviews and how they are formed and transformed and (3) our capacity to recognize and work with the worldviews of the people to whom God sends us.
By the end of this session, we will have grown in all 3 of those areas. We will leave with resources for continuing growth.
This participatory session will include learning from person reflection, discussion of Biblical stories, and the wisdom of other participants.
I hope to share both from a Biblical, Missiological, Geo-Political standpoint how health care professionals can be part of a mass movement of Jesus followers to the unreached. Where they can live out who God has created them to be as a passionate and highly qualified medical professional where God is not worshipped. This is not about going to work in Christian hospitals, rather the health care institutions in countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Oman, Dubai where American HCP's are sought after, paid well and if serving with excellence will have opportunities to reflect the glory and goodness of God in these closed environments.
Spiritual formation is a way of describing the life-long journey of becoming who God created us to be. That’s the essence of being a “disciple” or learner. Our experience in healthcare ministry continues to "form" in us the ability to love God with all our heart, mind and strength and our neighbors as ourselves.
In this break out, we will collaboratively identify characteristics of a person who is “prepared” for healthcare ministry, and practices that help us cooperate with God’s efforts to form us for that work.
Participants will learn about the unique roles of women in missions and how to overcome the challenges which women encounter. Suggestions for preparation for missions service as a woman will be presented.
The Ten Questions Everyone Asks About Career Missions: How do I pick a mission agency? How do I know I'm "called?" What about raising children overseas? How can I avoid burnout? These and other questions are answered in this popular talk illustrated with real and sometimes humorous real life stories.
Should you do a domestic or international rotation while in training? When? Where? How do you make it happen? All are questions mission-minded healthcare professionals ask as they explore opportunities to serve during training. Join us as we discuss domestic and international locations, best practices and steps you can take in selecting an opportunity that fits your goals, timeframe, skills, and budget.
This session will cover the topic of sourcing medicines for missions. We will discussthe following: counterfeit medication, substandard medication, risks and benefits of obtaining medication in the united states and transporting it overseas versus obtaining the medication in developing nations, how to source medications that will be used in developing nations.
There is little in the medical literature about applying the basic tenets of medical ethics in resource limited situations common in mission hospitals. For example, healthcare professionals are taught not to attempt medical or surgical interventions they have not be trained to do. That prohibition will be quickly violated when you are the only option for the patient. With real life stories and practical suggestions, this talk prepares future missionaries to serve well and ethically overseas.
Untreated caries of the deciduous and permanent dentition is number one in global prevalence of disease by a large margin. This lecture will focus on strategies for caries prevention and treatment in settings with limited resources.
Faith-based medical ministries have substantial opportunities to conduct biomedical research that positively impacts the communities they serve. In addition, biomedical research can help mission organizations achieve their strategic goals. In this session missional, ethical, and practical aspects of research in faith-based, developing-world settings will be discussed.
During the main GMHC conference 2015 PRIME International's CEO, Prof Richard Vincent, presented this breakout session on ‘Compassion: Foundation for Whole Person Care’.
Scientific and technical advances may be seen as the key to best medical practice, but to focus only on biological processes is to ignore other powerful influences on the causes and treatment
of illness. A solely mechanistic approach fails to deal with the basic requirement of patients to be cared for as people - in body, mind and spirit.
This session explored the topic of whole person care including its biblical basis, evidence for its benefit and its delivery to patients founded on compassion.
Suppose you were born in Central Thailand 60 years ago. As a teenager you found a numb spot on your arm, later on your arm became painful and finally your hand was deformed and you couldn’t feel or grip anything. You and your family were frightened. The monks at the Buddhist temple tried to help, but their expensive poultices did not help. Your family loved you, but they felt they had no alternative than to put you out of the house. You were a social outcast and would have to live a life of begging.
What is worldview? What is your worldview? What is the worldview of the community described in the scenario above?
The great majority of medical missions in East Asia takes place in Buddhist and Chinese (Confucius) contexts. Are they the same, similar or different? What obstacles must be overcome to make an impact physically and spiritually in East Asia? What must a medical missionary understand and put into practice in order to work effectively with peoples in Buddhist and Chinese worldviews? Finally, what is the unique role that medical missions can have in these contexts?
This session will feature Dr. David Leung, a family medicine doctor who has worked at Evergreen ministries in Taiyuan, China for over 15 years. He will present the Chinese worldview. I will present the Buddhist challenge.
Cross-cultural medical workers are under multiple levels of stress peculiar to their professional roles.
They often serve as mental health resources to colleagues and other cross-cultural workers, have difficulty limiting the hours of work with minimal reprieve for rest and restoration.
This session will focus on cognitive and behavioral tools that can improve mental and emotional self-care.
This session will discuss the role of women in health care missions today. It will include examples and personal stories that will encourage expanded vision and new perspectives on opportunities and needs.
May people talk about being a missionary in the future… "when I graduate from medical school… when I pay off my debt… when I have more experience… THEN I will become a missionary." The problem is that few are actually living the life of a missionary NOW. Being a missionary does not just magically happen when you set foot on foreign soil. In this session we will discuss the preparation of your heart and hands to be a missionary NOW in your current context, whether that be nursing school, medical school, or residency, AND in the future, whether that be North Africa or North Tulsa.
"Rural America" conjures up warm, innocent images from Norman Rockwell paintings. Today, however, small town America could not be further from this picture. Broken homes, epidemic drug abuse, staggering unemployment, and paralyzing depression have ravaged these once nostalgic streets. We’re not in Mayberry anymore!
God has called all of us to serve, yet medical missions in rural America have been neglected due to the needs of other parts of the world. When we survey the desperate needs in less populated areas and the lack of access to quality healthcare, it is obvious there is a deficiency. Rural hospitals are closing. Funding is low. Providers are led to other more “obvious” mission fields. In reality, 46.2 million people live in nonmetropolitan counties — that’s nearly 15 percent of U.S. residents spread across 72 percent of the Nation's land area. Who will care for the rural poor?
Dr. Thomas will share about his journey from India to Appalachia. He serves as the Medical Director at Dayspring Family Health Center and co-pastors a local church, answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. Despite the many challenges of such a ministry, he is learning to experience the rich rewards of caring for the least of these in rural Tennessee. Listen as he shares his stories of serving God in a way he never asked or imagined.
Before we can understand God's will for us, we must first understand his overarching plan to glorify himself among all nations. This breakout session will explore God's mission and our response to him, common barriers that prevent us from surrendering to God's mission, and disciplines that prepare us to do God's will.
The United States is a much overlooked field in global missions. 96 million people live in areas designated as medically underserved. All of those are communities where poverty is rampant and resources are low. Not only are those areas of great need, they are areas of tremendous opportunity where the harvest is ripe for the gospel. The Director of Christian Community Health Fellowship will share an overview of the issues impacting this cross-cultural domestic mission field, and will discuss how Christian health professionals are intentionally living out the gospel through healthcare among the poor in the United States.
This session will give a general overview of the topic of human trafficking specifically designed for healthcare professionals. It will cover both domestic and international trafficking as well as sex and labor trafficking. The session will also discuss general identifiers of human trafficking, as well as how to prepare to respond to victims of human trafficking in the healthcare setting.
This session will look at antibiotics appropriate for treatment of dental infections and for antibiotic prophylaxis as well as discussing antibiotic misuse and increasing drug resistance.
Oral Surgery can be particularly challenging on the mission field. In addition to dealing with communication and language difficulties, there are cross-cultural issues and often the lack of x-rays, proper lighting, poor suction, the lack of a trained assistant and possibly the lack of some necessary equipment. Some teams have no dentist on board and many dentists do only limited oral surgery in their practices. How can we be prepared and what are some of the techniques that we can use that might be of help as we care for those who often have never seen a dentist before and are in pain or have been in pain. Releiving pain and infection and doing no harm is only one of the pressing issues when we are out of our comfort zone working in a small dark area where we could be injured and where the incidence of HIV may be quite high.
Opportunities for mentoring , discipling and learning from majority world healthcare leaders of today and tomorrow have never been more available or diverse. Ministering healing in Jesus’ name can occur within CANs; within national nursing, medical and other allied health schools; and within a growing number of Christian university-based ,health professions schools. Making a long term commitment allows relationship based discipleship that can produce servant healers from among the Americas, Africa and Asia.
This session will outline the advantages of medical education missions compared to direct care missions, give examples of organizations with which attendees can participate in short term medical education missions, identify challenges participants face and ways they can be overcome, and provide examples of the long term impacts recent short term medical education missions have had.
Traditional short term medical mission trips involve doing much work and seeing many patients. Many of the procedures can be taught to indigenous believers, allowing them an opportunity to learn new skills that can be used long after the team has gone home. These skills in turn allow access to areas of outreach not available to foreign workers. This breakout explores methods in use today that allow such outreach.
It is the general idea that the short-term missions is one sided. Often creating dependency- teams from USA go to the underdeveloped country to help and bring short term relief and address felt needs in the comminutes of the countries they visit. While that may be true, ‘passing on of skills’ showcases how the trend can be reversed and these very missions can impact providing long term and sustainable projects and help move from ‘relief’ to ‘development’ and self sustaining mode. Caleb Rayapati, will show case how the “Pass on the skills” is making an impact on the ground, a firsthand account of the partnering mission using the Dental Outreach skills in self sustaining method, involved in community development in India impacting through practice of Biblical wholisim- a first hand account of how Indian Church has impacted using health care skills.
Can a church in a poor and vulnerable community run a sustainable healthcare ministry in her community?
Yes, if the church and short term medical team are well prepared for ministry. Here are the steps we have taken in Ghana to enable local churches run sustainable healthcare ministries as result of short term medical teams equipping them.
“Prepare your shields, both large and small, and march out for battle! Harness the horses, mount the steeds! Take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears, put on your armor!”
Jeremiah 46
If God has called you to be a healthcare missionary, you will experience one of the most satisfying – and challenging – careers in the world. You will be a warrior for God in a hostile land. Like any soldier, you need a time of preparation – what the military refers to as “boot camp” – and that time should begin before you enter your mission field. The time to live, think and pray like a missionary is now!
Dr. Ralph Winter said that for every 100 people who made a mission commitment at some point in their lives, only one made it to the mission field. Why? For lack of mobilizers! The same can be said for lack of mentors. What is a mentor? What do mentors offer prospective long-term medical missionaries? Come to this session if you desire a mentor or if you desire to become a mentor. Before the session you may want to familiarize yourself with GMHC’s mentoring service at https://www.medicalmissions.com/community/mentoring . This session strives to honor God by helping you translate your dreams of serving as a long-term medical missionary into reality.
Health professionals in all settings should take a history from their patient(s). National guidelines in the U.S. recommend a spiritual assessment be included with most or all patients. Yet, surveys show that over 95% of patients say that no health professional has ever inquired of their spiritual or religious beliefs. Furthermore, most health professionals indicate that they never been taught how or why to incorporate a spiritual or religious assessment into their patient history.
In this session you'll learn why a spiritual assessment is now considered a part of quality, evidence-based patient care. In addition, you'll be exposed to a number of spiritual history instruments to consider using in your patient care and you'll be exposed to options of how to utilize the information obtained from a spiritual assessment.
Finally, you'll be introduced to a small group training tool that you can use at home to facilitate the introduction of these principles to other health professionals.
We would all like to believe that as we reach out to share our medical expertise and the love and the compassion of Christ we will all be safe, but is there any place in which we can be safe today? One question we all have to answer is: Is security the absence of danger or the presence of the Lord. But, being good stewards of the great blessing of volunteers serving the least and the last is our obligation. We need to be prepared and have trained and seasoned team leaders to know what to do when the unthinkable happens. We will discuss how to approach these situations from the standpoint of evaluation of risks, minimizing exposure, preparation and training for an encounter with the unthinkable.
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven shaped every aspect of Jesus’ ministry - - his healing, prayers, teaching and even his identity . As we follow him in health care missions, the Kingdom should also define our goals, methodologies, and ways of relating with those we serve and with our co-workers. It should fuel our hope and our perseverance.
Everyone who has been on a medical mission has some embarrassing and/or hilarious stories of cultural or language blunders. Sometimes the events are just funny. Sometimes they can seriously compromise relationships and the intended impact of the whole mission, including our Christian witness. This session offers perspective, spiritual grounding and practical tools for building healthy relationships, avoiding, or at least recovering from many of the common mistakes in cross-cultural missions.
Long-term improvement in health-related indicators for a population depends on coordinated interaction between communities, local leaders, government, and technical experts. Long-term input from outsiders can be valuable, as can coordinated input from outsiders who engage in appropriate partnering relationships with nationals. This workshop will identify several successful models for partnering where short-term healthcare workers can have a tremendous impact, as well as highlighting pitfalls to be avoided.
This session is design for those who already have an understanding of human trafficking and need guidance regarding how to develop a protocol to respond to victims of trafficking within a hospital or clinic. The session will cover the steps necessary to develop a response protocol and the elements that should be contained in a good protocol.
Traditional short term mission trips focus on going to an area and "doing" work for a people group or "working alongside" a local ministry for a few days. Often when the mission team leaves it creates a hardship for the locals as the "doers" have gone leaving work still to be done. What if we could train the local believers to do the work that we are doing? This session presents just such a model. An empowering method of short term missions passes on teachable skills to indigenous people allowing them to do for each other long after a short term team has left.
Oral lesions can present clues of a systemic conditions—the appearance, the character of the lesions, the size, the duration, and the location of the lesions can give some insight as to a possible systemic implications. On the mission field, without all the desired tests and studies, it is very helpful to have an idea what lesions may be part of a systemic condition and what lesions are most likely to respond to local measures. Bring your "thinking cap" and lets have some fun. There will be time for questions and answers.
This session will give an overview of the current picture of trafficking in persons within the United States including international and domestic trafficking with an emphasis on child sex trafficking, the major form of trafficking in persons within the U.S. In addition, the session will address specific indicators of human trafficking for the healthcare professional and how to help identify victims of human trafficking that may present in the healthcare setting.
The panel will address the challenges and rewards of serving internationally as a single person. It will provide food for thought and prayer for those who are considering and preparing for cross-cultural service.
This session will share answers on how to become a medical missionary. Each person who attends will receive a 3 x 5 card when they enter the room. The moderator John McVay will group and select questions, direct them to appropriate panelists, and receive questions from the floor. Probable topics discussed from questions expected are: Guidance, Agencies, Training, Funding, Singles, and Families.
Urban health care and the gospel must embrace our communities. Living, working and serving within the context of the community we serve draws us toward God’s love for people and helps us identify with our neighbors. Should one try to move into communities of poverty in order to serve there? How can we encourage those indigenous to our communities to stay to serve God within the context of their lives? This workshop will explore Christ’s healing ministry among those he came to serve. Susan Post, the director of Esperanza Health Center and Tony Gonzalez, an Esperanza leader will share their experiences, challenges and vision for health care ministry as one who relocated into North Philadelphia and one who grew up in North Philadelphia. We need one another to be able to gain a more complete vision for effective Christ-centered health care ministry.
In health care ministry, we share the compassion of Christ. Christ's compassion "suffers with" those we are called to serve. Engaging deeply with our patients can be difficult if our own lives are not bound with our Savior. We can find ourselves disillusioned, distant, or overwhelmed as we share in the suffering of others. Spiritual vibrancy and worship are vital for compassionate ministry. This workshop will explore Christ's call to share in the suffering of others, the importance of a life of worship for ministry, and some ways we can foster spiritual vibrancy in our lives of ministry.
Over 96M Americans live in medically underserved areas (MUAs) right here in the United States. Most MUAs are located in strategic areas of need where service is desperately needed and where people are ripe for the gospel. Medical mission pioneers are responding to needs in our own nation by applying in domestic settings proven strategies that have worked in challenging international fields. These courageous disciples recognize that our mission really is "global" and not just "international"; that "mission" is not something you do 2 weeks in the summer, but is a lifestyle; and that serving in cross-cultural, impoverished communities here not only fulfills our Christian mandate, but is the best preparation they can get for work in other countries.
This session will examine what gospel-driven healthcare looks like in the U.S., and discuss the principles and strategies that are helping Christians extend Christ's love through healthcare to the neediest of our neighbors.
Traditional ways of serving in medical missions have included working in mission hospitals, clinics and aspects of community development and public health. Less well-known—but significant—medical mission ministries from the beginning include medical education and cooperating with local and national governments in planning or providing healthcare, including national healthcare. As entry into many areas of the world has been restricted for traditional medical missions over the past generation, these other less well-known thrusts have increased in strategic significance.
Three distinguished panelists—Dr. James Smith, Dr. Daniel Tolan and Dr. Matthew Koh— bring extensive experience from nearly all continents to this session. They have served in both Christian and secular contexts and short and long term programs that have greatly enhanced the scope and effectiveness of medical missions worldwide. Join us to expand your horizons of opportunities to serve in these medical ministries.
This session will help participants to work through the nebulous idea of God's calling by exploring a Biblical framework for knowing and doing God's will, and helping participants identify and overcome common barriers that prevent people from fully surrendering their lives to leading of the Holy Spirit.
Knowing medicine or dentistry is not enough to be a successful missionary. There are many things beyond medicine you need to master to be effective. You need to learn how to recruit, train and supervise people. You will likely be involved in fund raising, program design and development, evangelism, leadership, government relations, project proposals, public speaking and much more.
This session will give you an overview of many of these areas and get you started down the path to be a life long learner. Dr. Stevens will share clear principles and practical experience seasoned with examples from his missionary experience. He will point you to good resources to learn what you need to know beyond medicine.
"Justice" has multiple meanings in the Bible. When the psalmist declared that "righteousness and justice are the foundation" of the Messiah's throne (Psalm 89:14), he was speaking of an equity and fairness that goes beyond punishment for bad people. God's zeal for justice is found throughout the Old and New Testaments. This breakout session will define biblical justice, describe present day healthcare injustices, and demonstrate that working for healthcare justice is a powerful means of glorifying God and expanding the Kingdom of Jesus.
Are you and your family planning to be missionaries in the US or overseas and wondering the impact on your family life? This session will provide advice from a couple who served 8 years in Asia, where 3 of their 4 daughters were born. They'll give suggestions, some of it learned the hard way, for how you and your family can thrive on the mission field. Included will be strategies and insights for successful family preparation beforehand and healthy family life after your begin serving. Time will also be available during the session for asking your questions.
Mission Medical: Assessing and Addressing Spiritual Needs of Patients
We'll discuss (1) why healthcare professionals have been reluctant to take a spiritual history, (2) the positive association of spirituality/religiosity and physical/mental health, and (3) several spiritual history tools to consider for use in clinical care.
Healthcare provides a unique opportunity to engage the deepest issues of life and faith alongside those who are suffering. Can you care for patients in a way that brings them before Jesus and offers them peace, healing, and wholeness? Discover how to practice healthcare as your ministry…starting even now as a student or resident.
Regardless of your background, short-term and long-term, medical and non-medical mission workers alike are going to be faced with dental emergencies. Determining the course of action, including proper diagnosis and treatment, along with knowing when and where to refer when necessary, is important to patient health. This course will cover potential dental emergencies that may present as well as stress the importance of understanding the local health care system and the professionals working within that system.
Learning objectives:
1) List potential dental emergencies, presenting signs and symptoms and appropriate treatment
2) Articulate the importance of understanding the local health care system when working cross-culturally
Although largely framed as a legal issue, a social issue, and sometimes a geo-political issue, human trafficking is also a public health issue. Public health approaches consider all of these factors to take local information to make locally-appropriate interventions. It can also take local data to help feed our global pool of knowledge regarding this complex issue. Human Trafficking is both an individual as well as a public health issue. While direct health care is important, health professionals and organizations need to move beyond this and get involved in prevention, research, developing appropriate treatment guidelines, and monitoring and evaluation of health care interventions. We are against human trafficking because it harms people - so let's take approaches that will really work to mitigate, or even prevent, that harm.
In 2010, The Continuing Medical and Dental Education Commission of CMDA approved a working group to investigate the experience of medical missionaries with a view to providing information to assist mission agencies in setting a current and sustainable medical mission strategy. The PRISM (Patterns and Responses in Intercultural Service in Medicine) survey is a research report that summarizes those findings. This talk will involve a discussion of the salient, challenging, and sometimes surprising findings of what our full-time, long-term cross-cultural colleagues are facing today.
Across United States medical schools, one quarter of medical students participate in international experiences during medical school. Most of these students continue this interest as residents. For students and residents called to international Christian faith-based missions and those exploring such an interest, this high level of general interest has lead to an array of global health opportunities at most medical schools and many residencies. This session will discuss the use of short and medium term international experiences for global health education and professional development of medical students and residents. The discussion will include models that facilitate develop of indigenous medical education and health care systems, strategies that maximize benefit and minimize disruption for in-country partners, and approaches that develop and mentor future medical education leaders.
In this session, we will cover the interaction of factors affecting nutritional status and the principles for treating severe acute malnutrition. We will also address
important vitamin and mineral deficiencies in developing countries.
This session will cover the rationale for a syndromic approach to fever in the tropics. We will consider the causes of 8 common fever syndromes.
At the completion of this presentation the participant should be able to:
1.value the importance of health care in trafficked populations
2. identify physical health problems that are common to trafficked individuals
3. identify the mental health consequences of trafficking that may need to be addressed.
The global dental healthcare environment is changing rapidly in many parts of the world and much too slowly in others. These changes impact both our current dental missions efforts as well as provide insight and opportunity into ways the dental profession may continue to increase its Kingdom impact.
Learning objectives:
1) Articulate changes in the dental healthcare environment occurring in various parts of the world
2) Discuss current opportunities to further the impact believers can have through dentistry and how these opportunities can play a key role in ongoing global mission efforts.
Although the principles of medical and dental care are the same worldwide, the need for translation, existing local health beliefs, customs, teaching methods, and other social and political factors may present barriers which have a significant impact on the effectiveness of efforts to teach healthcare professionals cross-culturally. This session will examine several of these.
This session will compare short term mission efforts which provide direct care to patients in an area to those which provide education and advanced training to healthcare professionals, which most often have a longer term benefit both to those who are taught by these healthcare professionals and to patients needing healthcare in that area.
God has called you to missions but how do you make a smooth transition from student to missionary physician? Join us as we look at steps to take during your education and training to prepare you for a career in medical missions. We’ll examine what questions you need to ask, what you should be aware of and what can you do over these next years to be equipped to move from training to ministry.
Have you longed to integrate your Christian faith into your patient care – both on the mission field abroad and in your work at home? Not sure how to do this in a caring, sensitive, and relevant manner? This “working” session will explore the ethical basis for spiritual care plus provide you with profession, timely, and practical methods to care for the whole person in the clinical setting.
Is it possible to equip indigenous believers to meet the needs of their own people so that the work continues when the short term team returns home? Jaime will share stories from the mission field regarding training and equipping indigenous Christ-followers with especially designed tools so that they can meet the felt needs of their own people, through which they develop relationships and have the opportunity to both demonstrate and share the love of Christ in a tangible way.
It is the general idea that the short-term missions is one sided. Often creating dependency- teams from USA go to the underdeveloped country to help and bring short term relief and address felt needs in the comminutes of the countries they visit. While that may be true, ‘passing on of skills’ showcases how the trend can be reversed and these very missions can impact providing long term and sustainable projects and help move from ‘relief’ to ‘development’ and self sustaining mode. Caleb Rayapati, will show case how the “Pass on the skills” is making an impact on the ground, a firsthand account of the partnering mission using the Dental Outreach skills in self sustaining method, involved in community development in India impacting through practice of Biblical wholisim.
Health Care ministry in inner city neighborhoods must be incarnational – embracing our communities. Living, working and serving within the context of the community we serve draws us toward God’s love for people and helps us identify with our neighbors. Should one try to move into communities of poverty in order to serve there? How can we encourage those who grew up in our communities to stay to serve God within the context of their lives? This workshop will explore Christ’s healing ministry among those he came to serve. Two of Esperanza Health Center’s leaders will share their experiences and vision for health care ministry as one who relocated into North Philadelphia and one who grew up in North Philadelphia. We need one another to be able to gain a more complete vision for effective Christ-centered health care ministry.
A panel of US-based academic physicians discuss how they have cooperated with international institutions as well as on-the-field missionaries for quality research projects. They will also discuss ideas and opportunities for how they see research and projects developing in the future.
Overview of their projects will be given, but much time will be devoted to answering questions from the audience.
This session will give an overview of the current picture of trafficking in persons within the United States focusing mainly on child sex trafficking, the major form of trafficking in persons within the U.S. In addition, the session will address specific ways that health professionals can become abolitionists.
Professional education programs are geared toward preparing students to do curative care in healthcare settings. In order to reach into the community with preventive healthcare requires an additional set of knowledge and skills. We will look at the principles that were operative in the 1978 Alma Ata and examine what needs to be included in the education of healthcare professionals to achieve Health for All.
Best Practices in Short-term Medical Missions
In recent years there has been a tsunami of short-term healthcare volunteers going into the developing world; both faith-based and humanitarian. Recent estimates tell us that 29% of students enrolled in medical schools participate in some type of short-term global health project prior to graduation. Dental, nursing, and allied health schools are also beginning to follow suit. Yet, few churches or educational institutions have any knowledge of what constitutes best practices in global health. This workshop will review the six guidelines for best practices in global health as they appear in the book “When Healthcare Hurts: An Evidence Based Guide to Best Practices in Global Health Initiatives”. It will also review the four primary areas of global health best practices which include the following.
- Patient Safety
- Healthcare System Integration and Collaboration
- Facilitation of Health Development
- Community Empowerment
Medical mission or what I prefer to call Health Care Mission remains a crucial issue for 21st century Christians.
Yes, we need to be fully involved in medical missions but just as important, be effective as people of faith in secular environments where we can be agents of change and transformation.
In this breakout session we will try to discern together how medical missions can help to become more grounded in the needs, realities and paradigms of today and not fight todays battles with yesterdays tools
We will be concerating on primary health and community health perspectives
Without a robust biblical theology of suffering, medical missionaries will neither persevere nor bear spiritual fruit.
Utilizing examples from the Bible and church history, this session will introduce the inevitability of hardships, their divine purposes, and principles for enduring and flourishing through them.
We would all like to believe that as we reach out to share our medical expertise and the love and the compassion of Christ we will be safe, but is there any place in which we can be safe today? Security as we know is it is not the absence of danger, but the presence of the Lord. Being good stewards of the great blessings given to us of volunteers serving the least, the lost and the last is our obligation. We need to be prepared and have trained leaders to know what to do when the unthinkable happens. We will discuss how to approach these situations from the sandpoint of evaluation of risks, minimizing exposure, training for the eventuality of the most common conditions that could be encountered and preparation for the unthinkable. Unfortunately there is evil in the world and if one looks at the statistics: in 2009 there were 278 reported victims of 139 serious security incidents compared with 1999 when there were 65 victims involved in 34 such incidents. This trend continues to go up in all areas from kidnappings, road attacks, mob violence, ambushes, robberies, to suicide bombings. This situation hightens our responsibility and be wise and prepared even as we trust the Lord for our provision and protection. To God be the glory.
Short-term missions offer a unique opportunity for sustained spiritual formation away from the distractions of a busy life in the U.S., in a setting where the traveler is often far removed from their comfort zone and power zone. This workshop presents ideas and guidelines for the trip leader in recruiting, selecting, and preparing trip participants to act as the Body of Christ in their service, and to reduce opportunities for the deceiver to cause division and strife and to cast dispersion on the name of the Lord. It will also offer suggestions for proactive steps to take that may minimize potential disruptions within the team and between team members and nationals.
Ralph Winter said that for every 100 people who made a mission commitment at some point in their lives, only one made it to the mission field. Why? For lack of mobilizers! The same can be said of lack of mentors—and the lack of appreciation of the resources that are available to fan into flame serving in medical mission. What is a mentor? What are the resources available? Come to this session to find what’s available to keep you on track for medical mission. As an extra bonus, meet a young medical missionary (not me, obviously) on home assignment to discover how he found a mentor and what this means to him.
Dental Surgery can be particularly challenging on the mission field. Often dealing with cross cultural and language communication problems, the proper positioning of the patient, proper light, possibly no x-rays, limited or no suction, sometimes limited trained assistance, and possibly not all the equipment that you might need. Many dentists do only limited oral surgery in their practices. The challenges are great in the often uncomfortable environment of the mission field. How can we be prepared and what are some of the techniques that we can use that might be of help for us as we care for those who often have never seen a dentist before and are in pain or have been. Relieving pain and infection and doing no harm is one of our most pressing issues in areas where there is no dental care available. It is a matter of getting our of your comfort zone and working in a small dark area, in which you could injure your self as well and where the incidence of HIV may be quite high. Lets look at some way to work in and through these difficulties for the glory of the Lord and the benefit of those who need to know Jesus and seek relief from their suffering. May His great love and compassion show in all we do and say. To God be the glory.
Review of the literature about burnout in overseas workers will include general demographics, incidence, prevalence, risk factors, and primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention interventions in a bio/psycho/social/spiritual model
Recent research in the long term effects of retaining versus removing third molars has been extensive and has had some surprising results. This session will review the development of third molars, associated pathology, indications for their removal and treatment with a focus on their management in resource limited situations.
This talk will address the current trends and updates on global (outside the USA) human trafficking issues. Themes and opportunities pertinent to health professionals will be highlighted.
The PRISM Study is a research report by the Medical Missions Survey Working Group of the Continuing Medical and Dental Education Commission of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. The survey was administered between 2010 and 2011 and represents hundreds of current full-time long-term medical missionaries.
"It is hoped that this report will help missions organizations to be more strategic in how they implement medical work in the cause of missions globally, and help medical missions candidates to prepare better for a career of service in medical missions."
Only a small minority of healthcare students who aspire to be missionaries actually serve long-term. One in five medical missionaries don’t stick with it for more than four years. There are daunting obstacles to going and to staying. Using both research data and the presenter’s experiences, this session will identify the best strategies for preparation that lead to long-term success.
Objectives: (1) Describe the six key indigenous partner groups needed for effective medical missions (2) Discuss three common challenge areas for medical missions: Missiologic Point of View, Curative Care Perspective, Surgical Care (3) Explore WHO guidelines relevent to the use of oral medications in medical missions
Glenn Schwartz will speak about the issue of healthy sustainability in the Christian movement. He gives historical insights into how the dependency syndrome in cross-cultural missions develops and, more importantly, how it can be overcome. This presentation will also include several short case studies about mission-established hospitals and how they moved toward local sustainability. His primary emphasis is two-fold: One is that unhealthy dependency can be avoided from the beginning in cross-cultural ministry. The second is that the dependency syndrome can be overcome where it has become established. He believes that churches and other institutions do not need to suffer long-term consequences from this illness, and
there is plenty of evidence to confirm that. Obviously there are places in the world where outside assistance is justified, but in many places local resources are available for those who adjust strategies to identify and mobilize them.
Buddhists in East Asia largely believe in one of the dominant Buddhist traditions, animism and ancestor worship. They believe in karma, the moral law of cause and effect which demands that every soul suffer for its past “sins;” so there is no value in alleviating suffering. While very few Buddhists have come to Christ through the direct preaching of the gospel, some have responded to the compassion shown by medical missionaries since the early 19th century. This session features the plight of one leprosy patient, an outcast in society who gradually found new life through the lives of Christians who dared to touch him, clean his wounds and tell him about Jesus. This session will bring attendees face to face with a culture that is very resistant to the gospel, the reasons for that resistance and what we can do about it.
Medical missions is constantly changing. The enterprise of medical missions has brought health and opened the doors for the gospel in countless countries.
This rich history continues today. In Africa, forty to seventy percent of health services are still provided by church and mission facilities.
How do we build on the achievements of yesteryears and achieve success in the years to come? How can you fit in?
Before 1850, there were fewer that fifteen medical missionaries. The average life expectancy for missionaries in Africa in that day was eight years.
Oftentimes, medical missionaries started because missionaries were taught basic medical needs.
Around 1890's to early 1900's university campuses began to head overseas as missionaries. Many went to China. This is why you see so many Christians in China today.
By 1925 there were 1,157 medical missionaries.
Listen to the audio for more details on the past, present, and future of medical missions.
About the author:
*Dr. David Stevens is the Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), the nation’s largest faith-based organization of doctors. As spokesman for more than 16,000 doctors, Dr. Stevens has conducted hundreds of media interviews. Prior to his service with CMDA, he served as medical director of Samaritan’s Purse. From 1981 to 1992, Dr. Stevens served as executive officer and medical superintendent of Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. He helped to transform Tenwek Hospital into one of the premier mission healthcare facilities in that country.
Dr. Stevens’ experiences provide rich illustrations for inspirational and educational presentations at seminars, medical schools, conferences and churches. He is the author of "Jesus, MD", "Beyond Medicine: What Else You Need to Know to be a Medical Missionary", "Leadership Proverbs" and many chapters and magazine articles.
Dr. Stevens holds degrees from Asbury University and the University of Louisville School of Medicine and is board certified in family practice. He earned a master’s degree in bioethics from Trinity International University in 2002.*
Missionaries are sent to reproduce themselves spiritually. Yet how do you do that in the midst of a busy clinical and hospital schedule? This seminar will equip you with a biblical model and a simple time-sensitive plan to build and multiply the number of Christ-followers and spiritual leaders among your patients, colleagues, and others on your mission field.
The Vanga Hospital began in a rural area of western Congo in 1920. Beginning in 1961 the hospital grew into a comprehensive and sustainable Christian health service run by the Congolese church in partnership with a missionary staff. The health system includes: (1) A 400 bed multi-specialty teaching hospital (2) A school for training nurse practitioners and nurse midwives (3) A widespread system of improving community health through dialogue and community initiatives (4) A decentralized network of rural health centers that make primary health care services accessible to the entire population of 250,000 in the catchment area
(5) A family medicine residency for Congolese family physicians (6) A team approach to caring for the whole person (7) An integrated approach to coping with the HIV-AIDS epidemic
Identifying and using local resources to address both nutritional and economic needs of you community. Emphasis will be place on nutrious tropical plants that can be used as perennial vegetables and have proven health benefits.
There are countless barriers that prevent aspiring healthcare missionaries from achieving their goals. Come learn strategies for recognizing and overcoming both obvious and hidden obstacles.
How to have a long term impact with a short term medical team? Philosophy of Ministry, National Partnerships, Careful Preparation, Effective Clinic Outreach and Post Trip Attention all are critical ingredients! . To Cover Philosophy of Ministry, Partnership with Local Host Ministry, Preparing and Recruiting, Local Host Responsibility, Arrival and Clinic Week, Extracurricular Activities, Leave Taking/ Farewell/ Re-Entry
Medical missionaries will find their resources to help others limited in nearly every realm of their work-time, skills, financial, emotional, equipment and spiritual to name a few. We know what care is available to patients and come skilled to provide it. But many times we are unable to provide it due to limitations of many kinds on the field. How does one decide what care to provide and whom to provide it to? This talk will discuss the conflicts the medical missionary finds on the mission field as they serve to provide health care in less than optimal circumstances. Using Jesus healing ministry as an example, guidelines will be provided on how to effectively serve Christ in situations where care cannot be given to all as the medical missionary would like. A foundation in decision making and practical guidelines w!ill be discussed to assist the front line missionary with these problems on the field.
This is one of the principle precepts taught in every med school, and is the basis for all emergency medicine. But while we are careful to “do no harm” with our patients, we overlook the harm we do in perpetuating a fallen health delivery system by the way we run our practices. This workshop examines several best practice models of how Christian health professionals have chosen to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, and will challenge us to look at our responsibility as ambassadors of Christ’s Kingdom to transform our practice of medicine in ways that reflect His character and will.
Work among the poor in the US is remarkably good preparation for healthcare workers interested in serving overseas. This session will demonstrate how work in the inner-city of Memphis TN has prepared many missionaries for the toughest fields on earth--and how this model could be employed all over the U.S.
This session answers the 10 basic questions most often asked by those considering career missionary service.