Persecuted Church

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 ins...

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 per...

Why are you heading overseas as a medial missionary? What’s your ultimate long-term goal? Is your dream, for example, to vaccinate multiple thousands of Berber children against preventable child-hood diseases or ... do you dream of launching movements of missional-communities (churches) among the Berber who will reach all the Berber for Christ … AND vaccinate all their children too? The Kingdom ne...

GMHC 2015 Friday night plenary session

Philippians 1:29

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 alternati...

Mental Health challenges are among those that bear the greatest burden of disease and disability in every country evaluated. Special challenges of diagnosing and caring for people suffering from mental health challenges in Africa will be addressed.

While embarking on a general surgical career as a worker in Africa, I found the breadth of surgical need far beyond my narrow thinking. General surgery gave way to gynecolgy, plastic surgery, orthopedics, urology, and ultimately neurosurgery as pertaining primarily to children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida. The rehab surgery has endured as my focus for the last thirty years. It has been a jo...

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 sustain...

"A disciple is not above his teacher...if they persecuted me, they will persecute you...if they have called the head of the house Beelzebub, what will they call the members of his house?" Since Genesis 3, all human beings have suffered, but disciples of Jesus, especially those who seek to glorify Him as missionaries, inevitably enter into His peculiar sufferings: loneliness, alienation,...

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 sessio...

Everyone in every culture loves to share and hear stories - and the Gospel is the story of all stories. The Bible comes complete with stories that show all the different aspects of the Gospel and learning how to use them - that is, doing more than simply reading them out loud is one of the most effective ways to share the story with everyone. There are even ways to share the whole story of the Bib...

In the mission field today, there is no shortage of work that needs to be done. Small minded thinking tells us that we are the only ones trying to accomplish a particular mission or that we are the only ones that can do it right. By working together as the body of Christ, we can accomplish more together than we can alone.

Fund-Raising for Short-term or Long-Term Missions Want to know the key to raising resources for a life-time of ministry or for a short-term mission trip – its Effective Ministry Partnership Development (MPD). We’ll address how correct thinking, biblical principles and practical principles are the key. This session will explain “why people give,” “how to effectively gain their support and involveme...

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 relationship...

Medicine is one means of meeting the needs of people throughout the world. Working with the disabled opens closed doors and is an outreach to those I consider "unreached". Three to ten percent of the world is considered to have some type of disability. Only a very few in the developing world can find care to improve their plight in life. Surgical rehabilitation, and its associated care,...

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...

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...

Effective Ministry Partnership Development is the key to raising resources for life and ministry. We’ll address how correct thinking, biblical principles and practical principles are the key. This session will explain “why people give,” “how to effectively gain their support and involvement,” “ways to grow your list of prospects” and “what the basis is for successful long-term financial partnershi...

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.

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, an...

It is estimated that 3-10% of people in the developing world are disabled. The care of disabled children in Sub Saharan Africa is nearly nonexistent. Africa lacks sufficient specialists to provide reasonable care for the vast majority of disabled children, and very few training programs are training such specialists in Africa. A remedial solution for surgical care is necessary in order to provide...