Podcast

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.

Why are you heading overseas as a healthcare missionary? What's your ultimate long-term goal? Is your dream, for example, to vaccinate multiple thousands of children against preventable childhood diseases or ... do you dream of launching movements of missional-communities (churches) among a Muslim group who will share Christ with their entire people group ... AND vaccinate all their children, too? The Kingdom needs missionaries who will do both. This workshop will help you learn key aspects of what to look for when joining a team, and how to form and prepare a strategic team to go and do it together.

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.

Theology is, simply put, our talk about God in Christ and his actions as shown to us in the Bible. Missions is all about witnessing in various ways to God in Christ and his actions in the world. In other words, theology and missions go hand-in-hand. Though we often think of "missions texts" - our go-to verses for supporting missions - missions is far more than a collection of verses but is part of a larger story of God's salvation and making that salvation known. In this session we will see how the Bible tells that story and how we are called not just to "know" but to take our place in that story and be Christ's witnesses in the world, no matter what gifts and opportunities God gives us.

When we show Christ’s love in honor-shame cultures, often people first see merit making, proselytization and apostasy however pure our motivation may be. We will look at a worldview that is based on honor-shame, come to understand how they may interpret what we do and from there understand the risks and look at what practices may help us to show and share God’s love appropriately. The workshop will use observations from tsunami relief and urban poor work in SE Asia to illustrate these principles.