Content Resources

Many creative access countries are among the poorest and most needy in the world, yet Christian witness is limited. Effective primary care is an essential component of all health systems. Locally trained Family Medicine specialists can provide excellent primary care in limited resource settings. With some constraints doctors from “the West” are welcome in creative access countries to develop residency training in Family Medicine. The lessons learned from eight years of Family Medicine training in Afghanistan will be discussed with particular attention
to those lessons that are applicable to other creative access countries.

The practice of pediatrics
in much of the developing world involves the care of children with malaria, often presenting in critical condition where prompt diagnosis and treatment can be life-saving and minimize morbidity. This session will discuss malaria in terms of presentation, diagnosis, treatment, complications, and prevention, in the context of the often less-than-optimal medical setting of the developing world. Recent changes and controversies will be included in the discussion. Although all species of Plasmodium will be mentioned, the emphasis will be on falciparum malaria.

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.

Christian Community Health and Development organizers need to be thinking beyond the implementation of projects scattered here and there in targeted communities, to movements that sweep the whole country. There are keys to mobilizing medical volunteers and leveraging community. To achieve this, greater attention must be given to mobilizing volunteers who participate in their own development and work together to sustain and build on their successes. In this workshop we will learn keys to mobilizing community volunteers who transfer what they have experienced and learned from person to person and community to community, taking the Gospel with them as they go.

The recent research on HIV reported in the past year
has been characterized by leaders in the field as ‘game changing.’ There are new approaches to prevention
and treatment that have the potential for major changes
in the way the disease is approached. This breakout session will not only discuss these developments, but it will also be an opportunity for you to be involved in discussions about how the developments can best be utilized and the complex issues surrounding implementation, funding, and cultural issues.

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. Terry Dalrymple
 has been instrumental in guiding the expansion of a worldwide CHE movement that now involves more than 400 organizations in 105 countries. In this workshop, Terry will outline key principles of integrated community health and development ministry, describe how to implement a CHE program, define indicators used to measure success, and identify resources and potential partners to help you get CHE started in your target community.

When people in the developing world want someone to teach about health issues like
HIV, they look to medical people. Thus, whether you are going for a short- or long-term trip, you may well be asked, “Are you ready?” Unless you specialize in infectious disease, how much do you really know about the disease? What is your goal
in teaching? What do people really need to know? Perhaps the most important question is how do you communicate the facts about disease to
an audience that has very little, if any, understanding of science. In fact, many have
a deep distrust of science. This breakout session is based on more than 26
years of experience teaching about HIV around the world. The interactive discussion will help you think through the questions above as the facilitator shares with you the stories God has given him that communicate the important concepts in ways that are easily understood and applied by audiences in cultures
that are very different from our own.

The Global Missions Health Conference attracts students and medical professionals from all over the United States who want to live out their faith through medicine but are not sure what that means for their lives. This session will provide a biblical framework for understanding our calling in light of God’s redemptive work in the world today.

How can we use health promotion to more effectively prepare for disasters and to respond when they occur? During this session, participants will examine ways to use health promotion to deal with disasters. How can we be better prepared for disasters, reducing the risks, and, after a disaster, move on from relief to recovery and rebuilding? How can the local community be involved?

The course will deal with poverty in the urban slum. Attention will be given
to a biblical framework
for development and a strategy for doing “Kingdom Development.” Illustrations will come from lessons being learned in Nairobi, Kenya; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Bangkok, Thailand.

Storying is a powerful way
to learn new ideas and pass them along to others. Stories impact lives and change behavior. Stories can be used for wholistic teaching, building physical and emotional health, and sharing biblical truths. Stories work effectively with people from all ages and all educational levels, and are a key strategy to work with oral learners. This session will illustrate the use of health stories and Bible storying, and will teach how to do storying. Participants will learn to ask thought-provoking questions that stimulate discussion. They will learn to use stories to multiply teaching to others. They will also learn where to find collections of stories that others have found effective.