Medicalmissions.com Podcast

This session will explore the distinctive characteristics of Christian medical missions compared to humanitarian missions. It will look at biblical guidelines for ministering in Jesus’ name and examine practical applications for those engaged in Christian medical missions.

Community Health Screening & Education aims to assist communities, both urban and rural, in the US as well as developing countries, in their efforts to resolve their most important healthcare problems. It is based on national and international evidence-based standards and guidelines which were often developed and/or strongly influenced by our Christian missionary mentors. Although primarily focused on the 70% of the disease burden that is preventable, it enables high quality assistance in curative care areas as well. All of the materials and guidelines referenced are available free for downloading through www.hepfdc.info and related links, and most are available in multiple languages. So although the healthcare problems addressed remain the leading causes of premature death and unnecessary suffering in nearly every community in every country, it is emphasized that organizations and communities already have access to the resources to begin to resolve those problems. There is much that qualified STM

There is an increase in morbidity and mortality for trafficked victims based upon circumstances while being trafficked and preexisting conditions that led to
their vulnerability to being trafficked. It is known that most healthcare professionals do not know how to identify and help trafficked victims. This session will discuss the health problems that may present, the reasons for these conditions, and the clues
that may lead to recognizing these victims as trafficked and ultimately to help free them.

The Community Health Model Village is also known as the Total Health Village or the ‘THV-50-40-10(R)’. This model of healthcare looks at not only providing healthcare for those who are sick, but focuses a great deal on prevention of disease (through focus on water, sanitation, vaccination, deworming) and also on holistic well being (food security, livelihood security, education and skill building). The strategy involves modern participatory techniques for carrying out needs assessment, gap analysis,
and intervention planning. Development is facilitated through the community’s own resource persons and geared towards empowering the community to solve most of their own problems. The model goes way beyond integrated development to address both the empirical and spiritual needs of the community through balanced holistic development.

The session focuses on the use of the Holistic Worldview Analysis (HWVA) tool and explains how it is used to understand a community’s worldview, analyze it, identify gaps in their current survival strategy, and engage the community actively in addressing health and development issues. If you are looking for a way to empower a community to be able to solve most of its own problems, then this is a session for you!

In this session we will discuss case presentations demonstrating effective diagnosis and care of cardiac conditions with limited resources.

Could poverty and underdevelopment in the material realm have a metaphysical rather than a physical root? The answer
is yes! In this session, we will explore the concept of worldview and examine its implications for the health and development of people, communities, and cultures. We will also examine ten specific principles from Scripture that relate to health and healthcare that hold the potential to bring dramatic, positive, sustainable change to people and communities.

Cross-cultural Spiritual Ministry in Healthcare. How does one address spiritual needs in cross-cultural healthcare ministry? There are important principals and presuppositions we must understand if we are to effectively address spiritual needs and dimensions of people and communities. You cannot reach competency in wholistic healthcare missions simply in one or two hours. What is the goal of this session? To challenge you through stories, lessons learned, mistakes made and discussion to pursue a deeper understanding of the needs, barriers, opportunities, expectations and joys of integrated spiritual ministry in a cross-cultural international setting. Goals: (1) Setting the tone for spiritual ministry (2) Understanding the importance of culture and worldview (3) Establishing a team approach (4) Hindrances, especially to the western-trained professional (5) Resources

The nuts and bolts for students of an international health-care short term mission rotation. Choosing, preparing for, and successful completion of a short-term mission opportunity. This is for nursing, pre-professional, medical, dental, pharmacy, public health and other allied health-care students and post-graduate residents. Purpose: Acquaint the professional student with (1) Blessings, advantages and benefits of an international rotation especially in a mission setting. (2) Preparing oneself personally, including spiritual, emotional and academic preparation, for the best experience. (3) Process of choosing where to go, permission from your school, funding, establishing mentors and other preparations to gain the most from the experience. (4) The importance of post-trip debriefing and mentoring while looking toward the future.

A Biblical view of money and material things will help you to keep student loan borrowing to a minimum so that you can serve where God has called you-- without delay.

The New Testament gives not one but several models for doing missions. New Testament models of missions are far more flexible and less narrowly defined than the way we typically think of missions. The usual conception of a missionary as one who follows a “call” to go abroad is just one facet of missions. In this session we will explore the Biblical patterns and trajectories of what it means to do missions—at home and abroad, and discover what the Bible has to say to us about being “missional” in the 21st Century.

Jesus asked us to imitate Him. With Jesus as our model we will present teaching approaches that will empower nationals to serve their community. By presenting teaching methods tested and proven successful with dentistry, we propose to apply them to other areas of medicine to allow believers to meet the healthcare needs in their communities.

Usually the focus of short-term medical missions is to meet the needs of the population visited. This presentation will shed some light on Spiritual survival tips needed for the team members. Addressing their Spiritual need will equip each member of the medical mission team to become more efficient in reaching target population medically and Spiritually.

Teaching nationals can expand your impact. Our session will explore avenues to produce success in missions, both at home and abroad. We will speak on dentistry producing explosive church planting in Sierra Leone, the process of training nationals on a short term trip including the effects it has on the dentist/trainer, and how dentistry has equipped nationals in Nigeria for long-term service. We will also hear about the initial presentation of our medical module in Haiti and Sudan.

Human trafficking has grave consequences on the health of victims and includes a wide variety of health issues. This talk is designed to inform health care professionals on what these issues are, and how they may specifically work with a trafficked person, given the trauma that a victim may experience. Health care may be one of the few intersection points where a trafficked person meets someone in the public sphere and a few indicators for identifying someone who may be trafficked will also be discussed.

While not a new problem, human trafficking is now a globally acknowledged issue of our times. Even so, many people do not have a solid grasp of what exactly it is, how it happens, and what the core issues are in order to counter it. An overview of human trafficking internationally, including to/from the USA as well as outside the States is presented here. Some specific examples of how human trafficking may intersect the life and work of health care professionals are given, but more depth on that topic is given in other talks.

The search for medical equipment and supplies for your mission project seems to be a never ending challenge. We often settle for whatever we can find and have low expectations. God has high standards and the ability to provide if we seek Him for these resources. This session will provide information on how to evaluate medical projects, determine what specific equipment is needed, and how to find the resources to meet those needs.

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, andthere 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.