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Today we are going to feature another story submitted to MedicalMissions.com. The story today is the powerful and real experience of working with refugee families. We hope you will find this story inspiring and that it might prompt you to share some of your own stories!

During the horrific mid-20^th century, my Omi along with her family was forced from her home in Europe. She was put into a Nazi boarding school in Germany but later escaped to Canada. However, my great-grandfather was sent to a “work camp” for his faith and was not seen again. While reflecting and reading about the inhumane situations created by the current conflicts in the Middle East I could only think of my Omi, and the worse sufferings that these current refugees were experiencing as they fled their homes. I knew I needed to act.

Click HERE to read the rest of the story 

During the course of the past week, we have witnessed true devastation in the Bahamas due to the destruction of Hurricane Dorian. With sustained wind speeds of 185 miles per hour, Dorian is one of the worst storms in history. At least 43 people have been killed, but officials are warning that hundreds more are still missing. The United Nations believes at least 70,000 people are homeless on Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands.

All of this devastation is why Samaritan's Purse jumped into immediate action: "Samaritan's Purse has airlifted our Emergency Field Hospital and a medical team to the Bahamas, at the request of the World Health Organization and the Bahamas government. The 40-bed mobile facility can receive up to 100 patients daily and features an operating room with capacity for 10 surgeries per day, as well as an obstetrics ward with delivery room" (Hurricane Dorian Relief, samaritanspurse.org). Prior to deploying the Field Hospital, Samaritan's Purse had already sent 30 tons of emergency items and over a dozen disaster relief team specialists. 

Many of you are wondering how you can be involved as a health care provider. Samaritan's Purse trains people just like you for times such as this. If you are interested in becoming part of their disaster relief team, learn more about their Disaster Assistance Response Teams.  You can also donate to the work that Samaritan's Purse is doing: Donate to Hurricane Dorian Relief

Here at MedicalMissions.com, we always want you to have the resources you need to engage in wherever you feel that God is calling you.

• You might want to check out this breakout session, which was led by Dr. Elliott Tenpenny of Samaritan's Purse on The Biblical Call to Emergency Response. 
• If you are a nurse, this is a helpful article outlining ways for you to actively engage in relief efforts: Nurse Volunteers
• Kelly Sites, of Samaritan's Purse, also presented a breakout session about Nursing in Disaster Response Efforts

• Laura Smelter, Director of Training at Christian Health Service Corps presented a breakout session on Responding Well: Knowing and Applying International Principles and Standards in Disaster and Refugee Response

We hope that this email will be a reminder to you of the gifts that God has given you and the many ways that you can use them. Our partner, Samaritan's Purse will be presenting their work at this year's GMHC, so we do hope to see you in November! GMHC 2019 Register Here

Medical missions is hard.  One could say that, if it isn’t hard, it isn’t medical missions.  As Christians, we are indisputably called to walk into the dark places of God’s creation and proclaim his glory and his love.  Our hands get dirty, and our hearts get beat up.

A few months ago, at my hospital in Burundi, things were especially difficult.  Electricity was out.  The hematology machine was broken, as was the x-ray.  I had a slew of patients who didn’t necessarily seem incurable at their arrival, but despite all our efforts, they continued to worsen.  That's a particular challenge, since it feels like their being in the hospital is associated with them getting worse, instead of better.  With death, instead of life.  Every day I did rounds with a very green group of Burundian medical students, who had never been this entwined with caring for people this sick before.

How do we bring hope?  For that matter, where is the hope?  How do I encourage my students to endure?  How do I beat off my own cynicism?  To avoid a premature resolution of this tension, let me be clear:  We believe in the free, eternal grace of God through Jesus.  We believe in eternal life, and we work to integrate evangelism into all that we do at our hospital.  However, neither my head nor my heart accepts that this annuls the awfulness of a young person dying of a preventable disease.  No one knows this better than Jesus, weeping at the tomb of his friend.

Over the last several years, I have discussed these questions many times, with students or with visiting doctors, and each time I'm of course talking to myself as well.  There are as many answers as there are challenges, but I’ll share three things that have been an encouragement to me.

First, if I want to be here when I can help, I also have to be here when I can't.  Every time my patient unexpectedly dies, or the test comes back positive for the non-treatable possibility, or my last therapeutic option just isn't working, part of me wants to abandon ship, to run away from all that I can't do.  I know that won't help my patients, but I guess I want to pretend that such situations don't exist, at least not in such a common and stark form.

We can't know ahead of time whom we can help.  Sometimes we can make a great medical impact.  Other times, we can't.  The two are inextricably linked.  Part of what we love in medical missions is the chance to dramatically alter someone's life for the better.  Yet there is another side to that coin, because the magnitude and frequency of the tragedies go up, in a seemingly proportional manner.  This must be endured, but not just endured.  We have a calling here as well, for this is another place where we have to learn to trust God and find some way to bless and comfort these patients with the blessings and comfort that God has given us (2 Cor 1:3-4).

Second, as Paul writes: Fight the good fight (1 Tim 6:12).  It feels like a fight.  It is a fight.  But it's a good fight.  So, let's keep fighting it.

Third, though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16).  This is just as incredibly true for me as it is for my patients.  For though we are missionaries with a message to proclaim, part of our target audience is ourselves.  Part of where the kingdom needs to come is inside our own hearts.  So this hard road is God’s road of sanctification for us.  Thus, the doctor is the patient, and we all alike need the hope of the gospel that proclaims that suffering will be redeemed, that all things will be made new, and that our God is the God who, out of death, brings resurrection and eternal life.

"Am I 'called' to missions?" "How do I know if I'm called to missions and how can I be sure?" Every Christian considering serving in missions in any capacity has asked those questions, but what are the answers? In this session we will back up and ask a more basic question - "What do we mean by a "call?" The answer lies in comparing out ideas of "calling" with the Bible's teaching about how and why God guides his people.

We’re taking some time to highlight some of the great resources that are available here at MedicalMissions.com. Today we wanted to point you to a breakout session from last year’s Global Missions Health Conference. This topic is always a popular one – Finding God’s Call for Your Life. In fact, it drives all that we do here at MedicalMissions.com!

We hope you enjoy taking some time to listen to this session – you can also find these resources on the MedicalMissions.com Podcast.

https://www.medicalmissions.com/resources/11519/gods-guidance-and-the-missionary-call

Systemic poverty often plagues the places where global health professionals serve. Grappling with this crushing reality can be overwhelming. Community health education is one tool that can help improve the well-being and dignity of those who suffer from the effects of poverty.

The need for community health education in developing countries cannot be overstated. In many communities, the prevalence of problems such as pediatric/infant mortality, maternal mortality, and HIV/AIDS is alarmingly high. Health education interventions are effective in addressing many of the causes of child mortality. For example, studies show that better breastfeeding practices alone could save 800,000 lives per year.

Dohn and Dohn’s article, “Short-Term Medical Teams: What They Do Well . . . and Not So Well” addresses this issue. They describe health education as one of those areas that medical groups do “not so well.” This is primarily because short-term volunteers often provide such education through translators and with inadequate cultural and worldview understanding. Consequently, it is unwise for use as outsiders to train local people without first learning their culture and developing relationships. The outcome will probably not be very positive. One model that has proven an effective short-term health education model is CHE (Community Health Evangelism). Primarily because it sees and understands poverty from an asset based approach instead of a needs based approach. See the global CHE Networks What is CHE? 

Seeing Poverty in a Different Light

Cross-cultural health education is challenging because we are faced with what many in the development world refer to as the “god-complex dilemma.” Jai Sarma presented these ideas at a workshop I attended many years ago. Jai was a longtime community development practitioner who serves as the head of Transformational Development at World Vision International. From his own heritage in India, he shared how westerners are often seen from the perspective of the poor. Our subconscious and subliminal attitudes can also drastically affect our interactions with the poor. He shared that poverty is to a large extent a manifestation of a marred identity and self-worth.

Without adequate understanding, volunteers from developed countries leading health education classes in developing countries can further mar the identity of those they seek to serve. We need to train local people with extreme caution, sensitivity, and humility. We should learn as much about the culture, worldview, and life circumstances as possible.

Another development practitioner also talks much about this idea of poverty being a manifestation of a marred identity; his name is Dr. Jayakumar Christian. In his book, God of the Empty-Handed: Poverty, Power and the Kingdom of God, Dr. Christian discusses the forces that keep the poor trapped in poverty. This includes a poverty of being (a broken sense of identity), a poverty of relationships (societal relationships working to maintain their entrapment rather than empowering them), and a poverty of purpose (a lack of vision for the future and lack of a powerful sense of vocation). He advocates for a holistic response to the powerless of the poor and for building their sense of self through reconnecting with their God-given identity.

How Do We Support Human Dignity?

We all know the Bible has a lot to say about serving the poor, but how do we serve the poor in a way that supports human dignity? I believe this starts with intentional study of poverty, its roots, worldview and beliefs. The challenge is that in our efforts to meet human need we often reinforce and support the limiting beliefs of poverty. Chief of which is that the poor are victims of circumstance, instead of being created in the image of God, and stewards of His resources. The goal of healthcare missionaries is not just to meet tangible, physical needs. It is also to minister in ways that enhances human dignity. It is about inspiring growth in people and helping them build on their God given capacity. Many years ago, when I was serving with Mercy Ships, I was part of a leadership initiative to rewrite all the organizations core documents related to programs. I look back on this now as one of my greatest learning experiences in missions. The idea was to create a foundation for our work that truly supported human dignity. We reviewed a lot of the literature on poverty and decided to use Bryant Myers book, Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development as our blue print. This book along with Dr. Christian’s book noted above have had a significant impact on shaping my understanding of poverty. As such, these books also helped me lay the foundation of CHSC missions philosophy. Which is a philosophy that holds to an asset based (not needs based) approach. We believe strongly that both relief and development begin with the same starting point, building on, and supporting local capacity.