My name is Kathy Kennedy, and I've been involved in Medical Missions for 25 years. I came to Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Perth in 1987, I was originally a nurse and midwife, having worked for 10 years prior to joining YWAM.
I didn]t know what to expect, I decided to join because I felt a call to missions, and YWAM offered an entry course called the DTS - a discipleship training school, which gives foundational christian teaching for 12 weeks and then a field assignment of another 12 weeks. I learnt things like hearing the voice of God, God's Father Heart, Intercession and prayer, Gods character and nature, fear of the Lord etc. This school changed my life forever, and I fell in love with Jesus in a deeper way, I have never looked back. Doing the DTS was the smartest thing that I ever did!!
Since this time, I never would have imagined how God would use me. Over the years through YWAM I have been given the opportunity to start three health care training schools - A Primary Health Care School, A Midwifery School and a Medical Missions School. I see hundreds of people, both medical and non-medical people being trained and sent out to work as missionaries in the nations.
The poor and needy, education and evangelism are my passions. I have devised short health care messages 35 in total with posters and booklets for the oral learning cultures, training them to become trainers.
God spoke to me in the beginning of my time in YWAM and said " I want to give you nations." and He has done that, he has sent me the nations and given me nations to go to and serve. So far I have been to 34 different nations and thousands of communities have been impacted through our health care teams.
I'm so grateful for all that God calls us to. Here's a story:
Grace was 22 years of age; she arrived in the hospital after enduring an obstructed labour of many days.
Our Birth Attendants from YWAM were working in the hospital when she arrived, and were able to help prepare her for an emergency C-section. Grace survived but her baby died.
Grace developed a fistula ( a hole that is worn onto the bladder), this results in urine running out onto her legs. Because of this Grace would become a social outcast. The hospital was unable to perform the kind of surgery that could repair Grace’s fistula. Some days later she developed gangrene in her uterus and was taken back for further surgery and removal of her womb. For days Grace experienced sepsis, fever and delirium. She lost a lot of weight. The hospital staff and family thought Grace would die.
The Birth Attendants prayed and God spoke from 1 Peter 5:10 “and the God of Grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” The Birth Attendants held on to this, dubiously at times, hoping that she would survive. They assisted Grace with the medicines she could not afford. Each time they visited her, some of them bought something small to encourage her- a painting one day, an egg the next, an item of clothing another time. The Birth Attendants prayed over her many times and cried with her as she was tormented with pain. Slowly, Grace began to recover and then one day one of the team members had the privilege of leading her to the Lord, together with her sister. Grace– after many months in hospital was able to be discharged. A per chance meeting with a Canadian doctor offered the fistula repair that Grace needed in order to be completely restored."
I didn]t know what to expect, I decided to join because I felt a call to missions, and YWAM offered an entry course called the DTS - a discipleship training school, which gives foundational christian teaching for 12 weeks and then a field assignment of another 12 weeks. I learnt things like hearing the voice of God, God's Father Heart, Intercession and prayer, Gods character and nature, fear of the Lord etc. This school changed my life forever, and I fell in love with Jesus in a deeper way, I have never looked back. Doing the DTS was the smartest thing that I ever did!!
Since this time, I never would have imagined how God would use me. Over the years through YWAM I have been given the opportunity to start three health care training schools - A Primary Health Care School, A Midwifery School and a Medical Missions School. I see hundreds of people, both medical and non-medical people being trained and sent out to work as missionaries in the nations.
The poor and needy, education and evangelism are my passions. I have devised short health care messages 35 in total with posters and booklets for the oral learning cultures, training them to become trainers.
God spoke to me in the beginning of my time in YWAM and said " I want to give you nations." and He has done that, he has sent me the nations and given me nations to go to and serve. So far I have been to 34 different nations and thousands of communities have been impacted through our health care teams.
I'm so grateful for all that God calls us to. Here's a story:
Grace was 22 years of age; she arrived in the hospital after enduring an obstructed labour of many days.
Our Birth Attendants from YWAM were working in the hospital when she arrived, and were able to help prepare her for an emergency C-section. Grace survived but her baby died.
Grace developed a fistula ( a hole that is worn onto the bladder), this results in urine running out onto her legs. Because of this Grace would become a social outcast. The hospital was unable to perform the kind of surgery that could repair Grace’s fistula. Some days later she developed gangrene in her uterus and was taken back for further surgery and removal of her womb. For days Grace experienced sepsis, fever and delirium. She lost a lot of weight. The hospital staff and family thought Grace would die.
The Birth Attendants prayed and God spoke from 1 Peter 5:10 “and the God of Grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” The Birth Attendants held on to this, dubiously at times, hoping that she would survive. They assisted Grace with the medicines she could not afford. Each time they visited her, some of them bought something small to encourage her- a painting one day, an egg the next, an item of clothing another time. The Birth Attendants prayed over her many times and cried with her as she was tormented with pain. Slowly, Grace began to recover and then one day one of the team members had the privilege of leading her to the Lord, together with her sister. Grace– after many months in hospital was able to be discharged. A per chance meeting with a Canadian doctor offered the fistula repair that Grace needed in order to be completely restored."
