Resources

A story of how lives were transformed in a world with a widening mental health gap. The overwhelming need was met with the calling to be a caring community.

Some mission experts estimate that up to 90% of young people who consider missions cease to pursue it because of various fears and obstacles, including the fear of fundraising. Some workers view fundraising as a rite of passage or as an obstacle to overcome. Others understand God’s purposes to include each follower of Jesus in His worldwide kingdom work through going, serving, sending, praying, encouraging, and giving.

We left the United States for the field long-term with our four kids when they were 2, 4, 6, and 8. Many thought we were insane to take children to live in the impoverished context in the Sahel of Africa where we serve: it’s incredibly hot, disease-ridden, and everything is unpredictable. There are assault rifles everywhere, Islam and the occult seem to be in control, and every local personally knows children and young adults who have died. Now 6 years later, we have learned very important concepts for parenting, planning, and persevering in such a place that we want to share with any families who are considering missions, heading to the field, or already on the field. Come join us!

This session will share answers on how to select a mission agency. Each person who attends will receive a card when they enter the room. The moderator, John McVay, will group and select questions, direct them to appropriate panelists, and receive questions from the floor. Probable topics discussed from questions expected are: agency focus, doctrine, finances, services, leadership, locations, compatibility.

Management of Common Surgical Conditions in Africa and the Middle East

As Christian healthcare professionals, many of us will consider the option of using our training overseas to serve underprivileged populations. Even if we are willing to go, there are many barriers we face that may seem insurmountable and discourage us from pursuing this type of mission work, especially when we are just starting out in our profession. For professionals in allied health, there are even fewer resources and opportunities available to us than what medical professionals have. In this presentation, we will explore modern-day concerns for entering the medical mission field, opportunities available to allied healthcare professionals, and what an overseas therapy practice can look like: all filtered through the lens of an occupational therapist's recent, real-life experiences serving abroad.

In the past, malaria killed two out of three missionaries in certain locales. Depending on the prevalence of disease, the missionary must decide on how many layers of protection are needed. Strategies include sleeping under an insecticide-treated net, avoiding outside at dawn and dusk, screening windows and doors, wearing mosquito repellent, reducing mosquito breeding sites, taking malaria prophylactic medication, and evaluating and treating every fever within 24 hours of onset. The decision about which strategies to employ should be made in consultation with medical providers with knowledge of local patterns of disease. Diagnosis may be affected by presence of prophylactic medications, test kits that only detect certain species, or variable experience of lab personnel. Recurrent malaria may be due to reinfection, recrudesence, or relapse, and diagnosis and treatment requires knowledge of disease patterns related to P. vivax and P. ovale. Testing will often be negative and disease may occur weeks to years after leaving the malarious area, making treatment more difficult, especially if the missionary is back in his/her passport country.

As we see an increasing number of culturally diverse patients in our practices, there is no doubt of the importance of cultural competency in medicine. Specific circumstances and miscommunications have been well documented. But how can we develop an eye to see where a patient’s values and worldview may differ from our own? We will review an approach to cultural competency highlighted by medical missions case studies.

We will address the challenges and advantages of being single on the mission field.

Oftentimes short term mission trips sideline the indigenous church. The local church is the key to transformation and must be empowered to participate in the Great Commission. The members of the local, indigenous church are the best people to reach their community with the Gospel. They speak the same language, look the same, and understand the culture. By giving the local church the responsibility, allowing them to be in the driver's seat, we will be able to empower them with skills that will meet the biggest needs in their own community. Missions is designed to be a relay race. We will discuss seven principles to assist us in our short term mission trips to have sustained, long term impact without creating dependency.

The United States spends more money per capita for health care costs than any developed country in the world. It, also, has the worst health outcomes of any developed country. This presentation will review US health disparities in marginalized communities from the lens of health equity, health inequality, health disparities, and social determinants of health. The health care outcome review will be made nationally, regionally, and locally in the context of historical and current policy decisions affecting US health care outcomes. The deficiencies of the current system are underscored in the increased disease burden of COVID-19 cases and mortality in US marginalized communities mirroring similar occurrences in chronic disease manifestations. Recognition and identification of factors contributing to health inequity is the first step in achieving improved health care outcomes in marginalized domestic populations. Participants are encouraged to take the Harvard Implicit Bias test prior to this session at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

The Present state of Missions will give fellow Christians especially from the Global North to see and experience the movement of God's Spirit in the Global South, Africa, Asia, and Latin America! A Taste of Missions on the African Continent