Category: Growth and discipleship
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Highlights shared by SIM medical missionaries
We have 250 medical professionals serving in SIM. We recently surveyed some of them. We asked each one to share a highlight of their ministry. Here are some of their responses. One bullet point per person: The opportunity to develop relationships with Muslims as patients, staff and colleagues Working with vesicovaginal fistula patients (VVF). The…
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Myths of medical missions
Medical mission work must have an vision, a framework for understanding how it fits into the work of God in the world. This framework must come out of our understanding of Scripture. Many times however we can operate on faulty frameworks, wrong assumptions about God, the world, healing and redemption. Here are a few “myths”…
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Racial Reconciliation
Tim Keller wrote “Generous Justice” in 2010. He speaks there about John Perkins’ strategy for rebuilding poor communities (Perkins has been a leader in community development and racial reconciliation for many years in the USA). I think the principle he articulates from John Perkins is so important for a vital, cross cultural, gospel-shaped ministry of…
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Healer of soul and body
I have treated patients in Ethiopia, Asia and North America, and know something of the troubles that patients bring to doctors. Here we read that Jesus also attracted many people who sought Him out for healing. Since He is the Son of God, He had the power to heal them — and He did so.…
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A god-complex?
“When we look at today’s church it is easy to see the prevalence of individualism among ministers and priests. Not too many of us have a vast repertoire of skills to be proud of, but most of us still feel that, if we have anything at all to show, it is something we have to…
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Seeking the welfare of your captors
God removed His people from Jerusalem because of their sin, yet He wants them to seek the welfare of their captors, the fierce Babylonians. “Welfare” in the Lord’s command is the translation of the Hebrew word, “shalom.” Rather than retaliate in anger, or put their hopes on a swift return to Jerusalem (predicted by false…
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The wounded healer
When I arrived in Ethiopia in 1986 the country had been impoverished by communism, famine and long-standing poverty. I was trained in community health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and was ready to roll out a comprehensive community health program, working alongside the church. With hindsight now I can say that I was…
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What's all the fuss?
The Ebola outbreak has been a big story, with over 25,000 separate news articles mentioning SIM since we first brought Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol out of Liberia to Emory Hospital. But our aim is not publicity. It is God’s glory that we are after. In the midst of the suffering we have the confidence…
