Category: Medical culture
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Why health is more than medical care
Why is health more than just medical care? Here are some reasons: Medical care tends to address matters of the body but not of the spirit. As medical professionals we are trained to diagnose, treat and manage medical conditions. We seek to apply scientific evidence to our craft. And yet health is something more than…
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Too much to do? Time to re-examine our own assumptions!
Stress and burnout are recognized themes in medical missions. One source of stress is the sheer magnitude of physical needs; one billion people in our world have no access to a trained health worker and healthcare workers often stand in the gap. In the face of overwhelming need how do we maintain healthy margins? Overextended,…
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Finding meaning as a Christian in mission
Kathryn Butler is a trauma and critical care surgeon who recently left clinical practice to homeschool her children. She teaches at Harvard Medical School, and has contributed to the literature on surgical critical care and medical education. She and her family live in the woods north of Boston. This is her journey from medical mission…
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Third culture leadership
Mission leadership should include ‘bridge people’ who embody the diversity of our pluarlistic world.
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Zeal without Burnout: Seven keys to a lifelong ministry of sustainable sacrifice
We want zeal in healthcare missions, but a zeal from being called, not driven. Here are some quotes from a helpful book.
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Are we losing our compassion?
When we reflect on the reasons to come alongside those who are hurting physically and serve them around the world, compassion must be the #1 reason. It was the foundation of the early church’s response to human suffering around them, even before medical care became more professional. The prophet Malachi exhorts God’s people to “do…
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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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The Ephesian Moment — one body, many parts
Mission medical workers want to see healing of the body, the child with malaria, the mother suffering with postpartum depression, the young man wounded in a fight. But there is another body we want to see healed, the body of Christ. In Acts chapter 15 we read, “And some men came down from Judea and…