Often lesser-informed people refer to medical missions as “social work.”
From my perspective, it is one of the most effective ways to reach people for Christ IF the spiritual work is intentionally focused on.
If only the medical aspect is focused on, it can be all-consuming.
Thus, there must be a somewhat detailed plan to try to share the Truth with every inpatient. Sharing with every outpatientis more difficult if the clinic is busy, but it should still be the goal.
When people have health needs, they’ll seek help– especially if they have pain or their medical problem is interfering with their daily routine .
Here, in Chad, this may mean going to a traditional healer where they may make incisions in their skin over the part of the body that hurts, or worse, burn the skin with a hot steel rod. Even babies are abused out of ignorance or under the control of the Evil One.
Sometimes patients even lose life or limb when an arm or leg with a presumed fracture is splinted so tightly that the circulation is compromised and the result is gangrene. Often this is when the patient is finally brought to us.
I’ve found patients will listen to the truth about Jesus when they have a poor prognosis or are terminal. Several here have put their trust in Jesus for salvation under such circumstances. There is a rich ministry among these sad cases.
Overall, the medical arena allows patients to see Jesus and His love and compassion alive in His disciples as they serve the patients and each other.
If a person is suffering, kindness and compassion along with efforts to help them is an International language well-understood by the recipient. These patients come from all corners of Chad and most tribes, and they seek us out.
Blessings,
Bert