Rapid-fire rifle shots grew closer, echoing from each direction. The cadence of explosions increased, accompanied by shouting just outside in the streets. Inside Dr. Steve Foster, keynote speaker at the 2012 INMED Exploring Medical Missions Conference, and his colleague Darrel Hockersmith barred the metal door and grappled in the darkness for protection from flying […]
The Joplin Tornado of May, 2011 on caught many of us well-intentioned but unprepared to respond effectively. I, for one, felt a deep sense of pain over the catastrophe unfolding just 100 miles a way. But I also realized frustration that at such late notice there was little I could do to assist.
Today’s citizenry and healthcare profession students are more keenly aware of the needs of marginalized people. I’ve noticed how educational institutions are rapidly developing curriculum and field experiences to match community and student expectations. As a result of such demand, however, health educators are grappling with how to best provide effective, relevant international healthcare
In 1989 I arrived in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, to begin making good on my commitment to assist the churches in interior city of Huambo as they launched a healthcare project. Those were wild days of civil war: roads littered with landmines, random military attacks on nationals and foreigners alike, wide-spread hunger,
JOPLIN, MO — The warning “Execute Condition Gray!” blared through the halls of St. John’s Regional Medical Center. Personnel per protocol began rolling patients’ beds into the hallways. However, this was no drill. Near the ER’s glass doors Kevin Kikta, an emergency physician on duty, looked up to see a stunned security guard tearing
The highlight of my INMED adventure is the exemplary people whom I meet in the course of “equipping healthcare professionals to serve the forgotten.” These include individuals living sacrificial lives in distant nations, students in the US whose enthusiasm for under-served people is truly inspiring, and the exceptional leaders in the INMED office: Micah
A sobering scene of heaven is described by Jesus in the book of Matthew chapter 25: “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on
Non-profit organizations are an unusual phenomena in China, best known of course for it’s rapidly growing economy and keen business sense. For the last three weeks I’ve enjoyed the privilege of being with Liaoning International General Health Trainings – better known as LIGHT. In the northeastern city of Shenyang, LIGHT provides both post-graduate education
As a college student I was inspired and challenged by the life of J. Hudson Taylor. He was a medical student in England in the mid-1850s, who against great odds moved to Shanghai to share the message and compassion of Jesus Christ. Taylor’s vision was to influence every province of that remote nation. Over
In our era of natural disasters, social unrest, and economic turmoil, this question is more than academic. We want our personal lives and our organized efforts to be significant, even virtuous. A first step is to identify with whom to invest our good will, and so the question: What people group is most distressed?