Medical Missions Archives – Christian Medical & Dental Associations® (CMDA)

Christian Doctor’s Digest – December 2019 – #1

In this podcast, CMDA’s new CEO Dr. Mike Chupp interviews Dr. Eric McLaughlin, a family medicine missionary physician, about his book Promises in the Dark: Walking with Those in Need Without Losing Heart. Next, he is joined by Dr. Peter Saunders, the Chief Executive of the International Christian Medical & Dental Association.

Christian Doctor’s Digest – September 2019

In this month’s podcast, CMDA’s new CEO Dr. Mike Chupp interviews author and physician Dr. Walt Larimore about his new book, Fit Over 50. Next, Dr. David Stevens is joined by Drs. Timothy and Maureen Gaul, the leaders of Medical Education International’s teams to Macedonia. Finally, Vice President for Campus & Community Ministries Bill Reichart interviews Dr. Ron and LeAnne Blackmore about their recent trip to Macedonia.

Providing Healing After the Hurricane

CMDA Member Dr. Cindy Anthis found herself facing an unexpected situation when her local community in Texas was flooded by Hurricane Harvey. In this article from the winter 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, Dr. Anthis shares how her clinic responded to the hurricane and its aftermath.

Remedy: Healing for the Nations

In this article from the winter 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, Dr. David Stevens introduces Remedy, CMDA’s new medical missions conference.

Development: Genuine Change Through Partnership

What is the role of Christian healthcare professionals in authentic community development? Dr. Mark Crouch discovers this topic in the cover story from the winter 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor.

Finding Your Mission in Dentistry

As I entered “Ms. V’s” room, I could see her neck and leg braces, and as I came around the dental chair to greet her, I could see pain in her face. Two days before, she was hit by a car while crossing the road and her two front teeth were broken all the way to the nerve. It was obvious her entire body hurt, but she said the pain from her teeth was simply unbearable.

Missions: Three-Legged Stool

Missions: Three-Legged Stool August 7, 2018

“That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases…” (Mark 1:32-34, NIV 1984).

Renewing the Mountaintop Experience

In this article from the spring 2018 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, Bryant Stoudt shares seven ideas that you can use to apply what you learned on a mission trip in your busy, everyday life.

The Secret

Do you know the secret of making it to the mission field after you know God is calling you? Do you know the secret of faithful service to the Lord once you get there? Do you know the secret of overcoming the many obstacles you will face on your journey from heartbreaking medical cases, to burn out and the difficulty of being away from your family?

Critical Care: The Grey Zone, The Heightened Costs and Being a Missionary Physician

For every physician who cares for extremely sick patients, there comes a time when you reach a grey zone. A critically ill patient or ambiguous diagnosis confronts you at 2 a.m., and you are unsure of your ability to save the person from death or permanent disability.

Where Did My Joy Go…and How Do I Get It Back?

Looking over the edge of burnout, Dr. Betsy Manor had to ask herself, “What changed?” Did she make the wrong career choice? Does she care about people less? Is healthcare changing too much? In this article published in the fall 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, Dr. Manor shares how she overcame burnout to find joy again in healthcare.

What Are You Training For?

Most of us have been involved to varying degrees with different types of training: training for our specialties, to run a race, to get in shape, to eat healthier, to get better in our areas of interest. We put tremendous amounts of time into our professional training. But what about our spiritual training? Dr. Jeff Amstutz discusses this topic in this article published in the fall 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor.

Efficient Care & Spiritual Care: Can You Do Both?

What do you do when a patient asks for prayer but you’re too busy to take the time? In today’s world of healthcare, where efficiency is the driver, how do you take the time to include your faith in your practice? In this article published in the fall 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, Dr. Walt Larimore explains how you can offer both efficient care and spiritual care in your practice.

The Two Diagnoses

There was a time, a few decades ago, when most everyone interested in bringing together healthcare and the Christian faith was familiar with Dr. Paul Tournier and his work. In this article published in the fall 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, Dr. Wilson Grant explores how Dr. Tournier’s message and style of medical practice is increasingly relevant to today’s healthcare professionals because he anticipated the loss of personal touch in the practice of healthcare.

Send Them, & Go With Them

In July 2012, I was lying in an emergency department in Destin, Florida, wondering how a little gallbladder could cause me so much pain. I prayed for the pain to stop, and thankfully it did. The problem, however, did not go away. And as I headed home from the beach the next day, I grew more and more anxious about the upcoming healthcare mission trip to Haiti I was scheduled to go on in just two weeks with CMDA’s Global Health Outreach (GHO).

Transforming Ecuador

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: “Short-term mission trips are a waste. They do more harm than good. Americans only go on mission trips to help feel better about themselves and their lives. Short-term teams aren’t trained to serve cross-culturally.

My Transformation Story – featuring Dr. David and Carol McFarland

We could give you a list a mile long with statistics about the work we do around the world. But those numbers don’t really show the amazing things God is doing through us as we seek to be “Transformed Doctors, Transforming the World.”

I Could Have Been a Better Missionary

I’m an overachiever, probably just like you and most other healthcare professionals. Okay, that is not completely accurate. I confess, I’m an over overachiever. I’ve always wanted to be the best of the best.

Pyromania

I love a real log fire. It is a feast for all my senses. The flames dance before my eyes in yellows, reds, blues and purples. The popping and snapping is a never-tiring music and the smell of wood smoke fills the house. A real fire is so nice that I will arise from my warm cushy comfort to go out into the bitter cold to add logs and then stoke the fire.

Why should I do Short-Term Medical Missions?

Do you ever ask what you should get out of serving? What is the benefit to you? How should you be changed by the act of serving? Here are the heart-felt thoughts of someone struggling with exactly these questions.

10 Questions to Ask Before Sending a Medical Missions Team (Part 2)

There is so much need, and so much help that you can provide by partnering with people in an intentional and thoughtful way. Thanks to all of you that have blessed me and our hospital in the last 4 years by doing just that, and for those of you who will come to places just like ours.

10 Questions to Ask Before Sending a Medical Missions Team (Part 1)

I’ve read a few articles lately about how short-term teams are negatively impacting children in orphanages, how shoddy building projects mock underemployed communities, how quick-fixes can cause long term damage.

From Lost to Found: Transforming Hearts

My story starts out pretty normal, and you’ve probably heard stories just like this from others. As a child, I was raised in a good Christian home. I went to church on Sundays, was active in youth group and loved the Lord. I was saved when I was 11 or 12 years old, and I stayed involved in church until I graduated high school.

Making Disciples in Africa for Africa

Five hundred million heathens have not yet been evangelized, so it is computed! Yet our great Missionary Societies have reached high water-mark, and if they have not already begun to retrench they are seriously thinking of doing so. Meanwhile, the heart of Asia, the heart of Africa, and well nigh the whole continent of South America, are untouched with the Gospel of Christ.

A Return to Cuba: Opening Doors for Christ

Twenty years ago, God called me to return to Cuba, the country where I was raised by my parents before it was overtaken by a communist regime that vehemently opposed my belief in Christ and severely discriminated against people of faith. And yet, it was the country that desperately needed to hear about the love of Christ.

Preparing to Thrive Among Dust and Thorns

That was something we heard repeatedly from overseas workers as we prepared to move to North Africa. It’s easier to see the truth in that now, as I sit writing this on a bed covered by a mosquito net and listening to the loudspeaker from my neighborhood mosque, all from within my house surrounded by sand and Muslims.

A Glimmer of Hope: Reaching the Unreached

The patient had been paralyzed four months earlier by a gunshot, leaving him unable to move or even talk. The young man’s wife had lovingly been providing complete care, hoping her husband would recover, but Dr. Judy knew there was no chance of improvement.

The Reality of Today’s Long-Term Medical Missions

Perhaps our concept of a career missionary doctor’s family might sound similar to this . . . a poor missionary surgeon and his family give up a “good American doctor’s family life” to live in endless poverty. They suffer through a hand-to-mouth existence in an African country full of intrigue, Satan worship, witchcraft, fear, poisonings, arson, coups, Marxist takeovers, massive killings and persecution of Christians. Their children are forced to be homeschooled by their parents. They have jobs at the mission hospital from a very young age. Their future education and life is tenuous at best. They can’t possibly amount to anything and will probably die early of some terrible tropical disease that is yet to be unearthed.