Medical missions are a type of mission activity that fuses medical care and the act of healing with spreading the good news about Jesus. Medical missions can be found all over the world, in the most dangerous places in the world, and even among immigrant and uninsured populations in the USA.
Medical work is a tremendous commitment that one should never take lightly; it is truly a career that I believe you must be called to do in order to do it because of the pain and suffering that it entails.
I've been privileged to join with 2 short-term groups for a number of years and worked a long stint with a medical mission, serving people in Haiti, Guatemala and inner-city America. I worked as a medical interpreter, pharmacy technician and eventually as a patient navigator, which is a new field that is akin to social work. I also worked in graphic design, film editing, and preventive/sanitation health care teaching.
I currently work for a secular hospital, where I'm still able to share Jesus with others, albeit unofficially. Medical work is a great passion of mine, and I can also speak to the difficulty of balancing work with evangelism.
The great challenge of medical missions is simply being able to do the work of medicine while maintaining a missionary focus. The work is all-consuming, and there is never enough time in the day to finish. So where are the points wherein we can talk about Jesus with folks?
The balance comes from a dynamic shift in thinking. Is the physical self more important than the physical self? If I believe that the physical self is the most important thing, then I may find myself using all of my energy and time to heal people from their illnesses. If I believe that the spiritual self is most important, that will overflow automatically into my speech and actions. I will heal people physically, but I will shower them with the Word of God, a healing balm to the soul. I will treat them, reminding them of the Great Physician who healed my own soul and will do the same if they accept Him, Jesus.
There are many resources out there to aid us in how to care for people spiritually and medically. A superb book is Multiplying Light and Truth, by Stan Rowland. It's a difficult book to find, but in it is contained one of the best models I've ever seen and experienced in the integration of community ownership, preventive medicine, medical/hospital care and evangelism. Reading this book will give you far more insight into how medical missions should work, rather than reading any post I could write.
I would also recommend to anyone considering a life of medical missions to watch Dr. Kent Brantly speak. He was the first person on U.S. soil to be treated for the Ebola virus, which he contracted while serving as a medical missionary in Liberia, Africa. (Video can be accessed by clicking: http://vimeo.com/122761210)
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