Christian mission hospitals should be God’s institutions of healing in a world of suffering. They have the potential to ‘close the gap’ in access to healthcare and provide high quality accessible services in the most remote and needy parts of the world to those who need them the most – the poor and marginalized.
In 1993, my wife Ann and me moved to a remote part of Assam in northeast India. We were led by verses in the Bible (Jeremiah 29:11-13 for me and Isaiah 6:8 for Ann) to what God wanted us to do with our lives. Over the following 27 years, God took us by our hands and provided us with all the encouragement, strength and wisdom required to transform a closed-down hospital to a thriving institution bringing healing and transformation to many surrounding communities. (1) We were not alone, God brought many committed staff to join us over the years to make this possible.
I was privileged to be invited to speak at six sessions on “Medical Missions” at the (virtual) South Asian regional conference of the International Christian Medical and Dental Association in November 2020. I am not an expert on medical missions but spoke from our experience in walking with God and witnessing a great transformation take place in our hospital.
The video starts with a short clinical illustration to show why we need to have all our faculties focused on our work lest we miss a vital observation (a point discussed in the previous day’s question and answer session).
Where will our staff come from? – this is a burning question facing most mission hospital leaders. We cannot wait for people to apply for jobs in our hospital, we need to get involved in the lives of medical, nursing and paramedical students in their colleges. Only then will we have sufficient numbers of high-quality committed staff joining us. From experience 33 years earlier to the present, I talk about suggestions on how this can be done. A slip of the tongue at 6.30 – in the illustration, I meant “my mother” not “my wife”!
Mission minded students start their missionary work as students in colleges, I have mentioned several observations on how good practices lead to transformational impact in college fellowships.
What about staff who join our hospitals today? How can we engage with them so that they live and work to their full God-given potential? How do we retain committed staff in our institutions? How can we make our hospitals professionally challenging places for our staff – where they feel that their skills and knowledge are being fully utilized?
How can we provide a pleasant and fulfilling life on campus to our staff? I close the session with a story that illustrates how God can surmount the greatest obstacles and provide us with the staff we need.
The Sparrow's Nest 
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