The nuts and bolts for students of an international health-care short term mission rotation. Choosing, preparing for, and successful completion of a short-term mission opportunity. This is for nursing, pre-professional, medical, dental, pharmacy, public health and other allied health-care students and post-graduate residents. Purpose: Acquaint the professional student with
(1) Blessings, advantages and benefits of an international rotation especially in a mission setting. (2) Preparing oneself personally, including spiritual, emotional and academic preparation, for the best experience. (3) Process of choosing where to go, permission from your school, funding, establishing mentors and other preparations to gain the most from the experience. (4) The importance of post-trip debriefing and mentoring while looking toward the future.
Cross-cultural Spiritual Ministry in Healthcare. How does one address spiritual needs in cross-cultural healthcare ministry? There are important principals and presuppositions we must understand if we are to effectively address spiritual needs and dimensions of people and communities. You cannot reach competency in wholistic healthcare missions simply in one or two hours. What is the goal of this session? To challenge you through stories, lessons learned, mistakes made and discussion to pursue a deeper understanding of the needs, barriers, opportunities, expectations and joys of integrated spiritual ministry in a cross-cultural international setting. Goals: (1) Setting the tone for spiritual ministry (2) Understanding the importance of culture and worldview (3) Establishing a team approach (4) Hindrances, especially to the western-trained professional (5) Resources
Why don’t they see that what they are doing is wrong! Why don’t they understand my explanation? Why won’t they look at me when I talk to them? Why won’t they make a decision…after all, any decision is better than no decision at all! Why won’t the listen! Learn why these and other “misunderstandings” result in “mis-communications” in the world of cross-cultural ministry and how we can overcome them.
Buddhists in East Asia largely believe in one of the dominant Buddhist traditions, animism and ancestor worship. They believe in karma, the moral law of cause and effect which demands that every soul suffer for its past “sins;” so there is no value in alleviating suffering. While very few Buddhists have come to Christ through the direct preaching of the gospel, some have responded to the compassion shown by medical missionaries since the early 19th century. This session features the plight of one leprosy patient, an outcast in society who gradually found new life through the lives of Christians who dared to touch him, clean his wounds and tell him about Jesus. This session will bring attendees face to face with a culture that is very resistant to the gospel, the reasons for that resistance and what we can do about it.
Short-term health-related missions have been criticized for inadequate long-term impact on local health indicators, and on the actual team participants. Costs for short-term medical missions appear excessive to some, given the limited impact on spiritual and physical needs. This session will examine the criticism and present proposed measures of effectiveness that can be used by short-term and long-term trip planners and strategists so as to support improved planning and execution of short-term medical missions trips.
