Praise him for his mighty works! Psalms 150:2

20 Years of Transformation

     He has done great things!

"Come and see what our God has done,
what awesome miracles he performs for people!"
~ Psalms 66:5

In Haiti, a woman feared for her heavy involvement in voodoo is the first patient to give birth in a new Christian clinic, which opens the door to ongoing ministry. She commits  her life to Christ and now attends worship services in the community.

In a remote desert village, the clan leader is touched when a missionary physician returns for the third time to provide medical care for the clan, including the leader's grandchildren. He says, “This is the meaning of true love, that you would bring medicine for my family and then come back to check on them.” The same night, the leader’s son prays to receive Christ.

In a Nairobi slum, a woman with AIDS attends a Christian mental health workshop. She confesses that she engaged in prostitution to feed her children and is now so ill that she is planning suicide. One year later – after ongoing counseling and discipleship – she proudly runs a vegetable stand that provides enough money to send her children to school and purchase the medicine that keeps her well.

In Asia, an elderly patient is overjoyed when her nurse tells her about Jesus' love for her. But then she implores, “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”

They come from different continents, nations and cultures. But they have one thing in common: they are among the hundreds of thousands of people with great physical and spiritual needs who have been helped by a MedSend healthcare professional.

Twenty years ago, only God knew how far-reaching the impact of this fledgling ministry would be. At the time, U.S. missions leaders were alarmed by a growing global shortage of healthcare missionaries. As healthcare education costs soared, many students borrowed heavily and most of those who planned to be missionaries were forced to delay their God-given call to stay in the U.S. and work off educational debt. Many never made it to the mission field at all.

MedSend was founded to remove this obstacle by providing healthcare missionaries with grants that repay their educational loans on a monthly basis. Our goal then, as it is now, was to enable Christian healthcare professionals who are committed to long-term service to go fully prepared and free of the burden of educational debt.

And how God has blessed! Since 1992, MedSend has approved more than $15 million in grants for almost 500 healthcare professionals including physicians, nurses, dentists, physician assistants, veterinarians and others. Today grant recipients serve in more than 75 countries and they staff and run mission hospitals and rural clinics in Africa, Asia, Oceania and North and South America. Most are involved in training and mentoring Christian nationals as caregivers, a strategy that insures cost-effective and sustainable ministry. And through extensive involvement in community health education programs, many grant recipients are working to transform entire communities.

Yet to fully appreciate what God is doing through MedSend, take a look at just a few of the lives that have been touched – both here and for eternity.

Consider people like Ali, ostracized by his community and on his deathbed until he was visited by MedSend grant recipient “Theresa B.,” MD, who diagnosed his connective tissue disorder and got him the treatment he needed.

“I work in a country where it is illegal to share the gospel with people – we need a platform to be here,” she explains. “Most of the people I work with have never seen a doctor and therefore have quite complex sicknesses. I am fluent in their language and able to use my medical skills to get into people’s homes where I help them physically, share the gospel with them and pray for them. We have seen some come to faith in Jesus Christ as a result of our ministry and shared the good news with many thousands.”

Among those who have become Christ-followers are Ali and his family. Why?

“I knew those of my religion had left me to die, scorning me, saying it was my fault and telling people I had taken drugs,” he says. “But you followers of Jesus Christ helped me and prayed for me and showed me a way that I had never known.”

Or consider Achu, a teenager in Sudan who was slowly dying from an infected leg wound. Unable to afford medical treatment, she prayed for a miracle. Through a series of amazing events, she found her way to a hospital in Kenya where MedSend surgeon Dan Galat, MD, serves.

“As our orthopedic team evaluated Achu, the foul smell of necrotic flesh was strong, and our first thought was there is no way to save her leg,” Dr. Galat says. But they were wrong. After extensive treatment, Achu now walks without a limp and her wound is almost fully healed.

“What is most striking is her beautiful and continual smile, which, I believe, is the reflection of newfound hope,” Dr. Galat says. “She knows there is a God who has seen her condition and loves her with a perfect love. I am humbled and moved to worship the Father who sees the neglected, the abused, and the hopeless.”

At MedSend, we too are humbled to be part of a ministry that brings healing, health, hope and God’s love to so many. We celebrate the amazing ways that God has blessed MedSend in the past 20 years and eagerly anticipate what He will do through our staff, our donors and our grant recipients in the days ahead.

Thank you for your faithful partnership!
God continues to call highly qualified and dedicated healthcare missionaries  who need MedSend grants to serve the poor around the world. You can meet MedSend's Class of October 2012, nineteen healthcare professionals who are ready to serve as soon as their grants are funded by clicking here. They need your help to answer God's call!