Pictured above: Charlie and Frauke Schaefer (Alongside), Jim Ritchie (Alongside), Rick Allen (MedSend CEO)
A Vision to Care for Those Who Care for Others
When MedSend launched The Longevity Project, it answered a question few others were asking about sustaining healthcare missionaries: How do we not only help send healthcare missionaries, but help them stay healthy—spiritually, professionally, and relationally—for the long term?
That vision became reality through a partnership with Alongside, a counseling and care ministry with decades of experience serving global workers.
“Healthcare missionaries are human people working in a really hard situation,” says Dr. Charlie Schaefer, PhD of Alongside. “We’ve seen the trauma, the fatigue, the spiritual depletion, and it’s a joy to come alongside them and help them stay afloat, stay well, and even grow in the middle of the crucible of that amount of suffering.”
Partnering to Provide Holistic Missionary Care
Together, MedSend and Alongside developed MedRefresh, a mobile, condensed version of Alongside’s original residential program. These weeklong retreats are brought directly to the field—offering trauma-informed counseling, spiritual direction, and care for entire families.
“It’s very hard for very busy people to reflect about their work or about themselves,” explains Dr. Frauke Schaefer, MD, Charlie’s wife and colleague at Alongside. “But that’s what MedRefresh offers—a place to listen, care, and connect them to resources before problems grow too large.”
“It’s Going to Keep Us There Longer, Healthier, and Better Prepared”
For MedSend Grant Recipients like the Marcus family, the difference is life-changing.
“MedSend not only got us to the field,” says Dr. Marcus, who serves with his family in a closed country, adding safety issues on top of the cross-cultural stress that exists in low-resource communities. “They’ve taken care of us since we’ve been there. And it’s going to keep us there longer, healthier, and better prepared.”
“This is too good to be true,” adds his wife. “There are people who are willing to give their resources, their time, their money, their prayers, to help us. We don’t know [the donors], and [they] don’t know us. And yet, being the body of Christ, it really does function like that.”
The Power of Partnership in Missionary Endurance
This is partnership at its best: an innovative vision, a trusted ally, and exponential impact.
Together with our partners, we are building a structure of care around healthcare missionaries—so they don’t have to carry the weight alone.
Your gift today helps expand this vital care to more missionaries and families who are serving in the hardest places.
