He is a good, good Father.
By Team MedSend
Throughout the 10/40 window, God, the Father, is longing to be united with all of His children. Including the fathers. In lands where many cultures have a male-dominated society, the member of the family who is often the most difficult to turn toward Jesus are the fathers. We hear countless stories of God turning the hearts of mothers and children, but the stories of fathers specifically becoming Christ-followers are fewer in number.
There are a number of reasons why fathers may not feature as prominently in transformation stories—societal, cultural, religious— especially in the 10/40 window. However, MedSend healthcare missionaries have been witness to God touching these men’s hearts in profound ways. Many times, the turning of hearts occurs due to a MedSend grant recipient’s care of a man’s child.
In celebration of Father’s Day, here are vignettes about fathers, shared from MedSend healthcare professionals from around the 10/40 window:
From the Horn of Africa:
“During a family’s high-risk pregnancy, doctors thought the baby had hydrops fetalis but wouldn’t give a prognosis. Through the many doctor’s visits and uncertainty, we were able to share and demonstrate the love of Christ. John was able to read about Jesus with the husband one night in the ER. He enjoyed the scripture so much he wanted more and began reading whole books in the New Testament.
Unfortunately the outcome for the baby was not good. But God was already working in the husband’s heart. A few weeks later he had a dream that he became a Christian and “it was good.” Soon after, he began reading the word with another man on our team who has better language and has become a follower of Christ.
Not long after the first dream, he had a second dream. In this dream, he saw himself reading the scriptures and leading other men in reading the scriptures. After some time the man moved back to the place where he is from, and has begun reading the word with other men from his home country. He has a heart for multiplication and desires that more of his people would be reading the word of God.”
–MedSend Physician Jake Wamer*
From Southeast Asia:
“When a father brought a sick child who had a heart defect and needed to be transferred to the capital for care, we covered his costs. He cried and said, ‘You are not my family. Why would you do this for me?’ What an opportunity! He was from a tribal group so our translator helped us communicate, and he heard the explanation too. Praying for fruit from these encounters!”
–MedSend Physician Liz Horn*
From East Asia:
“Just last month I was in a small village. The people there speak a language I don’t know, and so my local colleagues had to translate (from the language I speak to the local language) for me. I felt so limited, because with the extra time it took for translation along with my inability to understand the patients directly, we had very little opportunity to move into spiritual conversations. During my time there, however, “Daniel,” an elder from the local church, came and found me to tell me about “Dorian.” Dorian had brought his son to the clinic and after taking a history and examining him, we diagnosed him with pneumonia. We gave him antibiotics and explained what to watch for over the next few days and when to return for follow-up. What seemed like a very “non-spiritual” encounter to me, actually became quite a day for Dorian. He immediately went and visited Daniel because he wanted to know why foreign doctors would be in the mountains volunteering their time for people like him. Daniel was able to explain in significant detail about the One who left His heavenly home and came to visit us. He shared about the love of Christ that compels us as believers to love others. Dorian was clearly moved. While he has yet to place his faith in Christ, his relationship with believers is growing, and we continue to pray that God will open his eyes and bring Him into the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
–MedSend Physician, C.G.*
From Central Africa:
“We have a good friend who is a believer. His brother however, is not. He is a Muslim. I’ll call him Henry, although that is not his real name. And it has been difficult for us to engage him with the Gospel in any meaningful way. The thing about Henry is, he was born with six fingers and six toes. His toes were removed as a child, but never his fingers. And they are a source of embarrassment and shame to him. But it would be complicated to remove them at this point. Henry’s son was also born with 6 fingers and 6 toes on each hand and foot. There was no significant attachments, bones or tendon involvement, and he asked me if I would remove them from his son. Knowing the disgrace it causes to him and his desire to protect his son from that, after examining him and seeing how minor a procedure it would be, I agreed. A few days later, we removed the 6th digit from all of Henry’s son’s hands and feet and bandaged them up. I checked on him frequently for the next few days and now after about 2 months, you’d never know he had an extra digit.
This opened the door to the Gospel.
After caring for Henry and his family in this way, I was able to have conversations with him about Jesus. About how Christ came and died for our sins. We also watched part of the Jesus film together. Now, Henry has yet to come to faith, but we are continuing to pray for him and any walls to sharing Gospel truths with him have been removed because of the way we were able to show love to him and his family in this simple way.”
–MedSend Physician Assistant, B.S.*
As we pray for the people groups in the 10/40 window, the MedSend supported healthcare professionals serving in the 10/40, as well as the resources to send 40 additional healthcare missionaries to the 10/40 window, we reflect on the goodness of our Father. We yearn to share the Good News of this Father with the people throughout the 10/40, as we strive to see wholeness in individuals, families, and communities around the world.
*names are changed/withheld for security reasons
MedSend has a goal of providing hope to the nations in the 10/40 window. The 40 for the 10/40 campaign was launched in an effort to send 40 additional healthcare professionals to live, serve, and bring the good news to the unreached peoples in those areas of the world. For more information about this initiative, visit 40forthe1040.org
Healthcare remains the only form of access as a Christian witness in many countries.
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