Called to Go
For many, access to medical care is a luxury. According to the World Health Organization, more than half of the world’s population is still not covered by essential health services, and 2 billion people face severe financial hardship when paying out-of-pocket for the services and products they need. However, the compassionate individuals who serve on medical mission trips arrive with more than just medicine. Their mission? To bring hope to children and families in underserved communities for which recruiting and sending teams to serve can be challenging. What they accomplished during these trips is nothing short of inspiring.
Mission Family Medical’s Story
Doctors Grant and Brittany Marshall, owners of Mission Family Medical in Titusville, FL, shut down their clinic for a whole week while they took their entire staff to provide medical care to children and families in Colombia. This is significant because the team served an area where recruiting mission teams is exceptionally challenging, primarily due to safety concerns and negative perceptions that often dissuade organizations with strict travel policies.. Additional expenses and logistics also complicate these mission trips, particularly in regions like Cucuta near the Venezuela border where an additional plane ride is necessary.
But this team was not deterred. Its four doctors and four medical assistants not only made the journey but served in medical clinics to nearly 500 patients throughout the week and distributed more than $2,000 worth of medication. They also paid for several surgeries and other necessary treatments at the local hospital.
While the medical clinics were going on, the three non-medical team members provided children’s ministry, sharing the gospel with children through Bible stories, crafts, and games, blessing the children in the community with the medicine of joy.
They also packed and distributed food baskets for all the children and families in our Child Sponsorship program.
The Fruit of Compassion
Though the medical care provided through the trip was meaningful and much needed, the mission team also prayed for every single patient they saw, and three patients accepted Christ during their appointments!
Three mission team members sponsored children before the trip and three more sponsored children in Colombia during the trip. And even more children were sponsored as a direct result of the mission team sharing the great need in the community with their friends, family, and patients at home.
The team members got to spend time with their sponsored children – some were even privileged to visit their homes to pray with their families.
With more than 200 donors, there was enough financial support to fund every mission team member’s travel expenses, cover all the medicines needed, and restart the feeding programs in both our Colombia ministry locations for a year!
Are You Called?
The compassion and generosity of those like Mission Family Medical, those who are called to serve on medical mission trips, is a beautiful example of the transformative power of sacrifice and service, reminding us of the difference each one of us can make when we act with kindness and purpose. We are deeply grateful for the service given by every one of our mission teams and their commitment to changing lives, one child at a time.
Will you join us on mission this year?
Source: Billions left behind on the path to universal health coverage