To the ends of the earth
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
What people hear at the Global Missions Health Conference at Southeast changes the direction of their lives.
It happens to the hundreds of students who come from medical schools across the country, along with doctors, dentists and physical therapists who learn how to use their
skills to share the Gospel.
This year, the conference will be at Southeast's Blankenbaker Campus Nov. 10 to 12. It will feature more than 100 breakout sessions, covering topics from malaria in children,
snake and insect bites to emergency dental care. There also will be 175 organizations in the exhibit hall where people can connect with mission agencies around the world.
Each day of the conference is packed with worship, learning and networking.
“This is where you can hear from the best and connect with world-class organizations health missions,” said Will Rogers, executive director of the GMHC. “Christ met the basic
needs of people. That’s what medical evangelists do. When thousands of them meet together in one place to learn and connect with others who have the same goals, God
works in incredible ways.”
Dr. Charlie Vittitow, who leads International Missions at Southeast, said what he learned at the conference changed everything.
“At first I wondered why I was there,” he said. “I believed God had a plan for my life, but I never considered how He could use my skills as a dentist to share the Gospel.”
The conference was the catalyst to train lay dentists around the world to share the Gospel while relieving suffering.
This is the fifteenth year of the conference at Southeast. Plenary sessions with speakers from around the world are free and open to the public.
People will hear Kingspride Hammond, who leads Alabaster Ministries in Ghana, Dr. Gil Odendaal from Saddleback Church in California, Nathan Cook, who leads Christ
Community Ministries in Memphis and from Dr. Rick Donlon, one of the founders of Christ Community Health Services.
Donlon is the keynote speaker on Saturday, Nov. 12.
When graduating from medical school, he made a pact with three other physicians to start a medical clinic that would serve the poor.
They chose Memphis, one of the most underserved areas in the United States. The city has one of the highest mortality rates for infants, the largest food stamp office in the
country and a high percentage of people who do not have health insurance.
“The goal was to serve the forgotten poor living among us,” Donlon said. “It’s difficult for many to realize that there are 42 million Americans living without health insurance and
another 36 million who rely on Medicaid but have a difficult time finding someone who will care for them.”
The plan was to open the clinic and care for patients in Jesus’ name.
“We thought we would move, make sacrifices, start a clinic in a needy place, we would stamp out disease, people would embrace the Christian faith and make hordes of new
disciples,” Donlon said.
But it took time to build trust.
They met patients like Fred, a man in his 30s who had been HIV-positive for 10 years. He came to Christ Community Health Fellowship after multiple admissions to the local
county hospital for serious infections.
“When we first saw Fred, he was dying,” Donlon said. “Though he knew about his disease and the possibility of treatment, he had never been willing to attend the local public
HIV clinic. His reasons were a complex combination of shame, denial and a culturally rooted distrust of the medical establishment.”
In time, doctors and nurses at Christ Community were able to establish a degree of trust and convinced Fred to take anti-HIV medications.
“By God’s grace, they worked quickly and powerfully,” Donlon said. “After less than three months of treatment, Fred’s appetite returned and he gained weight, his HIV was
suppressed and his immune system began to grow stronger.”
Donlon said he will never forget the day Fred returned to the clinic to introduce his new wife to the staff.
“Fred and I are big guys, but when we recalled how far he had come, we hugged and cried like babies,” Donlon said.
That level of caring and involvement with patients is the goal at Christ Community Health Fellowship.
Fifteen years later, Christ Community has grown to include six health centers, three dental clinics and a family medicine residency program. Thirty full-time physicians, 15 nurse
practitioners and six dentists care for more than 125,000 patients and deliver 1,000 babies each year.
Donlon, his wife and seven children live in the Binghamton community within walking distance of the clinic. His children attend the local public school. They have started a
house church that meets in their home and includes neighbors and friends in the community.
In the last 15 years, the clinic has become a training center for young doctors and nurses who work among radical Hindus and Muslims in dangerous areas of the world.
While in training at Christ Community, young doctors Joe and Sima—their last names have been withheld to protect their identity—lived and worked with refugees in the
neighborhood, quietly providing housing for needy neighbors and starting a boys’ club that continues to meet every week.
After living and working in Memphis for five years, they moved to rural India where they served low-caste Hindus.
Brent and Jodi—their names also have been withheld to protect their identity—trained at Christ Community before moving to Afghanistan to oversee a tuberculosis treatment
project.
In cooperation with the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme, their work grew to encompass thousands of patients in hundreds of villages. In an
unprecedented way, the project allowed workers ongoing access to an extremely and isolated unreached people group.
“There is no way to measure how God has used this conference to make His name known around the world and in the U.S.,” said Rogers. “Our hope is that people will take a
few days to come, connect and find their place in God’s mission to reach the world.”
Each year, hundreds of Southeast members open their homes to students and missionaries attending the conference.
If you are able to have guests, send an e-mail to gmhchousing@gmail.com.