Healthcare Missions and the Kingdom of God

Everyone who has been on a medical mission has some embarrassing and/or hilarious stories of cultural or language blunders. Sometimes the events are just funny. Sometimes they can seriously compromise relationships and the intended impact of the whole mission, including our Christian witness. This session offers perspective, spiritual grounding and practical tools for building healthy relationships, avoiding, or at least recovering from many of the common mistakes in cross-cultural missions.

Every person has a worldview, a deep sense of what is real and how the world works. What we believe and value and what we do and say are shaped by our worldviews. All cross-cultural ministry brings us into different worldviews in missions. Our approaches to healthcare ministries whether in our home country or another are liberated and limited by (1) our own worldviews (2) our awareness of our worldviews and how they are formed and transformed and (3) our capacity to recognize and work with the worldviews of the people to whom God sends us. By the end of this session, we will have grown in all 3 of those areas. We will leave with resources for continuing growth. This participatory session will include learning from person reflection, discussion of Biblical stories, and the wisdom of other participants.