PROJECT MEDSEND a/k/a MEDSEND

The MedSend National Scholar's program helps national believers obtain the advanced medical training and Christian mentoring they need to serve people who are poor and underserved in their home countries.

The need for Christian healthcare professionals throughout the developing world is staggering, especially highly trained doctors and nurses. According to the World Health Organization, 57 countries are at a crisis point, with fewer than 2.3 nurses, doctors and midwives for every 1,000 people – too few to deliver even the most basic level of care. Persecution of Christians is also increasing in many of these same regions and, as it does, more countries are restricting access for Christian missionaries and evangelists from North America.

Yet many Christian nationals in developing countries who feel called to serve in healthcare ministry cannot afford to pay for the healthcare training, especially at the professional residency level that is required for surgeons and other medical specialists.

This program currently sponsors the advanced medical training for 37 Christian national physicians in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Since inception the program has celebrated 16 graduates including one national who is now serving as Chief of Surgery in a mission hospital in Africa. These National Scholar's are equipped to serve those who are poor and in need of medical care in their own countries.

We partner with International Associates - organizations with established in-country Christ-centered medical residency programs that provide professional training, spiritual development, and leadership preparation for those who have already graduated from medical school. The International Associates recruit, train, and oversee men and women who possess the requisite intellectual ability, a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ and desire to share it, and the moral character and spiritual commitment to serve in areas of great need in their own countries. All MedSend International Associates are U.S.-based organizations that provide a high degree of verification and accountability.

We believe that God is using MedSend Nationals as part of His plan to reach all nations with His healing and love.

This program provides grants and training for Christian healthcare professionals from the U.S. who are serving poor and underserved people in the U.S. MedSend's domestic grant recipients work at inner city and rural faith-based clinics, serving people who are marginalized, vulnerable and medically underserved.

Since 1992, MedSend has paid more than $2,000,000 in grants that have made it possible for over 80 healthcare professionals to serve in more than 31 Christian faith-based clinics in the U.S.

The objective of the MedSend Longevity Project is “In partnership with our Associates and other partners we will set out to improve the average length of service of the MedSend grant recipient missionary by focusing on resilience and sustainability, seeking to improve their professional, personal and spiritual well-being”.

The challenges faced by missionary healthcare providers started long before Ebola and COIV-19.

The Longevity Project does not replace or re-create member care provided by our sending agency partners but expands care to meet the unique needs of medical missionaries.

Unique experiences of healthcare missionaries

The 24/7/365 nature of the demands on the healthcare professional
The level of death and disease they encounter which has not been addressed by their training or previous experience
The very real and often valid sense that if they take a break and people will die, take vacation and more die.
The sophisticated model of healthcare they have been trained under is non-existent.
The available tools and infrastructure are limited and inadequate to have outcomes similar to those they had previously experienced.
The stress of low resource environments has a negative effect on their confidence, effectiveness, productivity, spiritual life and relations with co-workers and family.

At MedSend we seek to provide, to our grant recipients, that which Jesus provided to the disciples as He sent them to heal and care for the sick. Jesus trained, mentored, equipped, supported and loved His disciples. Our goal is to do the same for every MedSend Grant Recipient.

MedSend is a partner to the vast majority of mission sending agencies which send healthcare professionals to the mission field. We are in a unique position to observe and support the needs of a wide ranging expanse of mission healthcare workers.

MedSend Longevity Project

After many years of researching, discovery and modeling we have created a three-component strategy to address the professional, spiritual, and relational needs of today's healthcare missionary. They are.

Coach /mentors

Today if you accept a MedSend grant you will agree to be assigned a coach/mentor (C/M). In an ideal scenario you will speak to them for 12 months preparing to go and then for 12 months as you accumulate to the field. For the foreseeable future the C/M will be MedSend alumni who have served time in the field and are now back in the states. MedSend is providing specific healthcare related coach/mentoring skills to these individuals. On-going support and training will also be provided throughout their time as a C/M. We are hopeful that not only will short term guidance be provided but that long-term support relationships and friendships will be created.

Annual stress reporting

Starting in 2021 we will be including a self-administered stress evaluation test provided by Godspeed Resources Counseling (GRC). The results are confidential and sent directly to GRC. They will then be evaluated on a “red-yellow-green” scale by a GRC mental health professional. The red and yellow groups are reached out directly by a member of the GRC staff via Zoom. MedSend is paying for the initial consultation. A yellow indicator only requires the consultation call. A red indicator requires some form of follow-up on the part of the missionary. That maybe reaching out to their sending agency, scheduling additional Zoom calls with GRC or in limited cases coming back to the US to seek help.

In-person gathering of healthcare missionaries

Today there is nowhere for healthcare missionaries to gather and share their challenges, difficulties, needs and to report how God is working, with others in the same profession, that is healthcare missions. As a MedSend grant recipient you are now required to attend a conference every other year that will be focused on your individual professional, spiritual and relational life. We plan to bring pastoral, family/martial including youth and mental health counselors together with the healthcare missionary to focus on their unique needs and stressors. We plan to hold one conference primarily for those serving in Africa, one for the Asia and Pacific rim and another for the South and Central America’s and Caribbean regions. They will be held every other year in a location convenient to each group. MedSend through our partner Alongside Counseling will provide the lodging and meals, the counselors, and agenda. The individual missionary will be responsible to transportation.

We are currently in the process of working with researches at Gordon Conwell Seminary to create a baseline of healthcare missionary longevity over the last 25 years. Going forward we will measure what impact we are having as the project progresses.