© WBS & Dr. Ian A. Fair

What is Medical Missions? Why do Medical Missions? How to do Medical Missions WHAT IS MEDICAL MISSIONS? Medical Missions is an attempt to be like Christ!  It is an attempt to be caught up in the Messianic ministry of the Messiah! In Luke 4:16-19 Jesus referred to Isa 61:1,2 as the theological foundation for his Messianic ministry.  He began:         "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,         Because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.         He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives         and recovery of sight to the blind         to set at liberty those who are oppressed,         to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." In the passage that leads into the Limited Commission of Matt 10, Matthew records, "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity.   When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them...." WHY DO MEDICAL MISSIONS "Medical missions attempts to be compassion in action; that living demonstration of God’s love. There is an African proverb that says, "An empty stomach has no ears". The suffering can only focus on their pain; therefore before they are able to hear the Good News it is necessary to try to relieve that pain. Words without actions lead to the age old saying, "I don’t care what you know, until I know that you care." On the other hand, action without words also fails miserably. This would be presenting only "half of the gospel". The Good News story of Jesus must be communicated in both words and actions. In a world of desperate need; global poverty, world hunger and universal suffering, what will the response of Christians be? It’s easy to say that we are only concerned with the "spiritual" part of man, but that was not the response of Jesus. In Matthew 25 we have an account of the judgment scene. Jesus tells us what must be stamped in our passports in order to be allowed entrance into Heaven itself. The tasks that are mentioned are not difficult, as we might assume…"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,…. I was sick and you looked after me…. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Medical missions is all about giving cups of cold water and thus reflecting the love and compassion of the Great Physician."  (Janice Bingham, Medical Missionary in Residence, College of Biblical Studies, Abilene Christian University.  To view the full article by Janice Bingham, click here.)