Prescription for Renewal combines spiritual growth with practical training to encourage medical missionaries to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Can the significance of one human life be measured? How great is its value?
One of the recurring themes throughout the 33rd Prescription for Renewal conference was the inherent, God-endowed worth and dignity of every person—from children developing in their mothers’ wombs to the social outcasts to the physically needy trapped in the ditches of life. And though all are created in the image of their Creator, no one is immune to the ravages of suffering and sin.
Praise God there is Good News through Jesus Christ, and the Christian medical professionals who gathered for the Aug. 15-18 event in Orlando, Florida, received a personal challenge to use their skills for the spread of the Gospel across the globe. Missionary medicine is uniquely suited to cut through strongholds and barriers—be they cultural or political or religious—and speak to the needs of every human heart.
Edward Graham, COO for Samaritan’s Purse, emphasized the importance of medical missions to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are some challenging areas in the world where a preacher in the pulpit simply doesn’t have access, said Samaritan’s Purse Chief Operating Officer Edward Graham in his welcoming remarks to the 750 attendees. “Christ has called us…to go out around the world and to seek those who are hurting and suffering, those in the closed parts of the world, and to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
More than 60 medical education seminars and spiritual enrichment classes were offered at this year’s conference. There were also testimonies from individuals who have served on the field, as well as morning and evening group worship and dynamic Bible teaching. The conference drew a mix of participants ranging from seasoned missionaries to medical students and others who are contemplating taking their first overseas mission trip.
Hundreds packed the auditorium in Orlando each day to hear from several distinguished speakers.
Edward Graham highlighted the story of Rahab, a prostitute who was used by God to protect two Hebrew spies (Joshua 2). When the city of Jericho was destroyed, the lives of Rahab and her family were spared.
“Rahab believed in the God of Israel. She was an unlikely person who changed the course of history. She was in the lineage of King David [his great-great grandmother]. She is a royal princess of Jesus Christ,” he said.
“There are a lot of ‘Rahab stories.’ You never know who you are going to meet when you tear down a bastion or a wall,” he said. “But you have to get out of your comfort zone.”
Attendees could tour various displays and learn more about how Samaritan’s Purse helps people around the world through medicine.
Throughout the conference, attendees were invited to seek God’s direction and explore the various medical outreaches of Samaritan’s Purse. Now in its 47th year, World Medical Mission is the flagship medical project of the ministry, sending about 700 doctors, nurses, dentists, biomedical technicians, and other specialists on short-term volunteer mission trips annually to our overseas partner hospitals.
In addition, our Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) respond to crisis situations such as war zones and natural disasters by setting up mobile field hospitals and clinics to meet emergency medical needs. Also, Samaritan’s Purse provides surgical care through our Children’s Heart Project, cataracts and cleft lip campaigns, and other specialty team trips overseas. As these programs expand, more workers are needed to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Cofounder of World Medical Mission, Dr. Richard Furman, encouraged those in attendance with his many years of experience in medical missions.
“If Jesus went about teaching, preaching, and healing, we should also,” said Elliott Tenpenny, director of the Samaritan’s Purse International Health Unit. “No matter who you are or where you are in life, God can use you.”
Relentless Determination
Keynote speaker Dr. David Jeremiah presented two messages to the audience, challenging them to tackle adversity—both on and off the mission field—with courage and perseverance.
The senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California, and internationally renowned author and Bible teacher spoke about the life of Joseph as recorded in the last 14 chapters of Genesis. God had a purpose in Joseph’s many hardships as He led him on a life journey from an Egyptian prison to Pharoah’s palace.
Dr. Jeremiah challenged the audience to remain faithful to the Lord during tough times.
“The problems that were given to Joseph were given to help him, to mature him, to grow him up,” Jeremiah said. “If God was going to use Joseph, He had to toughen him up. When Joseph came out of prison, he was an iron-souled man. He was a man of great wisdom and courage and determination.
“If you go to the mission field and face some challenges there, it won’t be for wimps. It’s for iron-souled people,” Jeremiah continued. “Troubles and trials will strengthen you. They will give you vision for the future and hope for what God can do in your life. Take your problems and use them in the mission field. Use what God is teaching you to help others.”
“If you go to the mission field and face some challenges there, it won’t be for wimps. It’s for iron-souled people.”
Jeremiah shared insights from his own past and current health issues and how God has nudged him to press on with grit and grace.
“The Bible is a book about people who didn’t quit, who kept going. As you think about the challenge that has been laid before you this week, trust God. If you hear His voice, He will take you where you need to go and give you grit to go through the hard places in order to get to the good places that He has stored up for you if you trust Him.”
“Don’t let anything get in the way of that calling,” he said.
Scott Hughett, director of World Medical Mission, joined the list of riveting speakers at the event.
For the Love of the Children
This year’s conference participants included 49 current and former doctors in World Medical Mission’s Post-Residency Program. Entering its 20th year, the program has sent over 260 physicians to serve on two-year assignments at our partner hospitals in preparation for careers in missionary medicine. According to World Medical Mission cofounder Dr. Richard Furman, an estimated 75 percent of the staff at seven of these hospitals is comprised of current and former Post-Residents.
Two Post-Residency Program alumni were featured speakers at the conference—Dr. Christina Francis, an OB/GYN hospitalist in Indiana who served at Kapsowar Hospital in Kenya, and Dr. Seth Mallay, the chief medical officer at Hopital Baptiste Biblique in Togo who began serving at the hospital in 2016.
Dr. Francis shared her passion to protect the unborn.
As CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), Dr. Francis is passionate about human rights, especially the rights of preborn children. “The more I read and learned, the more it became apparent to me that I could no longer be silent,” she said.
Francis described abortion as “the greatest injustice we face today as a society, because it completely degrades the value of every human life.”
“We have excluded the most marginalized and oppressed group of people—the preborn. What is our moral obligation to them?” Francis asked the audience. She urged a “shared commitment to defend the sanctity of life and to uphold the dignity of every human person.”
Dr. Seth Mallay brought many in the audience to tears Saturday night as he shared a deeply personal story about the love and loss of a child. That child was his firstborn and oldest daughter, Arwen, who succumbed to Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer two years ago. Arwen was 14.
Halfway through the Mallay family’s commitment to serve in Togo through the Post-Residency Program, Arwen received the shocking diagnosis. The family moved back to the U.S. so Arwen could undergo extensive treatments. However, the treatments were unsuccessful, and Arwen pressed her parents to return as missionaries to Togo in 2021.
Dr. Mallay opened up about his late daughter’s tragic death, exhorting the audience to look towards eternity.
“Arwen wanted to share Jesus with others in Togo. She said, ‘This is the ministry that God has given me, to share my testimony of hope and trust in God despite my sickness and despite my death,’” recalled Mallay. “She told us that she wanted to live her last days in Togo, and that she wanted to be buried in Togo.”
Since Arwen’s death on February 8, 2022, Mallay said his daughter’s faith in Jesus has been proclaimed to thousands of people.
Looking across the filled but hushed auditorium, Mallay concluded: “This is the eternal hope that we must share with our neighbors and with the nations. I encourage you to live a life that looks toward eternity. You will live differently.”
Attendees participated in hands-on lectures and seminars.
‘A Line in the Sand’
The weekend’s events wrapped up Sunday morning with a commissioning service led by Will Graham, the executive vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the third generation of Grahams to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. He was introduced to the audience by his father, Franklin Graham, the President and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the BGEA.
President of Samaritan’s Purse Franklin Graham introduced his son, Will, at the conference. Will Graham commissioned the audience to go forward in boldness and strength.
Will Graham cautioned worshipers not to let fear control their decisions and hold them back from serving God.
When the Lord called the Israelites to go into Canaan, Moses sent 12 men to scout out the land. They reported giants, and 10 of the 12 became overwhelmed with fear and doubt. “They doubted God’s protection. They doubted His provision. For some of you today, maybe you are doubting God right now,” Will Graham said.
Exhorting them to follow God’s leading, he continued, “You have to come to that point where you say, ‘Yes, Lord, I am going.’ There’s a point where you have to draw a line in the sand and determine you are not going to look back.”
“Go forward in obedience to God. That’s all that matters,” he said. “You are following the Lord, and He will never disappoint you.”
The 2025 Prescription for Renewal will be held October 2-5 at Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida.
Praise and worship started and ended each day in Orlando.
