Medical Missions Making an Impact for the Gospel

Dear Friend,

Medical missions has long been a crucial part of the work of Samaritan's Purse. I was encouraged to see hundreds of doctors, dentists, nurses, and others gathered at our annual Prescription for Renewal conference to learn about and give praise to God for what He is doing through our medical ministries.

Our Post-Residency Program has been a strategic initiative of World Medical Mission for the past 20 years. We send devoted young doctors and dentists to work for two years at a mission hospital in preparation for a lifetime of service.

I am grateful to God that He is raising up a new generation of missionaries. Today there are 110 physicians on the foreign mission field thanks to our program. One of those still serving is Dr. Seth Mallay. He spoke at Prescription for Renewal, and you could've heard a pin drop while he shared the powerful story of his oldest daughter, Arwen.

In 2016, we sent Dr. Mallay and his family to a hospital in Togo in West Africa. Two years later, Arwen was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and they returned home to Michigan for treatment. Despite all that man and medicine could do for her, she did not get better.

In her heart, Arwen felt God calling her back to Togo where she could live out her remaining days as a witness for the Lord. She and her family prayed about the decision and returned to Africa in 2021. Full of courage only God could give her, Arwen shone as a light for Jesus Christ, even as she faced sickness and death. Her dad said it was the best time of her life. Eventually her health declined, and on Feb. 8, 2022, her parents watched their 14-year-old daughter take her last breath and enter the loving arms of her Savior.

Since then, Arwen's faith—and the faith of her family—has become an example for thousands in Africa and beyond. As the Mallays continue to serve in Togo today, they are guided by Matthew 6:20, which says to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Dr. Mallay's words challenged us all: "We must decrease and He must increase. Live with your eyes fixed on eternity. Live for the One who is eternal."

Among our latest group of 11 post-residents is Dr. Tim Hereford, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who will be going to Kapsowar Mission Hospital in Kenya. His wife, Abby, grew up there as the daughter of missionary surgeon Dr. Bill Rhodes and his wife, Laura.

I remember visiting the Rhodes family more than a decade ago with Dr. Richard Furman, co-founder of World Medical Mission. We journeyed down some of the worst roads I've seen to check out the new operating room that Samaritan's Purse built to perform more surgeries, as well as to allow more opportunities to share the Gospel.

Dr. Hereford and Abby are eager to return to Kapsowar to serve as medical missionaries. Abby's brother Zechariah, another of our post-residents, is already serving as a surgeon there, and their other two siblings hope to join them soon. That's a powerful witness—to be able to spend their lives together serving the Lord! Day after day, through our medical ministries, people are not only receiving life-saving care, but many are responding to the Gospel, receiving the gift of everlasting life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pray for them and all of those serving in medical missions around the world.