No hands but yours: Medical Disaster Relief after the Haitian Earthquake

Medical missionaries will find their resources to help others limited in nearly every realm of their work-time, skills, financial, emotional, equipment and spiritual to name a few. We know what care is available to patients and come skilled to provide it. But many times we are unable to provide it due to limitations of many kinds on the field. How does one decide what care to provide and whom to provide it to? This talk will discuss the conflicts the medical missionary finds on the mission field as they serve to provide health care in less than optimal circumstances. Using Jesus healing ministry as an example, guidelines will be provided on how to effectively serve Christ in situations where care cannot be given to all as the medical missionary would like. A foundation in decision making and practical guidelines w!ill be discussed to assist the front line missionary with these problems on the field.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak has already killed more than 4000 people, and the end is not clearly in sight. During this session, we will put Ebola into context of other health problems in Africa and then review the presentations, diagnosis, management, and prevention of this devastating illness. We will also explore ways that we can get involved in battling Ebola, whether near to or far from West Africa.