Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization Joins Largest Global Missions Health Conference with HIV/AIDS Consultation | Lausanne World Pulse Archives
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, “The kingdom of God is near you.” (Luke 10:9, NIV)
 Joni Earekson Tada at the 2004 Global Missions Health Conference. |
Nearly one year ago, Joni Eareckson Tada pleaded with an audience of more than 2,000 to, “practice Christianity with your sleeves rolled up.” It was the annual Global Missions Health Conference (GMHC) and Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic for thirty-seven years, was encouraging healthcare professionals, medical students, mission workers and church leaders to follow the Great Commission plan. Despite her disability, Eareckson Tada has been ministering to others for years through her radio and print ministry as well as Wheels for the World, (distributing wheelchairs to individuals around the world).
Eareckson Tada was only one of the dozens of leaders who attended last year’s GMHC, where Christian workers shared information on how to help those in need.
This year marks the 10th anniversary for the conference, which will be held November 11-12 at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. An accompanying HIV/AIDS consultation is scheduled for November 10. The largest event of its kind in the world, representatives from Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic will be among many healthcare leaders holding workshops. Missions organizations of all sizes—from the Lawndale Christian Health Center, a defining urban outreach in Chicago, to Samaritan’s Purse, a global, multi-faceted outreach under the leadership of Franklin Graham—will also be hosting seminars throughout the two-day event.
The Beginnings of the GMHC
It was 1994 and Dr. David Dageforde, an interventionist cardiologist from Louisville, was traveling to Ethiopia on his first short-term missions trip.
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Discouraged by not only the spiritual plight of the people, but also the sheer number of patients waiting to be seen, Dageforde knew something needed to be done. Many of those waiting for medical care would never be seen. The line was too long and the time was too short.
“You could bring a jet full of doctors every week to Ethiopia to take care of the people’s physical needs and that would not be enough to adequately do the job,” Dageforde recalls.
It was during this time of frustration and helplessness when Ray Giles, a missionary to Africa, offered Dageforde this advice: “David, you must give the people hope for eternity, because you will never ease all the suffering on this earth.”
Dageforde soon made a life change, giving up his full-time medical practice to focus on mission projects in both Ethiopia and around the world. God had given Dageforde a vision to help healthcare professionals and students use their medical skills to further God’s kingdom—to “heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you’” (Luke10:9).
In 1996, Dageforde began the GMHC.
The Growth of the GMHC
From its humble beginnings of little more than 200 attendees, the GMHC now attracts more than 2,300 Christians looking to serve God in their respective professions. With more than 100 mission agencies exhibiting at the conference and 600-700 students attending the event (with continuing education accreditation available in most healthcare areas), the event is an opportunity for individuals and organizations to understand not only the need of caring for the poor and helpless, but also offers opportunities to help those in need.
The GMHC is in partnership with several Christian medical organizations and mission groups, including Christian Medical & Dental Association (CMDA), Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International (CPFI), Fellowship of Christian Physician Assistants (FCPA) and Nurses’ Christian Fellowship. Among the many GMHC associates are Samaritan’s Purse, India Gospel League, Christ for Humanity and Fellowship of Associates of Medical Evangelism (FAME).
Tina Bruner, director of Missions at Southeast, told The Southeast Outlook, “The scope of expertise that is represented through the workshops and exhibitors is outstanding. People are coming to this conference from Asia, Africa and Europe, as well as from all over the United States.”
The Composition of the GMHC
With more than ninety-eight workshops available—a dozen of which focus on medical evangelism—medical workers are able to take home tools that will benefit them in any mission setting, whether overseas or in their own backyard. Workshops cover topics from cultural medical concerns to community healthcare and mission work with the urban poor.
For Dageforde, the conference is an opportunity to help medical specialists better understand how they can use their abilities to further God’s kingdom.
“If you would have told me a few years ago that there was something for an interventionist cardiologist in missions I would have told you you’re nuts,” he said. “The perception is that there are very few supplies and you can only treat a few things. This conference says that medical missions is way beyond that—beyond dispensing meds on short-term trips.”
One distinct advantage in medical missions is the opportunity to enter closed countries.
“Medical missions is a leader in closed-access countries,” Dageforde said. “You can go in as a teacher, a businessman—and in no way am I negating that – but Jesus’ model of caring for the whole person [is that] you take care of [the] physical needs and then address the spiritual needs.”
The latter half of this equation—the spiritual needs—is also addressed at the GMHC during workshops on Christian apologetics, evangelism and ethics. Several professors from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will be hosting workshops on missions apologetics.
HIV/AIDS Conference With more than forty-three million people worldwide now living with HIV/AIDS, leaders of the GMHC decided to include a separate accompanying conference three years ago. More than 8,000 people die each day of HIV/AIDS and fourteen million children become orphans as a result, and the conference is designed to address how this issue is impacting medical missions today.
Two years after the initial conference in 2002, the book, The Hope Factor: Engaging the Church in the HIV/AIDS Crisis, was released and picked up where the discussion at the GMHC had left off.