As the date of the conference nears, I think more and more about the concept of volunteering.  A simple definition of a volunteer is “a person who performs a service willingly and without pay”.  The important things here are the key words “willingly” and “without pay”.  It gives me such joy to work with people who are doing something willingly, performing service because they want to, not because they have to or because they are seeking some form of remuneration.

To serve, to volunteer, is such a simple yet grace-filled activity that warms the hearts of all involved.  Everybody wins!  If you are currently or have formerly served your brothers and sisters in need, you know what I am saying.  If you have yet to experience what it feels like to truly give freely of your time and talents, I encourage you to take that next step.

Join us at the IMVC and see what this is all about.  Join us at www.medicalmissions.org today and jump right in; you don’t have to be an expert, just willing to volunteer.

How could a short-term mission be a bad thing?  I seriously doubt anyone who organizes a trip or participates in a mission has ill intentions.  However, just as with anything, it’s often the unintended consequences of our actions and even our best intentions that can sometimes be the most harmful.  I would like to cover some of this ground and outline some mitigation techniques.

“Short-term missionaries (STM for brevity’s sake) don’t adapt to the local environment and force their will and intentions on locals and only build resentment”. Yes, unfortunately this happens.  Typically this is a result of a team that lacks experienced leadership.  Additionally, this occurs more often than not from the lack of a pre-existing local presence or relationship.  Before embarking on a trip, it’s critically important to understand the culture and mores of your destination.  Overcoming this hurdle requires forethought, investing your time and a willingness to modify your processes and protocol.  Listen to and learn from those who are already there or have been there before; more than likely you are not the expert nor are you the first person to attempt what you are doing.  In the practice of medicine, this is critically important.

“During an STM, it’s really the missionary and not the recipient that is learning and growing, both spiritually and intellectually.” In my experience, I’ve seen this to some extent but I’ve also only ever seen situations where ALL involved are enriched through this experience.  Perhaps it’s surprising to those who are new to missions to discover how much they actually walk away with from the experience. Anyone working in missions should have the desire to give but no matter who you are, if you are human, you also love to receive, that’s only natural and not a bad thing.  It’s a good thing that by giving, we naturally receive…its impossible not to!

“Short-term missions are sometimes referred to as “Santa Claus Missions” because they swoop in, drop off some gifts and candy and then disappear.” Ouch!  I have to admit, this is true in too many cases and I’ve actually been a part of these efforts; efforts with great intentions but little lasting effect.  Again, this is often mitigated by ensuring that you are working with a long-term missionary or standing organization that can both ensure your focus is in the right area as well as pick up where you leave off and ensure your efforts continue in a lasting way.

“Iatrogenesis” Yikes!!  This is the scariest of them all.  Medical protocols vary quite a bit in different countries and cultures and are dependant in many cases upon pharmaceutical availability as well as the training of the local providers.  To treat a patient within a short-term window with a lack of consistency in after-care and the potential lack of availability of ongoing prescriptions are potentially disastrous.

These are but a few examples of perceptions involving short-term missions.  I feel strongly that there is a place for both entities in missions; strategic, long-term missions are invaluable and tactical short-term missions, when executed in concert and in a complementary fashion can also have a tremendous positive impact.

Do you have experience in short or long-term missions and have perceptions and/or experiences you’d like to share involving  an opinion of whether these efforts are “right” or “wrong”?  If so, please do!

Frustration sets in quickly when we can see what is happening but feel powerless to do anything.   We want to react now, react with swiftness, decisiveness and effectiveness.  Many of us have reached out, willing to serve, only being turned away.  The logistical hurdles of just reaching Haiti are in many cases temporarily insurmountable.  How can we stand by and watch and not do anything??

These are the current realities we are living with.  What we need to understand is that we all have a time and a place to serve; we can’t, nor should we all serve now.  Helping the people of Haiti won’t be a sprint; it’ll be a marathon many times over.  For now we will be most effective by supporting those who DO have access through prayerful and financial support.

What I implore everyone to do who wants to serve now but can’t for any of the variety of reasons that are out there, is to stay ready, keep your passion alive and be ready to serve when your call comes.  When the logjam that is prohibiting our immediate service breaks, we will go very quickly from having too many volunteers to not having enough.  In the months and potentially years to come, Haiti will need a sustained, focused, deliberate and visionary effort to help her to survive.

If you are an organization, plan with care and wisdom.  If you are a provider/volunteer, keep your fiery willingness to serve alive and keep watch for your time, it will come; be there when you are needed more than ever.

More than likely, you are either a medical provider or are acquainted with someone who works in healthcare in one form or another.  I believe it’s a perfect time to make a resolution to leverage those very skills that you have worked so hard to achieve, and lend those skills by getting involved in a medical mission.

Medical missions can almost certainly be described as an adventure.  Each mission trip, by its nature, is involved in serving the underserved, often in some of the least-accessed but at the same time, most interesting and beautiful places in the world!  Picture yourself in the Himalayas, in Central Siberia, Kenya, Nicaragua, Haiti…….all of these and literally hundreds more are very real, very active and current mission destinations.

Mission trips involve planning on your part both logistically and financially.  I urge you to look over your schedule for the next twelve months and decide what time and how much time you can afford.  After this step, the hard part is over: next you simply go to www.medicalmissions.org and choose your passion.  Your destination can be any combination of your specialty, availability and destination.

I challenge you to resolve to make a positive difference in others lives this coming year through volunteer medical mission work.  I can tell you with great certainty that what you get in return will be much more than you can possible give.  You will walk away with increased professional experience, personal experiences and memories that are priceless and friendship bonds that will last a lifetime.

Go.  Do. Serve.

Steven

Tune-in to the conference website and attend if at all possible; after all, it’s FREE!  You get to learn, share, hang out with cool people who have a passion for service and Atlanta in the springtime is gorgeous.

Steven

Some of the hurdles for physicians to overcome when they want to participate on a medical mission are difficulties getting away from a busy, full-time staff position at a hospital, never being able to leave their private practice or a combination of the two.  I think it’s wonderful and amazing when these providers to take the time away that is so very precious to them in order to help other on a voluntary basis.

The group of providers that have a bit more availability, due to the nature of their work, are the Locum Tenens providers!  As you can see from the descriptor at the beginning of this article, these folks have an ongoing opportunity to plan their work-year in a more flexible manner and therefore, hopefully, join in more volunteer medical missions.

MedicalMissions.Org has recently begun to reach out to the Locum Tenens community and the response has been overwhelming and inspiring.

Steven

A while back, I wanted a way, for administrative purposes, to delineate my professional persona from my personal one on Facebook.  As a solution, I just created another one of me with a different email address and password but same name and picture.  I know there are alternate ways of doing this but this one worked for me.  Now, if you do this, or something similar, do yourself a favor and don’t become your own friend.  I know this sound ridiculous.  Well, today I forgot who I was for a moment when I was on Facebook and experienced the strongest sense of what I can only explain as “social vertigo”.  Weird.  I’m no longer friends with myself

Steven

Many of the people who represent the latter number state that they don’t include a medical component because of the fear of the unknown, “it’s complicated”, or “we don’t know a lot of medical providers”.

“It’s complicated”: Yes, it can be complicated, but you don’t have to start with an advanced program doing open-heart surgeries….I was visiting with a church out of Kansas last week that started their program 17 years ago with a couple nurses and some vitamins; today, this church has indeed grown, over time, to include surgical missions.

“We don’t know a lot of medical providers”: Yes you do!  Your congregation is probably full of doctors, nurses, nurse-practitioners, physician assistants, technicians etc.  Also, I’d be willing to bet that everyone you know either knows of or is related to a medical provider.  The great news is that most people who have trained for years to attain their level of skills in medicine have a strong desire to give back, they just need a nudge or a direction and a team to serve with.  Oh, of course you can tell the world about your need for a volunteer medical provider on www.medicalmissions.org for free!!

Many destinations to serve are wary of pure proselytism and doors remain closed.  However, medical care is almost always in demand and providing this service along with your primary mission program will almost certainly open all those formerly closed doors.

Interested in expanding to include medical missions?  Visit our site and see what’s currently happening.  Contact me and I would be very excited to share more and answer any questions you might have.  Additionally, I don’t have ALL the answers but I know many organizations that do and I know they would be happy to help you along as well.

Steven

Medicalmissions.org is a completely free, non-ad-driven site that is enabled by the Jackson Family Foundation.  At the heart of MM.org is the desire to ensure that no medical mission team has unmet needs and that all medical providers have a great place to find places to serve.

Since I spend every day talking to senders and providers, I often pick up valuable and interesting nuggets of information that I will share on this blog.  Also, this is another forum where I can send out new ideas for a test-run to see if they will be hated or loved

Steven