Medical Missions Conference
c/o Southeast Christian Church
920 Blankenbaker Parkway
Louisville, KY 40243-1845
Phone: 502-253-8353
Fax: 502-253-8076
(att: Missions Dept. Caree Coffee)
E-mail: mission@secc.org
Held in early November, this brings together approximately 1,000 people interested in short-term and other medical mission activities. The last one had 80 workshops. The host church can seat 9,000 people and has a very strong mission program. It's a good opportunity for networking, and the website has several very useful links.
Mission Finder
Web: mfinder.org
This is a tremendous resource for anyone interested in short-term missions or related activities. From A to V (agriculture to veterinary), it has links to the websites of dozens of occupational groups in which one can use his or her talents. Its medical section is linked to 131 groups (mostly Christian) sponsoring short-term trips.
Mission Harvest Ministries, Inc.
P.O. Box 551065
Jacksonville, FL 32555-1065
Phone: 904-356-4819
Fax: 904-356-3564
E-mail: MissionHarvest@aol.com
Web: www.alltel.net/~img
Contact Person: Rev. Dave Mizell
This evangelical Christian group collects, organizes, and sends donated goods to mission and other humanitarian projects throughout the world. Their four main categories are medical, clothing, food, and shelter items. They have sent over $61 million dollars worth in support of over 2400 missionaries and projects in 45 countries in the past seven years. Fifty-five large containers went out in 2001. Except for their shipping and handling costs, they don't charge for the goods they receive. Many of their members and supporters are retired military veterans.
Mission Training International (MTI)
P.O. Box 1220; Palmer Lake, CO 80133
Phone: 800-896-3710
Fax: 719-487-9350
E-mail: info@mti.org
Web: www.mti.org
Formerly called Missionary Internship, Missionary Training International has been helping "prepare and nurture Christians for effective intercultural ministry since 1954." They work with many churches and mission agencies, and over 12,000 people have gone through MTI programs. Their main emphasis is helping prepare for long-term service, but they also have resources for short-termers.
Major themes include language learning techniques, pre-field orientation, cultural and spiritual adjustment, and programs for returning missionaries. See their website for more information about this, excellent links, and a helpful collection of books and CD-ROMs that you can order from them.
Mustard Seed Foundation
3330 North Washington Blvd; Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22291
Phone: 703-524-5620
Fax: 703-524-5643
Web: www.msfdn.org
This evangelical Christian foundation seeks to provide support for innovative projects in Third World countries. It is particularly interested in overseas churches that are involved in urban concerns. They also have a scholarship program for potential Christian leaders in the Third World.
National Short-Term Mission Conference
P.O. Box 4706
Wheaton, IL 60189-4706
Phone: 800-636-3334
E-mail: info@nstmc.org
Web: www.NSTMC.org
They call their annual three-day event "the nation's premier training conference for short-term mission teams." The 13th one was in Atlanta (January 24-27, 2002) "to train, equip, and mobilize teams for short-term missions." Many workshops are offered on virtually all aspects of the subject, and many exhibitors are present. See their website for registration, costs, and other details. Their next big one will be in San Diego in January 2003.
Physicians for Peace (PFP)
229 West Bute Street; Suite 900
Norfolk, VA 23510
Phone: 757-625-7569
Fax: 757-625-7680
E-mail: admin@physiciansforpeace.org
Since 1984, PFP has sent over 240 volunteer mission teams to 30 countries. Their major emphases include teaching overseas medical leaders (both abroad and by bringing them here), providing primary, orthopedic, and other medical care, and obtaining and delivering medicines and other medical goods
Pioneers
12343 Narcoossee Road
Orlando, FL 32827
Phone: 800-755-7284
Fax: 407-382-1008
Web: www.pioneers.org
This Christian organization is now serving 72 unreached people groups in 33 countries with special emphasis on church planting. Usually participants must have a vocation (other than church work) in addition to their evangelism activities. Although they welcome younger adults, they are also very interested in getting second career or retired persons. They enable many people to go on short-term mission trips, and sometimes these lead to long-range careers with their mission agency.
Project MedSend
P.O. Box 1098
Orange, CT 06477-7098
Phone & Fax: 203-891-8223
E-mail: medsend@juno.com
Web: www.medsend.org
Often younger medical professionals, or students preparing for medical careers, would like to get involved in medical mission activities. Usually they have large educational bills to repay. MedSend can enable these folks to begin serving Christ through a recognized medical mission agency much sooner than otherwise would be possible. As of April 2001, 129 of their recipients are serving throughout the world.
RMJ Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 74748; Romulus, MI 48174
Phone: 888-893-8111
Fax: 734-941-8127
E-mail: rmjservices@juno.com
Contact person: Richard Beyer
"This is a Christian company and is run as a ministry." Many Christian groups, including several in this directory, use it to send large containers of supplies to mission locations overseas. The website has a lot of very useful information anyone needs to know who is thinking about doing this
Samaritan's Purse
P.O. Box 3000; Boone, NC 28607
Phone: 828-262-1980
Fax: 828-2676-1055
Web: www.samaritan.org
Samaritan's Purse, founded by Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham), has Christian social service programs throughout the world. One of their best-known ones is their "Shoebox" Ministry. These boxes are filled with Christmas gifts for children. This is a good project for churches and other groups. See their website for more information. Their World Medical Mission helps equip Christian hospitals and clinics and sends medical professionals on short-term overseas trips.
SATELLIFE
30 California Street
Watertown, MA 02472
Phone: 617-926-9400
Fax: 617-926-9400
E-mail: hnet@usa.healthnet.org
Web: www.healthnet.org
(Quoting them): "SATELLIFE seeks to address two major problems health care workers in the developing world face: (1) An acute shortage of current health information; and (2) Isolation of the health professionals from each other." By collecting health care information and distributing it via the internet, they help people in very remote overseas areas stay abreast of current medical news and developments. This could be very useful to mission hospitals and clinics. Their website has additional information and helpful links
SIM
P.O. Box 7900
Charlotte, NC 28241
Phone: 800-521-6449
Fax: 704-587-1518
Web: www.sim.org
This large mission organization serves over 40 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. Their main emphasis is on helping individuals prepare for mission servicefrom short-term to careers. They also help churches and other groups organize about 25 short-term mission trips annually. Their website displays some excellent books about missions.
STEM (Short Term Evangelical Missions)
P.O. Box 386001
Minneapolis, MN 55438-6001
Phone: 877-783-6646
Fax: 952-996-1384
E-mail: info@stemmin.org
Web: www.STEMmin.com
This interdenominational organization specializes in "bringing Christians to the mission field for the first time: any time, any age, anyone!" (quoting them). They organize short-term mission trips to ten Latin American countries and are planning for involvement in other parts of the world. STEM handles all the orientation and logistics. Their varied on-site activities are centered on evangelism, construction, and helping ministries. Be sure to see the "How To Publications" on their website for excellent, reasonably priced literature about short-term mission activities. They have a close relationship with Bethany College of MissionsThis interdenominational organization specializes in "bringing Christians to the mission field for the first time: any time, any age, anyone!" (quoting their literature). They organize two-week, short-term mission trips to seven Latin American countries. STEM handles all the orientation and logistics. The on-site activities include construction, helping children, musical events, and other things
Ten Thousand Villages
700 Main Street; PO Box 500
Akron, PA 17501-0500
Phone: 717-859-4971
E-mail: gmc@villages-mmc.org
Many impoverished people in Third World countries are talented in making crafts but don't have an outlet for them. Many Americans might be interested in their goods if they had a way to get them. Ten Thousand Villages (an affiliate of the Mennonite Central Committee) seeks to be an important link in that regard. They have global mission stores in many parts of the U.S. where overseas crafts from countries in which they are serving are sold. In addition, they enable churches to put on special events at specific times to market the products. This provides an important source of income for impoverished people and helps Americans get a better sense of overseas situations.
Transformational Journeys
P.O. Box 8571
Kansas City, MO 64114-0857
Phone: 816-361-2111
Web: www.tjourneys.com
Contact: Dan HickeyFounder and Director
E-mail: Tjourneys@aol.com
"Need a change of scenery? Have a change of heart while you are at it." These words at the bottom of their webpage describe the goal of this "non-profit charitable service organization dedicated to overseas travel and humanitarian service in the countries of Brazil, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Kenya."
Travel Health is on the mind of nearly everyone going on an overseas mission trip. No one wants to become ill. However, the risk of possible harm from accidents can be as greator even greater than from illnesses. The need to visit your physician or clinic (preferably one specializing in overseas travel) several weeks in advance is well known. The following two websites have a lot of useful information.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is affiliated with the U.S. Government and has an excellent "Travelers' Health" section on its website: www.cdc.gov You can find pages about travel throughout the world. They also include very excellent information about recommended immunizations and some of the diseases and other health risks that may be a danger.
"Travel Health on Line" is a website established by Shoreland, Inc. It has health and safety information concerning travel to over 220 other countries. It lists the most common illnesses that travelers experience and recommended immunizations. Their web address: www.tripprep.com
Travel Team Brokers
P.O. Box 907640
Gainesville, GA 30501
Phone: 800-938-8585
Fax: 770-503-7106
E-mail: travelt@mindspring.com
Contact person: Marla Day, C.E.O.
This organization specializes in helping church-related groups and individuals make travel arrangements for mission trips. They deal with 3700 churches throughout the U.S. Being a large organization, they can get very excellent air travel rates and terms. Get a price quote from them if you will be using public transportation for your next mission trip. Their website clearly shows their Christian values.
Trip Insurance is available from several agencies for people and groups who are planning or going on mission trips. If you are going through an organization that arranges trips on a regular basis, check with them to see if they have arranged coverage already. If not, or if you are making your own arrangements, you may want to contact this Christian firm. It specializes in mission trip insurance and issued over 18,000 policies for mission trip participants in 2000.
Adams and Associates, International
P.O. Box 5845
Columbia, SC 29250-5845
Phones: 800-922-8438 or 803-758-1400
Fax: 803-252-1988
E-mail: aai@aaintl.com
Web: www.aaintl.com
They charge $2.55 per person per day to cover such things as medical air evacuation, if necessary, medical care insurance, lost bags, and other things. Most American health insurance polices don't cover for mission trips, so it's a big relief to get this.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Ronald Reagan Building
Washington, D.C. 20523-0016
Phone: 202-712-4810
Fax: 202-216-3524
Web: www.usaid.gov
Since 1961, this has been the main channel for implementing the U.S. Government's foreign economic and humanitarian programs. Areas of focus include such things as agricultural development, health improvement, education, and humanitarian assistance.
Volunteers in Medical Missions (VIMM)
P.O. Box 756
Seneca, SC 29679
Phone: 800-615-8695
Fax: 864-885-9411
E-mail: vimm@innova.net
Web: www.vimm.org
In the past fifteen years, this Christian group of medical and non-medical volunteers has helped over 212,000 people throughout the world. In 2000, their 227 trip participants helped over 30,000 people and provided over $2,000,000 worth of care and medicine. Their website lists 12 short-term trips to 9 countries between February and November 2002. It also describes an excellent book about the kinds of things they do: Healing the World One By One: Reflections on Third World Encounters (by Susan Alexis).
Weather Information for Overseas Places
Five-day weather forecasts for various cities throughout the world are available on the internet. Access www.cnn.com Then hit the weather line, world, and the area and place you want.
WEC International (U.S. Office)
Box 1707; Fort Washington, PA 19034
Phone: 888-646-6202
Fax: 215-646-6202
E-mail: 105501.3520@compuserve.com
Web: www.wec-usa.org
WEC (Worldwide Evangelization for Christ) is the tenth largest mission-sending agency on the planet. As "an interdenominational, multi-cultural, multi-generational, transnational
Christian mission" (quoting them), it is active in over 70 countries. They arrange many short and longer-term mission trips, and their website is very rich in excellent material and links to other useful sources. They were also involved in the publication of Operation World
World Relief
7 East Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: 443-451-1900
Fax: 443-451-9975
Web: www.WorldRelief.org
This interdenominational Christian group has been serving mission needs overseas and in the U.S. since 1944. Part of the National Association of Evangelicals, their global ministry has helped victims of famine, poverty, and disease in nearly 50 countries. Major emphases include health and child survival, "LifeLoans" to help create small businesses in developing countries, disaster relief, agricultural programs, and refugee care in many places. They help resettle more than 10,000 refugees in the U.S. each year and are involved in many inner-city ministries.
Their department of International Health Programs is especially focused on helping with the HIV/AIDS crisis. For more information, contact Adele Dick (Program Development and Information Officer). Her e-mail: adick@wr.org
World Servants
7130 Portland Avenue South
Richfield, MN 55423-3264
Phone: 612-866-0010
E-mail: Lordyes@worldservants.org
This organization specializes in organizing short-term mission trips both in Latin America and the U.S. Projects include building schools, churches, and medical clinics. The cost of a trip with them varies according to destination, length, and specific activities (see their website for more details). They also hold excellent cross cultural orientation sessions for group leaders (either going with World Servants or organizing separate trips).
Young Life
11024 Chandler Road
Potomac, MD 28054
Phone: 301-299-8262
Web: www.younglife.org
They have programs in many overseas locations to enable both local and American youth to get together for Christian mission activities
Youth With a Mission (YWAM)
(North American Office listed below; other offices are located throughout the world)
7085 Battlecreek Road SE
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503-364-3837
Fax: 503-378-7026
E-mail: ywamnao@compuserve.com
Web: www.ywam.org
This is the biggest mission group in the world with about 12,000 volunteer staff in over 700 locations in over 135 countries. "Tens of thousands" more people are involved in short-term mission trips with them each year. Their website is extremely informative about what they do in their many overseas locations and how to make appropriate contacts with them.
