For 19 years, MedAdvance has been an annual International Mission Board event that promotes global healthcare strategies to reach the lost. Earlier this month, the conference opened a new chapter.
More than 120 healthcare professionals, pastors, missionaries and ministry leaders from across Latin America and beyond gathered in Paraguay Sept. 3-5 for the first international MedAdvance event. Participants believe this milestone could help mobilize a new generation of global healthcare missionaries.
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Hosted in partnership with Centro Médico Bautista, a Baptist hospital in Paraguay, this MedAdvance drew 121 participants representing 15 countries across the Americas, along with guests from India and Indonesia. The gathering combined plenary sessions, breakout discussions, hands-on training and collaboration among leaders of Baptist hospitals throughout the region.
Tom Hicks, IMB director of global health strategies, said he was encouraged by the participants.
“The highlight of the week was the interest that doctors and nurses showed and the potential for future global missionary partners,” Hicks said.
The conference was preceded by a hospital consortium that brought together representatives from six Baptist hospitals. Steve Spann, longtime physician and advisor to MedAdvance initiatives, noted the consortium drew leaders of hospitals that trace their roots to mission hospitals established through the work of the IMB. He acknowledged the platform provided for leaders to share best practices, exchange expertise and strengthen their collective impact in caring for patients and sharing the gospel.
“One of the greatest strengths of the meeting was the openness and collegial spirit among participants,” Spann said. Regarding MedAdvance Paraguay overall, he said, “People were very engaged, eager to learn and committed to supporting one another in providing excellent medical care and the advancement of the gospel.”
Utilizing ‘healthy strategy’
Hicks agreed with Spann how the meetings in Paraguay focused on connecting needs with those looking to serve in healthcare missions.
“It’s exciting to see them working together across language boundaries,” he said. “We started to see mission leaders asking, ‘How can I mobilize my people?’ or ‘How can we use health strategy more effectively in what we’re already doing?’”
One example came from a missions pastor connected to a Houston church who attended MedAdvance in Tampa, Florida, earlier this year. Inspired by what he learned, he returned home, shared the vision with church leaders and then traveled with two others to Paraguay to explore opportunities for mobilizing Hispanic healthcare professionals for global missions.
For Leah Brown, an IMB health strategies coach who has served in Peru for 13 years, the most significant aspect of the event was seeing Latin American believers and healthcare leaders embrace ownership of the gathering.
“My hope was that they would feel like, ‘This is ours. This is Latin America,’” Brown said. “And I do feel that happened in a big way.”
Brown said the conference demonstrated a strong partnership between IMB personnel and leaders from Centro Médico Bautista.
“It was just this beautiful kind of equal partnership of IMB with the Paraguayan doctors and Centro Médico Bautista that led that time,” she said. “They were very well prepared to receive us and to lead everything from the front end.”
‘Wanting to go’
That sense of local ownership extended beyond logistics. Brown said she was encouraged by the passion she observed among Latin American healthcare professionals who are considering cross-cultural ministry opportunities.
“Latin Americans identify themselves as wanting to go,” Brown said. “They are asking the questions from the very start: ‘How can I use my background to serve? Where can I go to serve?’ I see this fire in them, and they’re excited.”
The conference featured plenary sessions on the core missionary task, global mission partnerships, member care and healthcare missions around the world. Participants also attended breakout sessions tailored to the needs identified by Latin American partners.
Topics included engaging Muslims, Hindus and atheists, ministry among urban settlements, digital engagement strategies and ministry in cultures influenced by folk Catholicism.
One breakout session on digital engagement highlighted how online outreach can open doors for gospel conversations. Brown recalled hearing the story of a woman undergoing cancer treatment who responded to a social media advertisement, connected with ministry workers and eventually professed faith in Christ. Several members of her family later did the same.
Another session explored how religious beliefs and cultural traditions vary across Latin America and how believers can address spiritual questions through Scripture.
Saturday’s program concluded with intensive training related to trauma healing and the SALINE Process, an approach to integrating healthcare ministry with gospel engagement.
Organizers reported receiving 42 commitment cards from participants interested in next steps. During the event, they distributed 100 copies of “Preach and Heal” in Spanish. Written by former IMB missionary Charles Fielding, “Preach and Heal” offers a framework on how to do healthcare missions in the modern setting.
‘Can’t do this alone’
Beyond attendance numbers, however, leaders saw evidence of a larger shift taking place in global missions.
“We can’t do this alone,” Brown said. “We really need our national partners, global missionary partners. We really need them. We need to do this together.”
Brown said local believers often have cultural understanding and relational access that foreign workers cannot easily replicate.
“Seeing how this went with Latin American MedAdvance was a great confirmation that we’re moving forward in this,” she said.
Hicks believes the excitement surrounding the event has already created momentum for similar gatherings in other regions of the world. Participants repeatedly asked organizers about future events and how they could become involved.
“I heard several times during the event, people would say, ‘OK, when you do this next year, we want to know about this,’” Hicks said.
Brown left Paraguay with a similar sense of anticipation.
“I think the Lord’s moving in really beautiful ways,” she said. “This is going to have an ongoing effect and impact. I see that, and I’m super excited about it.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Chris Doyle and originally published by the International Mission Board.
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