MIKE BELL

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

This is our 15th year of ministry, helping churches and groups find strategic partnerships in the developing world. We do this believing that compassion and justice are close to the heart of God, and that one of the most powerful ways to experience spiritual reciprocity, the exchange of spiritual blessing, is to get out of our comfort zone and see what God is doing in other places around the world.

For the last 15 years, we have endeavored to facilitate cross-cultural compassion ministry with long-term relationships between people from different continents, and at the same time also point those that are not spiritually committed towards a tangible Christian faith that displays the heart of God for the marginalized.

Isaiah 58:10 says, “If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine like the noonday sun.” I have to believe that Jesus had that verse in mind when he said, “Let your light shine before men, so that they see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven” in Matthew 5.

Our mission is ‘to glorify God by cultivating spiritual and physical flourishing through cross-cultural ministry’. What we do as an organization is first and foremost for the glory of God, to spread his fame among the nations. Revelation 15:4 says in part, “…for you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” We want to see more people flourishing and giving God the glory from among the nations, and it’s when indigenous local people of a nation see the righteous acts of God’s people, when they experience his goodness and mercy and the truth of His word, that they exalt His name.

As an organization, we are always looking for ways to spread that truth in developing countries, whether through our church partners or special initiatives. The fact that people from North America would spend their time and money to foster relationships with under-resourced people in developing countries sends a loud message to those communities. That message is: you matter to God, and you matter to us, and we want to see you thrive.

As many know from news reports, Haiti continues to languish with little central governance and gangs running the capital city Port Au Prince. However, the rest of the country continues to function, even while the capital is in chaos. Our partner, United Christians International, continues to play a vital role in the central plateau region, providing education from kindergarten through college. They also continue to support many church plants through pastoral training, humanitarian relief, housing projects, and feeding programs.

Last year a generous donor provided the funds to build the high school at UCI. This school just graduated its first senior class this year. It’s great to see God working in the midst of such hard national circumstances.

Earlier this year I went on an assessment trip to Ivory Coast in West Africa to investigate a new partnership and the missionary work being done there among unreached, predominantly Muslim-background people. We met a Pastor there and road-tripped to meet four missionary couples, a woman working as a missionary in a girl’s home, and a Bible translator. We got to worship with a tribe called the Birifor, that now has its first church, and heard from the missionaries about the various peoples they are going to be working among. It’s our hope to find individuals and churches that will want to partner with these missionaries in supporting their work, and even travel to Ivory Coast and participate in compassion projects with them.

Lastly, construction is well underway on the Healing Nations Medical Ministry Center in Guatemala! Once complete, we’ll be moving all the team housing to the building and begin doing all the medical work there instead of at the Christian school we’ve been utilizing.

I finally had a chance to see it in action myself last summer and stood in awe during our morning huddle, realizing I was in a circle with around 60 volunteers. Besides the team of 24 from the US, there were local doctors, nurses, therapists, a dentist, translators, and an elder from a church there that prays with everyone receiving care. I watched the clinic run like a well-oiled machine, serving hundreds of patients with excellence.

You can read more below about how you can be a part of finishing the building of this project.

JENNI DUNCAN

DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL MISSIONS

The Medical Ministry Center Construction is moving along, slowly but surely! The rainy season caused some significant delays, especially in welding the steel beams (The welders aren’t able to weld while it’s raining due to risk of electrocution). I learn something new every day in the construciton world. The welding takes the most time for the structure to be sound (especially to withstand earthquakes), so this has bene the primary focus of the construction. The foundation has been completed and the land now has a steel resemblance of the bones of our clinic. The steel structure should be finished by mid January! It is exciting to see the progress made week by week. We will start seeing things move quickly during the dry season as the construction teams can dedicate many more hours a day without threat of rain or mud!

During this time of construction, our team has been proactive in planning and envisioning what our daily activities will look like once we open our doors. These plans include a weekly diabetes and dental clinic, two chronic and acute care clinic days, ongoing nutritional classes, daily biblical counseling, a weekly discipleship program, children’s program, and worship/prayer time. We are also planning to host multiple teams in our guesthouse above the clinic!

We will be starting a new compassion schedule for when non-medical teams serve with us. This compassion schedule is intentional to help our teams work alongside us to minister to some of the root problems (physically and spiritually) that can affect the health of our communities we serve.

We are so excited for what God has in store for all of us this year! This would not be possible without God providing through faithful donors that have poured into us and supported our vision! Thank you to everyone who has given to make Jesus known through the avenue of medicine and compassion projects! We are so incredibly grateful.

This year’s banquet was an incredible success! Thank you for joining us to celebrate a year full of activity and growth for Healing Nations. We raised $67,500 toward our goal!

As you plan your end-of-year giving, please consider supporting our final push for the remaining $35,000 toward finishing the construction of the Medical Ministry Center in Guatemala!

A generous donor has pledged to match gifts toward the completion of the clinic up to $10,000! If you give now, your donation will be doubled up to that amount!

To give directly toward the Medical Ministry Center, click the button below.

To give directly toward the general operations of Healing Nations, click the button below.

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