Podcast

Spirituality is an important component of health, and assessing a patient's spirituality is a cultural competence of healthcare professionals. This session will review the scientific evidence for links between spirituality, religious practice and health outcomes, consider what medical and nursing association guidelines say about incorporating spiritual assessments into medical practice, and describe a practical, context-appropriate framework for assessing patient spirituality in medical and nursing practice.

Breaking the Chains of Dependency: Impacting underserved communities through servant leadership Underserved communities, such as those in Africa, have been the long-time recipients of outside aid, yet there is little sustainable change. Dependency on outside resources and hierarchal, foreign leadership remains. Could following the example of Jesus’ use of servant leadership be a way to break dependency and bring sustainable change to these communities? A small, community-based health clinic in Mauritania, Africa, was a traditional, non-governmental run clinic for 15 years, relying heavily on foreign staff for leadership and decision-making. Desiring to empower local leadership and encourage ownership, a new leadership style was introduced. Using a servant leader, holistic approach along with cultural contextualization, education, guiding a shared vision, and instilling dignity and hope, in less than a year a shift happened. Personal ownership, critical thinking, shared-decision making, and local leadership are replacing previous dependency.

The 5 most common neglected tropical diseases affect over 1.5 billion people, including more than 1 billion children. Medical missionaries working in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia will certainly come in contact with most of these diseases on a daily basis. It is time for us to do more than just treat them. Mass drug adminstration programs were developed to help control and eradicate these diseases. This lecture will discuss how we can be a part of the solution.

At Life in Abundance we believe that investment in the local church is both an effective and transformative tool for sustainable community development, sustainable community health, and sustainable social and spiritual change. There are stories, there is a model and there is movement taking place across the global south and I look forward to sharing this with you.

This session will describe unique needs of Millennial missionaries in the current culture. We will discuss how building relationships with God, self and others will aid in longevity on the field, contentment, struggling well, lamenting suffering and balancing stresses with supports.