We talk a lot about how we love partnering with organizations. So we wanted to try something new and do what we plan to call a “Partner Spotlight!” This will consist of us introducing you to our amazing partners and sharing what we love about them! Partner Spotlight #1: BeCause International
Did you know that many children in developing countries do not have shoes? We wake up, get dressed, and put our shoes on without thinking anything of it. In fact, we not only put on a pair of shoes, but we have lots of pairs of shoes to choose from. This is not the reality of people in developing countries.
Why does this matter to a medical team? Well, children contract illnesses through their feet because they do not have shoes. Over 1.5 billion people suffer from soil-transmitted diseases that could have been prevented had they worn proper footwear. These diseases can even lead to death if left untreated. Thankfully, we are able to treat many of these illness’ during our medical outreaches but, without shoes, children will likely become ill again soon. The cycle will continue to repeat itself, and they won’t receive help until our team visits again.
When children experience these preventable illnesses, it affects their growth, their mood, and their ability to attend school. The Shoes That Grow organization provides very durable shoes to children that are made from compressed rubber (similar to a car tire), antibacterial synthetic, and high-grade velcro. The quality of these shoes areimportance since the children will wear this single pair of shoes longterm.
You may be thinking, “Wouldn’t the kids grow out of these shoes in a few months?” We get it, kids’ feet grow so quickly and the need for a new pair of shoes always seems to be right around the corner! But the great thing about The Shoes That Grow organization is that the shoes do just that — they GROW! They expand up to 5 sizes so the child can wear them for several years. This is crucial for the shoes to grow along with the kids so that more shoes can be given to different kids instead of needing to replace the previous pairs of shoes that they outgrow.
The shoes come in a variety of colors: pink, blue, tan and black. The children love the shoes, and, for many, it’s their very first pair of shoes! Imagine the gratitude they feel for something that we consider to be a necessity instead of a luxury.
How We Partner: We distribute approximately 180 pairs on each of our medical mission trips. One of our trip volunteers fits the children for the shoes to be sure we provide the best options for them. Each pair of shoes cost only $20 yet they last for years! We are grateful for generous donors and partners that help us fundraise to provide the shoes for the children.
Help us obtain shoes for the children we are seeing on our upcoming trips!
You can donate now to ensure that every child we treat in our free medical clinics can have a pair of shoes.
One of the resources we always try to bring on our medical mission trips are expandable shoes. What are expandable shoes?? You may be asking this question, and its a fair question! Not many people have heard about this innovative invention that is life-changing for so many people. So let’s explore together what these shoes are and why they are so important for the people we serve in the mission field.
Our partner, BeCause International fills a very real need in so much of the world with their brilliant take on footwear, “The Shoe That Grows.” These shoes are designed to address the challenges of poverty and inadequate footwear faced by millions of children in developing countries.
Here’s a description of BeCause International’s shoes:
Adjustable Design: The Shoe That Grows features an adjustable design that allows it to expand in both length and width. This unique feature enables the shoes to accommodate growing feet, providing a sustainable solution for children who often outgrow their shoes quickly.
Durable Construction: These shoes are made with durable materials to withstand the rigors of daily wear and various terrains. The robust construction ensures that the shoes can endure challenging environments, offering long-lasting protection for the wearer’s feet.
Simple yet Effective: BeCause International’s shoes prioritize simplicity and functionality. The design is straightforward, making it easy to use and maintain. This simplicity also contributes to the cost-effectiveness of the shoes, ensuring that they remain accessible to communities in need.
Positive Impact: By providing children with durable, adjustable shoes, they now have access to something that will improve their overall well-being and quality of life. Access to proper footwear can prevent injuries, reduce the risk of infections, and enhance mobility, enabling children to attend school regularly and participate in community activities.
–
Why Do They Matter?
Traditional footwear does not work for much of the world. Often, the materials used are not created with nonwestern people in mind. In a world where children often have to walk for miles to access clean water and other resources, poorly designed footwear breaks apart quickly and easily. Expandable shoes are made from materials that can handle years of wear. Traditional shoes are also often very expensive, leaving them out of reach for much of the world’s population. Perhaps someone can afford to buy a pair of shoes for his young daughter, but when she grows out of them, she may not be so lucky to receive a second pair of shoes.
Expandable shoes adjust to fit up to 5 sizes, which means that as a child grows their shoes grow with them!
Another constant problem, in a world without these amazing shoes, is that people are often left vulnerable to injury and illness. Without proper shoes, you can imagine how quickly someone could accumulate scrapes and cuts on their feet. With open wounds like these, it is incredibly difficult to prevent that person from contracting infection or picking up a parasite. But with The Shoe That Grows, the wounds never have to happen to begin with. Which means that they are protected from injury and serious illness. Proper shoes are an important part of preventative health care.
How Can You Ensure That Children Have Access To Proper Footwear?
We’re so glad you asked! This month we are focusing on raising funds towards ensuring that every patient we see can have the shoes they need to stay healthy and safe. Without generous donors, like you, we would not be able to purchase these amazing shoes and hand them out to those who need them the most at our free medical clinics. Each pair of shoes costs $20 and we always take at least 180 pairs of shoes for a typical team size of around 10 people. When we have larger teams, and more people to help transport these shoes into the mission field with us, we can take even more!
When you donate towards the good cause of providing shoes for our patients, 100% of your donations goes to the cost of those shoes. Interested in buying someone a pair of shoes and set them up for a long and healthy life? You can donate now on our PayPal page!
Nurse Esther Ash wrote in this letter summarizing her time on our 2018 trip to The Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). We hope this will help you get a taste of what an experience with Mission Partners for Christ could be like. We would love for you to join our next trip!
Greetings, Bon Jour!
I have arrived back from Côte d’Ivoire or the Ivory Coast, The general language is French, and then about 47 dialects are used throughout this nation. I haven’t used French since my high school class about 35 years ago, but I was able to pick up some again to be able to understand. My team, Mission Partners for Christ from the United States, consisted of 5 medical doctors of family practice, 2 medical students along with a Nurse practitioner. There were 5 nurses, a licensed minister who helped fit glasses, a photographer who works for the Chicago sports industry, Shenita, my roommate, who weighed all the children and Brian who helped fit everyone for shoes.
With all the prayers that we received, we were able to be a very united team through all the long hours of traveling and seeing patients. In all, we were able to see and treat 1456 patients in 4.5 days. That was a pace to be set. We tried to see our patients in family groups. In Triage, where I was a part, we took temperatures on all the children and blood pressures on all the adults, and if they were over the age of 40 we checked their blood sugar and asked what they wanted to be seen for by the doctor. Malaria issues were the main symptoms. Now add to this the translator of French to English and then another translator for the native dialect and the triage area can be a noisy area. Having chickens occasionally strolling through and the hot sun beating down made it a different experience, but the smiles and laughter kept us going, and knowing why we were doing it made all the difference.
Our days started very early and, for some, even earlier as intercessory prayer covered our members, our travels, our partners and the people we wanted to reach. Breakfast of eggs, fruit, and croissants started the day, and the luggage was loaded. We traveled by vans to our destinations and were joined by our translators, our cooks, and other volunteers. We joined the traffic every morning and the adventure started, you could literally reach out and touch the vehicles next to us. There are few traffic lights in Abidjan and few painted lines for traffic and everyone wants to go at the same time, our travels took us hours out in to the countryside down deeply rutted roads sometimes covered in water. Remember also that there are NO roadside rest bathrooms, but we managed!
We were there at the end of the rainy season and were blessed to not be rained out. The people were waiting our arrival and happy to see us. The villages had to prepare an area for us to set up under tents which meant clearing the land and cut poles for the tarps which they covered with palm leaves. They allowed us to use almost every table from their homes. There is much preparation behind the scenes before our arrival — which our team leader and so many others with Global Hope Network International had already done. We set up daily and started the day seeing patients, giving out medications for high pressure, diabetes, intestinal worms, and general aches and pains along with treating wounds. We gave out eyeglasses and shoes that grow, and then saw to their spiritual needs as well.
Our first village was Effaoho, and they already had progressed in their 5-year plan to having a VIP latrine, a clean water source, and a school. Healthwise, you could already see the difference it was having for the people of the village. Global Hope Network makes agreements with these villages to come in and partner with the people to teach them healthy living and teach surrounding villages skills to use to generate an income. They do not take over a village but rather teach with an exit plan already in place.
We returned to this village a second day and people from villages further out came as well — creating the ripple effect that we hope for in changing people’s lives for the better and giving them hope. As we entered the village on day two, the children were jumping up and down in joy and smiles all around. We did get rained on, and the village wanted to give us a goat in appreciation. Goat loans are also a part of the program developed by Global Hope. We didn’t take the goat and had to delay our departure due to one of the van’s being stuck in the flooded road. Getting home on day two took a bit longer as one of the vans broke down. Packing skills took on a whole new level. A van that was designed for about 17 now carried 27. Togetherness!
Our second village was Atakassikoro, where someone had died the night before, so our arrival had an added dimension. This village is not as far as the previous village. Their water supply was built by UNICEF and kind of forgotten. The water was salty, and when the rains came it became dirty. They did not have a school in their village, and the children traveled six miles one way for lessons if the bridge wasn’t washed out. Their level of hope was low, as one of the villagers told us that for 3 generations things hadn’t changed and no one came to help.
The first day, the people were not waiting but day two of being there, the people were lined up hours before we arrived. Hope is an amazing thing. We were a very tired group of people when we packed out of this village, and the children were so glad and dancing around. It was hard to leave; the road to the village was so bad that we literally had to pack in and out because the vans could not get up to the village. On the half day of clinic in Abidjan our team split and half went to a church in the slums where sewage flowed, and outside street vendors were cooking fish guts. It does make an impression and hard to add the smells and sounds in writing.
So many little things could be added to this letter about the things that happened and were experienced by my team. Were we exhausted? Yes. Are they already planning other trips? Yes. There are over 900 people groups yet tobe reachedh. Can you make a difference? Yes.
Prayers, donations and more people to travel to these places are needed. Do you have to be a medical person? No. Just ask Brian or Shenita or the many other volunteers. But if you are a medical person or know a medical person. share this with them and send them to the Mission Partners For Christ website!
Thank you for all your support and prayer covering!
Mission Partners For Christ literally could not exist without the support and commitment from our medical professionals who give their time and energy to go with us into underserved African communities.
This month, we will be celebrating Doctor’s Day, which is a day to acknowledge and celebrate all that our doctors do. In light of the Covid-19 Pandemic these past few years, it has never been more clear why doctors are such a valuable part of our society and why everyone should have access to medical care.
Why Doctors Are Needed
The ratio of doctors to patients in developing countries is very low. Most people in rural areas have never met a doctor, and mny of the people we meet in our free medical clinics have never seen a medical professional and are left to manage their often crippling health concerns alone.
““You can get there [the hospital] and meet about 50 people waiting to be attended to,” Hassan says. “They said all of their nurses and doctors have been leaving for abroad. Just a few are left.”
In Nigeria, there is one doctor for every 5,000 patients, whereas the average in developed countries is one doctor for about every 254 people.” – The Guardian
“The total stock of health workers was approximately 3.6 million across 47 countries. Among these, 37% of the health workers were nurses and midwives, 9% were medical doctors, 10% were laboratory personnel, 14% were community health workers, 14% were other health workers, and 12% were administrative and support staff. Results show uneven distribution of health workers within the African Region. Most health workers (85%) are in the public sector. Regional density of physicians, nurses and midwives per 1000 population was 1.55, only 4 countries had densities of more than 4.45 physicians, nurses and midwives per 1000 population.”
This is the need that Mission Partners For Christ fills. While many might think that a week of serving isn’t enough time to make a real difference, it can quite literally be the thing that saves someone’s life. Many of the patients we treat are suffering from conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure and don’t know how to manage their health because they’ve never had a medical professional teach them what is happening to their bodies and how they can care for themselves so they can live long and happy lives. One woman who came to see us in 2023 had a blood pressure of 225/120, which put her at high risk of heart attack, stroke, and a number of other life-threatening conditions. She needed immediate treatment and education about how to properly care for her body’s needs and maintain a healthy blood pressure.
Many others come to us with parasites, stomach issues, and injuries that require treatment to prevent infection.
Due to the scarcity of qualified medical professionals all across the African continent, you can imagine how the word might spread like wildfire when we arrive and set up our clinics. Every single day, we are seeing thousands of patients, some of whom had been waiting their whole lives to see a doctor.
What Kind Of Doctors Do We Need?
We need doctors of all kinds to assist us in our work!
We primarily seek: Family practitioners, general medicine, mental health, internists, dermatologist, pediatrician, cardiologist, gynecologist, geriatrician, emergency medicine, ophthalmologist, infectious disease, allergist, pulmonologist.
While we don’t do surgery at our free medical clinics, we also welcome surgeons who can help us treat patients.
Here is what to expect:
When you sign up to join us on a medical mission trip, you will get to use your medical skills and expertise to serve God and minister to the underserved and unreached populations of the villages where we’ve been called. Patients will first be seen by a non-medical volunteer who will document their health concerns and will triage which patients need to be seen by whom. Once your first patient has been sent to see you, your role will then be to provide general medical care, which includes assessment, treatment and health education.
Many of our doctors will find openings to ask their patients if they would like to be prayed for, and there is an opportunity for our patients to see someone who can share with them about Jesus and lead them in prayer.
There is never any pressure on our patients in any of this, but we always lovingly extend the invitation to those who may appreciate learning more about the God who sent our team to their village.
Celebrating Our Missionary Doctors!
We love doctors – and we want to highlight just a few of the doctors who have joined us in the mission field over the years. Space won’t permit us to show you all of the amazing doctors who have volunteered their time and resources to minister to underserved and unreached African communities, but we feel so blessed to be able to work with all of the amazing men and women God has called into this amazing ministry with us.
Dr. Maisie Isabell (who served with us well into her 70s!)
Dr. Ronnie Archie, Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough, Dr. Andrew White
Dr. Shanicka Scarbrough
Dr. Andrew White with his mother, Ellen White, RN
Dr. Alicia Sanders
Dr. Kimberly Hagerman
Dr. Ronnie Archie
Dr. Jasmine Finch found a friend and mentor in Dr. Maisie Isabell
Dr. Tervicine Delva & Dr. Brittanie Bigby
Dr. Jasmine Finch
Are You Ready To Join A Medical Mission Trip?
If you are a doctor who has been wondering if there is a way to use your skills to serve Jesus and minister to others, here is your chance! We have multiple trips open for applicants right now! You can learn more about these opportunities on our volunteer page.
If you are interested in learning more, but not quite ready to commit yet, we invite you to sign up for our newsletter to stay informed about future opportunities or email us directly with any questions!
Are you longing to serve on the missions fields and unsure how to begin?
That’s a great goal for life–wanting to serve. Wanting to serve in any place will train you to serve on a missions trip in some ways you might not expect. It all begins with the willingness to ask God good questions in prayer and then start to serve in the best ways you know how to do right where you are.
How do you wash a dish in the sink or dishwasher at home–is it done with love and care for the next person who will use the dish? How do you speak with your coworkers about critical matters during high-pressure moments? Do you maintain your composure and stay focused on the task and care for people while remaining alert to the Holy Spirit?
Do you remember young Samuel when he ran to Eli as God called on him because he thought it was Eli calling for him? That’s a willing heart. He wanted to see what Eli needed, so he got up to go to him (1 Samuel 3:1-21). We can be like this.
You are stronger than you know!
Many people don’t realize they already are servant-leaders in the making or they are already making a difference in that way.
Every time we accept responsibility for something, commit to it, and see it through–that is service and leadership in action. Doctors and nurses who studied, prepared themselves, and practiced all they would need to in order to become medical professionals are one example of this. Students and parents who learn how to fundraise for their friends’ mission trips and go out in the community to help make it happen are another example.
We so often hear words like “leadership” or “service” and perhaps think it will involve the more difficult types of work that we feel unprepared for or not called to do, and sometimes it might be more difficult, but not necessarily something we’re not called to do. God will give you strength and grace for it. He allows you to go into challenges that will build character and other traits, so there is no need to feel we are too weak or unknowledgeable to improve our leadership skills and enlarge our servant hearts.
You know more than you think you do!
Younger or older, you have knowledge and experience others do not have. Your specific way of seeing a need and filling it might differ from someone else’s way, but when it’s paired with a group of people intently focused on serving others and leading themselves with honor and love, it’s boosted–and it might boost what others are doing too. So don’t be afraid to come off the sidelines and volunteer to go support a mission’s trip in some way. You might be surprised what you can learn, how you will grow, and how others around you will learn and grow too.
What are you waiting for?
There is plenty of work to be done all over the world, so if you’re ready, you can begin. You don’t have to wait till you’re a great dishwasher or communicator to go on a mission’s trip, by the way. You just need a willing heart and faith. If you’re interested in learning more about our upcoming 2024 destinations, have a look here.
Do you need some questions answered before you say yes? We’d love to answer your questions about joining our team. Click here to submit your question via our contact page. We will get back with you as soon as possible!
