Serve to No End.
Serve to No End. Love Where You Live. Love Where You Go. This is the heart of the Mission Ministry of Woodlands Church. Their mission is to see a community of people radically devoted to eagerly and selflessly serving, giving of themselves to authentically love the one in front of them. To see the liberation and transformation of millions of lives and communities through the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To see the dehumanizing oppressive reality of poverty forever broken and communities transformed to wholeness of life through Christ Jesus. To see the awakening and release of the God-given potential of countless next generation followers of Jesus Christ as agents of transformation.
Woodlands Church creatively uses every means available to share and show the hope of Christ, leveraging relationships and strengths of local churches around the world. They may lead initially with clinics, building projects, education, or business enterprise, but each is a means to meet very real physical needs and opens the door to sharing Christ, resulting in lasting life-change.
Through global and local missions, disaster relief, Farmer Field Schools, and the WC Trading Co., Woodlands Church makes a significant impact in the hearts and lives of people around the world. At the Mobilizing Medical Missions (M3) Conference, Woodlands Church sets up their WC Trading Co. Fair Trade Store. WC Trading Co. exists as an expression of Woodlands Church because they believe every life has purpose. Every single person has God-given gifts and talents. WC wants to help empower others to break the chains of poverty and help lift them with dignity and hope to reach their God-given purpose. Buyers at any of the WC Trading Co. stores are a part of a gift that gives twice! By purchasing products at a fair wage, WC Trading Co. is able to break poverty cycles and create sustainable change and development. Each item represented in the store is handmade and uniquely characterizes a different person, culture and story. WC Trading Co. has the opportunity to give artisans from remote parts of the world a global voice simply by shopping with purpose!
It is a privilege for us to partner with Woodlands Church through the M3 Conference. Click here to learn more about the heart, mission and projects of Woodlands Church.
Peter Hotez, MD, PhD – Neglected Tropical Diseases: The Ancient Afflictions of the Poor
Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are the most common diseases of people living in extreme poverty. More than one billion people are affected globally, including the impoverished Christian-majority countries of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Through programs of mass drug administration we have made a big dent in terms of reducing their global prevalence, in some cases up to 50 percent or more, but there is still an enormous amount of work that remains. Moreover, we have seen the rise of several new vector-borne NTDs such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, leishmaniasis and schistosomaisis. The rise of these diseases has been especially acute in Latin America, Southern Europe and in the conflict zones of the Middle East. However, we have also seen an uptick in the Southern United States.
In this session at the 2017 M3 Conference, Dr. Peter Hotez discusses NTDs and the efforts that are underway to develop new vaccines for these conditions, many of which are under development at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where Dr. Hotez serves as Dean.
Click here to learn more about the programs and projects of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Click here to learn more about the work of the Sabin Vaccine Institute.
Arianna Shirk, MD – Quiet Whispers: Journey from a Call to the Far Side of the Sea
In this session at the 2017 M3 Conference, Dr. Arianna Shirk, a pediatrician at AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, will discuss her journey from a call early in life, through the long and unpredictable training process, and how God gently and insistently led her family to work and live at this mission hospital in Kijabe, Kenya.
Click here to follow the adventures of Dr. Arianna Shirk and her family and/or to support the work they are doing.
Click here to learn more about the work of AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya.
Stand Up. Speak Up. Save Lives.
In this video, Kimberly Williams-Paisley shares stories from one of her recent trips to Haiti. She also shares that the United States spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign aid, and encourages us to stay informed on where that money is going and how it is being used. Thus, the importance of advocacy. Advocacy means calling or writing your member of Congress, and letting them know that you support them to protect funding for global health initiatives, such as healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies like you hear about in this video. Initiatives like this dramatically improve maternal and child health in developing countries like Haiti. Advocacy also lets our members of Congress know that we care about and are staying educated on matters that affect our nation’s budget and priorities.
Hope Through Healing Hands (HTHH) is on the front lines helping to improve the quality of life for citizens and communities around the world using health as a currency for peace. Through the prism of health diplomacy, HTHH envisions a world where all individuals and families can obtain access to health care information, services, and support for the opportunity at a fuller life. Specifically, they seek sustainability through health care service and training. This includes efforts to promote awareness and advocacy for maternal, newborn & child health; healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies; nutrition; clean water; extreme poverty; emergency relief; and global disease such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Strategically, HTHH encourages global health partnerships by working hand-in-hand with leading organizations that best address these issues in developing nations.
One of Hope Through Healing Hands’ current projects to raise awareness and advocacy for maternal, newborn, and child health is The Mother & Child Project. In the book, The Mother & Child Project: Raising Our Voices for Health and Hope, influential leaders such as Melinda Gates, Kay Warren, Senator William H. Frist, M.D., Christine Caine, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Michael W. Smith, Natalie Grant, Jennifer Nettles, Jennie Allen, Amy Grant, and many other inspirational leaders, cultural icons, political experts, academics, and service providers tackle the important topic of maternal and child health in developing countries. Through personal narrative and compelling research, this book educates and inspires people of faith to join in to empower mothers and children worldwide. This book also includes personal stories from women in places like Kenya, India, Uganda and Burundi. They describe how their lives and those of their children are impacted by the ability to plan the timing and spacing of their pregnancies, and by access to pre-natal and post-natal medical care.
We are so honored to partner with Hope Through Healing Hands through the Mobilizing Medical Missions (M3) Conference. Click here for more information about the work Hope Through Healing Hands is doing around the world.