Have you been following the Mission Partners For Christ Blog for awhile? Perhaps you’ve been following our updates on our medical mission trips and wondering if God may be calling you to join us in ministering to underserved communities. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to push through the fear and anxiety about venturing into unknown territory; traveling to new places, experiencing new things, and meeting new people can feel overwhelming. So today, we’d like to invite you to take a step back from the fear of the unknown and reframe.

Let’s take a look at all the wonderful things you can look forward to when you listen to God’s call to short-term medical missions. 

Let’s take a look at 10 benefits of volunteering on a medical mission team!

1. Helping People In Need

Serving on a medical missions team allows you to make a positive impact on the lives of people who may not have access to adequate healthcare. Here in the USA, we are privileged to be able to access medical care when we need it. If we are experiencing high blood pressure or trouble managing a chronic illness, like diabetes, we know that we can just pick up the phone and get an appointment to see a doctor who will help us care for our bodies. This is, sadly, a privilege that the communities we serve do not possess. They need people who are ready and willing to make the trip and come to them. Our free clinics offer hope to underserved communities to get the help that they need to live their healthiest lives.

2. Personal Fulfillment

Participating in a medical mission trip can be a deeply fulfilling experience, as you are able to use your skills and knowledge to help others. Whether you are a medical professional offering up your expertise to help those in need or you are offering your time and gifts in another way, such as helping patients get to where they need to be at our free clinics or praying with those who need it, you will come away from our trips feeling fulfilled in a way you’ve likely never experienced before. You will see firsthand what it is like to pour into underserved communities and see how God shows up through your work. There’s truly nothing like it!

Serving on a medical missions team can provide valuable opportunities for professional, allowing you to learn new skills and gain experience working in challenging environments

3. Professional Development

Serving on a medical missions team can provide valuable opportunities for professional development, allowing you to learn new skills and gain experience working in challenging environments. Volunteering on one of our medical mission trips offers a unique opportunity for medical and dental professionals to build on their skills.

This is one reason we offer scholarships of up to $1000 for medical and dental students; we want to come alongside budding medical professionals and support them in their goals while giving them real world experience working with patients. The knowledge that you gain on a short-term medical mission trip will stay with you as you finish your education and begin your career.

4. Cultural Immersion

Medical mission trips often take place in diverse and culturally rich areas, providing an opportunity for participants to learn about different cultures and gain new perspectives. During a short-term medical mission trip with our organization, you will be introduced to the beauty found in other cultures: new foods, new languages, new ways of worshiping the God we all serve with believers in that community. You will learn to see the world through new eyes, which is a gift you could never access apart from traveling to new places.

10 Benefits of Volunteering on a medical mission team:

Many of our participants return from our medical mission trips with a renewed sense of wonder for all that can be accomplished when brothers and sisters in Christ obey God's call to go and serve

5. Networking Opportunities

Serving on a medical missions team can provide opportunities to meet and work with other healthcare professionals with whom you might never cross paths otherwise. This can help to build professional relationships and expand your network. Building a successful career in the medical and dental fields requires not only a stellar education and workplace experience, but also a strong network of highly skilled professionals. This allows you to reach out to specialists for consults or find mentors who can give you solid advice as you follow your chosen career or ministry path in the medical or dental fields.

6. Improved Communication Skills

Working in a foreign country can help to improve communication skills, as you may need to communicate with patients and healthcare professionals who speak a different language or even a different dialect of a language you do know. You will find yourself finding new and effective ways of communicating with your patients and coworkers in the field that you can take back with you to enrich your personal and professional relationships.

7. Better Problem-Solving Skills

Serving on a medical missions team can require quick thinking and problem-solving skills, as you may encounter challenges and obstacles that require creative solutions. Our medical mission trips take participants to new and unfamiliar places. This exposure to different cultures, languages, and ways of life can help develop problem-solving skills by forcing participants to adapt to new situations and think creatively about how to navigate unfamiliar territory. Serving on a short-term medical mission team also requires working together with others, which strengthens the ability to problem-solve collaboratively; this collaborative problem-solving can help participants develop skills in communication, teamwork, and conflict resolution.

8. Reignited Faith

Participating in a medical mission trip can be a transformative experience that can help you to grow as a person and gain a new perspective on life and in faith. When you are sitting with a woman who is deaf and watch as she suddenly regains her hearing after you’ve prayed with her, you can’t help but praise God for His healing power.

This was an experience that Mission Partners For Christ Founder, Sheri Postma, had on our most recent short-term medical mission trip to Guinea in February 2023. You will also meet other believers who are so completely devoted to God and to the gospel that you won’t be able to help but fall a little bit more in love with the Lord too. Many of our participants return from our medical mission trips with a renewed sense of wonder for all that can be accomplished when brothers and sisters in Christ obey God’s call to go and serve.

9. Make A Lasting Impact

Serving on a medical mission team can have a lasting impact on the communities you serve, helping to improve access to healthcare and promote better health outcomes for years to come. Not only that, but the seeds that you plant as a medical missionary will take root and sprout for generations to come. Just think that in 50 years, a soul in the community you served in 2023 could be responding to God’s call to be a pastor because of your obedience today. What a beautiful image that is.

10 Benefits of Volunteering On A Medical Mission Team:

The friendships you make in the mission field are borne our of a shared love for Jesus and for serving others. These are relationships that you will carry with you for many years after the medical mission trip ends.

10. Fellowship With Other Believers

One of the most common things we hear from our medical mission volunteers is how much they valued meeting other brothers and sisters in Christ and developing deep relationships with them. The friendships you make in the mission field are borne out of a shared love for Jesus and for serving others. These are relationships that you will carry with you for many years after the medical mission trip ends. Here are just a few comments we’ve heard from our volunteers:

Every trip is unique. The prior month of devotion and prayer with our group is especially meaningful to me. We truly become like minded and a family before we even meet each other

MPFC Volunteer, Jacki

[The people I served with] are my family now.

MPFC Volunteer, Hervé

[I most enjoyed] the fellowship with other believers and experiencing a new culture.

MPFC Volunteer, Traci

Have we convinced you yet that serving with Mission Partners For Christ is an exciting way to serve God and others while making a lasting impact that will continue for decades? You can check out our upcoming trips over on our volunteer page. For those who are unable to travel with us this year can still support the cause by donating directly to Mission Partners For Christ.

“[Serving on a medical missions trip] is what we are called to do as Christians: Reaching the unreached, proclaiming the Good News and showing the Love of Christ to people”

Osée, A Mission Partners For Christ Volunteer