It Takes All Of Us To Be The Hands And Feet Of Jesus

By Guest Blogger: Barry Ewy, Chief Executive Officer of Blessings International

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night. You have all the telltale signs of oncoming illness: your head is aching, you feel like you’re burning up, the nausea is overwhelming. In a haze, you stumble out of bed and wander into the bathroom where a bottle of acetaminophen is sitting and waiting for you in the cabinet. You take a dose and go back to bed to let sleep and medicine do their healing work.

Now imagine yourself in a different context where medicine is not so readily available when you need it.

That’s the situation that this person, who we’ll call Christopher, found himself in.

In March of 2019, Christopher, pictured here with one of MPFC’s doctors, presented at one of the free medical clinics in Burkina Faso, run by Mission Partners For Christ, with a temperature of 103, chills, body aches, nausea and fatigue. His diagnosis was clear; Christopher was one of an estimated 249 million who contract malaria each year.

Medical practitioners treated him with medicine provided by Blessings International: Acetaminophen for the fever and body aches and Coartem (Artemether and Lumefantrine) for malaria. The Coartem helped by killing the malarial parasites, thus preventing them from producing DNA and protein. The combination of the two medications worked together to ease Christopher’s discomfort, allowing him to make a full recovery!

Malaria leads to approximately 608,000 deaths every year.

Thanks to God’s provision, Christopher would not be counted among those numbers.

Who Is Blessings International?

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ – Matthew 25:35-36

Humble Beginnings

In 1980, an early morning men’s prayer group at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was planning a mission outreach to Guatemala. A member of that group, Harold Harder, a PhD pharmacologist and medical school professor, joined the team as its acting pharmacist after sensing a desire to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of Mayans. His role was to solicit donated medicines. At the time, Guatemala was in the midst of a civil war. Despite the apparent danger, Harold and his wife, Linda, knew they had to be obedient to God.

The ministry was originally created to serve as a source for donated and low-cost pharmaceuticals to mission trips. Today, Blessings International provides pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to clinics and hospitals in developing countries and in the United States, and has expanded its territory to work with churches, non-governmental organizations, universities, and medical institutions.

Currently, Blessings International maintains a growing staff of over twenty full-time employees and operates a 14,000-square-foot warehouse and repackaging facility, all for the sake of providing medicines and medical supplies to teams, clinics, and hospitals which are healing the hurting, building healthy communities, and transforming lives with the love of Christ.

Not only does medicine save lives, it provides an avenue for sharing the Gospel. We equip medical teams and organizations with essential medicines whose intent is to help others and spread the Good News of Christ.

When these teams can literally give medicine to people in difficult situations, just like Christopher, they can change the course of their health, find an open door to tell them about the gospel and change people’s eternities. We are honored to do all we can to support these teams in their missions.

Partnerships Change The World Through

Sharing The Love of Christ

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” – Isaiah 52:7, NIV

There’s a hurting world that has a lack of access to appropriate care and treatments for even routine medical concerns. We see missions in healthcare as a way to bridge that gap by providing not only care and treatment to improve health, but also by the sharing of Christ’s love to the hurting. God has called Blessings International together in this work by serving together in complementary ways.

Around the beginning of 2018, we were introduced to the ministry of Sheri Postma and Mission Partners For Christ. MPFC is a short-term medical mission ministry that operates in Africa, specializing in working with underserved communities that are also unreached with the gospel. By connecting with in-country partners, ministries, and evangelists, Mission Partners For Christ is able to identify villages with little-to-no access to medical care and will assemble a mission team of medical professionals from the USA to go in and serve. This time serving also gives MPFC a unique opportunity to share the gospel with those who need it most and to facilitate relationships between these villages and missionary partners who will continue the work of building up the global church long after MPFC has left the area.

When we first met Sheri, Mission Partners for Christ was getting ready for a medical mission trip to Liberia. We were approached by Sheri about pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and supplies, which we were happy to supply. 

Mission Partners For Christ serves as the feet of Jesus – going and bringing the hope of healthcare and the gospel in underserved communities. Without partners like Mission Partners for Christ, we would be just a warehouse full of medicine. When teams like MPFC take our medicines and supplies, they are the hands and feet of Christ. We’re just the ones who helped fill their hands in order to change lives.

How You Can Join The Mission

It takes all of us to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Without Blessings International, there would be no medicines for organizations like Mission Partners For Christ to take with them on medical mission trips.

Without a willing group of trip participants, MPFC would not be able to administer medical care or education to those they serve.

And without people praying for all of us and contributing financially to this work – none of it would be possible.

​​Donations help our partners directly. We’re self-funded, so donations allow us to pass 100% of aid to teams in the form of discounts and account credit, allowing them to either order more medicines and supplies or allowing their team budget to stretch farther in other areas. No matter what, donations result in free medicine going into the hands of those who need it most.

Will you join us in making the medication available to those MPFC and Blessings International serve? 

Consider donating to both as you look for ways to invest your end of year giving this 2024. One provides the medications and one will get those medications to the patient. 

You can be the catalyst for both.