Medical missions

As has been common among missionary efforts from the 18th to 20th centuries, medical missions often involves residents of the "Western world" traveling to locales within Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, or the Pacific Islands.

[1] In striving to obey such commands, Western Christians have debated the nature of proper evangelism, often emphasizing either eschatological, or material realities within missionary efforts.

At his request, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent Peter Parker to China in 1834 as the first Protestant medical missionary.

Western medicine provided a means by which Parker could gain access to parts of Chinese society that were otherwise closed off to missionaries.

[2] Under the British, India made use of medical missionaries for its public health initiatives, notably including the work by Ernest Muir and others to improve treatment and prevention of Hansen's disease (leprosy).

Livingstone became known for his abilities as a healer, but eventually tired of medical work and doubted its effectiveness as a form of Christian ministry.

[8] The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society bore its name from 1843 until 2002 when it split into two separate charities: EMMS International and the Nazareth Trust.

EMMS International is a missions organization that traces its origins back to the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society and credits David Livingstone as an inspiration to their ongoing efforts.

We continue in the footsteps of Livingstone, and those like him, who sought to bring improvements in healthcare along with Christian compassion to some of the world's poorest communities.

Walima Kalusa writes about medical missions in colonial Mwinilunga, Zambia, and illustrates the difficulties that western missionaries had in achieving their goals of transforming the moral understanding of Africans.

"[12] As a result, missionaries commonly received criticism from fundamentalists for proclaiming a social gospel or a secular humanitarian agenda that undervalued the primacy of the conversion experience.