As the autumn and winter close in, creating the traditional chaos on the British public transport network (leaves are apparently sacred to the British – we stop all of our trains if one falls on the track!), I have had a little more time than usual to sit back and think about the work in which we are engaged.
Three years ago, the Medical Missionary Association became MMA HealthServe, with a vision to mobilise and equip Christian health professionals, churches and mission agencies in the provision of healthcare to the poor in the name of Jesus. In the last edition of HealthServe we looked back at what we had done in the past year, and at our plans for the next year. Certainly, looking back and forward I have become aware of how much God has provided for us – with the staff team that we have built up in the last three years, with the range of supporters and contacts across the globe, with the many students and health professionals we have worked with and supported. It is all very encouraging and exciting, but mainly because in each area we can see God’s hand at work. It also keeps us both thankful and humble – we can do everything with God, and nothing without Him!
Looking at the articles in this month’s edition, we can see the same God working in often very hard situations – from the disabled and abandoned child of a Brazilian prostitute who reveals the uniqueness of God’s stamp on each one of us, to the struggles of Christians working in the face of economic and political hardship in southern Africa, each story tells us of a God who still works and intervenes in human history, from the big to the small, the personal to the global.
As we approach Christmas, I am encouraged that the same message of incarnational love that is at the heart of the Christmas story is at work in the lives of Christians responding to the Great Commission of Matthew 28, v 18 – 20. Supporting and encouraging this work around the globe remains at the heart of MMA HealthServe – a commission God gave our founding members a hundred and twenty five years ago, and one that many hundreds of supporters and workers have continued to obey down the years ever since.
So, from a windswept Britain, I and all the staff and Council of MMA HealthServe wish you all a Merry Christmas, and pray that you see the marks of God at work in your lives and ministries.
Steven Fouch
Three years ago, the Medical Missionary Association became MMA HealthServe, with a vision to mobilise and equip Christian health professionals, churches and mission agencies in the provision of healthcare to the poor in the name of Jesus. In the last edition of HealthServe we looked back at what we had done in the past year, and at our plans for the next year. Certainly, looking back and forward I have become aware of how much God has provided for us – with the staff team that we have built up in the last three years, with the range of supporters and contacts across the globe, with the many students and health professionals we have worked with and supported. It is all very encouraging and exciting, but mainly because in each area we can see God’s hand at work. It also keeps us both thankful and humble – we can do everything with God, and nothing without Him!
Looking at the articles in this month’s edition, we can see the same God working in often very hard situations – from the disabled and abandoned child of a Brazilian prostitute who reveals the uniqueness of God’s stamp on each one of us, to the struggles of Christians working in the face of economic and political hardship in southern Africa, each story tells us of a God who still works and intervenes in human history, from the big to the small, the personal to the global.
As we approach Christmas, I am encouraged that the same message of incarnational love that is at the heart of the Christmas story is at work in the lives of Christians responding to the Great Commission of Matthew 28, v 18 – 20. Supporting and encouraging this work around the globe remains at the heart of MMA HealthServe – a commission God gave our founding members a hundred and twenty five years ago, and one that many hundreds of supporters and workers have continued to obey down the years ever since.
So, from a windswept Britain, I and all the staff and Council of MMA HealthServe wish you all a Merry Christmas, and pray that you see the marks of God at work in your lives and ministries.
Steven Fouch
