In Australia it can be easy to take our health care systems for granted. It can be easy to see the inadequacies until we are in a place where the system is different!
I used to live in a large city of 5 million people, where healthcare was available but sometimes out of reach for the poor. Polio, leprosy, measles and TB were all problems in our community. Not to mention diseases that are harder to prevent such as dengue fever.
Many people who had money didn’t always make use of medical resources because of cultural influences. They were more willing to pay a local healer or witch doctor than to pay a medical doctor.
One day a woman was chatting with me about her teenage son who had just been diagnosed with TB. I asked her what sort of treatment they were getting and she told me that it was alternative medicine. When I asked what sort of alternative medicine, the response was “the kind that requires a chicken” (sacrificed by a witch doctor).
Other people do mission in countries where there are excellent health facilities but quickly find that treatment methods are different. Or the system is complicated and suddenly they need to learn a whole lot of new language and culture just to work out how to get the medical help they need.
When people come to me with a heart for missions and an ongoing medical condition, we usually have a long discussion about what it is like to live with that condition in a foreign place. Their Australian doctor may say that it isn’t a problem because there is a good hospital in the place they want to go, but we also need to consider how challenging it might be to make use of that support, and whether other factors about the culture and environment will add significantly to their stress.
Sometimes it isn’t a problem, but sometimes something as simple as an allergy can make life and ministry very challenging. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider missions. Some people have been able to manage medical conditions very well while overseas and others have been able to find roles on the homeside or in particular places where they can get the treatment they need. Just be prepared for it to be an important conversation on the journey.
Next steps
What lifestyle changes can you make to better strengthen and support your health into the future?
If you have a pre-existing medical condition, what do you need to manage that condition well? Think through what sort of health support you might need on the field.
If you have a pre-existing condition, talk to someone from a mission agency about the impact it might have on you if you get involved in overseas ministry.
