Christians, regardless of denominations, are called to serve God and neighbors as Jesus did during his earthly ministry. In Scripture, Jesus commanded his disciples to heal the sick when he sent them out to proclaim the Gospel (Luke 9:1, Matthew 10:1, Luke 10:1).
Get to know the medical missionaries who were driven by the Christian faith to leave the comforts of their home to serve the very least of God’s people in unfamiliar territories.
Dr. Byron E. Conner
Dr. Byron Conner joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the age of nine. He learned in the church the value of education and the notion that the education he received empowered him to serve. During one sleepless night in early 1984, Dr. Conner was surfing TV channels when he chanced upon a telethon about the ongoing famine in Ethiopia. He felt ‘someone’ should do something about the famine – and that “someone” should be him. Dr. Connor shared his experiences as a medical missionary to the Horn of Africa country in his book The Face of Hunger: Reflections on a Famine in Ethiopia.
Father Damien
Also known as Saint Damien of Molokai, Father Damien was a Belgian priest and member of a missionary religious institute. Father Damien devoted his life to missionary work among the lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii from 1873 until his death in 1889. After years of caring for the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of the lepers, he contracted leprosy. Despite the infection, he continued with his work until succumbing to the disease. He was made a saint in 2009 and has been described as a “martyr of charity” and spiritual patron of lepers and outcasts.
Marianne Cope
Also known as Saint Marianne of Molokaʻi, Marianne Cope was a German-born American religious sister who traveled to Hawaii in 1883 to care for the lepers, particularly the lepers of Molokai. She cared for the dying Father Damien and continued his work after his death in 1889. Cope died in 1918 due to natural causes and was canonized in 2012. Like Father Damien, she is considered as a patron saint of lepers and outcasts; though Catholics, they are both honored in The Episcopal Church.
Albert Schweitzer
Dr. Albert Schweitzer is an Alsatian-German Nobel laureate, theologian, philosopher, organist, and medical missionary. A son of a Lutheran pastor, Dr. Schweitzer was recognized for his missionary and charitable works in equatorial Africa. To raise funds for his hospital in Africa, he gave benefit organ concerts and delivered lectures in Europe. He also published several volumes of theological discourses. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1952.
Mary Scott
Mary Scott was a Scottish medical missionary and educator who revolutionized the formal education system, particularly women’s education, in Sikkim (now part of India). Her prior reputation and aid in the Spanish flu epidemic, efficient work ethic, aristocratic background, good relations with the rulers, and tolerance for local Buddhist customs contributed to her success as a medical and Christian missionary. She is credited for greatly improving the overall state of education in Sikkim and the growth of Christianity in a predominantly non-Christian territory.
Sir Henry Holland
Henry Holland is regarded as one of the most remarkable medical missionaries who ever lived. A son of a parish priest and ophthalmologist by profession, Holland is credited with saving the sight of more than 100,000 people in territories now part of Pakistan. His son, Ronald, followed in his footsteps. Holland received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1960. He passed away in 1965.
Dr. Victor Clough Rambo
Dr. Victor C. Rambo was born to American missionary parents in India, where he grew up until he was about nine years old. Rambo felt an early call to serve God through medicine, even working as a hospital orderly before entering medical school. To support his medical studies, he worked odd jobs but also received financial assistance from relatives and through his scholarship program. He turned down an opportunity to join the staff at a prestigious university to become a medical missionary. He served in India for 50 years, performing cataract surgeries and establishing mobile eye clinics. He passed away in 1987.
Dr. Benjamin W. Roberts
Dr. Ben Roberts is a Christian missionary and ophthalmologist from Birmingham, AL. He is motivated by his faith in Jesus to heal the blind in Africa. He brought his family to Kenya in 2006, believing Kenya had a greater need for his service and it was where God was leading them. He spent four years working as a volunteer at one of the largest mission hospitals in Kenya. He conducted “Eye Safari” trips to remote villages to treat people. He has since returned to his home state and is currently awaiting another opportunity to serve in Africa.
May the stories of these remarkable Christian medical missionaries inspire you to a vocation that calls you to serve God and the very least of all His people.
Oliver’s Twist 