Medical Ministry
I believe true HOPE is found in Jesus Christ. I love that God had in His plans to train me in the health care field for His purposes. Offering health care is a great way to practically LOVE people and help meet REAL needs. Humanitarian aid alone is not sufficient. The good news of Christ offers eternal HOPE that a pill or medical procedure could never provide. A medical model that combines spiritual and medical care is packed with the potential for true life change.
The medical teams that come to serve in Nicaragua are partnered with a team of local Nicaraguan church members. Together, the two “teams” unite and provide free medical and spiritual care to those that visit the clinic, which is often held in the local church building.
The Nicaraguan church members are primarily responsible for praying for and sharing the good news of Christ with each patient. They do this in a one-on-one environment after the patient is seen by a medical provider. The US team members are primarily responsible for offering free medical care and medicine. Together, the Christian Nicaraguans and North Americans offer a one week medical clinic with a strong emphasis on the gospel and spiritual care. The Nicaraguan church is then charged with the responsibility of following up with new believers in Christ and to discipling them.
One of Christ for the City International’s (CFCI) chief focuses in Nicaragua is pastoral and church leadership training. Before each medical outreach, CFCI provides personal evangelism training to the Nicaraguan church members that will be participating in the medical outreach in their community. The medical outreaches offer the opporunity for us to get to know the spiritual and practical needs of the Nicaraguan churches we partner with, so that in the future we may continue to offer training in such areas as Inductive Bible study methods, Youth leader training, Personal evangelism, Integrity, and Christian leadership. You can read more about CFCI’s ministry focus on the CFCI-Nicaragua website.
If you’d like to contact me or learn more about the ministry of CFCI, please feel free to write me at maryezzellpt@yahoo.com.
