This article is a follow-up to a series of articles written by this author on Chinese medical missionary sending in 2017, published by ChinaSource. Reflections expressed herein grow out of the successes, setbacks, and surprises encountered after the implementation of many of the ideas conveyed in that series of 13 articles.
My vision is for training with the goal of fruitfulness. There is a great movement happening in the Chinese church, but there isn’t a great deal of actual church planting happening. How do we help them to bear fruit?
“See one. Do one. Teach one.” A pathway to developing mission-sending capacity in China?
The Chinese church passionately desires participation in missionary sending. Mission sending organization musters the intentionality needed to sustain long-term missionary sending. In this article, I present a three pronged approach to Chinese mission sending organization development.
The Chinese church passionately desires participation in missionary sending. The international church seeks to partner with Chinese missionary senders. In addition to prayer, the international church can support Chinese missionary-senders through resource sharing, mission-sending organization support, and through business cooperation. Chinese medical missionary tentmaking as a business opportunity is examined as a prototype for other potential Chinese tentmaking missionaries. Leadership of Chinese missionary sending efforts must remain in Chinese hands.
Many hospitals in Chinese cities, particularly along the coasts or along the Yangtze River, were originally founded by western missionaries. After the missionaries left in the 1950s the hospitals were nationalized and, in many cases, became the leading hospitals in the community. They serve as important and interesting legacies of the work of the missionaries. Recently the Gospel Times published an article about one such hospital in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, founded more than 100 years ago by Methodist Episcopal missionaries.
When I first went overseas, I thought things like medical insurance and retirement planning weren’t too important. Further, as funding for those two items added to the overall budget and that budget needed to be raised through supporters I personally contacted, I felt that these items were excessive. It seemed to me at the time that these items only delayed my matriculation to the field and added to the church’s financial burden in sending me and my family. I reasoned that God would take care of us anyway. Twenty years later, with retirement age nearing, (which won’t necessarily cause me to retire), I am grateful for the foresight of organizational leadership. And with my family members needing multiple previously unforeseen surgeries, I am grateful for the care we have received.
Financial issues significantly impact Chinese missionary-sending sustainability. For those Chinese physicians with mission field experience, greater degrees of field experience correlate with a greater ascribed degree of importance placed on these financial issues. Currently prospective Chinese medical missionary financial expectations are high. These expectations do not necessarily match with the lived reality of Chinese non-medical missionaries. Financial support models which can facilitate sending of Chinese missionary physicians need development.
Chinese physicians who want to be missionaries outside of China face significant challenges. One of these is maintaining a Chinese medical license once outside the country. Another is obtaining the required continuing medical education units required by law. In addition, obtaining a license to practice medicine in another country is a difficult process. The author addresses these and other issues facing medical doctors who desire to do mission work and also suggests possible solutions for some of the difficulties.