On July 12 we held our first ‘HealthServe Day’ at Oak Hill College in North London. This was in the middle weekend of the fortnight long annual Residential Refresher Course that we run jointly with the UK Christian Medical Fellowship (see the report by Peter Armon).

Around a hundred people, mostly health professionals, students, and some participants in the Refresher Course, joined us over the course of the afternoon to hear speakers tackling practical issues about serving overseas as a health professional in a mission situation. Dr Eldryd Parry of the Tropical Health Education Trust gave a stirring and unorthodox presentation on the major global health issues of our time and how we can respond as Christian health professionals.

In the seminars, Peter Armon addressed the practical and spiritual steps needed to prepare to work short or long term overseas, Marion Knell looked at taking families overseas and at how to care for oneself while caring for others. Ted Lankester held a lively interactive session on what different practical options were open to health professionals in the field, and Andrew Fergusson looked at the vexed issue of keeping professionally up-to date and registered when working overseas long-term.

Several mission and aid agencies exhibited, giving those interested in overseas work plenty of information on the opportunities that exist for Christian health workers. There was also a chance for many former MMA residents, Council members and officers to meet and catch up.

In the evening, Dr Bill Gould spoke at our 125th anniversary celebration and thanksgiving service at the chapel at Oak Hill College – reminding us not just of the history of mission mobilisation of which we are a part but of the expanding challenges that lay before us. The circumstances and the culture in which healthcare and medical mission occur may be different in the twenty-first compared to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the ways in which we work may be changing, but the heart call to care for the sick and the poor and Jesus’ name is no different today than it was two thousand years ago.

To all who gave of their time and energy, the staff and Council of MMA HealthServe wish to express their thanks.