As a missionary physician with SIM for over three decades in Ethiopia, Nepal, and Thailand, Paul Hudson, MD, MPH, invest his wealth of experience into the topic of healthcare missions. Healthcare and the Mission of God: Finding Joy in the Crucible of Ministry (2024) is his personal story, describing what he’s learned over the years.
In the book’s introduction, Hudson writes, “I am writing to start a conversation, not simply about what we do but why we do it. Aligning healthcare ministry and the Mission of God means aligning our purposes with God’s…. I invite you to consider not just the activities of healthcare, but how these activities fit into God’s plan for the world—the mission of God. It’s easy to lose track of how our story fits into God’s bigger story.”
The book is divided into four parts:
- Losing the Big Picture
- Discovering God’s Purpose
- Aligning God’s Purpose with Healthcare
- Serving with God’s Purpose
Like many healthcare missionaries, Hudson confesses that he’d prepared himself well for healthcare missions and was driven to succeed, but he was unable to meet his expectation of having all the right answers. Frustration usually is the result of unmet expectations and is common in healthcare missions, especially for professionals who’ve set high goals. Hudson writes in the first chapter, “Rather than blame my frustration on our mission leaders, church leaders, or government, I had to deal with my own blind spots, sin and even idolatry…. Healthcare missions is a wonderful place to discover our weaknesses and blind spots!” (p .9).
The reality is that often it’ the missionary who benefits spiritually from involvement in healthcare missions. When we become broken people and join with God in his mission, God can begin to use us for his purposes.
I appreciate how Hudson weaves his understanding of theology into his practical experience and struggles in healthcare missions. He reminds readers that, as Christian healthcare workers, “Our quest is to work in hope, helping those suffering from the effects of the Fall connect with the reality of grace” (p. 51). He relates many examples of how his theology has developed and deepened through his experiences. Hudson also introduces two thought experiments in the form of questions to stimulate reflection on the integration of word and deed in healthcare missions.
- What if Jesus healed everyone?
- What if Jesus chose not to heal physically?
In Part III (the majority of the book), Hudson looks at how healthcare aligns with God’s purposes. He gives a wonderful overview of the history of healthcare missions since the beginning of the Christian Church. Initially, caring for people was a sacred calling and included in the mission of the Church. However, with the advent of science and the advancement of medicine and technology, the desire to provide quality healthcare and its healing benefits may have communicated that “healing is in the medical care itself and that sickness and health are not God’s concern or in His control…. Health easily becomes divorced from His mission to restore the world” (p. 155). As a public health practitioner, Hudson emphasizes the role that the community and the Church have in healing and health restoration.
Part IV considers the status of healthcare missions today. The focus is on the need for practitioners versed in the theology of healthcare mission who appreciate the history of healthcare missions and can integrate God’s big story into their healthcare practice and exercise leadership that models Christian caring.
Each of the four sections has a bibliography for further reading, while every chapter offers questions for individual use or group discussion. While written by a physician, the book includes nursing examples and respects nursing’s contribution to healthcare missions. Anyone interested or involved in healthcare missions would benefit from reading this book. It’s available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=healthcare+and+the+mission+of+god.
Grace Tazelaar, MS, RN, served as a missionary in Uganda and in the United States. Currently she serves as the Missions Director for Nurses Christian Fellowship as a retired volunteer. She is on a team of healthcare professionals who began Health for All Nations.
More about missions:
Urbana 2025—worship, teaching, first-person stories from across the globe
NCF’s missions resources.
