Liberty nursing, medical students explore medical missions at Samaritan’s Purse conference

A group of 34 Liberty University students from the School of Nursing and Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine recently met with other Christians who seek to serve Christ through medical missions as part of Samaritan’s Purse Prescription for Renewal conference in Orlando Oct. 1-4.

The annual conference, which LUSON students have attended for the last three years, is a gathering for Christian healthcare professionals, residents, and students focused on global medical missions and Gospel outreach, sharing how God is using Samaritan’s Purse to not only help suffering people around the world, but also bring many of them to faith in Jesus Christ. The event featured 60 medical lectures by physicians, dentists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals across many disciplines.

Samaritan’s Purse sponsored the costs for students to attend. A total of 102 college students were present at the conference.

“It’s a strategic conference for medicine, to renew those who are boots on the ground but also pass the baton in a way,” said Associate Professor of Nursing Dr. Lisa Gazan, who led the Liberty group. “They didn’t sugarcoat the cost of going to some very difficult places, but they also talked about the joy of it, and they had a lot of transparent speakers. It’s really clear that there are people who are giving their all to this work and that it’s time to start preparing (the next generation), so I appreciate their vision in sponsoring us.”

The conference has already inspired past Liberty students to get involved in the work of Samaritan’s Purse, Gazan explained, as multiple alumni now serve with DART (Disaster Assistance Response Teams) or with other areas of the organization. At this year’s conference, she and her students were able to reconnect with those alumni.

Gazan said an overarching message of the conference, which also connects with the core of Samaritan’s Purse, was that medicine can be a “magnet” that brings people closer to the Gospel and that serving in Jesus’ name can offer others hope. She delivered a presentation herself titled “Being the Aroma of Christ By Providing culturally Safe and Equitable Care,” that was informed by her own research and experience in cross-cultural nursing.

“When we take down cultural barriers and make healthcare possible, we’re not just being the aroma of Christ, but we’re creating the opportunity to share the Gospel,” she said. “If we’re providing care but building barriers out of our innocent blindness to the cultural (factors), we’re never going to get to share the Gospel. I based it on that concept and gave strategies for assessment, such as questions to ask that would not just be open-ended but strategic in finding the core beliefs of patients.”

Medical missions and disaster response is close to Gazan’s heart, as she experienced a 7.4-scale earthquake as a child while living in Guatemala, a disaster in which 25,000 people died and many more lost their homes.

“I think going to the conference just hits a little point in my heart, since I remember that tragedy and the poverty and all the ramifications of it,” she said. “To see an organization that continually makes it about Jesus’ name and not about themselves means a lot. Everywhere you went while we were at the conference, you were hearing from God’s servants, just humble people who are doing it for the Lord.”