Hope Through Healing Hands was proud to be a key sponsor this past weekend at the Mobilizing Medical Missions Conference (M3) at Lakewood Church in Houston, TX. At the conference, doctors, nurses, and other global healthcare professionals and advocates gathered from all over the world. Led by Paul Osteen MD, Lakewood hosted over 1,600 people gathering for the inaugural year of the M3 conference. The crowd was charged with the aim to Be Inspired. Connect With Others. Find Your Mission.

The conference schedule contained a mixture of plenary and breakout sessions with time to connect with exhibitors on the main concourse level. The main speakers included Aileen Coleman, Kent Brantly, Russ White, Dick Furman, Carlan Wendler, Issam Raad, and Paul Osteen who shared their first-hand experiences treating vulnerable populations in developing nations all over the world.

As one would suspect, when working to provide top-notch health care in areas where education and resources are grossly lacking, challenges quickly arise and can easily make the intent of healing feel impossible. Many spoke of God’s calling on their lives to go and heal despite the seemingly hopeless situations they encountered. “God asks us to trust Him in the midst of our uncertainty,” said Dr. Kent Brantly.

Jenny Dyer, Executive Director of Hope Through Healing Hands; Porter Delaney, Founding Partner of the Kyle House Group; and Tom Walsh, Senior Program Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation led two breakout sessions during the conference. In the first, they addressed global health leadership to shape politics and policy including the importance of faith-based outreach and advocacy, and in the second session, they discussed the importance of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies as a critical, yet simple step to saving lives of mothers and children in the developing world.

Maternal and Child Health is a central global health issue, and perhaps the key, to alleviating many humanitarian needs around the world, including the prevention of the orphanhood crisis, abortion, extreme poverty, and infectious disease transmission rates. If women can better time and space their children, many have the ability to finish their education and seek employment.

"You have the power to make changes, using your voice," Dr. Dyer charged. Galvanizing church leaders to advocate for education and resources for the purpose of promoting healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies for women in developing nations is a key component to mitigating so many tragic issues that befall more than 220 million women in today’s society.

The close of the conference was lead by Bob Goff, Founder of Restore International and author of Love Does. Bob spoke on Extravagant Love: “when we give away love the way Jesus did, it’s an over-the-top, costly love. The outcome of loving people this way is never certain. In fact, the only promise He gave us is that He’ll be with us.” Bob encouraged everyone to “love people extravagantly, and be courageous.” The conference certainly paved the way for conference-goers to Be Inspired. Connect With Others, and if not already involved in global missions, to Find Your Mission.