October 23, 2024
Nick is a pediatric nurse practitioner. He also serves as a missionary, formerly in Ukraine.
Before the war broke out, he used his gifts, talents and passion for medicine in underserved areas affected by the smaller ongoing conflict. In addition to helping with church-planting efforts, he partnered with established churches to offer clinics for the community. Now, living outside Ukraine, he partners with Baptist unions in bordering countries, to deliver food, water and medical supplies inside the border and minister to refugees.
He's found that healthcare helps to build a bridge to the gospel, showing people the love of Christ and helping to dispel misconceptions they may have about evangelicals. He is seeing people in their 50s and 60s opening their hearts to the gospel.
“When they see that you’re a doctor who actually cares, their interest is piqued,” he shared.
Nick was one of the missionaries present at MedAdvance 2022. Attendees had face-to-face interactions with seasoned medical missionaries at the International Mission Board’s June 23-25 conference. It was hosted by Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Virginia. Nearly 200 attended.
MedAdvance is an annual conference for healthcare professionals. The gathering is indended to give students and church leaders opportunities to connect with IMB missionaries and leaders, discover how God is at work as healthcare missionaries share stories from around the world, and learn how to serve God’s mission at home and overseas using God-given talents, skills and experiences in the healthcare field.
Todd Lafferty, IMB’s executive vice president, addressed some of the hardships missionaries face on the field. He expressed that he wanted to present the real picture of missions.
“There’s cost, and it’s risky business to share the gospel among the nations,” Lafferty said. But despite knowing the risks, missionaries give their lives to this effort, “because Jesus has all authority,” he said.
“Jesus didn’t promise us an easy way,” Lafferty continued. The easy people groups have been taken. The difficult ones remain, he explained.
Lafferty referenced the IMB’s Revelation 7:9 vision of “a multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language knowing and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“But we can’t do it alone. We need our churches – we need you – walking with us, walking down those streets, into those cities, and up those mountains, carrying this good news of Christ,” he said.
Dr. Rebekah Naylor, IMB’s global healthcare strategies consultant and organizer of the MedAdvance conference, spoke on the promises of God from Joshua 21:45.
She explained that “our ability to rely on promises that have been made, depends on the one who made the promise.”
Naylor said that in the Great Commission, the Lord promised to be with His disciples. “God’s character mandates that He will keep His promises,” Naylor added.
Naylor recounted how God led her through medical school and her surgical residency, even though as a woman in the 1960s, that was rare.
She shared about a time her practice as a missionary surgeon in India was in jeopardy over local laws and regulations, and God provided a way for her to remain in practice.
She recollected a local strike when an effigy of her was hung. Still, God protected her.
She closed by quoting the words to the hymn “Standing on the Promises”:
“Standing on the promises I cannot fall, / List'ning ev'ry moment to the Spirit's call, / Resting in my Savior as my all in all, / Standing on the promises of God.”
