Christian Global Health in Perspective

Healing the Nations. Restoring Shalom. The world is grappling with complex health challenges and disparities, forcing us to confront many pressing questions. How do Christians understand and practice healthcare? What is the biblical view of health and healing? This workbook unravels these queries, offering deep insights into the Christian approach to global health issues.  Christian Global Health in Perspective delves into the biblical foundations of health, historical perspectives of Christian medical missions, and strategies for integrating faith with modern healthcare. Health is wholeness in body, mind, and spirit. The authors, seasoned experts in theology and medicine, guide readers through an exploration of how the church can innovatively respond to current global health concerns.  This resource is essential for healthcare professionals, church leaders, development workers, and anyone interested in the intersection of faith and health. Reading this book may result in a paradigm shift for some who view remission of disease as the sole focus for healing, when from a biblical perspective, wholeness and shalom form the basis for promoting health. Christian Global Health invites you to join this transformative mission, where faith and healthcare converge for global well-being. 

Rebecca Meyer (PhD, MSNed, BSN, RN) has been a nurse for over thirty-five years, working in the PICU/CVICU as part of the ECMO Team and Transport Team and as an Educator, Charge Nurse, and Manager. A full-time professor since 2010, she served as the curriculum coordinator and co-author of Christian Global Health in Perspective, part of Health for All Nations. She trains and leads students to serve cross-culturally and integrate their faith with their discipline.
Arnold Gorske (MD, FAAP) is the CEO of Standards of Excellence in Healthcare Missions and the editor for Health Education Program for Developing Communities. He is a member of the CHIM governance team, Best Practices in Global Health Missions Working Group, and various Christian health mission boards. He is part of the HFAN leadership team and served as medical team leader for the International Red Cross in Iraq, followed by over fifty short-term missions to numerous countries worldwide.
Christoffer H. Grundmann (ThD, Dr. Theol. habil) is the John R. Eckrich University Professor in Religion and the Healing Arts at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, USA. He teaches courses on missiology and comparative religions, and his research includes topics related to medical missions, healing, medicine of the person, and corporeality. He has authored numerous publications, including thebook Sent to Heal! The Emergence and Development of Medical Missions. Paul Hudson (MD) is a missionary physician and epidemiologist who served with SIM in Ethiopia, Nepal, and Thailand for over thirty years. Service areas include clinical medicine, community health, discipleship, and the intersection of faith and practice. Paul spent about half his medical missionary career with SIM globally, developing gospel-based approaches to HIV and AIDS and coaching medical missionaries on three continents. He has written about connections betweenhealthcare and the gospel in Healthcare and the Mission of God.
Perry Jansen (MD, MPH, DTMH) has twenty years of experience as a clinician, manager, and strategist in sub-Saharan Africa. He is the Vice President of Strategic Health Partnerships with African Mission Healthcare and has also worked with other sending agencies. He considers himself a systems thinker and appreciates the complex adaptive systems people work in. He is an encourager and catalyzer forlocal solutions for the next generation of healthcare leaders.
Daniel O'Neill (MD, MTh) is a physician-theologian and managing editor of the Christian Journal for Global Health (cjgh.org). He is the author and co-editor of the book All Creation Groans: Toward a Theology of Disease and Global Health (Pickwick, 2021). He has served on multiple health and development projects in Latin America, India, Burkina Faso, and the Middle East. He is an AssistantClinical Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
Mike Soderling (MD, MBA) served as an OB/GYN physician in a multi-specialty group in the US for ten years before following a call to Central America, where he served for eleven years. He is the Director of Health for All Nations, seeking to see people from every tribe, tongue, and nation experience the health/shalom of Jesus.
Grace Tazelaar started out teaching nursing education at a diploma school and was involved in its transition to a baccalaureate program. She left nursing education to do community health development in Uganda from 1985 to 1991. It was at the end of the civil war and the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Her career focus changed from women's health to public health during that time. After the war, she worked with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education as they developed the first baccalaureate nursing program in the area. Grace now serves as the NCF Missions Director in a volunteer role.