The Joplin Tornado of May, 2011 on caught many of us well-intentioned but unprepared to respond effectively. I, for one, felt a deep sense of pain over the catastrophe unfolding just 100 miles a way. But I also realized frustration that at such late notice there was little I could do to assist.

This scenario is becoming more commonplace. In fact, disaster occurrences are on the rise. But so are the number of non-profit organizations, church groups, and civic volunteers who are interested in, even passionate about responding to the needs of disaster victims. For all these reasons Micah Flint, INMED’s Chief Programs Officer, envisioned a series of events to prepare non-government organizations.

First up is INMED Crisis Response Training on March 16. This interdenominational, nondenominational event will equip individuals and volunteer organizations (both medical and non-medical) to apply best practices as they build resilience in their communities and to respond to disaster events. This hands-on training program is designed for participates to learn and then to do.

I am encouraged over the heart-felt anticipation expressed by Crisis Response Training participants. And next time such a disaster strikes close to home, my own sense of frustration should be supplanted by the anticipation of our well planned reaction.

Today’s citizenry and healthcare profession students are more keenly aware of the needs of marginalized people. Educational institutions are rapidly developing curriculum and field experiences to match community and student expectations. As a result of such demand, however, health educators are grappling with how to best provide effective, relevant international healthcare training. Frequently cited challenges include:

• Identification of core curriculum and competencies across diverse institutions, accessible resources, and individual expectations
• Development of suitable partnerships with healthcare leaders in low-resource communities for the purposes of learning, service, and research
• Identification of qualified faculty for mentorship roles

For the last months INMED has been diligently developing the new Accreditation Council for International Healthcare Education (ACIHE). Our intent is both to applaud the value of service to marginalized people and to provide useful guidelines and accountability to institutions developing educational programs for the benefit of such people.

Look in the very near future for ACIHE publications. We want to welcome healthcare educators from across the academic spectrum to join with us in this worthy endeavor.

JOPLIN, MO — The warning “Execute Condition Gray!” blared through the halls of St. John’s Regional Medical Center. Personnel per protocol began rolling patients’ beds into the hallways. However, this was no drill. Near the ER’s glass doors Kevin Kikta, an emergency physician on duty, looked up to see a stunned security guard tearing down the corridor shouting, “Take cover! We’re gonna get hit!” Seconds later, on May 23, 2011 the entire nine-story building was pummeled by the tornado. Glass shards exploded from every window, doors blew of hinges, and patients’ IV-lines were ripped from their arms.

“You must help my baby now!” cried Amanda German. Moments after the strike she screeched to a stop at the stricken ER. Dr Kikta examined the child and found a deep chunk of his neck muscle torn away exposing bones in the boy’s spine. “You’re going to be OK, buddy,” Kikta told the boy, applying pressure to his bleeding wound. Then the doctor looked around himself, doubtfully. Rain was pouring in, the lights were out, natural gas sickened the air. Kikta realized a spark could cause the hospital to blow.

The next hours witnessed a massive response that alleviated Dr. Kikta’s worst fears. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon: “The response from Kansas City (the closest metro area) to help the people of Joplin is tremendous. Along side public safety agencies, several faith-based organizations are putting their faith into action.”

The Joplin catastrophe caused more deaths than any tornado in United States history. With disasters due to fire, flood, hurricane, heat, blizzard, and explosion predictably common, public disaster managers increasingly recognize the critical role played by non-government bodies. Regarding Joplin, Richard Serino, the Deputy Administrator of FEMA, noted “84 different volunteer groups served 134,000 meals and gave 275,000 hours of service with 41,000 volunteers. Who organized them? “Not FEMA,” Serino said. “Other volunteer organizations.”

Is your faith-based community or civic organization prepared for the next local disaster? Have you appointed leaders, organized teams, trained your personnel, and pre-arranged necessary equipment and supplies? What steps have you taken to become recognized and welcomed to participate in crisis response?

Anticipatory action is essential. For this reason, INMED is offering a Crisis Response Training event on Friday, March 16 to addresses emergency sheltering, feeding, emotional services, volunteer safety, and more. This opportunity will help your team leap into action when calamity strikes and another mother cries “You have to help my baby now!”

In 1989 I arrived in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, to begin making good on my commitment to assist the churches in interior city of Huambo as they launched a healthcare project. Those were wild days of civil war: roads littered with landmines, random military attacks on nationals and foreigners alike, wide-spread hunger, and epidemics of cholera and typhoid. Travel to the interior was especially risky. Mission Aviation Fellowship had just stationed a plane in Angola, upon whom so much of our initiative depended. The pilot, an older man, was very warm, competent, and engaging in character. Over several days I discovered that this was John Testrake - the hero of TWA Flight 847, hijacked in 1985 from Athens to Beirut and Algiers.

I was reminded of John recently when I discovered that his grandson is one of the students in my public health class at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.  What is so very striking to me about John Testrake is that he was a man of faith, fulfilling his ‘routine’ duties, when suddenly called upon to lead with wisdom and valor. Whether negotiating with terrorists, traversing the African outback, or confronting any of a myriad of challenges, may you and I do so with wisdom and valor.

The highlight of my INMED adventure is the exemplary people whom I meet in the course of “equipping healthcare professionals to serve the forgotten.” These include individuals living sacrificial lives in distant nations, students in the US whose enthusiasm for under-served people is truly inspiring, and the exceptional leaders in the INMED office: Micah Flint, Skylar Rolf, and Elizabeth Mowry - people of profound vision and integrity. All these people draw out the very best from within me and make me endeavor to a better man.

But people of vision and integrity are constantly under fire, tempted to compromise or become distracted. From where will we draw courage and conviction? I personally find the account of Daniel’s life to be particularly inspiring, and I trust you will as well:

“Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.” Daniel 6:3-4

In 2012 may you and I be people of integrity like Daniel!

A sobering scene of heaven is described by Jesus in the book of Matthew chapter 25: “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, stranger, sick, or in prison?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me… For I was hungry, thirsty, stranger, sick, in prison… and you did not look after me.’

What is Jesus saying about the role of compassion, the spiritual significance of good works, and the window into our souls that is opened through evaluation of our personal actions?

In our era of natural disasters, social unrest, and economic turmoil, this question is more than academic. We want our personal lives and our organized efforts to be significant, even virtuous. A first step is to identify with whom to invest our good will, and so the question: What people group is most distressed?

A people group, or ethnic group, is a cluster of individuals whose members identify with each other through a common heritage, language, culture, and/or ideology. Why address people groups and not simply nations? For one, nations contain a broad mix of both advantaged people and disadvantaged ones. Effectively addressing the plight of the latter requires an understanding of their particular culture.

Who is taking advantage of this insight on behalf the worlds’ most poor? Let me introduce you to Doug Blackall. A former professor of pathology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, I met Doug when he participated in an INMED International Medicine Intensive Course – one that’s now offered each spring, summer, and fall. Doug explained following that training experience, “Because I now better understood the diseases of poverty my naturally hard heart softened a bit, and I was in a much better place to effectively serve those in need.”

Shortly thereafter, Doug and his family moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he today serves at Oasis Hospital. The UAE is known outwardly as a relatively wealthy nation. But like all well-to-do countries, including China from where I’m writing now, the UAE also hosts many foreign workers and people groups of lesser economic status like Iranians, Palestinians, and Jordanians. Such people receive quality care from Doug and his colleagues.

What people group is most distressed? Many are in peril: the Berbers of northern Africa, Kurdish of western Asia, and Miskito of Central America. Observing the lifestyle of Doug Blackall, we may do better to ask ourselves, “What will I do on behalf of people in distress?” and “How can I equip myself for this challenge?” How would you respond to such questions? I invite you to correspond with me on this subject. Please contact me via email to nicholas@inmed.us or via Facebook.

Non-profit organizations are an unusual phenomena in China, best known of course for it’s rapidly growing economy and keen business sense. For the last three weeks I’ve enjoyed the privilege of being with Liaoning International General Health Trainings - better known as LIGHT. In the northeastern city of Shenyang, LIGHT provides both post-graduate education for Chinese family physicians AND patient care for people living on the margins: orphans, the elderly, and people in poverty. I observed a beautiful model of heartfelt virtue being lived out day to day by Chinese totally engaged in the rough and tumble of world of compassionate care.

Example: Pengchu is a lady in her 70s. She lives in a ‘retirement center’ on a tiny pension provided by the government because her children have no interest in her. They never visit, and certainly never send money. Pengchu suffers from hypertension and diabetes, but never knew this until her retirement center - really only a dormitory - was visited by LIGHT. The resident physicians and their faculty tested her pressure and sugar, making the diagnoses. With treatment,  Pengchu’s prospect for a longer life is bright. Perhaps even more significantly, she is receiving previously unknown warmth and attention.

As a college student I was inspired and challenged by the life of J. Hudson Taylor. He was a medical student in England in the mid-1850s, who against great odds moved to Shanghai to share the message and compassion of Jesus Christ. Taylor’s vision was to influence every province of that remote nation. Over the years to follow, his organization did indeed found hospitals and churches throughout China.

Fast forward to September, 2011, when Taylor’s great grandson, Hudson Taylor IV representing the same organization, spoke in Kansas City. A powerful oratory he delivered in flawless Mandarin. More profoundly, I was stuck again by the power of role models. Taylor continues to be extremely influential in my personal life. And a high priority for me is to be formative toward those who will follow me. And so the domino impact of role models continues.

This month INMED introduces the Diploma is International Medicine & Public Health - DIM&PH. For some time select educational institutions have offered diplomas in tropical medicine and hygiene. INMED and myself have carefully looked at such programs with a passion for how the training could be improved. The major deficiencies of current programs is their high cost and lack of supervised clinical or field experience.

In creating the INMED DIM&PH program we’ve aimed to dramatically cut the prohibitive cost and add a period of mentored service-learning. The outcome we anticipate is that greater numbers of well trained individuals will venture out in service on behalf of our most neglected neighbors.