Source: The Health Connection Newsletter | 1st Quarter 2025
Adventist colleges and universities that offer health professions education programs serve as extraordinary spaces where “preaching, teaching, and healing” harmoniously converge. They hold the potential to mirror the way Jesus ministered to humanity’s needs during His time on earth noted in the biblical account: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Matthew 4:23
What an incredible privilege it has been for my family and me to serve in Adventist health professions education for more than two decades and to join the Health Ministries team at the General Conference. We have been blessed to witness, firsthand, how the Lord transforms the lives of young people through these institutions, equipping them for a life of service.
In May 1909, at a General Conference session, Ellen G. White made a heartfelt appeal: “If ever the Lord has spoken by me, He speaks when I say that the workers engaged in educational lines, in ministerial lines, and in medical missionary lines must stand as a unit, all laboring under the supervision of God, one helping the other, each blessing each.” 9T 169.3. Truly, this embodies the essence of “Comprehensive Health Ministry.” Following this profound statement, she issued a clear call: “The Lord calls upon our young people to enter our schools and quickly fit themselves for service. In various places outside of cities, schools are to be established where our youth can receive an education that will prepare them to go forth to do evangelical work and medical missionary work.” 9T 170.2
Adventist health ministries has supported the establishment of health professional educational programs. With a total of over 80 nursing schools, 9 medical schools (we celebrate the most recent addition in Brazil), five dental schools, and numerous other health professions programs where young people can be equipped to share hope and wholeness for a broken world in need of restoration. For a list visit our website at https://www.healthministries.com/health-professional-education/
May God’s blessings be with all health professional educational programs, especially the most recent addition at UNASP-HT, Brazil, so that it may continue to inspire and prepare medical missionaries to carry forward His mission of healing and hope.
