This event is underwritten and free to attend.
Family Medicine Physician, West Africa
Dr. Suja Brane is a family medicine physician serving in West Africa since 2012, with experience in Burkina Faso, Mali, and now Senegal to some of the world’s most underserved communities. As a MedSend grant recipient and Longevity Project participant, she serves in predominantly Muslim communities, providing compassionate care to patients suffering from chronic and debilitating illnesses, individuals who are often marginalized and overlooked by society. Dr. Suja sees medicine as a powerful avenue for sharing Christ’s love and bringing holistic healing. She is married with three children and serves alongside her husband, who works in agricultural development through Farming God’s Way.
Dr. Suja looks forward to sharing how God is powerfully at work through medical missions—transforming lives and advancing His Kingdom, one patient at a time.
President and CEO of MedSend
Rick Allen has served as President and CEO at MedSend since 2008. During his tenure, the ministry has increased its impact in global healthcare missions. He has an extensive background in business and ministry. With a degree in finance and marketing from Temple University, he spent 25 years as a corporate executive, where he was instrumental in the rapid growth and turn-around of several high-tech businesses. In addition, Rick served for eight years as Campus Pastor of a multi-site church in Stamford, Connecticut. He and his wife, Linda have been married for over 40 years. They have four adult children and four grandchildren.
Our predecessors faithfully built institutions that have served for generations. Our challenge is different. We have inherited those institutions into a world they could scarcely have imagined. Population growth, urbanization, changing disease patterns, financial pressures, conflict, climate shocks, and technological change are reshaping healthcare across low- and middle-income countries.
Drawing on new data about the Christian health ecosystem, strategic consultations with global and African Christian health leaders, and field experience across Africa and Asia, this session explores what it will take for Christian health ministries to flourish by 2040.
Together we’ll imagine what it will take for Christian health ministries to flourish by 2040, strengthening resilient institutions, cultivating exceptional local leadership, and mobilizing a broader range of Christian expertise from medicine and nursing to governance, education, engineering, finance, data science, and technology.
How can Christian health ministries become indispensable partners in building resilient health systems that reflect the compassion and hope of Christ? The legacy of the next generation of medical missions will be measured not only by the number of missionaries sent, but by the resilience, flourishing, and Christ-centered witness of systems they strengthen.
