Catherine Hodge Pic

Dr. Catherine Hodge

Serving at Nkhoma CCAP Mission Hospital in Malawi

Catherine grew up on the Space Coast of Florida in the Cape Canaveral area. She got her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the University of Central Florida and went on to get her Medical Doctorate at the University of Miami. She and her husband Dave married in 2010 and they moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attend the Family Medicine Residency training program at In His Image. Dave, Catherine and baby Charlotte moved to Nkhoma, Malawi, just after Catherine finished her residency training. Evelyn was then born in 2015 and Noelle in 2017. Catherine’s role at Nkhoma Hospital has changed over the years, but some highlights of her service include working as a consultant to the pediatrics ward, starting a neonatal unit in 2016, starting the family medicine residency program in 2016, running a pediatrics clinic for 10 years and leading the covid and cholera emergency responses in 2020 and 2023. Catherine and her family love to hike Nkhoma Mountain, spend weekends trying out new recipes, host lots of gatherings at their home, and visit new places. Lamentations 3:19-24 has been a cornerstone passage for Catherine’s ministry, as God’s mercies have been proven to her new every morning.

Flourishing by Design: Imagining Medical Missions for 2040

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.