Frauke S. 2024

Frauke Schaefer

Dr. Frauke Schaefer has worked in global healthcare in Pokhara/Nepal as family physician. There, her passion was kindled to support global workers, and she decided to get trained, initially in Germany, her home country, and after marrying Dr. Charlie Schaefer in NC/USA in psychiatry. Together with Charlie she serves with Barnabas International and as part of the Alongside MedTeam. She loves coming alongside global healthcare workers. Frauke provides debriefing during MedRefresh and is happy to discuss medications. She will talk about German-American cultural differences over a Cappuccino. If you would love to talk about sleep, or food and resilience, talk to her.

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.