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Echo VanderWal

The Luke Commission

Echo VanderWal and her husband, Harry, lead The Luke Commission, a faith-based NGO delivering compassionate, comprehensive healthcare to the most isolated and underserved people in the Kingdom of Eswatini through over 300,000 patient visits annually. Echo earned a bachelor’s degree in biology (summa cum laude) from Cedarville University in 1996. After completing training as a physician assistant at Kettering College of Medical Arts, Echo practiced in surgery until the birth of her triplet sons in 2001. With deep compassion, leadership acumen, business sense, and a servant’s heart, Echo advocates at the highest levels for the health and development of Eswatini.

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.