Nariy O Head Shot

Nairy Ohanian

Dr. Nairy Ohanian is a Pastoral Counselor serving in missions for 30 years. For 18 years she pioneered university ministry in Armenia & Turkey with InterVarsity/IFES as well as church planting. The last 14 years she serves in the Middle East as a cross-cultural counselor helping missionaries adjust culturally, emotionally and spiritually on the field. She loves to engage about Sabbath rest, spiritual rhythms, self-care, stress & burnout, grief, theology of suffering, loneliness, singleness, & re-entry. Her last 6 years in Egypt she started a Member Care Center. At the Retreat, Nairy serves as one of the facilitators of our core curriculum as well as providing one-to-one debriefings and leading morning devotionals. And always ready to host a lunch roundtable on topics of participant interests!

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.