The Woodleys are a family committed to following Jesus wherever He may lead. From 2017 to 2024, they served as missionaries to Kudjip Hospital in Papua New Guinea. With his background in Emergency Medicine, Matt worked as a Generalist caring for patients in physical and spiritual need.
Tammy had many roles at Kudjip, including teaching at the MK school, organizing the hospital storeroom, and creating and implementing an adult literacy class. She is now an affiliate trainer with Trauma Free World, equipping others to understand and respond to psychological trauma with wisdom and compassion.
Together with their children, Elana and MJ, they remain passionate about service and plan to continue volunteering at Kudjip Hospital in the years ahead. The Woodleys were grant recipients with MedSend for both student loan repayment and the Longevity Project.
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.
