Mission Beyond Our Borders
Spectrum is honored to partner with AdventHealth for a bi-monthly series in 2024. Every other month we will publish an essay in which an AdventHealth executive will share a spiritual reflection drawn from their personal and professional commitment to healthcare and Adventist mission.
Growing up in Central America, the son of a pastor and a nurse, I saw firsthand the power of service and caring for others. My dad was from Ecuador, my mom from Argentina, and together, they dedicated much of their lives to mission work throughout Central and South America.
After my early years, I moved with my parents to the U.S. and later, I had the opportunity to study in Europe. These diverse experiences shaped my perspective, helping me to see similarities across cultures. I realized that the need for physical, emotional and mental well-being is universal, but access to resources is not.
During my travels, I saw how lack of housing, medical care, transportation and even food and clean water can impact the health and well-being of entire communities. The example my parents set taught me that we are called to share with those who have less. We are called to be Christ’s hands and feet. That’s why I believe that connecting with communities in other parts of the world is so important. The need for love and healing transcends borders.
At AdventHealth, we believe that our mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ should stretch beyond the walls of our hospitals and care centers into our communities and even beyond our country’s boundaries. This belief stems from a deep commitment to health equity and service.
One rewarding aspect of my role is meeting the people we are serving in other countries through our global missions program. I love hearing their stories, listening to their aspirations and seeing how their hope and faith are being renewed through the care that our team members provide.
The apostle John says, “Let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” (1 John 3:18, NLT). When we think beyond our borders and our own needs and give of our time and resources, we show love in action, plain and simple. And it’s life changing.
In addition to service, I learned the importance of resilience and gratitude growing up. My family faced some major setbacks, including dangerous unrest that made us flee Guatemala, a hurricane that caused extensive damage to our home, and later, a fire that completely destroyed our house. Though we lost so much, the experiences deepened my appreciation for the things that mattered most and my gratitude for the blessings we received. The help and compassion we were shown by others taught me to understand how significant one person’s generosity can be to someone else.
Recognizing this interconnectedness of humanity, AdventHealth has a global missions program that seeks to make a tangible difference in communities around the world. Our dedicated, global missions team creates service opportunities for our more than 95,000 AdventHealth team members. With 30 to 40 trips planned for 2025, we expect to send out 775 volunteers next year alone.
Through partnerships with local Adventist “footprint” hospitals that we have made five-year commitments to, we provide our time, knowledge and resources to address each area’s pressing health care needs. This year, we sent more than 14 40-foot shipping containers full of goods to 25 countries.
Sharing our vision of wholistic healing, our faith-based footprint hospitals span 17 countries and are the pillars of our global missions. From Ethiopia to Chile, Haiti to Ukraine, each footprint location represents a commitment to improving health care and impacting lives in a meaningful way.
Recently, I had the privilege of visiting our first partnered hospital in Mexico, Hospital del Sureste, in the city of Villahermosa, near the Yucatán peninsula. The experience was a powerful reminder of the diverse health care needs across different regions and highlighted the importance of tailored approaches to care. What may seem routine in one location can be lifesaving in another.
This understanding drives our global missions. We don’t just work to provide temporary relief; we collaborate to build sustainable solutions that meet the individual needs of each community. This is why we organize educational conferences to provide nursing and leadership training to our footprint partners and share knowledge and best practices from our health system. Our goal is to have a lasting effect by strengthening health care services locally and empowering others with the tools they need to continue the work.
This ministry extends beyond AdventHealth’s organizational boundaries. As I learned from my parents’ example long ago, we’re each called to identify needs wherever they exist and actively engage with others. We don’t necessarily need to travel to distant lands; we can serve within our counties, cities and neighborhoods. The critical factor—the thing that will make a lasting difference — is to look beyond ourselves and extend Christ’s spirit of healing wherever we are.
