History
Southwestern Medical Clinic continues its dedication to supporting Christian medical missions in a number of ways. In the beginning, SWMC offered the furloughing medical missionary a place to train, re-adjust, and re-enter the U.S. medical practice. Our mission support has grown to become a multi-faceted and unique ministry to medical missionaries, medical missions, and to the world. The Southwestern Medical Clinic Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that assists in missions support and offers scholarships to help students and residents experience short-term medical mission work, while maintaining the benefits of a non-profit entity.
For the medical missionary physician, Southwestern Medical Clinic: offers a place to learn new techniques and skills and to gain knowledge for better service as they return to the field, offers a place of encouragement, allowing time for family life and refreshment spiritually, physically, and professionally, creates a support base for prayer, financial support, and short-term assistance and involvement from the group when they return to the field.
Members of the group in full-time medical practice in the United States have the opportunity to offer financial support to medical missions through the group and through independent mission boards. In addition, members can choose to be involved with short-term mission work from two weeks to two years or longer. These are the unique characteristics of the practice: Commitment to Jesus Christ and to medical missions, and flexibility to allow physicians to go in the direction that the Lord leads.
SWMC is dedicated to providing the physical support of doctors to medical practices around the world through domestic and international medical missions. One of our domestic missions involved working with patients in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Over the 40 years of the clinic's medical practice, our providers have worked as short- and long-term medical missionaries in the following locations: Bangladesh, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Future mission location goals include Kosovo, Nicaragua, and the Phillippines. An average of 20 SWMC providers are overseas using their gifts from God to serve communities in need of medical care every quarter. Our mission involves creating sustainable relationships with the medical organizations in which our physicians provide support in other countries, and many physicians go on recurrent medical missions to a number of locations, such as the Tenwek Hospital in Kenya.