The Finish Line Podcast Rick Allen, CEO/President MedSend, on Training Native Physicians to Advance the Gospel (Ep. 165)
Rick Allen was raised in an Irish-Catholic family, but he made his profession of faith some time after graduating college. From there, his journey of faith and his career path progressed side-by-side. Over time, Rick went from volunteering at church to pastoring a church plant, and from software salesman to CEO of a development company. Then with his ministry experience and leadership skills, Rick transitioned to become president and CEO of MedSend, an organization that has mobilized over 750 Christ-following, disciple-making healthcare professionals into 103 nations.
MedSend doesn’t just send doctors overseas, it helps train native physicians to care and witness within their own communities. Under Rick’s leadership, MedSend’s National Scholars Pathway is equipping African, Asian, and Middle Eastern doctors with advanced medical and biblical training so that they can heal physically and introduce people to Jesus right where they live. Rick is passionate about seeing nations transformed with the love of God through well-equipped, Christ-following medical professionals. Millions of lives have already been touched, and MedSend has a vision to reach millions more with fully equipped Christ-centered hospital systems and networks. If you want to learn how faith, medicine, and missions can fuse in sustainable ways, this episode is for you.
Major Topics Include:
- Learning to trust God when you can’t see what’s ahead
- The desperate need for well-trained health care professionals globally
- Raising up medical professionals to minister to their own people
- ROI of investing in a national missionary physician
- Training medical professionals to share the gospel and disciple others
- Extending impact through partnership
- Helping medical missionaries care for themselves through the longevity program
- MedSend’s long-term goal to transform nations through hospital systems and networks
- “And I knew immediately that I wasn’t trusting God.”
- “What does it look like for a Christ-following man to trust and surrender?”
- “I got to see God at work across the table and across the world, and it transformed my understanding of who God is.”
- “If you approach God with an open mind and and open heart and say, ‘if you’re real, show me,’ God will show up every time.”
- “These individuals are taking the love of Christ and a vision for compassionate care into their own healthcare systems and transforming them in the love of Christ.”
- “We anticipate that an individual physician will touch about 100,000 lives during their career. So we’re training up people that will bless and share the knowledge of Christ with 100,000 people in a lifetime. That level of investment pays off over decades.”
- “This is not about building healthcare capacity. This is about building Christ-followers who see healthcare as a means to share the love of Jesus Christ.”
- MedSend
- Institute of Global Healthcare Missions
- Christian Medical & Dental Associations
- Samaritan’s Purse
- ROI Ministry (see our interview with founder, Tim Barker)
- The Finish Line Community Facebook Group
- The Finish Line Community LinkedIn Group
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