Medical professionals celebrate God's work through medical missions, and mobilize the next generation at Orlando conference.
Prescription for Renewal enjoyed the highest attendance ever in its 34-year history Oct. 2-5, as more than 900 people gathered to praise God for the far-reaching impact of Samaritan’s Purse medical ministries around the globe.
Perhaps it was the record crowd in Orlando, Florida, including over 100 medical and nursing students from 14 academic institutions, that created the high-energy atmosphere at the missions conference. The captivated audience applauded often and had much to celebrate as they heard stirring testimonies of lives changed—both those of the patients and of the doctors who served them as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
More than 900 professionals attended the Oct. 2-5 medical missions conference in Orlando.
“This event is a perfect picture of how you can use your skills and talents as it relates to your career path, but use that to impact the world for Christ,” said guest Bible teacher Rev. Jonathan Falwell, who gave a shoutout to the contingent of students present from Liberty University. Falwell is the chancellor of the Christian college and is the senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, based in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Along with Bible teaching and worship, attendees could choose from among 60 medical lectures and receive continuing education credits. A spiritual enrichment track was also offered.
During his welcoming remarks, President and CEO Franklin Graham made the mission of Samaritan’s Purse clear: “We want to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, that’s what we do, whether it is Sudan, the jungles of Africa, Asia … the Bahamas … Central Park [New York City]. No matter where we go, we want to lift up Christ. That’s what it is all about, doing it in Jesus’ Name,” Graham said.
Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham addresses attendees at the 2025 Prescription for Renewal Conference.
“We want people to know that God loves them, that God cares for them, and that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, out of Heaven to this earth to take our sins.”
World Medical Mission, a medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse, has coordinated 17,000 short-term volunteer service trips to dozens of mission hospitals since 1977. The success of that program helped open the door for an expansion of Samaritan’s Purse medical initiatives that now encompass our Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART), Children’s Heart Project, and surgical specialty campaigns, as well as the new U.S. Community Medical Outreach program.
Staying on Track
Falwell thanked the audience of medical professionals and crisis responders for their great work, as he described what it felt like to be “on the receiving end” of a Samaritan’s Purse rescue mission.
Liberty University Chancellor Jonathan Falwell encouraged attendees, which included more than 100 medical and nursing students from 14 academic institutions.
The pastor and his wife’s 25th wedding anniversary trip to St. Martin was dramatically interrupted by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The Category 5 storm destroyed much of the Caribbean island, including the hotel where the Falwells were staying. They ended up sheltering in an underground bunker with other stranded people.
A few days later, Falwell and other bystanders stood on the beach and marveled to watch as a Samaritan’s Purse plane arrived bringing much-needed assistance to the island. Falwell recalled what one overjoyed woman exclaimed: “Look, it’s Samaritan’s Purse! I knew the Christians would come!”
The Falwells were relieved, too, and filled with gratitude. “When troubles arise, people know the first ones to show up are going to be those who come in Jesus’ Name. That is such a testimony and a witness of what God is doing through each of you,” Rev. Falwell said.
Falwell shared two messages during the conference, cautioning followers of Christ to guard against worldly distractions and encouraging them to make an eternal difference with their God-given abilities.
He pointed to the example of King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, yet who fell away from God’s will and “did evil in the sight of the LORD” (1 Kings 11:6).
Samaritan’s Purse COO Edward Graham spent time encouraging students—the next generation to carry the torch of medical missions.
“When you are passionate about … reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Satan will put a bull’s-eye on your back,” Falwell said. “He wants to pull you away, to tempt you to begin to focus on other things than what God has called you to do. None of us are immune to this danger.”
Sharing from 2 Peter 1, Falwell reassured the audience that God has already equipped those He has called to serve with strength and protection. That doesn’t mean the journey will be smooth, but “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises” (vv. 3-4).
Becky Williams (left), director of development for World Medical Mission, meets with 96-year-old Frank Dennis, a retired medical missionary at a hospital in Taiwan and the oldest attendee at Prescription for Renewal. They are joined by Sylvia and Dr. Mel Cheatham.
“God will never send you where He does not also prepare and provide for you. When you walk in the will of God, you cannot fail,” Falwell concluded. “As my dad often said, ‘God’s man and God’s woman are indestructible until they have finished the work that God has called them to do.’ So if you sit back and say, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ [my response is], ‘Yes, you can.’ Every person in this room, regardless of your journey, regardless of your training …, whether a student or whether coming to the end of your medical career, God has a place for you to change the world. Together, let’s make the commitment that that’s exactly what we will do.”
A Spectrum of Healing
“The body or the soul? What should be our emphasis in healthcare missions?” This question was posed by keynote speaker Dr. Jim Ritchie, a member care chaplain with Samaritan’s Purse and an emergency medicine specialist who served for six years at Chogoria Hospital in Kenya.
Dr. Jim Ritchie, a member care chaplain with Samaritan’s Purse and an emergency medicine specialist, encouraged attendees about the worthy call to medicine and the Gospel ministry of medical missions.
Guided by insights from a chaplain mentor at Chogoria, Ritchie delivered a thought-provoking discourse on how ministering to both is vitally important, as healing can come in a variety of shades and forms.
“I would submit that healthcare alone is a worthy goal, something that Jesus Himself endorsed,” Ritchie said, referencing Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. “And healthcare is a powerful magnet to people encountering the Gospel.”
He encouraged doctors to consider integrating the medicinal and the spiritual and gave examples of healing—some physically restorative, others spiritually focused, and what is often not talked about, what he describes as “the healing in the middle.”
Ritchie relayed the story of one of his Kenyan patients who had severe edema which he and other physicians attributed to the man’s failing heart and kidneys. The patient, a young married man, blamed his physical condition on a curse he said some relatives had placed on him for not making his dowry payments. The hospital chaplain believed the man’s illness was caused by an evil manifestation.
Dr. Ritchie said the staff agreed to treat the man’s renal failure with medication, they prayed against any curse on his life, and they encouraged him to reconcile with his relatives. Whichever route God chose to intervene in the man’s life, the doctor and chaplain couldn’t ascertain, but the end result was that the renal failure cleared. God healed him.
Attendees had opportunities to tour various exhibits, including those demonstrating the schema of our field hospitals and surgical units.
He also described a case involving an elderly man with inoperable cancer. Ritchie felt discouraged that he had nothing to offer the man medically. Then one day he saw the man sitting up in bed, reading the Bible in his language. The man explained that he was at peace with his condition: “The Lord Jesus has met with me, and I know where I am going. Do nothing to delay my joy.”
The physician was amazed. “He showed me that even in the face of a fatal diagnosis, we have something wonderful to offer people. At the end of life, the Lord can offer joy,” said Ritchie. “That is Kingdom living. That is the space where the body and the spirit are intertwined in the middle.”
‘The Grandmother of Samaritan’s Purse’
Memorial tributes were held for two career missionaries and long-time ministry partners of Samaritan’s Purse who entered the gates of Heaven this year.
Dr. Jim Foulkes served for nearly four decades at Mukinge Mission Hospital in Zambia. After retiring to Boone, North Carolina, in 1997, he became a member of the World Medical Mission leadership committee and helped to develop the Post-Residency Program. Dr. Foulkes passed away in January at the age of 97. His wife, Martha, attended this weekend’s conference events.
Scott Hughett, director of World Medical Mission, introduced the documentary about Aileen Coleman.
Aileen Coleman co-founded the Annoor Sanatorium for Chest Diseases in Mafraq, Jordan. Trained as a registered nurse, she served in the Middle East for 70 years, and her love for the Bedouin people was legendary. In June, Coleman was able to participate in a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the opening of Annoor. She passed away the following month and was 94 years old.
World Medical Mission Director Scott Hughett introduced the documentary “The Raisa—The Life and Legacy of Aileen Coleman” that was viewed Saturday night.
“Aileen was one of my dearest friends and my mentor. She wanted to inspire young people, and she spent the last years of her life trying to find ways to encourage a new generation to serve,” Hughett said. “I like to think of Aileen as the grandmother of Samaritan’s Purse.”
Also recognized was Faythe Furman, the widow of Lowell Furman, who traveled with her husband to India on what became the first World Medical Mission trip to an overseas hospital. With the encouragement of Franklin Graham, Lowell and his brother Richard started World Medical Mission in a tiny office on a back street in Boone, North Carolina.
The conference wrapped up Sunday morning with Communion and a commissioning service led by Will Graham, the executive vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Planning is already underway for the 2026 Prescription for Renewal which will return to the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld in Florida, Oct. 1-4.
