When Missions Align: Cedarville and GMHC

Several of our undergraduate and graduate healthcare academic programs from Cedarville University sent just over 100 students to the Global Missions Health Conference (GMHC) in Louisville, Kentucky, in November 2021. The Cedarville University School of Pharmacy (CUSOP) sent our first-year pharmacy students again to GMHC. This has been one of the mainstay traditions since the CUSOP started in 2012. It was then that a friend of the CUSOP covered the full cost of the conference for all first-year students due to his love for God’s missional work all around the world and his hope to see students equipped to leave pharmacy school with a Gospel focus. 

I look back over these 10 years of attending the conference and I believe this hope that started as a one-time gift vibrantly continues to give today. At the heartbeat of CUSOP is the value of intentional discipleship with global service. The hope is what starts as a weekend getaway in their first year prepares students for future cross-cultural experiences during their later years of pharmacy school and prepares pharmacy graduates as Kingdom ambassadors in white coats. 

The GMHC has a goal of equipping students and healthcare workers to use their skills at home and around the world for the Kingdom of God. GMHC’s mandate is threefold: equip, educate, and send. Wow, how missions align! Our goal at CUSOP is to equip students with the knowledge and skill to serve patients, educate them medically while building a biblical foundation, and send them out. 

It is because of this alignment of mission with GMHC that I was excited once again to share this experience with our students and see what God will do to transform them to be more like Christ and be more about His call as we fully prepare students for His purpose.

Thad Franz, Pharm.D. is Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the Cedarville University School of Pharmacy.