Our Barefoot Doctors Story

A few weeks ago, I awoke with the need to tell the story of the Barefoot Doctors ministry.  Let me share with you what I wrote that morning ...

Our story is the simplest, most basic story imaginable.

It’s the story of human need.

It’s the story of human compassion.

It’s the story of bringing these two things together in a dynamic way.

It’s the story of one person reaching out to another in God’s love.

Our story is the Barefoot Doctor story. There are many Barefoot Doctor stories, but ours takes place not only in Burma but also in Thailand and Laos.  I have never been a Barefoot Doctor, nor will I ever be, but I was drawn into the story like a moth to the light.  I was fascinated by its power and energy. I couldn’t turn away.

The story began over 30 years ago in the heart and soul of a Burmese preacher named Daniel.  As a young man, he fled his native land and became a refugee.  Then 30 years ago, he went back to Burma with his wife, Beverley, to make a difference in the lives of his people for God. The oppressiveness and neglect of their government had gone on too long.  Political efforts were not changing anything.  His fellow citizens were suffering, and they had been suffering for a long time.

As Daniel made trips from Thailand back into Burma to preach the Gospel and start churches, he saw how his people were deprived of the most basic medical care.  A simple cut could become an infection that led to death.  A tooth cavity would lead to years of pain and even death.  Diseases like malaria and dengue fever, both treatable with modern medicines, took hundreds of lives needlessly.  Whole villages grew sick because the villagers didn’t understand germs, the value of a clean water supply, and a safe latrine system.

Daniel thought, “Someone needs to recruit people from Burma and equip them with simple medical skills to help these people.  Someone needs to arm them with the knowledge of good community health and safety.”  Then he thought, “Maybe that someone should be me!”  Then, through the Christian mission he and his wife had started 30 years ago, Daniel began the Barefoot Doctors Program.

At first the candidates were brought together for just a few weeks of medical and Bible training.  They were taught first aid and the use of simple, over-the-counter medicines to counteract the most common injuries and sicknesses.  They were then equipped with a few supplies and sent out into the hills and villages of Burma, Thailand, and Laos to address the medical needs of their people and to preach the Gospel.  Their mission was simple, and it still is.  It is identical to the mission Jesus sent his disciples on in Luke 9:2 when “He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

As the Barefoot Doctors Program developed, students began coming to the school three times over a period of three years before they could receive their certificates as Barefoot Doctors.  They now stay at the school three months of each year learning everything they can about medicine, dentistry, community health, and serving the spiritual needs of the people in the villages.  Financial and medical resources are solicited from the United States, Canada and Europe so that these Barefoot Doctors can continue serving their people when they have no resources of their own.  Amazingly, some of them have become self-supporting so they can continue their work with little or no help from the outside.

Over the past twenty years, more than 180 Barefoot Doctors have been trained, resourced, and sent out!  Most of them are still on the field providing medical and dental care to thousands and thousands of people who have nowhere else to turn.  In March of 2012 we graduated another 26 Barefoot Doctors from the FLC school in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  They immediately returned to Burma to serve the needs of the people in seven different ethnic groups or tribes.  We now have Barefoot Doctors in every region of Burma, but there are still many, many villages where there is no medical clinic at all.

Burma is a country in medical crisis.  Even in the cities people often cannot get the medical care they need, and in many places the hospitals are under-staffed and lacking medicines and supplies.  Transportation from the villages to these hospitals is difficult.  Last year, some of our Barefoot Doctors had to hand-carry a patient through the jungle for over 60 miles so she could have the surgery she needed.  Many of our Barefoot Doctors treat people you wouldn’t expect them to, like monks and government officials and soldiers.  In many cases, as they treat these people they are also able to share the gospel with them.

This coming January we will begin training the Class of 2016.  So far, 20 caring, compassionate Christians have been selected to be part of this class.  They are willing to scrimp and save and sacrifice in order to become a Barefoot Doctor.  Why?  Because they have a tremendous passion to serve the medical and spiritual needs of their own people, people who have nowhere else to turn.  In the Class of 2012, we had students who walked through the mountains for two to three weeks to get to the airport so they could be flown to the training center in Chiang Mai.  One of them was a fifty-year-old grandmother who was gone from her family for five months so she could get the three months of training we offered her each year.  Their desire to be used of God is amazing and inspiring!

Will you help us train these volunteer Barefoot Doctors?  Will you help us teach and equip the Class of 2016 over the next three years so that hundreds, even thousands, of lives can be changed for the better, both now and in eternity?  Will you help us with the next chapter of our story?

To find out more about the Barefoot Doctors Program, please visit the Frontier Labourers for Christ website at www.frontierlabourersforchrist.org, then click on “Health.”  

Jon