Breakout 2, Saturday, April 15 10am

Building on the Disaster Response plenary from earlier in the conference, during this breakout we’ll hear ministry experiences first hand from Samaritan Purse’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) medical members. Nurse Bywater and Nurse Fite will provide an overview of a variety of DART ministry deployments, including responses in Bangladesh, Italy, Bahamas, South Sudan, Ukraine, Turkey, and Malawi. There will be sufficient time for Q and A during this session, so come ready to ask your questions!

Mariah is a Registered Nurse from South Carolina with more than 20 years of experience in Emergency, Pediatrics, and various International Medical arenas. She has been serving with Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) since 2017.

Angela’s bio is coming soon after her return from Turkey

This session continues a next-level discussion from the plenary session: “Flourishing: The Burnout Antidote.” We will specifically overview some of the more prevalent mental health challenges among medical trainees and professionals including stress and overwhelm, depression, and anxiety, and these as potential contributors to burnout. The session will also highlight how these issues may show up among medical trainees and professionals as high-performing individuals. Finally, we will explore some practical B.A.S.I.C.S. for building a personalized and proactive plan for mental health flourishing.

Dr. Natalie Cupples Pickering is an organizational psychologist, board-certified coach, wife, mom, Ironman triathlon finisher, and an Enneagram style 1. She loves good coffee, mountains, deep conversation and supporting transformation. Her mission is to equip, inspire and empower wholehearted professionals and leaders in the workplace, community, and the home to promote personal and professional flourishing.

She is the CEO of High Places Coaching and Consulting, Inc. and is the Organization Development psychologist at a government healthcare system where she specializes in leadership development, burnout prevention and emotional intelligence.

Dr. Pickering enjoys supporting emerging leaders in the development of their leader identity and translating this to performance impact to build resilient people, teams, and organizations. She has significant experience supporting healthcare professionals across settings and specialties and served as a global worker in West Africa. Dr. Pickering's experience also includes work with public and private schools, hospitals, community mental health centers, not-for-profits, local businesses, solopreneurs, universities, and government agencies. She has developed and managed an internal Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program and coached and consulted executive leadership of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations across various industries.

Learn more at www.yourhighestplace.com

Chrisitan maturity and fruitfulness cannot happen without the refining presence of hardship, suffering, and divine discipline. Any disciple who longs to advance Jesus' Kingdom must prepare for periods of suffering as a prerequisite for meaningful ministry. It's not fun, but the end result is a "harvest of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11).

During this breakout, Pastor Bert will help us examine what Scripture teaches suffering and death, and the way it conflicts with what God intended for His creation. This session will be Biblically based and very practical.

Rick Donlon grew up in New Orleans and graduated from Texas Christian University in 1986. He completed medical school at LSU-N.O., and a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. In 1995 he and three medical school classmates opened a primary-care health center in Memphis’ most medically underserved neighborhood. The work eventually grew to include eight health centers, three dental clinics, and a family medicine residency program—providing over 170,000 patient visits annually.

Beginning in 2003, many of the medical and dental providers, including Dr. Donlon, moved into the underserved communities where they work. In those same low-income settings, they’ve planted over a dozen house churches. That house church network has subsequently sent dozens of long-term medical missionaries to North Africa, Central and South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa.

In September of 2020, Dr. Donlon became the Memphis Area Director for the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (while continuing to practice medicine half time).

Physicians, dentists, and other healthcare workers who’ve trained with Dr. Donlon in Memphis have started or joined similar ministries in low-income communities across the US. Dr. Donlon, his wife Laurie, and their seven children live in the Binghampton neighborhood where he serves as an elder in the house church network.

Email Rick

Healthcare missions for physicians is generally respected and supported in principle. However, in practice, some schools and employers are much better than others in terms of facilitating your participation and training for a career of missional living. Join us for a panel discussion with physicians who have walked the walk, and learn from them what you should be looking for as you decide on a medical school, residency, and future employer.

Read more about Sharmayne Brooks, Theron Stinar, and David Kim on the About Breakout Leaders page.

This talk will discuss ways to navigate the unique opportunities of short term missions. You will be challenged to embark on your journey with consideration of the culture in which you will be immersed and spiritual preparation. We will discuss how to prepare for the field intentionally. Are you prepared to change the world or have the world change you?

Mkiyah Gonzalez is a Certified Nurse Practitioner with a passion for exploring different cultures. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Hampton University and served for four years as a nurse in the Army. She later completed her nurse practitioner training at Frontier Nursing University.

Mkiyah is grateful to work at the Fredericksburg Christian Health Center, where she can address healthcare needs and share the love of Christ. She has had the opportunity to be part of short-term missions in Guatemala and Peru. She speaks conversational Spanish and enjoys doing life with her husband of 21 years and their five children.

Katie has a passion to see American believers gain the knowledge and confidence to manage finances well and the humility to use the money under their control to build God's Kingdom instead of their own. She is an Accredited Financial Counselor.

In addition to speaking, she also provides one-on-one and couples financial counseling and coaching and teaches personal finance classes to teens and adults. She is married to Theron Stinar, D.O., C.E.O. of the Fredericksburg Christian Health Center. They live in the Fredericksburg, VA area with two of their three children.

Charlie is an author and financial consultant. He grew up on a dairy farm in the small town of Newberry SC and has been married to Kathy for 47 years. They have two sons, John and Josh, a daughter in law, Suzanne, and grandsons, Linus and Norman. They met in college at Univ. of SC, married, and have experienced most every aspect of marriage from deep pain, perpetrated by the enemy and their own flesh, to the joy of the discovery of intimacy, led by the Holy Spirit through those decades.

Charlie has an BA from USC, and a M.Div. from Columbia International University. He was a consultant and sales manager for several years, then served as a pastor in South Carolina and Arkansas, until 1986. He has spent the past 37 years guiding others as a financial and business consultant. His goal of 50/50 work/ministry was reached 7 years ago, and while he continues to serve 35 clients, he spends the rest of his time with family and in ministry, helping people find their heart and live out of their passions.

Our brains are in a constant state of flux. Moment by moment new connections are forming, idle tracks are being pruned back and brain circuits are changing. Discover how our beliefs change our brain wiring, our physical health, and even which genes are turned on or turned off. Do your beliefs matter? More than you ever knew!

Objectives:

Identify the relationship between belief and physical and mental health.

Examine the scientific evidence documenting how a change in belief can alter brain function resulting in a

change in health.

Formulate a methodology for separating healthy from unhealthy beliefs.

Dr. Jennings obtained his M.D. degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He completed his psychiatric residency at Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia. Dr. Jennings served as the Division Psychiatrist for the 24th and 3rd Infantry Divisions and as Chief of Psychiatry at Winn Army Hospital in Fort Stewart, Georgia. After completing his military service, he spent 25 years in private practice and then, in 2022, became the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Dr. Jennings is board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, is a master psychopharmacologist certified by the Neuroscience Education Institute, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and Fellow of the Southern Psychiatric Association.

Dr. Jennings also served as president of the Tennessee and Southern Psychiatric Associations and is a member of the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, Southern Psychiatric Association, and American Association of Christian Counselors. He is also the founder and president of Come and Reason Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit Christian ministry based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Dr. Jennings has spent decades studying and integrating God’s principles for healing the mind and modern brain science and has authored many books. Many of his free resources can be found at www.comeandreason.com