PRIME has been greatly encouraged by the endorsement at the ICMDA World Congress. The education pre-conference and the seminars run by PRIME throughout the main conference in Sydney were well attended and well received. Several Australian doctors signed up as potential tutors and hope to start an Australasian branch to facilitate expansion in SE Asia and Oceania.A number of extremely able doctors from poorer countries who attended the seminars volunteered to become PRIME Champions in their nations to partner with us in spreading the teaching of whole person medicine, care for the spirit entwined with that for the body.
The challenge is to envision and support Christian professionals worldwide who are involved in healthcare education. This means training, networking and development of resources, as well as using God-given openings for courses in medical and nursing schools to demonstrate that medicine including God makes sense. As one psychiatrist in Nepal said a year later,'That seminar changed my life. I consult totally differently – and have taught others to do the same'.
We thank the CMF executive for their support to PRIME in a startup grant for the employment of a full time manager. Jo Lyttle joined us in September.We now need to raise money to ensure Jo's continued employment beyond the year and the pace of opportunity and challenges before us make it inevitable that further staff will be needed. We thank CMF members who are already contributing generously – but we do need more to do so. The challenge is great and there is a narrow door of opportunity in many countries.
For details of how to be involved with PRIME, visit the website www.prime-international.org.uk or contact info@prime-international.org.uk