Kristy Engel tries to live by her saying, "Do what you can, with what you've got, in the moment you're given" through her medical work in La Romana, Dominican Republic and the surrounding sugarcane villages. 

Spending time as a mission volunteer in Haiti helped Kristy to realize that God was calling her into medical mission. After completing nursing school, she returned to Haiti and worked in pediatrics at Good Samaritan Hospital in Limbé for eighteen months. Now she works with the Good Samaritan Hospital in La Romana, ministering to Haitians who are among the poorest in the country. She travels daily to batey (work camp) villages and barrios providing medical attention where so many have been unwilling or unable to offer these services.

"I find incredible joy and fulfillment in working with children," says Kristy Engel, who uses her skills in nursing and education in medical ministry in the Dominican Republic where she has worked since 2000. 

Malnutrition, parasites and poor economic conditions make it difficult to provide appropriate care to the children she works with, but with the help of many American volunteers, she is able to meet some of their needs. She helps to coordinate the medical and volunteer teams that visit the Good Samaritan Hospital as well as mentor individuals or university students who seek international experiences.

Her two dogs, Kobe and Sasha, are also part of her ministry by being her "patients" as she demonstrates appropriate oral hygiene by brushing their teeth and talking about caring for our bodies. "When I work with my dog, Kobe, to teach children proper hygiene by brushing his teeth, bathing him and brushing his coat," she says, "most of the kids know his name better than my own!"

Kristy believes few people enter the field of medical ministry because of perceived hardship and often-volatile work environments. "Unfortunately, this means that many people around the world will suffer and die due to lack of medical treatment," she says. "I have found that God has given me a greater sense of His purpose through nursing on the mission field."  Kristy completed her Master's in Nursing and her Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program in 2009.

Languages used in ministry: Spanish and Haitian Creole