The U.S. is a wealthy country, a land of abundance where common diseases like the flu are usually not life-threatening.  Yet we are in the midst of an unusual medical scare.  The appearance of the swine flu in the U.S. has ignited fears of a lethal virus that is touching every city, burb and village in this great land.

The widespread concerns raised in the U.S. lead us to think about how the swine flu is affecting corners of the world that are not blessed with our abundant resources and advanced health care system. 

International Ministries missionaries are so often at the epicenter of sudden and devastating viral pirates.  If not acted upon quickly, diseases like the swine flu stampede through cities and villages, taking lives and leaving broken families in their devastating wake.

For IM missionaries in Mexico, where the flu strain was originally identified, the effect was felt mostly in the precautions taken by the government in shutting down schools and workplaces.  In addition, the decrease in tourism further impacted local economies, already hurting as a result of the worldwide financial downturn.

Of course, dealing with communicable diseases is nothing new for missionaries.  Dr. Bill Clemmer, medical missionary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) says that common cyclic epidemics in his area of the world include “cholera, typhoid, monkey pox, measles, and even hemorrhagic fever (Ebola).”  For Dr. Rick Gutierrez, medical missionary in South Africa, the specter of HIV/AIDS is a sobering constant.  In one rural Zulu community, he noted that “the pastor spends every Saturday doing one funeral after another the whole day because so many people are dying from HIV.  It really is unbelievable.”

In Mexico, where confirmed swine flu cases have so far been responsible for more than 60 deaths, Dr. Adalia Schellinger Gutierrez succinctly captured the balancing act missionaries face in trying to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of people.  “What worries me the most,” she said, in reference to the possibility of a sudden and devastating epidemic, “is losing the human/spiritual side of things as we become overwhelmed looking for ’survival,’ and we stop caring for other people.”

Disease carries with it a stigma that, unfortunately, keeps many away from helping to meet the needs of the infected.  IM missionaries work to meet those needs, body and soul, and fight the battles against curable and, presently, incurable diseases in developing countries.