22 May 2017—Global Strategy is delighted to welcome Kaitlin Smith to the Global Strategy family. In March, Global Strategy approved her appointment as a medical missionary to Uganda, where she will be partnering with the Church of God in Uganda to work as a medical coordinator for the five medical clinics run by the church and staffed by Ugandan nurses and doctors. Kaitlin has over the course of the past four years developed a close relationship with Tim and Colleen Stevenson, Global Strategy missionaries who recently celebrated thirty years of ministry in Uganda.

Kaitlin, as well as our other new missionaries-elect, Tim and Joy Coppess and Corey and Abby Stocksdale, who are going to work alongside the Church of God in Botswana, will be commissioned for missionary service during the Thursday evening service of the Convention of the Church of God in Wichita, Kansas, June 20-23. Following that service, there will be an ice cream social reception to meet the missionaries present at the convention.

Over the last thirty years, the Church of God in Uganda with the partnership of the Stevensons has developed and grown through a strategy of integrated community engagement: congregations that are partnered with schools, housing, AIDS programs (TAPP), and five medical clinics, among other services. While Ugandan nurses and doctors have been meeting people’s needs, there has been a desperate need for a clinic supervisor and medical coordinator.

Kaitlin will be developing relationships within the church and medical community, assessing the strengths and weakness of each of the church’s clinics, developing and implementing plans to bring each clinic up to government standards and connect them to resources within the local and global community that will enable them to grow and improve their standard of care, and helping clinic staff ensure that patients are cared for spiritually as well as physically in partnership with local congregations.

Kaitlin was captivated by Jesus early on, experiencing his love in the example of her parents and her church community while growing up on the east side of Indianapolis. And at a young age, she yearned to be baptized. Though she was active in youth group and youth missions trips, by the time she graduated from high school and pursued nursing at Anderson University, she had begun to drift spiritually, experiencing a growing emptiness in her life.

A senior in college, Kaitlin was again overcome by the love of Jesus Christ and committed herself to walking with him. That same year, her heart was captivated by Uganda and its people while serving on a missions trip with nursing classmates from Anderson University. She dove into the culture and the experience, and came home wanting more, persuaded that God was leading her to missions work in the clinics of the Church of God in Uganda. But first she needed some experience.

For the past three years, God has opened door after door, providing her with experience across the wards of a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, one that is both multicultural in staff and in patients. Not only her nursing skills broadened, preparing her for the unique position working with the clinics in Uganda, but this experience has further prepared her for cross-cultural work. And two additional extended missions trips to Uganda have affirmed God’s call on her life to this country.

Would you consider connecting with Kaitlin through Global Strategy? When you do, you’re supporting the holistic love of Jesus Christ for the people of Uganda. To give directly to Kaitlin’s ministry, visit https://give.chogglobal.org/ksmith. Learn more about Kaitlin by visiting her profile page.