Early Medical Missionaries were often looked down upon. Church controlled Mission Boards, were not interested in medical missions. Medical missionaries were told to put evangelism first, then heal Still, doctors kept going out, speaking the love of Jesus, healing the sick, and helping the poor. Always overworked, they died often, or were sent home worn out. Who remembers them? Dr. John Thomas went to India five years before William Carey, but Carey is called the "father of modern missions." Thomas converted the man that Carey baptized as his first fruit? Why ignore Thomas? Read his story here. "Healthcare missions is an effective way to spread the gospel and the key to sharing Christ in closed countries as we push to complete the Great Commission. Nothing speaks louder than compassion in Christ's name. We don't have to recreate the wheel to reach these last frontiers. We already stand on the shoulders of medical missionary giants who have blazed the trail. Their stories of sacrifice and service will convince and inspire you like they did me " David Stevens, MD, Executive Director. Christian Medical and Dental Associations. Born and reared in Virginia, Dr. Dietrick felt called to medical missions from childhood. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and trained in surgery, Dietrick and his family went to South Korea in 1958, where the children grew up. Dr. Dietrick's medical missionary work was mainly at the Kwangju Christian Hospital, which became a General Medical Center, where Christian Korean physicians were trained to serve their own people. Public Health outreach was emphasized. Today the hospital sends out its own medical missionaries Dr. Dietrick's 26 years in missionary medicine and study of medical missions convinces him that we should learn from early medical missionaries.