What is SMI?

Summer Medical Institute (SMI) is the medical missions trip run by Valley Baptist Family Practice Residency, in partnership with Valley Baptist Missions and Education Center, Friends of Jesus, and with the support of many churches in Harlingen and Matamoros. Started by Medical Campus Outreach (MCO) of Philadelphia, the vision remains to train a new generation of healthcare providers who are Christ-centered and Biblically integrated in their approach to healthcare. SMI is a discipleship ministry, where God ministers to the team through intimate discipleship groups, teachings from Christian doctors, regular dependence on God through prayer, living out the Gospel in a close community, and loving our neighbor through service. God also ministers through the team as we give door-to-door health and spiritual screenings in Harlingen, Texas, and run mobile health clinics in churches in Matamoros, Mexico.

In the beginning...

Following a nationwide measles epidemic in 1991 that took the lives of nine Philadelphia children and infected hundreds more, both public and private sectors refocused attention on new and creative ways to increase immunization levels among the most vulnerable populations. Meanwhile on the Medical College of Georgia campus, the hearts of numerous medical students began to be gripped with the truth of the gospel and the needs of the lost world. In 1992, just 24 hours before the Philadelphia Health Department asked for help from Dr. Carolyn Klaus of Esperanza Health Center, SMI founders approached Dr. Klaus and offered the volunteer services of 34 medical students to be used where needed. Through this series of events, God birthed SMI.

In the summer of 1992, The Philadelphia Department of Health, the Medical College of Georgia Department of Pediatrics, and Esperanza Health Center were invited to participate as lead agencies for the first Summer Medical Institute, a new five-week initiative in bringing health care to the inner city. Medical Campus Outreach, an interdenominational student ministry under the supervision and authority of Tenth Presbyterian Church (PCA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the sponsor of the SMI, recruiting student and physician participants, and prayer and financial partners for the project.

 

Since 1992, more than 600 students from 55 medical schools have participated in this program, adding valuable experience and training to their health care education while providing health care to over 27,000 children and adults in North Philadelphia, South Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico. In addition, SMI vision has been reproduced as independent ministries in over 20 locations throughout the United States and around the world.