2026 Mission Recap: Hope Through Healing
Here I Am. Send Me.
From June 28 through July 11, 2026, 42 volunteers from around the world came together in Vietnam with one shared purpose: to bring Hope Through Healing.
Our team included five physicians, one physician assistant, three nurses, three dentists, four pharmacists, dental assistants, clinical support volunteers, translators, students, youth leaders, vision-care volunteers, and many others willing to serve wherever they were needed. We arrived with different backgrounds, professions, ages, and abilities, but we came with one prayer:
“Here I am. Send me.” — Isaiah 6:8
That response shaped the posture of our entire mission. We did not arrive simply to complete procedures or distribute medicine. We came with open eyes to see, open ears to listen, open hearts to love, and willing hands ready to serve.
Healing was the vehicle. Hope was what we came to deliver.
The Mission in Numbers
During our medical and dental clinics from June 30 through July 9, our team treated 1,734 patients.
Together, we:
- Provided medical care to 1,212 patients
- Provided dental care to 522 patients
- Filled 7,005 prescriptions
- Completed 274 fillings and dental cleanings
- Extracted 451 painful or infected teeth
- Distributed 1,200 gifts
- Provided $3,000 in direct financial assistance
We served members of Ê Đê ethnic minority communities in Dak Lak Province, children and adults with significant disabilities, residents of shelters in Dong Nai, and families in Saigon. We also delivered gifts and financial assistance through local churches and community partners.
These numbers help describe the scale of the mission, but they cannot fully capture its meaning. Behind every number was a person. Behind every person was a story.
Beyond the Coffee Fields
Our first clinics took place in Dak Lak Province, a region known around the world for its coffee.
Behind every familiar cup are families who labor in the fields, often living in poverty and far from dependable medical or dental care. Many of the people we served are rarely seen by the wider world and remain underserved by the systems meant to protect their health.
Before we unpacked the first instrument, people were already waiting beneath the trees. Some had traveled long distances by bus. They came with chronic illness, untreated infections, painful teeth, and questions that had gone unanswered for far too long.
For three days, our physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, assistants, translators, and volunteers worked side by side. Temporary spaces became clinics. Registration tables became places of welcome. Translators carried more than words; they helped create trust between people who might otherwise never have understood one another.
The line outside was never simply a crowd. Every place in that line represented a person with a name, a family, work waiting at home, and hopes of their own.
Care that may feel routine to us—a blood-pressure check, a prescription, a filling, or relief from an infected tooth—can become life-changing when it has long been out of reach.
At St. Francis Shelter, Presence Became Care
Later in the mission, we served at St. Francis Shelter in Dong Nai City.
For more than 25 years, the shelter has received people who have nowhere else to go. Many live with profound physical or mental disabilities. Some were abandoned because their families could not afford or provide the medical care they needed. For many residents, the shelter becomes their final home.
At St. Francis, we were reminded that meaningful care is not limited to what happens during an examination or procedure. Treatment was important, but it was only one part of what we had been sent to offer.
Hope sometimes looked like feeding a child who could not feed himself. It looked like sitting beside someone who could not speak, holding a hand, listening without rushing, offering relief from pain, or praying with a person who needed comfort.
We could not change every diagnosis or repair every hardship. We could, however, enter another person’s suffering for a moment and refuse to look away.
In those moments, presence became care.
Every act carried the same message: you are seen, you are loved, and your life has value.
The people we met at St. Francis reminded us that healing is not always the cure of a disease. Sometimes healing is relief. Sometimes it is dignity. Sometimes it is the assurance that someone sees the person behind the condition and chooses to remain present.
Many Parts, One Mission
No single person made this mission possible.
Physicians examined patients. Nurses triaged needs. Dentists relieved infection and pain. Pharmacists filled thousands of prescriptions. Translators created understanding. Assistants cleaned instruments and prepared medications. Volunteers directed patient flow, distributed gifts, offered reading glasses, carried supplies, comforted families, and stepped into whatever role the moment required.
Our Children of Hope also served, translated, prayed, carried supplies, and connected with patients. Watching the next generation serve with courage and compassion filled us with hope for the future of this mission.
There were no insignificant jobs because love was the motive behind every task.
We were many parts, but we served as one body with one mission: Hope Through Healing.
Sent Home Changed
Before our first clinic opened, we reflected on Isaiah’s response when God asked, “Whom shall I send?”
Isaiah did not know every detail. He did not know exactly what the assignment would require or what it might cost. He simply made himself available:
“Here I am. Send me.”
That became our prayer in Vietnam. But it cannot end when the mission trip ends.
We are still being sent—to our homes, workplaces, churches, schools, neighborhoods, and the people directly in front of us. Most acts of service will never be photographed or counted. Many will happen without recognition or applause. Yet these are often the moments God uses to relieve suffering, restore dignity, awaken hope, and change lives.
Our mission does not end when we leave the field. We carry it home with us.
We return more aware that the person matters more than the procedure. We return more grateful for the skills, resources, and relationships entrusted to us. We return challenged to notice those who are overlooked and to respond when we see a need.
We return changed—and still willing to be sent.
Carry the Mission Forward
Thank you to every volunteer who answered the call, every family who supported someone traveling, every donor who provided resources, every church and community partner who opened doors, and every person who prayed for our team and the people we served.
Your generosity and obedience made this mission possible.
We invite you to continue the mission:
Learn and share. Tell these stories so others will see what compassionate service can accomplish.
Give. Support future medical and dental missions at MissionofHopeVN.com.
Pray. Pray for the patients we served, the caregivers who remain beside them, our local partners, and the teams who will answer the call in the years ahead.
Hope Through Healing is more than the theme of a trip. It is what becomes possible when ordinary people make themselves available to God and respond:
Here we are. Send us.
—Mission of Hope Vietnam
September 2026
Tags: Mission of Hope, Vietnam, Medical Mission, Dental Mission, Volunteer Work, Global Health, Faith, Service, Hope Through Healing
