Here Comes MediAccess's BEE Medical Mission Team!

Here Comes MediAccess's
BEE Medical Mission Team!

26 Years on the Road to Rural Churches

Among all of MediAccess’s medical teams, the BEE Team is the only one that travels to rural churches every month. Setting out on the long road to the countryside, their service begins at 7:30 on Sunday morning (from Seobinggo, Seoul). Even so, thirty to forty volunteers fill the bus to the brim each time, and despite the early hour, members even prepare breakfast to serve everyone.

The love-filled BEE Team was formed in 2000. They mainly go to rural churches in need to share the gospel of God. Through medical ministry, non-believers who come to the church feel at ease there and naturally encounter the gospel — either during the ministry or through the warm memories shared that day. So a full day of serving and helping a small church is, every time, like a small outreach.

“I love the flow of this ministry so much. We don’t just treat people and leave — like today, we arrive first, hold Sunday worship here, and then begin. I love that too, and after worshiping together, we share lunch with the local folks… every part of this ministry is wonderful and full of grace.”

From Treatment to Haircuts — A Special Day for the Elders

Among these, Baekgu Church in Gimje — where the team has served since 2016 — is a church with a long history, founded in 1925 and celebrating its 101st anniversary this year. Their long shared history means they’re well in sync; the church even rehearses in advance to prepare for the medical ministry. As a congregation where more than 70% of members are over 70, they design the best possible flow for the elders: the youth group guides them, the young adult group handles all the setup, and so on, each department taking its part. Watching these young people support and guide elderly patients through every corner of the church warms the heart just to see.

When the ministry first began, many villagers didn’t particularly want a medical service held at the church. But year after year, demand grew and word spread, so now the church announces it a month in advance through the senior center and even runs shuttle vehicles.

“Over our long years of ministry, there have been many people who never even imagined coming to church, but who changed their minds after a good experience through the medical service — coming to church, receiving the Lord, and going home. When the village elders are happy, it’s deeply rewarding for us, too. Seeing people who could barely get to a hospital because they have trouble getting around — who would otherwise just endure the pain — come out when there’s an event like this, makes us truly glad.”

It was a moment that showed a church serving its community through more than a century of history.

In rural ministry, the hair and beauty service matters a great deal, because many elders open their hearts after receiving a careful makeover. Even those who had never set foot in a church light up at a compliment like “Your hair looks lovely!” and come back the next year. Pastors often call the hair team leader to say it completely transforms even a village’s cold attitude toward the church — and on this day, too, she came with 14 team members.

Fruit of the Gospel, Met Along the Path of Mission

With the prevalence of age-related ailments like back, knee, and frozen shoulder pain, and with most of the rural population doing physically demanding work such as farming, Traditional Korean Medicine is the flower of rural service. The BEE Team’s Korean medicine doctor, in particular, is renowned as a master healer wherever he goes; testimonies poured out that the effects of last year’s treatment still last, and that this is someone you could only meet through a medical outreach.

“I think of acupuncture as an instrument given by God.”

The doctor, who began medical volunteering through a classmate who had long served on the BEE Team, said that through ten years of medical service, he experiences his own faith growing deeper each time.

“The effectiveness of the treatment is much higher than when I treat patients in the clinic, and when I see changes on the mission field — in a single short session — that I couldn’t see right away in the clinic, I feel God’s presence.”

Even through treatment that ran without a moment’s rest because of the crowds of patients, the image of him treating everyone kindly and smiling from before the start to the very end is unforgettable. The way he traded jokes with an elderly senior deaconess right up until leaving the church, smiling brightly even in the rush, is a great grace.

OUR TEAM — The Many Faces of BEE

The BEE Team is a team made of each of these individuals. One doctor — who began after finishing JDS at a pastor’s encouragement, but settled in because he loved the people of the BEE Team — boasted again and again that the BEE Team is a distinctive group made up of all kinds of people. Connected to the Joshua young adult ministry, the BEE Team has more young people than other teams, and many who come from other churches.

“It’s really not easy to come from another church purely to do medical service, but getting to volunteer alongside people like that was such a grace. I keep coming so faithfully because I love the people I serve with.”

Another member, who serves at a small church where sustained medical mission was difficult, said they had searched for places to volunteer through other churches but found many restrictions; here, where anyone can take part, they were able to join — and they were deeply grateful for this system and these members. From someone there for the very first time, to those who came through a special lecture and keep participating, to members of 3 years and 10 years, you could meet team members of every kind.

As one doctor said — that joining the mission was only natural as a believer — their length of service and the paths that brought them differed, but the heart to serve in love was one.

“We have an elderly member at our church who is frail and uses a wheelchair. He came for treatment too, but since it’s hard for him to move, the staff member went out to him to take his intake questionnaire. And then, asking how he had come to be hurt like this and hearing his story, she just wept and said she would pray for him, and prayed together with him… watching it was so moving. I felt grateful — they aren’t just treating people, they’re truly serving with all their hearts.”

That heart came through in the story shared by a church member who had been moved by the BEE Team.

Memories of the Field, and Filling the Gaps Together

Scenes like these accumulate into the members’ memories and become the strength to carry on to the next ministry. Among those field memories were times of overseas outreach, too: last year’s Bogor, where the lodging was so difficult they couldn’t even bathe until the final day; Sumba, a poor island where two-thirds of the residents can’t even wear shoes. Not being able to wash was the least of it — they struggled greatly with bathroom conditions, yet were happy to help people who truly needed medical care. There was the testimony of the BEE Team’s youngest member about the difficulty of customs clearance, and the joy of getting to go to a pool on the last day…

That they can remember all that time and hardship as joy and happiness is surely partly because they met God and could help people through medical mission — but also because of teammates who unite in everything and fill in one another’s gaps beyond their own roles.

“Our BEE Team has to do every role, and we do it joyfully. We don’t just pack up the moment treatment ends — if the hair team is short-handed we go help, we haul the bags, and if there’s no pharmacist, the doctors serve as pharmacists… filling in the gaps, everyone on this team is an all-rounder.”

If You Feel a Calling

So what is the BEE Team’s concern? “Because our ministry is at rural churches in the provinces, we start early in the morning and finish late in the evening. This can wear many people out, but we need much prayer that, looking only to the Lord, we won’t grow faint and will carry the ministry through well to the end.” Another urgent prayer request is for co-workers. The BEE Team has long had an empty seat for a pharmacist volunteer, so a fellow worker is sorely needed; and since many members have kept the team for years, having young medical professionals join to serve alongside them would be a great strength.

After finishing its rural ministry in the first half of the year, the BEE Team — like MediAccess’s other medical teams — plans to move on to migrant ministry through the M Center. If there is anyone with a calling on their heart, why not join before the special rural ministry that only the BEE Team can enjoy comes to an end?

Our Prayer Requests

1. That the long-empty seat of a pharmacist volunteer would be filled.
2. That through long travel and demanding schedules, we would not grow weary but serve with joy to the end.
3. That the door of the gospel would keep opening to rural churches and their communities.
4. That a new generation of young medical co-workers would join us.
5. That God's guidance would be with every medical mission field at home and abroad — especially that His grace and help would fill the upcoming Indonesia Bogor outreach.