Bill's Story

I trained as a psychiatrist but I was also interested in missions. My wife also felt called to global missions. At first I could not imagine how my training could be used in the world of missions. Then while practicing psychiatry and Christian counseling in the US I began to care for missionaries who had found it necessary to leave the field for a variety of mental and emotional problems. Studies of missionary attrition show that once a missionary has to return home for care there is a strong likelihood that they will never return to the field. I realized that missionaries could greatly benefit by having mental health resources on the field. The short story is that I worked for 3 years in the Philippines with Wycliffe/SIL and now the past 12 years in Thailand at Cornerstone Counseling Foundation, primarily serving missionaries. Our staff serves 400 to 500 missionaries each year, from all over Asia, on a donation basis. I provide psychiatric evaluations and psychotherapy. Many times missionaries are able to continue working on the field rather than needing to return home to their sending country for treatment.

In addition to Cornerstone Counseling Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand where I serve, there are several other centers that offer this kind of ministry. Among them are:
...Tumaini in Nairobi, Kenya
...Mobile Member Care Teams in West, East, and North Africa
...Olive Tree Counseling Center in Antalya, Turkey
...The Well, Chiang Mai, Thailand
...The Bridge, Kunming, China
...Le Rucher in France
...Barnabus Zentrum in Austria

I would like to encourage mental health care professionals to consider working full time overseas to serve missionaries.

I would also like to see models developed for training indigenous people in Mental Health and Christian counseling.