I haven't listened to the podcast but I'm familiar with Kline's argument against any kind of medical missions. Suffice it to say that you can tell Meredith never spent any time on the mission field. Anyone in a village missions setting with a bottle of tylenol pretty quickly gets drawn into "medical missions". How much more, if the missionary or his wife actually has some medical training? In the same way, one of the ways in which I spent my spare time in Africa was tutoring young men. This is the beginnings of mission schools. To be sure, it is possible for the tail to wag the dog, and for the missionary's attention to be drawn away from the task of preaching the gospel to healing people's bodies and teaching them mathematics. But the solution is not to amputate the dog's tail completely. Hospitals and schools can be a very effective way of ministering to people and opening the door for the presentation of the gospel to those who otherwise might never be open to hearing it. That was certainly the case for the mission hospital and school in Liberia where I served as electrical engineer in the 1980's (alongside the primary Radio station and church, preaching the gospel). In particular the local chaplains were very effective evangelists, and the provision of medical care made it possible to challenge the sole authority of the "country doctor" (medicine man) to provide effective healing. (It also saved more than a few missionary lives as well).
