Conversing with Mark Labberton Humanitarian Health Care, with Eric Ha
Millions of people today face dire medical and mental health challenges. What role should the church play in foreign humanitarian aid to address starvation and deadly illness? In this episode, Eric Ha, CEO of Medical Teams International, joins Mark Labberton for a sobering, hopeful conversation on global humanitarian crises and the role of the church in responding to both the physical and spiritual needs of those who are suffering. Drawing from his years at International Justice Mission and now at Medical Teams International, Ha shares vivid accounts from refugee camps in East Africa and migrant communities in Colombia. He reflects on the collapse of US foreign aid, the limits of humanitarian response, and the urgent need for churches to reclaim their historic role in caring for the vulnerable. Ha wrestles candidly with the calling of Christian communities to embody God’s expansive love even amid staggering need.
Episode Highlights
- “These humans that bear the image of the divine and the eternal, and the holy and the sacred.”
- “Last year, Medical Teams staff helped deliver fifty thousand babies—that's a delivery every ten minutes, somewhere around the world in these extraordinarily harsh settings.”
- “Finding the thread and kernel of hope is actually a lot more challenging.”
- “For thousands of years prior to the UN, the infrastructure and ecosystem for the care of refugees was the church. It was God’s people.”
- “The gospel is an outward pushing invitation.… It is the pushing out actually into the far and remote places of suffering in need, and to see the presence of God.”
Helpful Links and Resources
- Medical Teams International
- International Justice Mission
- UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency
- PEPFAR—The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
- Clinton Global Initiative
About Eric Ha
Eric Ha is the chief executive officer of Medical Teams International, a Christian humanitarian relief organization providing life-saving medical care for people in crisis worldwide. Before joining Medical Teams, he served more than a decade in senior leadership roles at International Justice Mission, advancing global efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery. A lawyer by training, Ha brings a deep commitment to justice, compassion, and the mobilization of the church in service of the vulnerable.
Show Notes
Global Humanitarian Crises and Refugee Care
- Eric Ha shares his journey from law and IJM to leading Medical Teams International
- Medical Teams founded in response to Cambodia’s killing fields, continuing nearly 50 years of healthcare missions
- Primary healthcare for refugees: maternal care, vaccinations, mosquito nets, antimalarials, antidiarrheals, and mental health
- Serving 9 million people in East Africa, including Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Sudan
- Refugee camps lack electricity, clean water, and adequate shelter—average displacement nearly 20 years
- Medical Teams delivers maternal care that dramatically reduces mortality, helping deliver 50,000 babies last year
Healthcare and Human Dignity
- The crisis is not statistics—it’s humans bearing God’s image, glimpses of laughter, joy, and resilience
- Colombia: working with Venezuelan migrants amid drastic cuts in U.S. aid (down to 10% of prior levels)
- Withdrawal of foreign aid leaves communities devastated and forces NGOs to scale back
- Transition from justice work at IJM to medical humanitarian work brings both immediacy of impact and insufficiency of resources
Hope and Despair in Humanitarian Work
- Theories of change at IJM allowed for hope in systemic reform; displacement crises feel harder to solve
- Challenge of holding onto hope in the face of preventable death and suffering
- Churches historically provided refugee care before the UN; today, withdrawal of aid exposes the need for church re-engagement
- Need to reimagine church-government partnerships in humanitarian response
Empathy, Collaboration, and Mental Health
- Empathy as essential orientation in humanitarian work, easily lost without intentionality
- Competitiveness and survivalism among NGOs risks eclipsing empathy
- Mental health needs are massive: trauma among children in refugee camps threatens future stability
- Clinton Global Initiative highlights Medical Teams’ commitment to expand mental health care for children in Sudan
- Training local health workers and communities to recognize trauma and create safe spaces for children
Invitation to the Church and Listeners
- The gospel calls us outward, not inward—expanding our experience of God’s vastness through engagement with suffering
- Churches must discern how to integrate humanitarian concerns without distraction, embracing their historic role in refugee care
- Prayer requests: for hope, for patience to wait on the Lord, and for wisdom in making hard decisions
- “We are invited into a different orientation—the empathy piece is so critical because it is the thing that allows us to engage.”
Production Credits
Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary.