Neil and Sara Kennedy previously served in Malawi from 1997 to 2002, during which Neil was Medical Officer-in-Charge at the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian’s (CCAP) Embangweni Mission Hospital; and Sara taught part-time in Robert Laws Secondary School.
Whilst in Embangweni, Neil worked with students from the Malawi College of Medicine, which at that time was producing just 40 doctors per year for a country of 12 million people, giving Malawi has one of the worst doctor-patient ratios in the world. Seeing this, Neil and Sara began to wonder if the Lord was calling them to a different kind of medical mission.
Returning to Belfast in 2002, Neil completed a Masters in Medical Student Education. Then, seemingly ‘out of the blue’, he was offered a job by Queen’s University as Consultant Paediatrician and Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics, and for three years from 2005 taught student doctors in Belfast how to look after sick children.
In August 2008, Neil and Sara – along with Ben and Grace – returned to Malawi to engage in a new sphere of service, in Blantyre, where Neil is now Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics and Child Health in the College of Medicine of the University of Malawi and Consultant Paediatrician in the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. As well as undertaking his clinical responsibilities, Neil also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate paediatrics in the expanding medical school.
This is a strategic role as, increasingly, mission hospital posts are filled by Malawian doctors. Consequently, Neil is seeking to train and mentor these students to model a life of Christian compassion and commitment in clinical practice; something which happens not just in the classroom or on the wards, but with Sara’s help too, as they invite students to their home and take time to befriend and get to know them.
In addition, Neil is seeking to engage in conversations on medical mission with our partner church in Malawi, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP).
The Kennedys have been active members of Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church in Bangor, where Neil was brought up.
Neil's parents, Maurice and Helen Kennedy, are also serving in Malawi, short-term, under our Ignite category of service, and are based in Blantyre when they are in the country.
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